T-Minus 6 Days til Mérida

There's only six days left before I'm once again departing for another volunteer adventure abroad! This time, I'm headed to Mérida, Mexico in the Yucatan region. It's starting to feel surreal and it just hit me yesterday that my experience on this trip will be different than when I volunteered in Ecuador in 2012. This time, I don't have a host family who will be around to aid me, to ask me about my day and to take care of me when I've fallen ill. This time, I'll be living in a volunteer house with a bunch of other strangers in a foreign region. Luckily, I know we all share the same passion for volunteering and hopefully we'll all be able to bond through that common ground.

It's kind of scary to know that in six days, I will be embarking on another mission to make a difference. UBELONG provides their volunteers with an invaluable opportunity to immerse themselves in real communities who could use the assistance. The people I met during my time in Ecuador were genuine and kind, and so appreciative for the volunteers who took the time out of their lives to help their community. I'm scared to be on my own for real this time, but I don't doubt that the people in Mérida will be just as welcoming and generous to me and the other volunteers, even though they don't have as much as we do. I was lucky enough to meet someone through UBELONG who said these wise words:

“I learned very quickly that I wasn’t going to change the world, but I still might change someone’s world.”

Volunteering for three weeks at a time may not make a huge difference in the short-term, but it can make some difference on a small scale. Acts of kindness are contagious, and it only takes a few volunteers to start a movement towards making the world a better place.

I'll be documenting my experience abroad this time (sadly, I didn't do that last time I was in Ecuador), and hope to create some sort of portfolio where I can look back on this in my later years to see the places I've been and hopefully see the slightest bit of positive change that I can say I contributed to. :)

edX: "a non-profit online initiative created by founding partners Harvard and MIT"

Today, I came across this new website called "edX" which provides online courses from prestigious schools all over the globe. This is something new to me because I've never taken an online course before, but after learning about it on a Public Health group on LinkedIn, I thought I would give it a shot. It turns out they have a myriad of online class subjects, from Statistics, Psychology, Natural Disasters (there's a class on that? who knew?!), to Representations of HIV/AIDS and Public Health initiatives!

Next Tuesday I will be walking at Baruch College's 49th Commencement and I'm so happy to be finally moving onto the next chapter of my life, but my thirst for knowledge doesn't stop just because I graduated. I have this insatiable appetite for learning about topics I didn't have the opportunity to learn about in Baruch, so I'm stoked about taking Public Health courses (finally!) to prepare myself for graduate school when I pursue my Master's Degree in Public Health.

I'm really appreciative that I found this nonprofit website because not only can I gain more experience learning about Public Health, but this also gives me the chance to learn from some of the most renowned professors from all over the world. So far, I signed up for online classes from Hong Kong University, Harvard, and UC Berkeley! This is just one of the steps I'm taking to further my education and life experience in order to pursue my dream of doing public health in the nonprofit sector in the future :D

(Almost) SPRING BREAK!

I'm so excited to have spring break this year; a week and a half of vacation time to relax.. who am I kidding? There's no time to relax during senior year when you're just trying to graduate! There are so many projects and papers to continue working on during this short break and I'm just thankful I don't have classes to keep up with during this time. On top of this I have the Baruch Asian Student Union show to prepare for and practice every day! 

It's my last few weeks as an undergraduate at Baruch and I'm kind of glad that I ended up attending Baruch (not just for the opportunities fund, free laptop and free ride!) but because of some of the people I met through college. Baruch Kappas helped open me up to the world and broke the shell that was holding me back from pursuing a lot of things I felt I was too shy to accomplish; the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance helped establish me as a leader as Co-President and Co-Vice President; and lastly, the opportunities fund I was granted as a Macaulay Honors student allowed me the chance to go to New Orleans for Habitat for Humanity and Ecuador to volunteer teaching English. 

I take my life for granted sometimes but I do know that I am pretty blessed when it comes to my parents and supporters cheering me on every step of the way to make sure I had a good education and the best of the best. They never spared a cent when it came to prep classes for school or specialized exams and were always pushing me to go beyond the expectations I had for myself. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have made it into Bronx Science, nor would I have made it to Macaulay Honors at Baruch. If I hadn't gone to Baruch, I wouldn't have met my friends Peng and Brian who told me about UBELONG, and I wouldn't have known about this organization that opened my eyes to what I could be doing with my life: helping others and improving communities.

My Next Adventure: Merida, Mexico

After Winter 2012, two of my friends informed me about their UBELONG volunteer experience in Cusco, Peru, and encouraged me to check it out. I had always been interested in exploring Latin America for other reasons besides merely tourism and vacation, so I went on the website to see what this organization was all about. Little did I know that I would soon be applying and getting accepted to the UBELONG Teaching English project in Quito, Ecuador. I'll save that story for another time, but it was definitely a life-changing experience. I knew that volunteering abroad once was definitely not enough.

I decided to take another step outside of my comfort zone (aka my comfortable home in NYC which I know and love so much) and apply for another project with UBELONG, this time in Merida, Mexico since I remember enjoying my experience in Cancun when I visited in 2007. Above is a screenshot of my acceptance email to the project! I am so excited to be catapulting ahead and pursuing my dreams of helping communities abroad. This January 2015, I will be helping out at a food bank in Merida and I'm soooo looking forward to escaping the harsh winter temperatures and enjoying the warm sun when I go volunteer.

I have to say volunteering abroad is definitely a big step, and you should always do your research before you commit to a project. I trust UBELONG and have had wonderful, reliable interactions with the UBELONG staff and points of contact and would volunteer with them all the time if I had unlimited funds, but while I'm still an undergraduate student, I'll keep to pursuing a project every few years :) 

I have so many pictures to share with you all from my volunteer project in Ecuador which I'll post when I have more time after I'm finished with all my senior year exams/papers/projects :X Until next time...

"Volunteers are not paid--not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless."

I really like this quote because I think volunteers are one of the most selfless people in the world. I'm not tooting my own horn, rather I'm acknowledging everyone that I've had the chance to volunteer with because they each give up valuable time from their busy lives and give back to the community. I've done volunteer work in an animal shelter, in a church for a food pantry service, at swim meets, at a thrift shop, at a Health Education center in a health clinic, etc. Each of these opportunities allowed me to meet individuals I wouldn't have been able to meet if it weren't for my choice to volunteer.

Living in NYC for all of my life, I've seen how cold individuals can be. On the trains I see the majority of passengers closed off in their little bubbles with their headphones in their ears and their phones glued to their hands as they play the latest game offered on the Play or Apple Store. Many people in this society are so consumed in their own worlds that they don't see what's going on around them. Many of us live extremely privileged lives that we take for granted. It may be extreme to say but there really are people who are desperate for a bite to eat and some New Yorkers carelessly throw away their leftovers without appreciating that they have the ability to waste food like that. If we all cared a little more about what's around us we can see there is much improvement that can be done and it starts with us.

If you pass through my blog and read this post, I encourage you to spend an hour or two to try volunteering. It makes you feel so good and awesome that you were able to help at least one person during your time of service. I really appreciate this quote because volunteers give back without asking for anything in return; volunteers don't need money, they just want to help others.

Photo Credit: http://www.gapyearblog.info/blog/2013/1/4/ten-best-inspirational-quotes-for-volunteering.html

"You have never really lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."

I would love to do something for someone who can never repay me. I want to be able to make that much of an impact where I can allow them the chance to believe that there is faith in humanity and there will always be a helping hand when they least expect it. :)

Photo Credit: http://www.gapyearblog.info/blog/2013/1/4/ten-best-inspirational-quotes-for-volunteering.html

"Work for a cause, not for applause. Life life to express, not to impress."

One thing I love about volunteering is knowing that I've done something to help another person or community. Whether it's helping students in Ecuador with their English pronunciation skills or organizing a food pantry off of Times Square, being able to put a smile on just one person's face makes volunteering worthwhile.

Photo Credit: http://www.gapyearblog.info/blog/2013/1/4/ten-best-inspirational-quotes-for-volunteering.html

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

Life is not worthwhile unless we contribute and give back to the community. We can take as much as we want but it's fleeting happiness until we actually do something for someone else that makes their life a little better and a little easier.

Photo Credit: http://www.gapyearblog.info/blog/2013/1/4/ten-best-inspirational-quotes-for-volunteering.html