I remain very grateful for the opportunity to go on three service trips thus far during my first two years of college. Each trip has expanded my horizons, taught me valuable lessons, and enabled me to better put my life in perspective as well as understand the importance of giving back and helping people in need.
During June and July of 2023, I spent a month in Phang Nga in Thailand through an organization known as Global Vision Initiative (GVI), where I participated in supporting the underserved local community by running health checks, creating a dental health workshop, educating people about the benefits of exercise, and assisting in teaching English to children in local schools as well as adults throughout the area. These projects allowed me the opportunity to be connect with the Thai people and be immersed in the local culture.
In January of 2024 I spent a week in Ecuador on a service-learning trip through the volunteering organization Medicine, Education, and Development for Low-Income Families Everywhere (MEDLIFE). The organization partners primarily with low-income communities in Latin America and Africa to improve their access to medicine, education, and community development projects.
The trip took us to Tena, an urban center in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador that serves as the primary economic and governmental hub for a network of surrounding Indigenous communities. Due to isolation and poor infrastructure, residents have limited access to healthcare and other essential services. I participated in the MEDLIFE mobile clinics, preventative health education workshops, and patient follow-up. The mobile clinics included various stations such as triage, general medicine, dental, OB/GYN, toothbrushing, education, and pharmacy.
Unfortunately, our service trip was cut short on January 9, 2024, when, following a surge in violence, the Ecuadorian government declared a state of emergency and travel restrictions were instituted.
Subsequent reflection of this trip highlighted the risk of taking many rights assured in the United States for granted and reaffirmed my passion and dedication for helping underserved people around the world.
I continued my involvement with community service during my spring break in March of 2024, when I joined the Boston College’s Appalachia Volunteers Program (more commonly known as APPA), a service-immersion program committed to working with under-resourced populations in the United States via shared services and direct encounters. We traveled to Eggleston, Virginia where we lived in the local church, and helped the community with landscaping and clean ups.
This trip was very eye-opening, as it showed that genuine service is so much appreciated by the community. It highlighted that perspective is key, and that it is paramount to be able to stand in someone else’s shoes. Every night we would engage in reflections, challenging ourselves to understand the root of our service.
All these trips have increased my passion for service and giving back to others. For me personally, growth has taken shape both during and after service. Expansion of understanding has continued far beyond the trip, living on through sustained reflection on current life, personal growth, strengths, and weaknesses, as well as similarities and differences between different trips.
While some personal growth happens immediately during the trip, growth continues well after a service trip because reflections need more exposure or time to reach various aspects of one’s life. As I mature, grow, and form understandings from my own undertakings and experiences, I hope that the insight from these trips helps me shape my life journey in general, and my career path in particular. These service trips have strengthened my inclination towards a career dedicated to service.
Choosing a career is very challenging for undergraduate students. Between 20% and 50% of them enter college undecided and 75% will change their major at least once before graduation.1 Community service is thought to benefit the career development of students and research suggests a link between service trips and subsequent career paths.
Thus, it has been shown that that 41.3% of college students who participated in service-learning intended to pursue a public-service career.2 Mitchell and Rost-Banik3 studied how sustained service-learning experiences inform careers pathways by interviewing 33 alumni from three service-learning programs. They found a strong connection between service-learning and career students. Importantly, the participants connected their service experience to choosing a career in public service and social responsibility. Their findings are supported by Fenzel’s and Peyrot’s4 research suggesting that the more time college students spend in community engagement experiences, the more likely they are to pursue public service careers after graduation.
Research suggests that service experiences can help student career development and decision making though fostering self-efficacy,3,5 self-awareness,6 confidence to engage effectively in the community6 skill development,3 understanding of civic responsibility in responding to critical issues in society,3,4,7 and a recognition of their own privilege.8–10
Indeed, my service trips have helped me realize the privilege of living in the United States in a middle-class family. Although my upbringing as a child of immigrant parents has not been without significant difficulties, my service trips showed me that the life that I have is very different than that of people that I met and worked with in the underserved and isolated communities in Thailand, Ecuador, and even in the United States. The level of poverty, the limited resources, and the lack of opportunities that these community face helped broaden my perspective, have enlighten me, have made me realize that I need to do more, and have made me determined to choose a medical and public health profession – an opportunity that would allow to help people in need.
In conclusion, helping others through volunteering and service trips not only benefits communities but can also support the personal growth of students and help them choosing a service-related career.
Disclosure Statement
The authors have no conflicts of interest or financial disclosures to declare.