The Story
The IST: Serving Beyond Borders
Picture this: a junior is sitting in front of his laptop, tapping his pencil and waiting for inspiration to strike. His eyes scan the common application flashing on the screen in front of him. His personal statements are written with care, but he still anguishes that they’re not creative or individual enough to land him the spot of his choice.
He frets over the universal application, fully knowing that after he completes this first step, he’ll fill out the required supplement issued by the individual programs. And even after all that, the process isn’t over. Hopefully, he’ll interview with the selection committee and impress them enough to recruit him. Only then, weeks later, will he know exactly how his fate is sealed.
What is he doing? Applying to college? Grad school? Med School?
No, it’s something arguably more suspenseful for a William and Mary student: he’s applying for an international service trip.
Extremely competitive and becoming increasingly more so, William and Mary boasts an incredible array of service opportunities, one that is nearly unrivaled at any other academic institution. Drew Stelljes, Director of the College’s office of student volunteer services, describes the passion with which William and Mary students have approached international service:
“[Post 9/11], a new generation of students came crashing through the office doors of volunteer centers, and at William and Mary they busted down the doors. Students changed the way we do business and I could not be more impressed.”
The history of international service here at the College has evolved rapidly and drastically. Stelljes explains that the phenomenon affectionately known as ISTs started in December 2001 when then-student Becca Luhrs brought the idea of Global Village Project, a trip that takes students to Guatemala, to the OSVS. Her one project would bring forth many more. Stelljes comments, “Little did we know that her idea would not only come to fruition, but it would be the spark to a huge fire.”
Today, the Global Village Project lives on, along with many others. In this year alone, students will travel with more than 10 trips to Tanzania, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Ghana, among others. There, they will work with non-profits, medical outreach, housing development and with the community itself, strengthening a commitment to service that students at the College so fervently pursue.
Led by students themselves, these projects travel during winter, spring and summer break for one, two or three weeks. While they’re there, the students not only have a chance to immerse themselves in an often unfamiliar culture and situation; their eyes are opened to situations present in a world that the typical college student never encounters.
“After making an emotional connection with members of very distinct populations, [students] return to campus with a desire to learn about a wide array of social concerns from an even [broader] array of disciplines. For many, for the first time, their course work has significance. A business major sees him or herself as a potential social entrepreneur. A sociologist understands why she studies cultures and now has a laboratory,” Stelljas explains.
Trips scheduled for this year span the globe as well as a broad set of international issues: AIDS Tanzania addresses HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in Tanzania. Global Village Project, a subset of Habitat for Humanity, builds low-income housing in Guatemala, as does Project Mexico in Reynosa, Mexico. Students for Healthy Communities addresses public water sanitation in Nicaragua, while Student Organization for Medical Outreach and Sustainability (SOMOS) targets public health issues in the Dominican Republic. William and Mary Medical Relief works with healthcare issues in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Orphanage Outreach works with orphanages in the Dominican Republic, and Student Partnership for International Medical Aid (SPIMA) addresses the lack of adequate access to medical care in Ghana.
For the students planning on going on these trips, the decision to serve is easy. For them, service is simply a part of their lives, one that pervades their goals, motivations and dreams. Irène Mathieu, (’09) a member of the SOMOS team, has served in the Dominican Republic four times now. Her interest in international service is not limited to ISTs either. Mathieu spent her semester abroad in Peru working with ProWorld Service Corps.
“I am committed to reversing global and local disparities and promoting social justice,” Mathieu explains.
Why is William and Mary home to so many individuals committed to the eradication of global inequality? Hardly a small feat, a substantial percentage of the College is more than willing to take it on.
Teresa Ingraham, (’11), a member of the team traveling to Guatemala with Global Village Project, feels that a disconnect exists between academic knowledge of poverty and grave reality.
“There are many of us who are involved in service organizations who want to help people but are not emotionally invested in making an impact. We look at pictures in the newspapers of destitution, depravity in places distant from our comfortable college bubble and often miss an empathic connection. I want to bridge this divide, become more emotionally involved in fixing global problems,” she said.
Whereas the decision, itself, might have required little thought, the preparation for such trips is not easy. Expensive and logistically complicated, the members of each team spend a good chunk of time between their commitment to go and their departure raising money, increasing awareness and most of all, emotionally preparing for what they will encounter. For Travis Grubbs (’10), co-leader of William and Mary Medical Relief, which will travel to Costa Rica and Nicaragua over winter break, it was an experience he will not soon forget.
“Nothing can prepare someone for the feelings that a trip like this will bring. Last year, was my first trip with WMMR and it was eye-opening. Not only do some things shock you, but they inspire you to find more ways to help and give back. These are experiences that I would never trade for anything.”
Ingraham is ready to learn. For her, not only is this the first time she will participate in international service, it is also her first time leaving the country. “What I was really looking for was an experience that would shock me out of the sheltered and privileged lifestyle that many of us take for granted,” she said.
For many, these trips are just the beginning. Often, students re-visit and return to their worksites long after their initial trip concludes, eager to continue their work. Even more frequently, the trips serve as merely a launching point for future work with international service. Mathieu explained, “International service at William and Mary was a way for me to begin my career in social justice and public health with some hands-on experience with the disparities that I find so problematic. I want to combine medical practice with public health policy and intervention. Instead of only giving [my] patients pills to take, I want to identify problems at the community level and then go after their causes.”
Grubbs also plans to continue medical relief work, both domestically and internationally, and plans to pursue a career in medicine. For him, it came as a surprise that he could begin this relief work while still an undergrad.
“I have always wanted to one day work in a free clinic,” he said. “My dream was to become a doctor and then spend a few weeks of the year giving back through free clinics. When I came to William and Mary, I had no idea I could start that dream here. Freshman year, I learned about WMMR and knew I had to apply.”
The commitment to international service does not seem to be letting up any time soon. According to Stelljes, the trend foreshadows positive things for the College and its students. “At the end of this leg of life’s journey we want every student to have been challenged to think bigger, to dig deeper into his or her soul, to fight for something they believe in, and to have the skills - both academic and humanistic - to approach life’s challenges - near and far - with grit and determination. They do too. They busted down our doors to make sure we are listening.
This piece originally appeared in the December 2008 issue issue of The DoG Street Journal.