For many high school students, summer means vacation with family and friends, part-time jobs for earning spending money, or relaxation by the swimming pool with non-required, leisure reading. But for a few young women at St. Agnes Academy, their summer months were spent in Latin American and African countries, living with host families, exploring their use of other languages, and giving their time selflessly to help low-income schools and communities through social-justice work.
Through Amigos de las Americas (AMIGOS), Senior Molly Goldberg, Junior Teresa Lester, Senior Kendall Wood, Junior Zoe Trout and Senior Ericka Lewis spent six weeks immersing themselves in local culture while working in their host communities to promote health and education awareness.
For Molly, who traveled to Matagalpa in Nicaragua, her time with AMIGOS was a transformative experience. "Anyone can go on a trip or to a party during summer break. When is another chance (like AMIGOS) going to come along?" she said. "But after this, you find out what really matters. The people in these communities have nothing and they work very hard. It's so different to work and live with these people - to be side by side with them. Yes, you help others, but you also learn so much about yourself, what you need, patience and your own limits as a human being."
Like her counterparts, Teresa spent her off-hours time mostly with her host family, but each morning headed to the local school in the community she lived in - Waswali Abajo, Nicaragua. She taught classes about health and the environment, and learned to live with much less than she's used to having in Houston. "We usually had electricity, but we used a latrine and there was a bucket for washing. I was washing my own clothes by pumping water," she said. "This experience was so worth it; I learned so much and I'll never forget the people I met."
Kendall never imagined she'd end up in a third-world country for part of her summer, but she ended up loving her time in Chontales, Nicaragua. "I never thought I'd have enough guts to do something like this. I've never been challenged in this way," she said. "We're supposed to go there and make their communities better, but I gained so much from them (the residents). I take nothing for granted now and have really learned to appreciate the simple things, and to slow down."
Zoe and Ericka were both in Panama - Zoe in Los Santos, La Enea and Ericka in La Albina. Zoe worked in her community to beautify the town center and helped institute public trash receptacles. "My time there taught me so much about myself and inspired me to both travel and work for others," she said.
Ericka plans on returning to work for AMIGOS again this summer, even though the beginning of her stay did not get off to an auspicious start. "A chicken laid an egg in my bed the first day I was there," Ericka said. "I knew this was not going to be anything like home. But this trip gave me so much - a totally new perspective on life. The things that used to matter to me don't anymore."
Senior Carly Graf traveled to another continent this summer to make a difference with orphans in Tanzania. She spent three weeks fully immersed in Africa, working at the Faraja Orphan Center with more than 30 students ranging in age from three to 10 years old.
"I've always had an interest in that part of the world," Carly said. "There's something about Africa that touches me."
Carly hopes to continue work on an international level in the future to reach out to people and do whatever she can to enrich others' lives. Currently, she's helping to educate a seven-year-old girl at Mt. Kiliminjaro School who has no other means of education. "I find that I learn best when I'm challenged and Africa challenged me," she said. "It really forces me to act and confirms who I really am, outside of my comfort zone. It's a real opportunity to gain perspective."
