{"id":68,"date":"2015-11-20T23:51:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-20T23:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/?p=68"},"modified":"2015-11-20T23:51:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-20T23:51:25","slug":"service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/2015\/11\/20\/service\/","title":{"rendered":"Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our globalized and media filled world today there is a growing understanding that we are all interconnected and therefore have a responsibility for the wellbeing of those outside of our own local community. The term “global citizen” and the phrase \u201cact locally, think globally\u201d are becoming increasingly popular as we recognize that our day-to-day choices affect people around the world. At the same time, there is mounting distrust of charity and aid organizations. We\u2019ve read books like Dead Aid <\/em>and Toxic Charity, <\/em>and heard of organizations doing more harm than good. More often our action turns to armchair activism as we post an impassioned Facebook post and then stop there, not because we don\u2019t want to help but because we are paralyzed by the overwhelming number of choices and mixed messages.<\/p>\n

\"Elizabeth<\/a>

Making friends in Guatemala in 2006<\/p><\/div>\n

At a young age I started going on mission trips with my church, taking me to Mexico, Central America, and several cities within California. I can confidently say that these trips were truly life changing. They pulled me out of my comfort zone and pushed me to be more outgoing. They taught me to be vulnerable, to be flexible, and to value other cultures. I would not be the same person today without these experiences, nor would I have ended up in the Global Social Benefit Fellowship.<\/p>\n

Although I will be eternally grateful for these travel experiences, towards the end of high school and especially in college I have constantly had to be careful about how I describe these trips because of the skepticism around them today. We\u2019ve all read that article about the girl who traveled to Africa\u00a0to get a new profile picture. There are short term service trips out there that are very flawed, often because people from the U.S. go into another country with a plan to \u201chelp\u201d a certain group of people, without listening to their needs, ideas, and desires. I would be lying if I said that I hadn\u2019t been on one of these trips. I have been in situations where I look back now and see how messed up the system was. I see how we may have done more harm than good when we should have been accompanying local people to create change in their community.<\/p>\n

With all these criticisms in mind, I have struggled with why I keep\u00a0going back. People have told me that I should stop wasting time and money traveling around the world when I can make more of a difference right here at home. Some people say that rather than working for a non-profit, we can have a more of an impact by using our college education to get a high paying job, and then donating a large portion of our annual salary to charity. So why do I keep looking for opportunities to visit and work in other countries? Why am I so motivated to move to Latin America next year? Will I have more of an impact if I work on global health issues from the U.S.? How do I reconcile my\u00a0role as an outsider when I travel?<\/p>\n

\"P1020483\"

With my friends Geraldy and Ashley in Mexicali in 2013<\/p><\/div>\n

This fellowship has forced me to think about what motivates me and address these questions. While I definitely do not have all the answers, I would like to share three insights that I\u2019ve gained. First, my Jesuit education has taught me that vocation is found at the intersection of what I\u2019m passionate about, what I\u2019m good at, and what the world needs from me. I know I am passionate about public health and Latin America. There are needs here in my home community and I will work to address those while I\u2019m living here, but that doesn\u2019t mean I have to stay here forever. I feel a call on my life to go back to Latin America, and I believe I can put my talents to use there, where there is also a great need. Other people may feel that call to India or Ethiopia or to stay right at home, but for me it\u2019s Latin America.<\/p>\n

Second, today the global community is my local community. The food I eat and the clothes I wear come from around the world. The decisions I make regarding energy consumption have serious ramifications for people across the planet. I believe that by traveling I become a better global citizen. I learn how people in other parts of the world live, which helps me grow in solidarity with them. One day I may find myself living in the U.S. but working on global health issues in other countries. Living abroad will offer an important perspective and insight into how to more effectively promote change in a culturally sensitive and sustainable way.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7101\"

With some of my high school girls before going on the ropes course at camp<\/p><\/div>\n

Third, I would like to point out something that is not said nearly enough in our culture. I recently heard a talk from Mam-Yassin Sarr, a woman from The Gambia, first in her family to go to college, who, after living in the U.S. for several years, returned to her home village to start Starfish International<\/a>, an academy for girls. Yassin said what many of us are thinking but too scared to say out loud: service is never a sacrifice. I could not agree more. Why do I keep returning to Mexico, or continue \u201csacrificing\u201d my time as a young life leader for high schoolers? Because I love it. I would rather go to Mexicali than on vacation to Hawaii. Not because it makes me look good, not because I think it\u2019s what I\u2019m supposed to do, but because, as Yassin said, through service we always get more than we\u00a0give. Through serving I have made life-long friends, learned a new language, seen beautiful new places, lived in exciting cultures, and experienced genuine joy. The people out there that we praise for dedicating their lives to others such as Mother Theresa, Paul Farmer, and all the social entrepreneurs I met through GSBI have discovered this secret. They have found that there is so much life in giving. I do not mean to discount the sacrifices they make on a daily basis through giving up money, comfort, and time with family. But I\u2019d be willing to bet that when looking at their life as a whole none of them would consider it a sacrifice. They know that true happiness comes from dedicating our lives to a cause outside of ourselves. They feel the love and joy and beauty in giving, and because of that they are addicted to a life a service.<\/p>\n

Many of us have become skeptics, afraid to go on this trip or donate to that organization. But this is simply not an option for me. I cannot shake my passion for Latin America and the deep sense of injustice I feel when I hear about poverty, human trafficking, or lack of health services. I cannot give up on service. But I also cannot blindly give or work with any organization that will take me. I have seen the damage that can be done by ignorance and flawed structures, and I do not want to be a part of that. This fellowship and social entrepreneurship as a whole gives me hope. The social entrepreneurs I have met or learned about are all motivated by the same sense of injustice I feel, often in their home community, and they are compelled to do something about it. Their inward pull toward justice and the joy they gain through dedicating their lives to building up their communities help them overcome the extreme challenges they face.<\/p>\n

\"Screen

Talking with a farmer in Puebla<\/p><\/div>\n

I recognize that, especially if I choose to pursue a career in global health, I will never be a social entrepreneur. No matter what credentials or experience I have, I will never be as good at creating change as someone from the local community. As an outsider, it is not my job to enter a new place and fix a problem, but rather to accompany community members and help provide them with tools to foster leadership and change. Working with Sistema Biobolsa helped me experience this role in a very tangible way, considering we as outsiders came in with a job to do, yet very little knowledge of Mexican culture and agriculture. Our role was never to tell them how to run their business or come up with some big idea or solution. Rather, through our project we listened and collected data, ultimately to provide an outside perspective on issues they were already aware of and use our resources and skills here at Santa Clara to build tools that will play a small role in helping them grow their business. Through this experience I recognized that I can travel and live in other places without being a burden or doing more harm than good. It requires educating myself and doing my research, and always embracing a posture\u00a0of humility and a spirit\u00a0of learning.<\/p>\n

One such method I now use when evaluating a program or organization is social impact. When I hear of a non-profit or company doing good in the world, one of my first questions is, how are they measuring their impact? Social impact assessment is a good way to show that an organization is\u00a0actually meeting the goals its\u00a0mission sets out to achieve. However, I have also learned to not disregard the immeasurable. Some of the greatest need in our world lies in places where collecting data and measuring change is most difficult. Before I might have shied away from these problems, but now I see them as opportunities. The entire nine months of this fellowship was filled with uncertainty. We never had all the information we needed at our fingertips; reaching out in many directions to search for information became a daily reality, whether in completing a homework assignment, conducting research in the field, or working on our deliverables for the social enterprise. I learned not to avoid uncertainty, but rather to function in it. I believe this is what social entrepreneurs and all those dedicated to a life of service must do. We must seek to measure as much as we can to show that we are actually making a difference, yet we also must recognize that some of the most valuable experiences, relationships, and challenges in life are messy and immeasurable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our globalized and media filled world today there is a growing understanding that we are all interconnected and therefore have a responsibility for the wellbeing of those outside of our own local community. The term “global citizen” and the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Elizabeth Sherwin","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/author\/esherwin\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"In our globalized and media filled world today there is a growing understanding that we are all interconnected and therefore have a responsibility for the wellbeing of those outside of our own local community. The term “global citizen” and the … Continue reading →","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/esherwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}