Since middle school, my dream has been to create a unique path for myself which reflects my individuality. I just returned from a year abroad in Peru through AFS and I felt fortunate to expand my education beyond the realm of a traditional classroom.
Living with a host family in Huancayo, a city in the Andes at 12,000 feet, brought me an entirely new perspective on the world. I was fully immersed in the Spanish language and in Peruvian culture, and I got to explore a country that boasts 80 percent of the entire world’s eco-climates. The year changed my life and propelled me along new paths I never anticipated.
In Peru, I attended school on a part-time basis and volunteered for the nonprofit organization, “Blue Sparrow,” started by a Canadian couple I met in the village market. Their company helps farmers with “micro-financing,” providing small loans to farmers for agricultural development or raising animals for food. They bring in scientific experts to educate and support the farmers so they can become self-sufficient, productive, and successful. Eventually, the farmers carry on independently, and Blue Sparrow can move on to the next client.
Blue Sparrow also provides medical assistance and health education to families, as well as academic and technological support to the local schools. I traveled two hours daily to the small village of Pachachaca to teach English to pre-schoolers, and saw, firsthand how small steps can stabilize a single family’s life and facilitate progress, and how these positive actions continue to expand exponentially to an entire community and beyond.
Prior to my year abroad, I was really uncertain about the direction I wanted my life to take. Being exposed to a different way of life has caused me to reflect and enabled me to discover and explore my passions. I am now a senior at Sonoma Valley High School, and I am in the process of applying to several universities that offer international studies and Spanish programs. I am currently taking Advanced Placement Spanish 4 and I am doubling up on classes in order to graduate on time.
In the future, I hope to spend more time in South America, living in Argentina or Chile, while continuing to explore the world of nonprofit organizations and their impact on third world countries.
My year in Peru helped me to decide on a topic for my senior project at the high school. I plan to continue to work with Blue Sparrow and explore its micro-financing model. I hope to raise money for the organization through displaying and selling my own art work, as well as art pieces and handicrafts from Peru, in a gallery setting, and I look forward to bringing a bit of Peruvian culture to my hometown community this spring.
Although my senior year is keeping me very busy, I am enjoying a lot of extra-curricular interests as well. As president of our Earth Club at SVHS, I am trying to promote environmental awareness at school and in the town of Sonoma by doing more recycling, and we also plan to pair Earth Club up with the Sonoma Ecology Center. I am on the high school’s water polo team, and I enjoy volunteering at the Challenge Sonoma Adventure Ropes Course whenever possible, helping to teach outdoor team building to groups coming as far away as Oakland or Davis.
I think that my interests in the environment, education, and outdoor activities helped prepare me for living and working in an intensely impoverished village at extreme altitude and climate. I look forward to the next steps in my path as my world continues to expand and take on new meaning.
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