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Nora’s Thank You
At Global Explorers our mission is to inspire responsible global citizenship by providing life-changing travel experiences for students and educators of all abilities and backgrounds. In 2010 Global Explorers received a grant from the Oak Park River Forest Community Foundation’s Crystal Fund to send 10 students and one educator from Chicago on an expedition to Costa Rica. The Crystal Fund supports grants for an extended “away from home” cultural or educational experience that provides a skill, knowledge and/or personal value as a means of support. We love finding partners and sponsors who share our mission of providing opportunities to students who would not otherwise have the means to travel. Together, we can support high-achieving students like Nora, who was a traveler on the inaugural Crystal Fund and Global Explorers expedition in June 2011.
Last month, we received the following thank you note and reflection letter from Nora:
It is Wednesday and I am vigorously finishing up my college applications. As I reflect on my high school years, I have mixed emotions. I feel jubilant, skeptical, and energized as I plan ahead for the upcoming year. Because of my summer experience in Costa Rica, I know that I am leaving high school, but I have a myriad of social issues to tackle and a plethora of passions and dreams to pursue. I can share many insights about my trip, but one word that strongly resonates with my experience in Costa Rica is “transformative.”
When I entered high school, I was unmotivated, and I was on the “regular academic track.” I did not know how I would survive, thrive, and graduate from high school. I remember that I feared the summers even more than the school year because my community was perilous. Luckily, my sophomore year, when I found out about the Global Explorers program and the grant offered to Chicago schools, I was ecstatic. I could not think of a better way to spend my summer because I could finally escape the violence that surrounded me.
As I am writing this, I cannot imagine how my high school career would have been without this summer opportunity. My Costa Rica trip was eye-opening and fascinating, and the skills and lessons that I learned have stayed with me. I always had a passion for conserving the environment, and I interned every Saturday at the Nature Museum, but I did not know how to share my interests with my peers. I wanted to travel, yet my illiterate parents worked tirelessly in dead-end jobs, and they did not have the financial ability to pay for a travel program. This summer experience and grant allowed me to overcome these barriers, and traveling enabled me to learn more about myself.
While in Costa Rica, I interacted with people who I normally did not talk to in school but now consider some of my closest friends. It is unbelievable that this summer I met a remarkably fun-loving family. As we rapidly became acquainted with one another, we began to share fears, laughs, tears (and dance moves), until these experiences and emotions belonged to all of us. In Costa Rica, we zip-lined, tried peculiar food, and explored numerous rainforests. I also experienced, for the first time, the deeper meaning of fun, diversity, maturity—and unconditional friendship. And it gave me a new insight on my own Mexican-American heritage. No one person overcame these differences; the most important trip of my life taught me the meaning of community. Because while these friendships live on today, that’s nothing compared to the mountainous differences in culture, politics, and values that we struggled with at the time. No one person bridged these divides—the group did. We did together what no single person could do.
These life lessons and experiences have molded me into an open-minded, responsible, and optimistic person. As a first-generation Mexican-American student, I know that I will face numerous challenges in college and life. Currently, I have applied to several out-of state colleges, including three Ivy League schools, and I know that my trip to Costa Rica has prepared me to live and to adjust to a different setting. Because of my Costa Rica trip, I emerged into a non-conformist, leader, thinker, and most importantly I have enjoyed collaborating with people who have divergent point of views. Therefore, I know that I will cross academic and cultural boundaries to accomplish my goals.
Before I finish my college application process, I want to thank you, the special donor, who has helped me make my dreams a reality. I feel more confident as I write these supplements and applications because my experience in Costa Rica allowed me to define and re-define who I am. It has given me concrete examples and experiences to draw on. No longer am I unmotivated; I am enthusiastic person, and I consistently strive to help those around me who are “unmotivated.”
I feel that this experience has opened many doors for me. After my trip to Costa Rica, I founded a mentoring program in my school, and I have been named a U.S Ambassador to Ecuador, a United States Senate Youth Finalist, and a Questbridge College Finalist. I have also received a Hispanic Youth Award Gold Medal for Community Service. Currently, I rank second in my graduating class, and I am on the advanced placement and honors track. Global Explorers has been an integral part of my high school experience because it showed me how to be a leader and a shaker, and how take my future into my hands. I can only hope that this program will continue transforming the lives of my peers because it immensely revitalized my life.
There are many ways that you can join Global Explorers in helping to break down barriers to travel for students of all abilities and backgrounds. If you are interested in supporting the growth of transformative student travel experiences, please contact me at [email protected].
