St. Edward’s University presents the 2016 GROW team:
GROW Coordinator: Antonia Ortiz-McPhaill, 2016, B.A. Global Studies
GROW intern: Luana Chaires, 2018, B.A. Political Science & English
GROW intern: Alma Arellano, 2017, B.S. Biology
Some thoughts about the journey we are about to embark on…
Why did you want to go on GROW?
What are you most excited for?
What are your teams biggest goals?
Antonia:
I was so fortunate to get the opportunity to experience GROW last year, when the St. Edward’s team went to Thailand. The determination I felt, the experiences I had, and the changes I saw during my GROW internship were simply life-changing. It has motivated me for what I want to do with my future and has enlightened me about the power of impact that can change and improve a community through action. I am most excited for meeting our new partner organization and being able to collaborate with them, while bringing our energy and motivation to live in, listen to, and immerse ourselves into the community that we will be helping. Our biggest goals at this point are to connect with our new partner organization, listen to the needs of the community there, and find the projects that our home chapter will also connect to and can engage with, in order to bridge the gap between our partner and our university’s chapter.
Luana:
The biggest reason why I decided to join the GROW team was to experience the GlodeMed mission first hand. GlobeMed in my opinion is selfless service based on respect to our partner, our chapter, and our community. These type of principles is what I hope to bring into my future career as a foreign service officer. Moreover, I am most excited to work with a community that I have never worked with before. I am excited to learn how our partner interacts with the community and builds trust. Finally, I believe the biggest goals our team has is to push ourselves out of our comfort zone.
Alma:
GROW to me means more than just traveling and serving our partner on site. To me, GROW is the opportunity to build and expand. I actually am not even sure what type of impact GROW will have on me because this immersion is completely different than any other. GlobeMed tends to do that a lot. I have been waiting for the moment where I can be with our partner and communicate differently than just through a laptop screen. Therefore, I am excited to expand my horizons and ideologies with people who’s surrounding are completely different than mine. Explore, Listen and Learn are my personal goals for this trip. I want to make sure I give myself some personal time to explore my inner self, as this will be my last and final year in St. Edward’s. Listen to my team members and everyone that I get to meet in Managua. Lastly, I want to make sure I pay attention to everything and open myself to learn as much as possible. However, I think as a team we are looking for stability and to lay a strong foundation with our partner. Asociacion Tierra is hope for GlobeMed at St. Edward’s. We hope that this organization brings in inspiration to our chapter. We have hope that through this trip we bring back motivation to our members and proof that GlobeMed is making an amazing impact in global health.