By Allie Cohen ’12, Staff Writer

This summer I went on a community service trip to Tanzania. It was one of the most incredible, rewarding experiences of my life. Each morning, my group and I went to a school in a village called Mongo’la Juu and worked to restore parts of the school that had been damaged in an earthquake in 2007. We also had a chance to interact with the students at the school and teach them some English. Before I went on the trip, I was skeptical (as many people are) about whether paying for a teen travel program would really allow me to do productive, beneficial service. However, now I fully believe that trips like mine truly make an impact on the local people.

Every time we saw the students, their faces lit up with joy, and they ran to take our hands and challenge us to a game of soccer or braid our hair. It was touching to see how excited they were to play with their new American friends. Should that not have been enough to convince us that our work was meaningful, the headmaster expressed his gratitude towards us at the end of our stay with a speech that nearly brought everyone to tears. His words, along with the appreciative faces that would turn towards us at nearly every place we visited, were enough to show me that my work had had a positive impact. Even though a group of clumsy American teenagers can only do so much to repair an entire school, our simple presence at the school made a change for the better in the lives of the people we met. Showing them that we were willing to fly almost across the world to experience their culture sends a message of hope and strength. The more people get involved in service trips as teenagers, the more they will be inspired to help change the world in bigger and better ways in the future.

Read: Community Service or College-Pleasing Vacation?