The Journey from Failure to Hope

I was a barely 16 years old; despite my youth and inexperience, I wanted to change the world. So, I left my home, my family, and my country. I was trained for three days and put on a plane to Nicaragua. I was determined to end poverty, clean up the environment—in short, I was going to change the world.

I remember walking through the narrow dirt roads of that small Nicaraguan mountain village. To the left of the road were broken down shacks, some constructed of nothing more than black garbage bags. To my right I could see the single contaminated water source for the community. Trash littered the streets and smoke hung in the air.

I wanted desperately to help these people. Instead I spent months teaching in the two-roomed school about picking up trash and making up songs about washing hands and brushing teeth. And then I went home. I left the community feeling like I made no lasting change. No one’s life was visibly better because I had come. The houses were still made of garbage bags and the water was still contaminated. I felt like a failure.

I questioned whether doing good was even possible. Could complex problems like poverty, lack of access to clean water, or human trafficking ever be solved? Years passed, and slowly I began to lose hope. Maybe it wasn’t possible.

That’s when I was introduced to the Ballard Center. I took Do Good. Better (DGB), a class that changed my whole life. For perhaps the first time in my life I learned and understood that doing good was possible.

In class we studied cases of people like Fabio Rosas who brought electricity to rural Brazil, and the Carter Center, which has all but eradicated the Guinea worm parasite. But more importantly, I learned that doing good better is for everyone. You don’t have to go abroad or start a nonprofit to start making a difference.

The truth is, my ‘service trip’ to Nicaragua did more for me than I was ever able to do for the villagers. DGB taught me that real, lasting change often comes from understanding and empowering others—not by building wells or schools, but by listening and working together.

In DGB I was connected to Scott Stiles, the founder of Fair Employment Agency, who offered me an internship in Hong Kong that made me feel like I was making a difference. We worked to end forced labor by empowering domestic workers and eliminating the cycle of debt bondage they often face. A problem that has endured for hundreds of years is on the road to being eradicated.

More than the opportunities and the friendship, the Ballard Center has given me hope— hope that change can be made. Real, effective, lasting, meaningful change. Hope that there are others around the globe working night and day to address the world’s most pressing social issues. And hope that I can take what I’ve learned and change the world starting right here.