Capstone Project
Church World Service Program
The Church World Service is a faith-based organization that "transforms communities around the world through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, and displacement to disaster." It all began after the devastation of WW2 when seventeen Christian denominations came together to aid those in need and for over seven decades the Church World Service has been active in assisting people who are facing hunger, displacement, and poverty.
For my capstone project I decided to volunteer as a mentor for the Church World Service Program. As a volunteer I had the privilege of mentoring refugees through their online mentorship program. The mentorship program was designed to aid young refugees and help them navigate and adjust to life in the United States. During my mentorship I assisted mentees in accomplishing their goals. One of the mentees I worked closely with was in high school and wanted to learn about the college application process, university life, and how to save money for college. As a mentor I was able to pull from my own experiences and discuss how I saved money for college and applied to university. However, there were topics that my mentees wanted to discuss that I needed to further educate myself on. This allowed me to expand my own knowledge on topics I was previously unfamiliar with. Mentoring youth refugees was an enriching experience that I wouldn't have been able to a part of without the help of the Global Learning Medallion program.
As a mentor I enhanced my leadership and communication skills. This experience has been very rewarding, I was able to expand my global awareness and global perspective. Speaking with mentees I realized how similar and different we are at the same time. Our lives are so different from one another but our core values are the same and even though we are different in culture, ethnicity, and country of origin we are still interconnected with one another. Even though I was the mentor, my mentees taught me a lot about the world that was once unfamiliar to me.
