Honoring World Humanitarian Day: Local High School Students Learn to Think and Serve Globally
Kara Schofield“Not all heroes wear capes.” This sentiment stands as a reminder that heroes are also spotted wearing stethoscopes, fire helmets, or overalls. Some of them may blend in completely with the culture and urban or rural landscape surrounding them — like humanitarians, whose work is honored each year on 19 August by the United Nations to commemorate the killing of 22 humanitarian aid workers by a bomb attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad twenty years ago
The work of humanitarianism, which involves protecting life and providing necessities such as food and shelter, is often done by faith-based and other nonprofit organizations. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one such organization doing humanitarian projects worldwide. In 2022 the Church of Jesus Christ spent $1.02 billion, tracked 6,300,000 volunteer hours, and served 190 countries and territories according to their Caring for Those in Need annual report.
Several high school students from Prosper and Frisco, Texas, took these examples of humanitarianism to heart this summer, logging hundreds of hours of volunteer work, learning how to be compassionate humanitarians, and helping communities around the globe improve access to education, housing, and healthcare for their residents.
The organizations Humanitarian XP and Inspire Music Service Hope guided the students and their families toward ways to serve communities in emerging countries through longstanding relationships and a sensitivity to local culture, traditions, and ongoing needs. While not sponsored by a particular religion, Humanitarian XP and Inspire MSH align with the Prosper and Frisco teens’ values as members of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Each of these teens traveled from the United States in a group of 16-20 students to their chosen destinations with two college-age guides who speak the local languages, accompanied by two parents who provide background support and document the group’s activities. A few of them helped improve and build classroom structures for local schools in places as far as Fiji, Ecuador, Guatemala, Chile, Dominican Republic, and Ghana.
Carter Short, a senior at Wakeland High School in Frisco, did his volunteer work in Fiji. Of the people on Taveuni Island, Short says, “I’ve never met more loving and joyful people even without having much in their lives…. The world has so much hate in it today, and I feel like it could be so much better if the joy that I found in Taveuni was expressed all around the world.” And even when the physical labor was draining and the living conditions less comfortable, he found joy in the beauty of the natural surroundings, the friendships he made, and his purposes in serving.
James Norris, a senior at Prosper High, worked on improving a preschool in Chile and was moved by “the true desperate situation the kids were facing, including abuses, harassment, and the lack of access to food.” Meanwhile, Walnut Grove senior Ellinor Schofield loved her opportunity in Ecuador to serve and use her Spanish skills. She mixed and poured cement, dug trenches, tiled roofs, and painted walls for a classroom and bathroom facility — this one for special needs students. “I got to see myself grow closer to Christ,” she says, “as well as growing closer to my peers and learning the best way I can connect with others!”
Fellow Walnut Grove seniors Preston Camp and Jacob Schaack traveled to Panama to help expand a dental clinic’s facilities to accommodate more patients. When weather and construction delays left one day open, trip leaders found a new way to serve. “We went to a local school and helped teach English,” says Schaack. Camp adds, “We were still able to serve…. it turned out better than what was originally planned at the worksite for that day. Many times, what we want and plan to do in our lives falls apart and changes…. [But] God will take care of us.”
Music was a part of Parker Evanson’s multifaceted experience in the Dominican Republic with Inspire MSH. The Walnut Grove junior traveled with his brother Brandt, a 2023 Prosper High graduate, and they both accompanied vocalists at the piano and lent their voices to a choir performance. They also helped repair home foundations, paint a school, and play games with the students. Evanson says, “I realized that I need to be nicer and more kind to those around me, including my family, and have a smile on my face every day just like the little kids…. I’ll learn from their example.”
Ella Scott, a Walnut Grove junior, served a little closer to home by assisting with hurricane recovery in Outer Banks, North Carolina. Her group worked on several house projects throughout the week, including floor replacement, chimney and wall repairs and painting, and yard work. Says Scott, “We also got to work on a local farm to help grow food for children in the county that didn’t have access to enough food. Together, we sweated like crazy in the sun, listening to music, sharing stories, and encouraging one another while we got the work done.” She feels that God helped them to greet each day “with enthusiasm and determination to make a positive impact.”
It seems that many of these teens learned the same important lesson on their summer trips around the globe: in the end, being a humanitarian does not require spending weeks in a different country; rather, humanitarianism — meeting someone’s need, sharing one’s time and resources, or loving one’s neighbor —can be practiced right here at home, too.
Read more here about the campaign of World Humanitarian Day and the kind of heroes who help provide the basic necessities of life to people around the world, #NoMatterWhat.
Featured Image: Carter, back row in the Wakeland Football shirt, with his group of builders and Fijian friends at the work site of a local school on Taveuni Island. Photo provided by Carter Short.
Kara Schofield lives with her husband, nearly grown youngest, and the family doodle in the Prosper Texas Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She can often be found at one keyboard or another: writing, documenting personal and family history, accompanying school choirs, and learning how to play jazz music. Her greatest joys are her four children and their spouses, a sizable extended family, pies, mountains, and Jesus Christ.
