We are leaving for Puerto Rico in two days, and I can’t wait for this amazing, life-changing experience. For my Global Service Learning Experience, my group and I are traveling to Puerto Rico to work with All People Be Happy and Caras Con Causa. What we will specifically be doing is to help Caras con Causa identify and diversify funding streams. We are specifically identifying the best tools to target individual donors who are from Puerto Rico, but currently reside in the mainland U.S.A. 

Caras con Causa was created by Michael Fernandez in 2004 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Their mission is to eradicate poverty through ecology, education, and economic development in Catano and Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. This is important to the community because they help to increase participation and address community needs such as educational support, elderly care, and environmental needs. When deciding which location to go to, Puerto Rico and Caras con Causa stuck with me because there was such an emphasizes community based solutions. They want their local community to collaborate and make a difference in the long-term rather than a short-term solution. All People Be Happy was the middleman between our client and us. They are in 22 countries and partner with 25 communities. They merged with Amizade and emphasize building sustainable development projects. For our first Zoom meeting, we met with a representative from All People Be Happy, Bibi Al-Ebrahim. We learned about their role as a director of experiences, where she took us through their mission and efforts. We also got to learn more in-depth about Caras con Causa through Adriana S. Ayala Gonzalez, our main point of contact, who is a volunteer coordinator for Caras con Causa. We learned about their ecology programs, community programs, issues the community faces, and much more. In addition to learning more about the organization, my team and I also got to learn more about Puerto Rico as a whole. We also asked questions about the current status of Caras and their takes, what hasn’t worked in the past, what core messages they wanted donors to walk away from, and how success could be measured. For our second meeting with both Bibi and Adriana, they walked us through the itinerary, where we would be staying, what cultural foods we would be trying, what to pack, and any other resources we might need. These calls to me are extremely important and eye-opening because they connect me to the cause more and let me know that we are all in agreement. Caras con Causa does important work for change in Puerto Rican communities, and I am extremely grateful and honored to be a part of that. 

What my team and I hope to accomplish is to expand our global perspective by immersing ourselves in this new cultural environment. We hope to create a meaningful, sustainable impact by helping Caras con Causa diversify and strengthen its funding streams. We aim to pinpoint effective tools and strategies to educate and engage individual donors from Puerto Rico who reside in the mainland United States. By creating targeted outreach approaches, we hope to provide recommendations that could generate long-term financial donations for Caras con Causa. Beyond our deliverables, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of community-based development in practice. Caras con Causa emphasizes long-term solutions to poverty through ecology, education, and economic development, and it aligns with our values. A firsthand experience is extremely important for this because it lets us pick the best recommendation and make it feasible. We also hope to grow in our ability to work across cultures, communicate with others, and apply classroom learning to real-world global challenges. By having an open line of communication with All People Be Happy and Caras con Causa, we aim to strengthen skills like adaptability, collaborative problem solving, and cultural awareness. 

Besides there being a language barrier between my team and I to the organization, a culture norms that could be a challenge for me is “island time”. “Island time” is considered a slow-paced, relaxed, flexible social approach to time. This is because in the mainland, we are taught to follow strict deadlines and hustle when it comes to work and dining. However, in Puerto Rico, they believe in prioritizing social connection, human connection, taking your time, and enjoying the atmosphere around you. However, I see this as a way for me not to be as anxious and to be able to practice patience. 

Two readings for me that stood out to me, which we went over in class, were “Comparing the Effects of Community Service and Service-Learning” by Lori J. Vogelgesang and Alexander W. Astin, and “Points of Discomfort: Reflections on Power and Partnerships in International Service-Learning” by Erin K. Sharpe and Samantha Dear. The first reading is a qualitative study that takes a large, diverse group of students across different universities and sees if course-based service learning offers benefits compared to “generic” co-curricular community service. Participants were categorized into three groups: a control/non-service group, a generic community service volunteer group, and a service-learning group. The study found that connecting service work with an academic course enhances cognitive development, helps shape career choices, and influences a student’s sense of social concern. I did agree with the results of the study because when I would volunteer in the past, organizations did not go as in-depth about what they were doing and their impact, so I felt more disconnected and felt like a task that needed to be completed. The other reading, “Points of Discomfort: Reflections on Power and Partnerships in International Service-Learning”, went through the experiences of two people who had been on a service-learning trip, explained the “points of discomfort” and the underlying power dynamics and contradictions in the service-learning world. While the reading affected me, it was more the class discussion we had that stuck with me. In class, Bryan had asked “why is being uncomfortable a good thing?”, and I had thought to myself “how is it a good thing, I would hate be uncomfortable”. But when we talked about it as a class, I learned why it’s important to be uncomfortable and the learning experience that comes with it. That it lets us grow, learn, self-discover, build resilience, force adaptability, and allows us to achieve our goals through motivation. These two papers opened my eyes about both the positive and negative impacts of service learning and how to pinpoint and overcome those points of discomfort. 

All in all, I look forward to this experience in Puerto Rico and stepping out of my comfort zone. This experience won’t only help me grow both academically and professionally, but will also foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills by taking me into a new, diverse cultural and social context.