"A Learning Experience for My Life"

"After my experience in the Philippines, I feel as though my brain has been expanded. It was a learning experience for my life."
—Kim Lehmann, Omaha, Nebraska

"Physically, São Paulo, Brazil, was the worst place I've ever been. The air was terrible. The traffic was terrible. But it was one of the most comfortable places I've ever been because of the social aspects—how the people treat each other, how I was welcomed."
—Casey High, Kent, Washington

"In Brazil's favelas, I would be walking in an area where the houses were shacks. And all of a sudden, whoa! I'd see this brand-new church that seemed to come out of nowhere. I found that religion is what keeps the people going. It gives them hope to get up every morning and catch that bus all the way to the city to make that $70 a month to put food on their table for five kids."
—Jimee'n Jackson, East St. Louis, Illinois

"After more than three weeks in the interior of the Cordillera Mountains in the north of the Philippines, I passed through the capital of Kalinga Province and saw a market. I was reminded that people buy food with money instead of growing it, hunting it, or finding it. It seemed strange...and I recognized the profundity of the place I had been. "
—Jessica Tulloch, Chicago, Illinois

"During my two months in the Philippines, I have had incredible life experiences. I could understand the political, economic, and social situations and struggles much better in their own contexts than from just reading about them."
—Kenia da Silva Guimaraes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (attending college in Mississippi)

"My experience in the Philippines affected every part of me and changed who I am and how I think and what I care about. You can't see injustices and not do something."
—Michele Johns, Birmingham, Alabama

"As a Filipina American, I was able to learn about my own heritage in the Philippines. I've learned to use what privileges I have been given to do something good for this world."
—Lynn Peralta, San Francisco, California