Meet Lizzie White, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, who spent a month in Honduras during the summer as a Public Health Intern.
Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. – Howard Thurman
Friday afternoons are usually a time for watching TV, taking a nap, or hanging out with friends after a long week of classes. On the first Friday of this semester, however, I found myself alone in my university’s Student Union office making a Global Brigades poster board for the upcoming activities fair. I completely lost track of time as I focused on my project. Making a poster board can be tedious between designing the poster, laying out the materials, and gluing it all together. But while I was making the Global Brigades poster, I wasn’t bored – I was actually energized by the work. I spent the whole time reminiscing about my past brigades, remembering all the amazing people I had met, and, most of all, getting really excited to share my experiences with potential brigaders at the activities fair. I was so absorbed in my work that I didn’t stop until I got kicked out around six o’clock when the office closed.
It’s moments like this when I continue to discover just how deep an impact my summer internship with Public Health Brigades had on me. I knew that something had changed inside of me this summer when even the less glamorous tasks of preparing for a brigade became fun and exciting. For the first several weeks after I got home from the internship, I was unable to talk about anything else. I told anyone and everyone who would listen everything I had done, learned, and experienced. Spending a whole month in Honduras working with Global Brigades and getting a glimpse of its long-term successes inspired me and brought me alive. And from conversations with my fellow interns, I know they felt the same transformation and the same desire to share their experience when they returned home.
This process of coming alive and finding a passion, however, is not something that only the interns experienced this summer. It is at the very core of the work the GB does in communities. They even have a specific word for it: empower. This summer, I got to witness how GB works with people to empower them to make positive changes within their communities. One place where I saw the first sparks of this change was in the community of Guaricayan.
On one of the first days of the internship, the public health team worked with the Basic Sanitation Committee (CSB) in 
Guaricayan. We spent the morning training them on the health topics they would be responsible for promoting in their community. At the beginning of the workshop, the CSB members were pretty quiet, but as the morning went on, they became more and more enthusiastic about everything they were learning. Later that afternoon in the asamblea meeting with the rest of the community, we saw that momentum continue to build. By the end of the meeting, the whole room was buzzing with enthusiasm about the public health projects and ideas for how they could start organizing their community. The transformation that had happened over the course of the day was amazing. If one day was enough to spark this passion, then there’s no limit to how much they will achieve though their long-term relationship with GB.
Later in the month, the public health interns got to see the outcome of this empowerment when we worked with the CSB in the community of El Cantón. Public health brigades had been working with this CSB for the past year, and by the time the interns met them, they had become amazing leaders within their community. They showed us their passion every day by arriving early, working tirelessly alongside us, and bringing new ideas to the table. We saw how their leadership motivated other adults and children in the community. Their enthusiasm and initiative also inspired us to work harder and to engage as much as possible in our projects.
Seeing the beginnings of community empowerment in Guaricayan and the results in El Cantón showed me how important it is for people to come alive – to find a goal they are passionate about and work hard to achieve it. I also learned that going on a brigade is about more than just the weeklong projects: it’s about the personal connections that continue to empower community members and brigaders long after the week is over.
One of my favorite quotes reads: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” While I have always loved this quote, it took on a whole new meaning for me this summer. The world needs so many things. There are millions of people out there who need food, shelter, healthcare, money, water, clothing, and so much more. When I think about it that way, it’s almost impossible to decide where to begin. But what I learned this summer is that it almost doesn’t matter what I do. What matters is that I do it with passion. I think that’s the main way I’ve changed as a result of my summer internship. Whether I’m working alongside community members in Honduras or making a poster by myself on a Friday afternoon, I do it with the passion of knowing that my actions are contributing to something greater. This is a lesson I know I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
-Lizzie White, Honduras Public Health Intern 2012
