This was my headfirst dive into an eye-opening experience of service. Rarely had  I left my hometown in Rhode Island and here I was, serving with, talking with, and learning from the community in Flint, MI. I’ve often believed that just listening to someone’s story is such a powerful connection. The people of this community have been consistently deprived of resources to seemingly no end. They deserve clean water no matter the cost to the municipality. I learned here that the real issue originated from the municipality disregarding the health and safety of the local residents and chose not to put certain fluoride in the water system to prevent the pipes from corroding. As we all know the pipes leaked lead into the water and subsequently poisoned those who drank it. The community of Flint, MI will have generational health consequences because of this decision. This was my first exposure to environmental injustice, shaping the course of what I wanted to accomplish in my career and my life.

This trip was during my sophomore year and I had been asked to be a student leader on this trip. I was happy to take on the responsibility, but I had high expectations of myself to give the participants of my trip the best environment to learn, listen, and serve. I wanted them to be able to have as impactful of an experience that I had as a freshman participant. On this trip we spent most of our time volunteering and serving with residents of the Navajo Reservation in Northern Arizona. Again, I spent a lot of time listening and hearing the community’s stories from the community itself. My major take away from this trip was the deep rooted environmental injustice in American history. The indigenous people were essentially uprooted and removed from their homes and “given” land to have to themselves. I’m not a scientist but it was clear that the land the indigenous communities were “given” was clearly subpar compared to the “beautiful, vibrant” landscapes America kept for itself. Another injustice is the modern disease being spread to indigenous people, diabetes. Much like the original colonists spread things like smallpox, the current American system makes it difficult for indigenous people to afford quality food and are forced to eat cheap, low nutritionally dense food that their bodies are not used to and the effects are damaging. This was my second exposure to yet another instance of environmental injustice, and a reinforcement of how important advocacy is and how powerful it can be.

This trip was my final service trip during college and was the culmination of all I had learned about service during my experiences, education, and personal growth. A large goal of mine this trip was to be more of a facilitator and supporter of the two first-year leaders I was working with. I wanted to give them an environment to tap into their potential and grow into the leaders they are. I found it difficult to step back because I love to be involved and active but it was a learning experience for myself as well. Not only was I serving the community of Puerto Rico but I was serving my fellow students and leaders. Focusing on the theme of the trip, this was my first experience responding to a natural disaster. However it is incredibly important to identify that although this island suffered a destructive natural disaster, the community suffered the receiving end of the latest in a long line of environmental injustices. The federal response to Hurricane Maria was just abysmal. An entire year and a half after the hurricane hit Puerto Rico, there were still thousands of homes who were still using the blue tarps from the federal response. Even worse, some of the tarps, supposed to be a temporary solution by the way, never made it to people’s homes, being left in packages, abandoned like the community was.