WE DHL Youth Volunteer Leadership Fellowship Trip to the Amazon!

The WE DHL Youth Volunteer Leadership Fellowship Award is one of the most prestigious awards that I have received! In 2018, I received the award for my work with Linens N Love, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to donating and repurposing linens to homes and shelters in need.

One of the largest aspects of the fellowship was mentorship from the CEO of DHL and the CEO of ME to WE. During one of our mentorship sessions, I grasped the knowledge of how to become a businessperson and how to further advance my impact. Both the CEO of DHL and the CEO of ME to WE were so uplifting and encouraging; I found myself in awe being in their presence!

Words cannot express how the ME to WE volunteer trip transformed my life. Another aspect of the Fellowship was a trip to the Amazon to immerse in Ecuadorian culture and volunteer in a local community! Besides falling in love with nature and the beautiful, puffy clouds, I learned to appreciate all cultures around the world. Most importantly, I gained confidence during this trip as I established my own leadership style.

During the Fellowship trip, I met a six-year-old girl named Dayeli in the breathtaking Bellavista community. The most beautiful aspect of the community was the people there. I interacted with almost all of the individuals: children, adults, and their grandparents. Learning more about their lives, hobbies, families, and language was so exciting!

I want to emphasize the importance of community service and volunteerism. One ideology that I learned during the trip was that we should provide a hand up to the local communities. Volunteerism should encompass educating the local communities so that they are able to sustain themselves after the volunteers leave. I ensured that this ideology was properly carried through as I taught the groups of children how to properly lay the bricks and search for materials to make the concrete. By teaching the groups of residents in the Bellavista community, we were able to ensure that the community could thrive on its own!

After embarking on this fellowship trip sponsored entirely by DHL, I decided that Linens N Love should become a national and international mission. As we begin to spread our mission to other states in the United States, I hope that we can one day expand internationally to another nation!