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Hernan Ortiz is from Washington Heights, New York City. He is Vice-President of the Dartmouth Boxing Club. In between the fall and winter term of his sophomore year, Hernan participated in a Cross-Cultural Service and Education Program through the Tucker Foundation in Siuna, Nicaragua.
The Cross-Cultural Service and Education Program is a thirteen-day trip to Nicaragua that focuses on working together with the people of Siuna in order to help construct a health clinic, provide basic medical healthcare and educate the community on issues of public health. Throughout the trip, they were also able to do agricultural work and experience, to some degree, for a few days, the difficulty and hardships that these people endured every day.
“Service allowed us to better understand the people of Siuna and their lifestyle through the sharing of personal experiences. This sharing also helped them understand us. Through the sharing of culture, personal experiences and family histories, an intense and dynamic bond is created that leads to a powerful transformation.
Service has allowed me to focus on what is truly important to me: building community with others in order to understand them as people better. Only through establishing and developing strong relationships with others will I truly learn to appreciate people’s differences and people’s cultures and how these two interact to help in the formation of how they perceive the world. Education goes beyond books and that is service.”
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