Anusha

[music playing] I was really comfortable in high school. I had set friend group. I was really doing well in a place that I had known for my whole life, so I remember being kind of unsure about the whole college thing and whether or not this was the right place for me, especially during orientation week because you're just thrown into a bunch of different things. But within like a week, I felt like this was a home for me, and I had people around me that I was ready to hang out with and learn from. So it was really cool. Marquette gives you so many different opportunities as a student if you're willing to take them. I remember wanting to make the most of the four years, so I just kind of signed up for as much as I possibly could. I work at the Office of International Education on campus. I started here, I think, second semester sophomore year, and then I went abroad for a semester junior year. As a social welfare major, every class is about different issues and different global issues, but I don't think I really understood those global issues until I saw them firsthand. So while I was abroad, we actually did a service project in a rural part of the Dominican Republic, where we got to build an aqueduct for a community who had never had running water. One of the most beautiful moments of my life was when we went back to that community on the final days that we were in the DR, and we got to see them turn the water on. Just making those connections-- like I still talk to the people that I met from the Dominican. So being able to call those people family now is just an incredible thing to me. I wanted to make sure that I didn't stop doing service because I've made it a goal to do service every semester I've been at Marquette. I'm interning and doing service at the same place. It's an organization in Milwaukee called Voces de la Frontera. It's an organization dedicated to immigrant, student, and worker rights in Milwaukee. My name is Anusha, and I'm a volunteer with Voces de la Frontera. This message is for Nicole. Right now at Voces, a big campaign that they're doing is to reinstate driver's license for immigrants. I always think about how even if you see one person who's just so grateful, it just makes a really bad week worth it for me. Study abroad service and my academics all kind of mesh into one because I am a social justice and criminology major. It gives you two different ways to learn, so I get to sit down in a classroom for a part of the week and then I also get to actually go into the city, and work with people, and kind of see how these issues that I'm learning in the classroom are affecting people. I wouldn't be as well-rounded or as aware of global or even national issues as I am today if I hadn't done service. It's just such an important part of my educational career.