Big Hope 2: Little Things Matter

When I was told to write a blog post about the Big Hope 2 Conference I decided to wait longer. Why? Because I thought maybe there is going to be something very huge that is going to change my experience and that I will never forget — something similar to meeting the President of your …

Big Hope 2: Friday – Education Session

We had multiple speakers come in on Friday to give us some fruit for thought, like Phil Jennings the General secretary of the UNI Global union. He quoted Nelson Mandela by saying “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” His talk was followed by a discussion on the topic …

Big Hope 2: First Day Thoughts

Hey, everyone! Quick life update: I’m spending this next week in Liverpool, England, at a global leadership conference called The Big Hope 2! 400 students have traveled from all over the world to attend these leadership seminars together! I was given this opportunity through my Social Work academic advisor, Dr. Feaster, and am traveling with …

Big Hope 2: Keynote by Sir Chris Stone, CEO

Monday, June 18th, I was moved. I walked into the sports hall like any other day going to listen to another keynote. Well, this was not any other keynote. In the past we had some good speakers with good work positions and big titles. Their talks were not necessarily engaging, nor did they did interact much …

Big Hope 2: Day 5

After four days at the Big Hope 2, it is still hard at times to believe that there are students from 40 different countries here. We have done a lot of listening and learning through the seminars and discussions, but today was our day to finally get a bit of a break as we went …

Big Hope 2: Liverpool, Day 2!

  Today was the second day of our trip at Liverpool Hope University for the Big Hope 2 Conference. The day started off pretty easily, with meeting new local students from the university, seeing children in their English school uniforms, and a beautiful walk across campus to our first Keynote speaker of the week.    The …

Shetland Islands

The University of Aberdeen’s final exam schedule is spread out across three weeks. Because of this extended time frame, a few friends and I were able to fit a two-day trip to the Shetland Islands between studying for exams. The Shetland Islands are a group of islands north of mainland Scotland. We took an overnight …

Spring Break: London & Vienna

After finishing up WWOOFing throughout the UK, as I talked about in my last blog, Gabbi and I headed to London. We spent a day in London before flying to Salzburg, Austria and, then, taking a train to Vienna. London is a massive city filled with tons of things to do. So, what do you …

WWOOF – World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

In my freshman year at Hope I had the opportunity to participate in an immersion trip that went and did some volunteer work in Jamaica over spring break. The trip had been advertised to me by a friend as an opportunity to experience all the benefits of a vacation while also doing some good for …

Concert in Glasgow

After spending nearly three weeks traveling around the UK and mainland Europe for the University of Aberdeen’s spring break, I arrived back at Aberdeen late last night. I rarely had reliable WiFi on the trip, so I had planned on submitting a few blogs about the trip today. When I went to do this; however, …