My name is Raechel McKiernan, If you are reaching out to my profile, you may already know this, but if not, here is a little bit about myself. I am a 16 year old junior from Richmond, Michigan. I play sofball and volleyball for my school as well as travel teams. I'm a dedicated student, currently maintaining a 3.96 GPA. In my free time, I love playing my guitar, riding my horse, Carrie, and fishing.
When I was about 12 years old, I became obsessed with the peace corps. I've read about it and watched many videos of people who have gone. As you may know, you have to be 18 to join this program. It seemed that I would never be able to do a service trip like this because it would interfere with me going to college.
One day while reading about the peace corps, a banner caught my eye that read "peace corps for teens". I clicked the link, and it led me to the Global Leadership Adventures (GLA) website. This may have been the best discovery I've ever made.
GLA is a program that coordinates many types of service projects abroad. The program i will be participating is called Fiji: Empowering Island Communities. I will be stationed in rural Fiji. The main focuses of my groups project will be teaching English and other lower level education in a local school, as well as establishing imporvements that allow underprivileged fijans ways to survive and prosper off of their natural resources, such as installing water catchment and filtering systems and rehabilitating their local ecosystem. Below is the link to the GLA website as well as a video that provides a glimpse of the experience.
https://www.experiencegla.com/destinations/teen-programs-asia/fiji/fiji-empowering-island-communities/
After poring over it for months, I finally drew up the courage to ask my parents. To be honest, I completely expected a no. To my surprise, my mom was all for it. My Dad, however, took some serious convincing, (typical protective dad-ness). I immediately leaped into action, drawing up poster boards for my walls with details and plans of action. It all really seems like a dream come true; I'm still in shock of this all. For several nights after i got the okay, i found myself in tears, completely overwhelmed with joy and gratefulness for this opprotunity.
I've always loved participating in community service and have been a part of many local projects such as coat drives through my church and community clean ups. Community service is extremely meaningful to me. As we go through our daily lives keeping so busy as we all do, i feel that it's easy to lose sight of whats important: doing anything you can to make a positive difference in the world around you.
Obviously, international travel certainly carries some significant expenses. A plane ticket alone to Fiji will cost anywhere from $1000-$1500. I will be booking a flight sometime within the month of December and will update my monetary goal to a more specific price once I do. The original tuition for my project was $4,999. I have paid some off, but my remaining tuition balance is $3,349. I have payments of $670 due the 14th of every month until my tuition is due on April 14, 2016, which is 60 days prior to the departure of my trip (June 13-July 3). adding the fee of my plane ticket, my current goal is $4,500. I am currently working at a local restaurant Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday for an allotted 26-32 hours a week. I love my job and am eager to pay my own way as much as possible, but with maintaining my duties to the National Honors Society, my goal of a 4.0 GPA, commitments to 4 sports teams, and my responsibilities at home, i only have so much time to work.
I am entirely grateful for any donation you would be willing to make, big or small. I feel so overwhelmed with joy and thank God every day for this incredible opprotunity to travel, experience a beautiful new culture, and help improve the life of others in a developing country through my service. Thank you so much.