The First Steps, by Emily Wilson (ETSU Center for Global Engagement, Global Handshakes)

Описание: Emily Wilson graduated certain she was meant to make a difference—but unsure how to begin. While traveling in Ghana, she encountered an example of leadership that challenged her assumptions about impact, ambition, and what it really takes to serve a community. Her story traces the moment when big ideas met lived reality.

Emily created her story in a custom digital storytelling workshop facilitated by StoryCollab and sponsored by the East Tennessee State University's Center for Global Engagement, as part of the Global Handshakes initiative.

To learn more about a custom digital storytelling workshop or program for your organization, please visit our website at: https://www.storycollab.org/

TRANSCRIPT:

I walked across the stage and shook hands with the dean confidently. I was going to save the world.

That confidence quickly faded. I took my cap off and thought about starting a non-profit. but I didn’t have any connections, finances, or experience. So, I continued to set up tennis lessons for when I returned from Ghana.

On day six in Apra we toured Eyes Of Hope Vision Center, an optometry clinic and farm that donates produce to the local community. The doctor told us that before he started the clinic, there were no eye doctors for at least two hours in any direction. The program started small, with just him in a single room treating people’s eyes. Then he noticed many people in the community didn’t have enough to eat. So he started growing extra vegetables. Then he hired local people who needed work. Twenty years later, there are several exam rooms, barns to hold surplus produce and animals, and living quarters for employees. We met a disabled Liberian refugee who lives there and works as a farmhand. He waves and smiles at us as we pass by. The goats and chickens are his responsibility, and I notice he walks with a sense of purpose. While there are still many Ghanaians with severe health needs, and not enough to eat, That doctor who started Point Hope gave sight and food to many in the surrounding communities. To me, he’s a saint. But he started… with what he had…and what he knew.

We walk through the garden and pass a brick wall. I stop to pose in front of the white angel wings painted on it. I want someone to take my picture with these wings. As we walk back to the bus and wave goodbye, my lost confidence is replaced with something new.

I don’t have to fly. I just have to start moving to where I feel called