Stephanie Dulany

This school year I had the option to choose to live in a variety of places. Summit Park Leadership was one of them and it offered me the opportunity to become a leader in a community service project that affects our local Ozarks. A nice perk that came with the housing was that it was, in fact, a miniature house with bedrooms, bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and a washer/dryer setup. These amenities appealed to me, alongside the hours of community service that I could log and put into my resume for post-bachelor schools. At first, I loved the idea of being in my very own "house" with a kitchen and everything, but, as the days moved on, those things dwindled away and were no longer as new and exciting. However, I now have the responsibility of fulfilling my application requirements that let me into this program, which involve spending a certain amount of hours with kids teaching them the importance of having clean water. I can see now that these things really appeal to me more than the idea of having my own kitchen and washer and dryer. I have the opportunity to physically take part in a project that helps out, not only myself, but our entire Ozark area. The need for clean water is not stressed nearly enough these days, and we, as a group, are taking it upon ourselves to teach as many younger kids as possible the importance of having clean water. We want to take kids on fieldtrips to the lake and have them do fun activities that gear towards why the Earth needs clean water. I hope to gain more community service experience for our local area, and I hope to make a good impression towards these kids. My personal goal is to make their learning fun, but also educational, so that they will take what they learned to their parents and tell them all about their experiences. Everyone knows that we need clean water to make the world go around, just not enough people care, or act on that need. This is what I hope to change.