I recently returned from volunteering at an elementary school in San Pedro, Belize, called Holy Cross Anglican School. HCAS opened in 2006 with 60 students, and today it has more than 500. The founders of the school are an American couple, Francis and Vernon Wilson, who went to San Pedro for a vacation in 2000. There they saw many school-age children on the streets, and discovered that these children were unable to attend school because there was no space for them.
Francis and Vernon felt so compelled to meet this need that they moved from Virginia to Belize, bought some land in a mangrove swamp and started raising funds to build a school. They did all of this despite the fact that they knew nothing about construction or starting a school.
But they did know one thing: They really cared about helping the children of San Pedro get an education.
Six years and lots of hard work later, HCAS opened. Today, the school is situated next to a slum where there is trash literally everywhere, and there is no electricity or running water. Many of the students live in this slum, and their parents do not have the means to provide them with enough food.
In response, Francis and Vernon started a food program at the school where they give the children two meals and a snack every day—for free! Because the Belizean government only pays the teachers’ salaries, everything else at the school runs on donations. That includes stationery supplies, teaching materials, administrative staff salaries and of course the food program.
During the week that I was there, I witnessed how much of a blessing HCAS has been to the San Pedro community. No one could have imagined that a piece of unwanted land in a mangrove swamp could turn into a place where 500 young lives are molded and infused with hope every day. HCAS is a miraculous story that continues to be written, and it’s a testament to the fact that amazing things do happen when you care enough.
The success of HCAS brings me back to a talk by Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, two years ago. Truthfully, I don’t remember what most of her speech was about, but the way she concluded was extremely memorable.
“Lord I cannot preach like Martin Luther King, Jr. or turn a poetic phrase like Maya Angelou...”
She proceeded to list a large number of distinguished people, and the characteristics they possessed that she did not (despite having been awarded more than 65 honorary degrees and being the first black woman to be admitted to the Mississippi bar).
“But I care and am willing to serve and raise my voice with others for children.... But I care and am willing to serve and sacrifice to build our children a better future.”
Edelman’s soul-stirring speech got me thinking about my life philosophy. Time after time I’ve made important decisions because it was the “smart” thing to do, or because it would make my resume look better, or because I was trying to live up to the expectations of others.
I don’t deny that there are many practical considerations if you want to be accepted into the grad school of your choice or if you want to secure that dream job. But I do think that if pragmatism is the guiding principle behind your decisions, you risk shortchanging yourself of a truly great life.
How different would our lives—and the world we live in—be if we consciously chose to only put our heart and soul into things that we are really passionate about?
My trip to Belize has been a reminder that the foundation of a remarkable life is a commitment to a cause greater than yourself coupled with character. We often seek comfort in our lives—comfortable homes, comfortable jobs, comfortable weather—but comfort rarely leads to greatness. Francis and Vernon showed me that you can’t change the world just by being comfortable, smart, capable or prepared enough.
But you really can change the world if you care enough.
Daniel Wong is a Pratt junior. His column runs every other Wednesday.
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