Read Stories 

July 24, 2008

Carrie is a Korean student who has just completed a two month internship through UBC Interchange.  She has enjoyed her experience so much that she is extending her time as a volunteer for one more month.  It has been a joy to have her partner with Volunteer Services.

Carrie wanted to be challenged in her experience here and do a variety of things so we asked her to share at our Volunteer Orientation about her experience with Union Gospel Mission.  The following is what she shared:Before talking about my story I want to say "Thank you" to my manager Joanne, and Lars who gave me a chance to stand here and make my life more valuable.

Let me talk about my internship, in one word I would like to say "changing".

This experience has given me a lot of changing opportunities.

Through this period there has been,

Changing confidence in me...

Changing my view of the world

Changing my laziness level

Changing relationships

Changing my resume

And changing my heart

As you heard, it has made me change a lot of myself.

The first time I came here, I was really worried about the location and the homeless people.

I thought they would hurt me, so I hesitated to take this opportunity.

Yet, they were so kind and made me more comfortable and laugh more than any other people, and they taught me about the dignity of human rights.

But if I had refused this opportunity, I wouldn't have gotten a lot of these beneficial insights.

Of course, there had been lots of challenges too. The most challenging that I felt was communicating among my co-workers and other people, but I also have learned that if I open my mind to them they also open their mind to me. So even though the communication is not exactly understood by one another, we can feel each other and that makes friendships. Through this I have gained confidence in myself. This confidence will make me more successful in my remaining life.




Left to right: Joanne, Carrie and Lars, at the Cypress Mountain viewpoint. Taken after Joanne and Lars took Carrie for dinner to thank her for 351 hours of volunteer service!