The first time I ever truly connected with a stranger was while riding in the backseat of my parents’ car at the age of 12, as we crossed over the border of Bahrain back into Saudi Arabia. Only a few months into what became my three-year-long expat life, I deeply missed my American culture and home. The radio was on as we sat in traffic, playing a podcast my dad had queued up, we all listened as he turned up the volume and said “this is a good one.” As the voice from the podcast filled the car,

What was once an abandoned plot of land used as a dumping ground for plastic bottles, tires and car batteries grew into an urban farm with a public walking path, flower gardens and greenhouses filled with edible plants and produce.

When sophmore Kristina Deponte walked into her class at the start of the semester she expected it to be no different than any other international affairs class. When the professor announced that it would be a
service-learning course, she felt intimidated as she had no idea it was part of the syllabus and had no previous
volunteering experience.