Interview Transcription

Will: The first question I have is 'where are you from'? Emily: I'm from Naples, Florida. Will: Oh okay, I'm from Tallahassee. Emily: Nice. Will: What's your major? Emily: Enviromental Science. Will: Did your major have anything to do with you taking a trip with GIVE? Emily: I've always been interested in environmental stuff and have also always been an outdoorsy person so it was something into before GIVE, but I was actually a Biology major my first two years and I think GIVE did make me lean more towards environmental science. It just made me realize I liked conservation and sustainability, so I ended up switching which ended up being a good move for me because I like it so much more better than bio. Will: When exactly did you take your trip? Emily: I did my first one in the summer of- Will: First one? You went on more than one? Emily: Yeah, I've been on three. Will: Wow, okay. Emily: Summer of 2015, the summer after my freshman year I went to Thailand and did the Laos trip right after. Will: What was the third? Emily: This past summer I went to Tanzania. Will: Hey, that’s where I'm going! So, what motivated you to sign up for a trip with GIVE in the first place? Emily: It was actually kind of random, to be honest. I just saw their posters on campus and then ended up going to one of their meetings. I can't even remember the name of the person who was recruiting, but they just got me so pumped up about it. Literally just went to the meeting and was like "Oh my god, I have to go". Will: Yeah, they make it look really sick. Emily: Don’t they? After that I told my mom about it and she did a whole bunch of research on it because she wanted to make sure it wasn’t some random scam. Then she said it looked pretty legit, she helped me raise the money, and plan everything to go. Will: You said your first trip was to Thailand and Laos, why did you choose there as the places you wanted to go? Emily: When I was first looking at the trip, I actually wanted to do Tanzania first because when I was a biology major the whole zoology and safari aspect was what I wanted to do. But the whole going to Africa idea freaked out my mom a little bit more than Asia, which is stupid. Then she started looking at Asia and what GIVE does there, recommending that I should look into that. I honestly would've gone on any of them, but the idea of doing things with elephants and the opportunity of going to two places which meant I would be able to do more. You spend all that money on a place ticket to go across the world, might as well do as much as you can and go to both places. It came down to the fact that I really love traveling so the idea of expanding the trip to more than one destination. Will: What were the fellow volunteers like? Emily: It's actually really awesome because nobody knows each other and we just all meet up in this country, but a few weeks before you go on the trip you get added to a Facebook group with the other people going on the trip. People usually introduce themselves; like where they're from, their major, what they're looking to get out of the trip. The people who generally sign up for the trips are usually really nice, outgoing, and friendly so it isn't hard to get to know them and have a good time with these strangers right off the bat. Will: Are they usually American college students? Emily: No, it's actually, pretty broad. Most of the people are from all around the country, but one my first trip there were a couple girls from China and a guy from Malaysia who had been study abroad at USF and heard about it at school. On my Tanzania trip there were a couple girls from London, a couple people from Venezuela, and someone from Australia. There's definitely diversity of where the people come from. Will: Alright, so when you get there do you get any type of training? And don’t we teach some English to the natives? Emily: The first night and the first day is usually given to do whatever in the city, but that's when they let you know about how things are going to work along with the cultural things to be aware of.