For the past six months, I have worked as a volunteer intern for the nonprofit organization The Starfish Foundation, which works to provide underprivileged youths and their families in Ecuador with the resources they need to succeed in school and beyond. It is important at this point to note that the name of the foundation was inspired by the age-old tale of the boy and the starfish: A young boy saw thousands of starfish that had washed ashore and, knowing that they would die if they remained there, began to toss them, one by one, back into the sea. An old man came up to him and told him that his efforts would not make a difference, he could not save all of them. The boy simply smiled, tossed another starfish into the ocean and responded, “I just made a difference to that one.”

    Much of my job included managing the organization’s social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and designing campaigns and marketing strategies to gain a larger network of donors and participants. I also had the opportunity to host several live discussions on Twitter and promoted a local Starfish art fair fundraiser. One of the first tasks I was assigned, however, was to pen a short blog post about nearly any topic of my choosing, and I balked. What kind of insight could I — a junior in high school, a person only 17 years old, a mediocre driver and avid traveler — share with all of the team members, volunteers, donors, students, and teachers? Maybe, I thought, I could share with them how, and more importantly, why I was there — my own personal Starfish story. Below is an excerpt of what I decided to share with the Starfish community.

    I first learned about The Starfish Foundation in April, as an ambassador at the HOBY PA East Leadership Seminar 2015. Beth, a co-founder, spoke to us as a member of one of the panels, and it was immediately clear that she was no stranger to the type of crowd gathered before her that day. Having listened to panels and discussed leadership from the morning into the afternoon, we ambassadors had good enough reason to be a little tired, perhaps distracted, even uninterested; it may sound cliché, but when Beth spoke, we were captivated. She spoke with infectious passion about co-founding a nonprofit after returning from a year of volunteering and of the emphasis Starfish places on education for future success. I experienced a moment of “This is true? This can happen? I can help out, make an impact, shape the future?”

    When Beth reached out in search of summer interns, I contacted her as soon as I could. At the time, though, I had a busy enough schedule. I was dancing almost seven hours a day, six days a week. When I wasn’t dancing, I had physical therapy sessions nearly every other day. Junior year was approaching fast, and my desk was laden with stacks of SAT practice tests, summer assignments and textbooks. Why did I fill out that application the moment I found out it existed?

    I believe, now, that it was because, as Anne Frank so eloquently said, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Even taken out of context, this quote stands true. Despite the business of our schedules, the tumult in our lives, the hundreds of day-to-day plans and problems and chores and errands we have, we still want, and need, to be and do good — and not simply because we should, but because we can. By volunteering our time and skills, we at once give and receive some of the longest lasting gifts; in Starfish’s case, we give students chances to further their academics and discover their interests while allowing their families to focus on providing for themselves. In return, we volunteers receive so much — experience in every aspect of the word, no doubt, but more importantly, the single most rewarding feeling in the world: the gratitude of students and their families.

    This feeling of knowing I could make a difference in someone’s life with the skills and passion I already possessed is what caused me to apply for this internship. It feels not only overwhelmingly good, but also overwhelmingly right. Incidentally, I think you’ll find as you finish reading this post that all of our stories are extremely similar. I think you’ll find that, at the end of the day, we all want to throw a few more starfish back into the ocean.