SENIOR EUNICE HOW, who this week won the June Mank Award for her volunteer work and the Wylde Q. Chicken Award for her creative approach to things, has always been interested in helping with nonprofit organizations and activism.

But during the week of March 10-14 she experienced something that made her more interested than ever to get involved: the Mission Impact trip to Guatemala.

In Guatemala she went to the hospital and got to see several surgeries performed on people who normally wouldn’t be able to afford them. How believes it is a lack or funds that prevents people in developing countries from getting proper health care, and she has decided to dedicate her life to changing that.

How will head off to the University of Washington at Seattle next fall where she plans to study public health. Her dream is to travel to developing countries and help make clean water and health care more accessible and make sure there is enough funding.

She wants to help mobilize doctors and teach people in developing countries about disease prevention. While she likes the medical aspect of public health and health care, she doesn’t plan on going into that. How is more interested in being a “policy person,” and she wants to help right now, anywhere help is needed.

“It’s like a ‘win-win’ situation,” said How on working with nonprofits. “You know, if you love cello, you play cello all the time. And it’s good for you because you’re building your musical ability, but who else does it help? I’m not saying cello is a bad thing, but with nonprofits you have fun yourself; if you choose the right nonprofit you can put your passions and interests into working for that. But also someone else gets helped.”

Choosing Her Path

Ever since How was in middle school she has volunteered her time to helping nonprofits. Currently, How is involved in five nonprofit and activist organizations: Students for a Better World, United for Uganda, the Champaign Country Christian Health Center, Grace Lutheran Church, and Activism Club.

How’s mother set an example for her when Eunice was younger because wherever they would go her mother would want to volunteer or help out at church, and she was able to balance everything in her life so well.

How also gives credit to her pastor, the Rev. Matthew Martin, who she said was very committed to his cause and able to raise lots of money for different charitable organizations. Both her mom and pastor showed her that not only is volunteering fun, it is also extremely meaningful.

How knows that in the United States we are privileged, but she once lived in Singapore and wants to give back to other countries that aren’t as privileged. For instance, in UFU she learns about children in Uganda who are being forced to kill, and How is interested in helping change that.

When How joined S4BW as a subbie, the club was already up and running with four or five seniors. After the leaders graduated How and a few sophomores were left. The new group focused on aspects that differed from what the previous leaders were interested in, so they rebuilt it in a new direction.

According to How, the new members got rid of the “Mr. and Mrs. Universe Pageant” and were limited because they didn’t have a car (older students had previously driven places to volunteer during school). In the years following her start in S4BW, How was a co-president and then in her senior year became president, leading meetings with vice-president Rachel Hyman, a junior.

How was also one of the founding members of UFU. Group members do fundraisers and research what’s going on in Uganda. How said it’s hard for her to do research on a war in Africa on her own, but with friends she’s more motivated and it’s more fun.

“All throughout your life you work,” said How on her interest in nonprofits. “In school you work, but the schoolwork you do is for the betterment of you, [to] make you smarter and everything. I just feel like I need to give back to the community. I work in these nonprofits and stuff, but it’s not for my own betterment, it’s for someone else’s benefit, some other community [or] organizations’ benefit. And also it’s fun to learn about real-world things as opposed to calculus or something. It’s more meaningful to me.”

Much Work To Be Done

With her interest in global health, How plans on joining an organization after college that will send her abroad. One organization she is particularly interested in is “World Vision”, a Christian relief organization that helps people all over the world get over poverty and injustice.

How hopes to become a leader of whatever organization she works for. As the president of Uni’s Student-Faculty Advisory Committee, a co-director of Big Show '08, a subbie buddy, and a captain of the girls swim team, How likes to see how things happen “behind the scenes.”

She described her interest in SFAC as stemming from a desire to know more about why things happen and the process that gets them to the final stage. She has the same interest in helping with public health — focusing on and understanding the policies and how they can best be decided and executed.

How said she would be good as a public health leader because she would pinpoint areas that are overlooked, and she would have the initiative needed to organize programs to address those needs.

One change she would work for as a leader in public health would be to make more clinics free. She described how in Cuba health care is universal, and How feels that if a country like that can do it other counties should be able to as well.

How knows health care is out there for people to get, but they can’t afford it. She said health care is run like a business to make money, and that’s something she wants to work on altering.

After volunteering or helping a group of people she wouldn’t normally see, How said she loves seeing how grateful people are when there is one less burden in their lives.

“Success to me isn’t really money,” she said. “Money won’t really make me happy. What would make me happy is just seeing someone’s life become better.”