Admiring the framed graduation photos hanging in the living room of a local mother’s home in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic, senior Gina Ngo said she was “sitting in a house of success.” 

The Global Glimpse partnership with MVHS gave rising seniors the opportunity to spend two weeks of their summer in one of four Latin American countries—Ecuador, Panama, Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica. They were nominated as juniors by their teachers then had to apply, and, if accepted, attended training during the second semester of the school year.

The 2024 two-week summer trips were more than a community service project for the 19 MVHS seniors—it was an opportunity to recognize the shared humanity and success of third world countries that is often overlooked in typical conversations of global inequality. 

Ngo worked with Global Glimpse to build a community center for the local community in the mountains of Jarabacoa. Her volunteer group fixed cement, put in rebar, and painted ten park benches alongside locals, which was not typical of a Global Glimpse trip, Ngo said. 

Senior Arelly Cervantes traveled to Paris de Parita, Panama to paint murals on the doors of a local school. The murals were meant to attract more students to the school and generate funding to employ more teachers. Many of the larger schools in the area are difficult to access due to distance, making the position of this school especially important for the education of the local community. 

On one of the last days, the students were invited back to the school to watch the volunteer group paint. Cervantes and a few others bought candy and chips from the local corner store to share with the children and talked with them about her experience living in the United States and listened to the students talk about their home in Paris de Parita.

“Some communities don’t have electricity or running water.” Cervantes said. “Once a week they have to fill up buckets of water. It made me more aware of how truly privileged I am.” 

The students did not have access to their phones and were only allowed to make three phone calls throughout the whole trip.

“I actually liked the fact that it was tech free, because it helped us be present in the moment,” Ngo said. “There was nothing else to do other than talk to each other, go on excursions, or write in my journal.” 

The tech-free trip encouraged Cervantes to stay connected to home by journaling daily and writing letters to her family and friends. She and her roommates stayed up all night talking, playing board games, and eating snacks from the corner store. She said she also leaned on her relationships with her roommates to talk to when feeling homesick. 

“They leveled with me and felt for me,” Cervantes said. “Even though everyone I met was a stranger, we all got really close over those two weeks.” 

The most memorable experience for Cervantes was visiting the owner of a local bakery in Panama. The owner showed them around the shop and taught them how to make traditional bread.

“He said that ‘As long as we do everything with passion, then we’ll be successful,’” Cervantes said.

Ngo had a similar experience volunteering at a local mother’s home. The walls of her house were filled with graduation portraits of her three daughters. Ngo said she was “sitting in a house of success” and the experience led her to question America’s definition and standard of success. 

“I think the pity that we feel for third world countries is so outdated, and it doesn’t truly do people justice. They are experiencing the highs and lows of life, and they’re reaching happiness themselves,” Ngo said. “Joy is so universal, and I don’t think we should put it in a box.” 

Ngo said she was able to find beauty within the relationships she made with locals in the city. She took trips to the city with her volunteer group in an open Jeep and was able to smile and greet the locals on the road.

“The one thing I found to be truly beautiful was that all the people shared the same joy,” Ngo said. “Even though we are from different backgrounds, places, and speak different languages, we all think it is fun to say hello to each other.”

However, despite the work they were doing, Ngo said many of the mountain locals who the group worked with held traditional views about gender roles and made a few insensitive comments about the group of volunteers. 

“Sometimes they would ask for volunteers to fix the cement and the girls would volunteer but they would say ‘No, we want guys,’” Ngo said. She found it challenging to adjust to and feel safe within the unfamiliar community. The Global Glimpse group tolerated the behavior to complete their service project, but on the last day, the group of students refused to work with the locals due to the disrespectful comments. 

MVHS teacher Lauren Camarillo has been a teacher ambassador for the Global Glimpse program since 2012, after chaperoning a trip herself, and said the program provides a valuable way for students to learn more about the world.

“It builds empathy, it builds awareness, it builds independence,” Camarillo said. “It also builds vision.” 

She has seen Global Glimpse give MVHS students a passion for advocacy and dedication to social justice work in college and beyond.

“In order to help a community, you need to know the community, and you need to understand the community’s needs,” Camarillo said. She said she teaches this to her students through Global Glimpse trips, as well as the MVHS Ambassadors program.

Cervantes said her participation in the program reinforced her aspiration to become a immigration lawyer.

“It’s important for me to learn about different cultures and different people to be able to connect with my future clients on a deeper level.” Cervantes said.

Similarly, Ngo said that her experience over the summer will help her as an MVHS Ambassador working with transfer students.

“I’m able to better understand and look at them as someone I can be friends with and someone who I want to see succeed,” Ngo said.

Global Glimpse brought together rising seniors from multiple highschools in the Bay Area and out of state. Ngo said that she was able to get away from “Mountain View’s bubble,” where every conversation is about academics, AP classes, and grades. 

“With everyone in Global Glimpse, no one talked about those things. We just talked about us as human beings and I felt that [the others] weren’t my competition,” Ngo said. 

Cervantes’ biggest piece of advice for next year’s Global Glimpse cohort is to “step out of their comfort zone” and “immerse themselves in the experience.”

“I would have every high school student go on a trip like this. It really pushes students to step out of their comfort zone, disconnect, and get away from their daily routine,” Camarillo said, “It is almost like a shock to their system.” 

Both Ngo and Cervantes are ambassadors for the 2025 Global Glimpse program, whose role involves training the next cohort for the trips and sharing their personal experience abroad. Training will begin in the second semester of this school year and is available for current MVHS Juniors nominated by their teachers.