My experience with Victor Molina, ASU alumnus and native Ecuadorian

As I prepared for my 3-week excursion to the extraordinarily biodiverse and beautiful South American country of Ecuador, I hoped the impact of my experiences abroad would travel home with me at the end of the program. Upon my return that much was certainly true, but besides coming home with unforgettable memories and one-of-a-kind souvenirs, I came home with an expanded network of connections and opportunities that probably wouldn’t have been available to me had I not stepped out of my comfort zone and studied abroad.

Soon after our travel group arrived in Ecuador we met a man named Victor Molina. In addition to being an ASU alumnus, he is a native Ecuadorian fluent in English and thoroughly focused on sustainability. He had travelled to Arizona to take graduate courses at ASU—some of which were led by the faculty lead of this study abroad trip, Dr. Mary Jane Parmentier—and was back home applying that knowledge when I had the opportunity to meet him. What stood out to me was his determination to make sustainable change happen, and his resolve that eventually it will. Roadblocks didn’t discourage him; he used them to create an even more resilient impact. I’d call him a dreamer, and I admire that about him. Those dreams and hopes are what drew me to numerous conversations with him throughout the duration of the trip, and those conversations led to the opportunity for me to become involved in one of his projects. Without hesitation I jumped at the chance to work with this dreamer on making change happen.

I had to return home at the end of the program, so I am working with him virtually. His project involves serving as a sustainability consultant to the small town of Lligua, a village facing major geological and climate change related problems. My role in the project is to provide research and creative ideas whenever necessary on various topics (e.g. small scale farming techniques for their terrain, methods for villagers to earn extra income, etc.). In addition to sustainability consulting, Victor Molina has various other responsibilities—he is a professor at a university in Ecuador and is a father, for example—so often there are stagnant periods in our correspondence, but that is just one of the challenges with working internationally and through the Internet instead of in person. These challenges, however, are both manageable and microscopic compared to the honor and excitement of expanding my realm of thought and application of sustainability to the global scale.

If I hadn’t studied abroad, I most likely never would have met Victor Molina. I wouldn’t be working from Tempe, Arizona, with his team in Ambato, Ecuador. I wouldn’t be exploring a career in international sustainability consulting. Studying abroad opened so many doors for me, and I can honestly say that although I almost backed out of the trip weeks prior for fear of the unknown, stretching my boundaries and exploring a new culture added more depth to my understanding of life and how I can live it to the fullest. I encourage you, whether the timid or courageous student, to take the leap and study abroad. You won’t regret it.