Hostelling International: Home is Where the Heart Is

Contributed by Alana Rogers, 
Photos from Hostelling International Boston website:
http://www.hiusa.org/massachusetts/boston

Alana Rogers is a service-learning student who served at Hostelling International as part of her Connections and Decisions course.

Laughter. Food. Friendships. What better way to spend a Wednesday night? These are the wonderful things I experience every other week at my Service-Learning community partner, Hostelling International Boston. Each four-hour session is spent cooking a meal with hostel guests, who are visiting from around the globe, while jamming out to music, and discussing common interests. Although it may sound simple, both guests and volunteers, such as myself, learn a lot about the global community and who we are as citizens of the world.

My role as a volunteer includes planning meals and encouraging positive interaction between guests. However, my role is not a difficult one to achieve, as conversation runs seamlessly and there is always plenty of food. Some of this semester’s sessions have included making burritos and preparing an ‘Italian Night,’ complete with pasta and garlic bread. Preparing and eating these communal meals allows volunteers to share American culture with guests, and for guests to teach us about the culture of where they are from. Each session I meet people visiting from a wide range of countries, such as China, Venezuela, Argentina, and India. Although they come from many countries, many of them are just like me – young individuals trying to find their place in the world.

My serving with Hostelling International Boston has helped me develop as an individual over the course of one semester. One important way in which my volunteer work has had a tremendous effect on me is in helping me on my journey of declaring a major. I have always enjoyed working with people, but I never realized how much joy I take away from interpersonal interactions until I began socializing with guests at the hostel. Planning and cooking meals every other week also helped me realize that I enjoy hands-on work and preparing programs.  From this experience, I was able to declare a major in Architecture before the end of the semester. Although my decision was not directly influenced by my experience at Hostelling International, serving there did help me realize that I enjoy working in small groups, which is often the work environment at an architecture firm.

The most enjoyable aspect of volunteering at Hostelling International Boston, besides cooking and eating delicious food, is meeting the guests who are visiting Boston from all across the globe. I am interested in learning about their cultures and traditions, and am open to sharing my American traditions with them. My hope for every guest is that they take a piece of Boston back to their home country and that they, too, discover a little piece of themselves that may help with their own exploratory process.