In the lush Polochic Valley of Guatemala, sleepy villages are nestled along dusty roads and populated with the friendly faces of the Mayan Q’eqchi people. But for eight days in August, the quiet valley burst into life with the arrival of the Singular Humanitarian experience (SHe), a unique service organization for Latter-day Saint singles, which was created by a Marriott School MBA grad and his friends.
Scott Porter graduated in 2004 with an MBA. Four years later, he was working in Washington, D.C., surrounded by a network of friends who wanted more out of their vacations than a quick cruise—they wanted to make a difference. Porter and a close group of friends began to formulate a plan.
“Our idea was to organize a trip that actually provided significant service to the people we were visiting while connecting singles at the same time,” Porter says. “That was really the genesis of the Singular Humanitarian experience.”
After a series of meetings and eight months of planning, Porter and his team put the plan into action. Partnering with LDS Humanitarian Services and CHOICE Humanitarian, they organized a multifaceted project that gathered together ninety single adults from around the world.
Under the direction of the villagers, the volunteers put their expertise to use building a middle school and a library; training rural teachers, midwives, and health promoters; assembling a medical clinic that attended to 1,000 patient consultations and distributed more than 1,000 multivitamin packs; and organizing a mobile dental office that cleaned teeth and performed tooth extractions.
Reed Farnsworth, a 2004 management grad, met with growers of cardamom, a local crop, and helped create a cardamom cooperative that improved the harvest. And Spencer Holt, who graduated in 2001 with a BS in accounting, taught a teacher development seminar.
“Within the group of projects, I immediately identified multiple ways in which I could personally contribute to the effort,” Holt explains. “The Marriott School taught me to have confidence in my own talents and abilities. I was able to dive right in because I knew where I could help the most.”
When it was time for the volunteers to put down their tools, the good-byes were tearful, recalls Mark Tuttle, an accounting student at the Marriott School. After snapping some photos, a local asked Tuttle and the other volunteers to make up a few extra buckets of cement before they left. Pouring the cement on the ground, the man stooped down and drew a heart in the cement and invited the volunteers to sign their names.
“To think of the impact we had on his life is humbling,” Tuttle says. “His gratitude was apparent in his actions and tears. The work we did created a bond that won’t be broken.”
The group’s work was so successful that Porter and his fellow organizers are already planning future ventures. Registration is currently open for a return trip to Guatemala and a new expedition to Nepal.
For more information, visit singularhumanitarian.org.