Service over Self by Hunter

Service over Self by Hunter - April 2022 Scholarship Essay

My name is Hunter Steigerwald and I am pursuing a Bachelor’s in Political Science at Baylor University while concurrently enrolling in the United States Air Force ROTC. I am a US citizen with roots in upstate New York but I have lived in Singapore my whole life. Reflecting on all of the things I have done in the past few years, I truly learned the importance of service and giving back to the community while working on my Eagle Scout project back in 2019. I was investigating all of the options I had for service and helping others. I looked at what my peers were doing, building an ergonomic bench for an elderly home, painting a nursing home, constructing a wheelchair-accessible ramp. All of which are great projects with a strong purpose to help a community. I kept searching until one day I got in touch with a non-profit organisation devoted to helping people living in island communities in Indonesia.
During a school break I took a boat from my home in Singapore to Sugi Indonesia to meet the owners of the non-profit and visit the island communities. Once we arrived it immediately became clear from the metal tins, plastic and styrofoam laying around that there was not a strong waste disposal system on the island. I talked to the locals with a translator and learned that the big metal tins laying all over were actually a primary source of income. The containers, around 17 inches tall with a 12 by 12 inch base carried cooking oil (until they were emptied) and were made from extremely thick aluminium. They earned some money from returning the recyclable metal containers back to the mainland recycling facility. As it was explained to me, this process benefited the locals by allowing them to not only make a little money but also dispose of the trash from the island. However, given that these metal containers were big and bulky they could only transport a limited amount each trip. The journey to the mainland with these containers was also costly because of the expense of gas. As a result, there was a backlog of metal containers that could be turned into profit for supplies just sitting on the island.
My solution was focused on helping the island community to recycle, transport, and redeem cash for their cooking oil containers. I returned back to Singapore and started working with our school's engineering and robotics teacher to create a compacting system using a series of levers and mechanisms. The final product was able to compact their metal oil containers into one-third of their previous volume. This would allow them to drastically expand the amount of metal they could transport back to the mainland which allowed them to spend significantly less money on gas. The project was successful, not only because of the product, but also because of the inspiration that it generated. Once I left I received messages from a non-profit operating on another island that the locals had recreated my contraption and were able to make it even more efficient.
Living below the poverty line is something so foreign to me but is a reality for those living on these island communities. In fact, their survival is dependent on the amount of gas they have in their long wooden boats to get supplies. I knew from my first visit to the island that I wanted to do something from my position to help as many of these individuals as possible. Yet, I never thought that the impact I had would have been as severe as it was. I had no idea that my project could make such a difference.
Good deeds should help others, but what people often negate is the impact it has on oneself. No matter who you are or what your background is, it should be the duty of everyone to look out for each other and continue to pay it forward.
I entered my project with some great possible solutions, albeit they were informed through my individual research and oriented by my perspective and experience. When I had the chance to meet with the community who would ultimately be impacted by my project, I quickly realised they had very different views in terms of what would benefit the community and how it could be most viable within their context. Therefore, I immersed myself for as long as I could on their small Indonesian island in order to better understand their needs and capacity, then maintained constant communication with their community leaders while working on the solution at my home and school in Singapore. I truly understand the importance of building empathy, as well as researching a viable solution in order to make sure the final product is desirable and impactful.