I first volunteered with Manna Project during my freshman year of college at Vanderbilt University. They were offering short-term service trips to Nicaragua, and I was lucky enough to join without knowing what I was getting into. From there I was hooked on international development. Seeing people just out of college working full-time in Latin American countries inspired me to get more involved in service back in the States, and eventually led me to Guatemala, where I now work full time for Manna. The organization gives its employees a significant amount of early responsibility, and has a good volunteer development program in place that pushes us to put the community’s wishes first in our work. Instead of strict protocol there’s flexible dialogue, and instead of consultants and oversight, there’s encouragement and freedom. On the ground we provide dedicated service to the communities where we work and push ourselves to create sustainable initiatives that utilize existing strengths, work through partner organizations, and highlight positive deviants to motive other residents.