By Mallory Warren
Samarth Arabastani says that his biggest accomplishment in life, so far, was traveling to the Dominican Republic. He didn’t travel there for just any relaxing vacation, though.
This first-year engineering student wound up in the Dominican Republic with the help of one of his high school teachers. He ended up getting into a volunteer program in Grade 11 with an organization called Youth Unlimited.
The trip consisted of helping build a school, building homes for families living in mud houses and teaching English at a university in the capital of Santo Domingo.
Arabastani says that helping people in need is one of his hobbies among sports such as volleyball and soccer.
“Compassion is a trait that brings humanity together. I have made significant positive contributions such as building houses for families to make people’s lives, that don’t know me personally, better without anything in return except satisfaction,” he said.
The Scarborough native says he has plans to go on another similar volunteer trip soon but since starting his university program he has not been able to find time to commit to one.
“An ambitious goal of mine is to be able to feed the millions of people that struggle everyday to find the most essential comfort in life, which is the knowledge that there will be food next time they get hungry,” he says.
While this goal is quite impressive, Arabastani believes that with enough hard work and perseverance, there are no limits to what is possible.
Leave a Reply