-: Hi, everyone, my name is Monica.
I am a rising junior, or a junior now, on the fencing team,
and I won an ACE in Cape Town, South Africa, this summer.
-: My name is Zizi, and I'm a sophomore,
and this summer I was lucky enough to go to ACE of Panama.
That was a week-long program.
-: Hey, guys, my name is Kavya,
and I'm a senior on the fencing team, I'm a saberist,
and this summer I participated in ACE in Costa Rica.
-: Specifically, we were kind of targeting
around youth and sports, youth education,
and really just trying to make an impact on both ourselves,
as well as the community there.
-: Our job was to run a sports camp for kids
at two schools in Panama.
-: We went to rural Costa Rica,
in a community called Gandoca, of about 300 people.
And we learned about sustainability through beach cleans,
we got to see some amazingly cute baby sea turtles
and learn about sort of how the community
there is helping keep them alive because they're in danger,
and we also worked on some cacao farms.
-: My parents have always instilled in me this idea
that, you know, and as a, you know, future aspiring doctor,
not only is it important to,
you know, live your life in the present,
but also it's important to understand,
you know, the perspectives and reflections of others.
And, of course, the only way to do that is to travel,
but not just travel, you know, as a vacation,
but also travel and, you know, get to know the people,
get to know the environment and the place that you're in.
-: So, for me, what was important was going to a place
where I could use my Spanish
to really interact and get to know
with the people we were working with.
So, for me, one of the goals was to really form connections
with the kids we were working with.
-: I love nature, I love wildlife.
And, you know, who can refuse the opportunity
to go to Costa Rica and see everything that was there,
like the howler monkeys, the baby sea turtles.
I'm not a snake gal, but there were lots
and lots of beautiful snakes and sloths.
The wildlife there is absolutely incredible.
It was definitely
like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see.
-: I think a memory, like, you know,
that really just stood out for me over there
is, you know, when you get to work with kids,
they really changed our lives, you know,
more than, you know, maybe we ever felt like we did.
And I think that that's really because, you know,
if you go in and you embrace the environment that you're in,
you're able to really just learn from others,
you're able to just, you know, allow yourself to grow
from what they say and really just have a really good time.
-: I think, for me, the main perspective
that I'm bringing back to Durham and my time at Duke
is just to look for opportunities to do more.
I think one thing that we wanna bring back from ACE,
as a fencing team, is getting more involved
in the Durham community through food sustainability,
and also in the fencing community
through giving back, through equipment, and other forms.
-: I think, as athletes, right,
you know, we get a lot of pressure on us from sports,
from academics, from, you know, our support groups,
and everything.
And I think that ACE is really a good combination
of learning about yourself, right, in a different place.
You get to, obviously, travel,
you get to experience, you know, culture and history,
and, you know, so many other things.
You really get to immerse yourself in a new experience.
And when you do that, regardless of, you know, your major,
or, you know, what you even end up doing, right,
you know, if you wanna go pro, you know, with your sport,
or if you just, you know, plan on going to like grad school,
you know, whatever it is, right,
you can gain skills, you can gain,
you know, different lessons.
And things that you get from just being around people
of different, you know, mindsets,
honestly speaking, is seriously once in a lifetime,
and the community and the connections
that you make are seriously, like, unforgettable.