Nanaimo residents have not heard the last of Wellington Secondary School graduate David Kim.
The second-year science student at the University of British Columbia is canvassing his old haunts for school supplies and donations to take on a volunteer trip to Nicaragua, where he and 12 other UBC students will help build a school in a small community.
Wellington's student council has given Kim $100 and collected school supplies for him to take.
The students leave Friday (April 29) and return May 15.
The trip is organized through UBC Students Offering Support, a chapter of a national student club, which Kim and two others brought to UBC for the first time last fall.
The club organizes review sessions for first year students before mid-terms and final exams for a $20 donation and this year, the group raised almost $13,000 to buy materials for the school in Rocha, Nicaragua.
Each volunteer also fundraised to cover the cost of the flight.
Kim, Nanaimo's junior citizen of the year in 2009, said he decided to start a chapter of SOS at UBC because it has both local and international benefits.
Locally, it helps first-year students adjust socially and academically to life at university.
"I found it hard to adjust to first year after high school," said Kim. "Things are a lot more fast-paced and mid-terms and exams are a lot harder."
Each year, the club also makes an outreach trip to help students in impoverished countries get access to education.
"I've never been outside of the States and Canada, so this is my first big trip," said Kim. "I think in addition to helping a community in need, it will be an eye opening experience for all of us. It will definitely bring us a different perspective on life."
The students will work alongside community members – overseen by Reto Juvenil Internacional, a group that helps carry out volunteer projects in Mexico and Latin America – to finish a school that was never completed due to lack of funds.
Kim is still collecting school supplies or other donations.
To help, please e-mail ubcsos.president@gmail.com.