5 minute read
ELLIE KLEMSZ
“The experience was the scariest thing I have ever done but also the most
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rewarding. In the end, I think it taught me to take risks. I learned to believe in
myself.”
-- ELLIE KLEMSZ, ON TRAVELING TO BOLIVIA TO
VOLUNTEER WITH CHILDREN
“It was my first time traveling out of the country on my own, living in a new city where I hardly knew anyone,” Ellie Klemsz
(’10) says of her Bolivian experience, volunteering after graduating
from Indiana University in 2018. At Indiana University, she was
a member of the IU women’s rowing team, a cyclist in Little 500,
and a double major in Sports Media and Spanish. She now works
for the Indiana Pacers, and was recently promoted to the position
of Corporate Ticket Sales Manager. She made the decision to
defer getting a “big kid job” for a year by moving to Cochabamba,
Bolivia in January 2019, to volunteer. The seed of that decision
sprouted in the summer of 2015, when family friends invited the
Ellie and her family to go to Bolivia with them to volunteer. They
spent a week in Cochabamba with the local children.
“It was one of the best experiences of my life,” Klemsz says. “When
I was graduating from IU and deciding what I wanted to do, I got
back in touch with the Niños con Valor (a volunteer organization for
children) leaders to see if a volunteer experience would be possible.”
She ended up living there for four months. “I was using my Spanish,
and I was hanging out with kids who I absolutely loved and I was
experiencing a new country. I’ve always loved traveling and then the
more I thought about it, I was like ‘I don’t want to go to another
country to teach English. I want to go to another country to live and
to experience it and do something that I will love.’”
Klemsz latched onto Spanish as an avenue of study at Sycamore
and into high school. She attended University High School,
where she excelled as a three-sport athlete and developed her
passion for the language. She found that the Spanish classes at
Sycamore had given her the ability to move ahead quickly, and to
immerse herself in the language.
“I got to high school, and I already knew how to write a paper
and how to do research and (realized) I’m really pretty good
at math, and love to read, and can analyze books. I can speak
Spanish,” she says. “I can do all these things my peers couldn’t.
I don’t think I realized I had any of those abilities until I left the
bubble of Sycamore. Then I got to high school and realized that
I had a talent for Spanish, and that it was something that I can be
good at. My teacher really inspired me to read a book in Spanish,
watch a movie in Spanish. You could communicate with people in
other countries just with this one skill. I think there’s something
like a musicality to Spanish and just a magic to it that doesn’t exist
in English for me. That really inspired me.”
As Klemsz reflects on her education at Sycamore, she believes it
has given her a foundation that she can appreciate now that she
has finished her high school and college studies.
“I loved Word Within a Word,” she says. “I loved Tony Young’s
history class. I remember vividly the court case that we did where I couldn’t wait to do the research and have other cases as
evidence. It was so much fun. When I was at Sycamore, I didn’t
know that I was smart, and I didn’t know I had abilities that
other people didn’t just because everyone was so talented.”
Once away from Sycamore, Klemsz started to see opportunities
that her education presented her, and the ability to take some
chances, knowing she would have the safety of her experiences in
school help sustain her.
“I remember being scared when I got on a flight to fly to South America by myself. I was terrified, and it turned out to be the best thing I’ve ever done. In the end, I think it taught me to take risks.
I learned to believe in myself more and be confident in myself and my decisions. I quickly fell in love with the city of Cochabamba, my
host family, my friends I met there, and most importantly working
with the kids. I settled into a daily routine, and it truly felt like
my home. I think the biggest thing was getting accustomed to the
language. The people were so friendly, and they would want you
just to come into their home and eat food, and more food and hang
out. I felt fulfilled working with the kids in a way no class, no job, no sport, etc. had ever made me feel - I truly went to work every
day excited and happy. I’m grateful to the people I met there who
taught me countless lessons about life, friendships, and family. I
have a new perspective on and deep love for the country of Bolivia
and the people there. I try and remain grateful and express my
gratitude for all of the people and experiences in my life.”
Klemsz, who kept a journal while she was there, said she recently
read her final entries from the week she was leaving to return
home. “I wrote about how I was scared of not being able to be as
happy as I was in Bolivia when coming back to the US, and while
I can say I am happy with my life right now, a part of me will
always wish I was back there. I got to travel to incredible places
that I’d never knew existed. Eventually, I would love to be back in
Bolivia on a yearly basis or even a more permanent one. This sort
of uncertainty would’ve terrified a younger version of myself, but
I am happy to be where I am, and I look forward to seeing where
the next 5, 10, 15 years take me.” n
