Ask any class of first graders across the country what they want to be when they grow up and they are likely to respond with answers like doctor, fireman and maybe even bus driver.
Many Elon University students have since digressed from their first-grade career paths, but not Emily Tomich.
If you asked Tomich, a sophomore at Elon, what she wants to do now and what she wanted to do when she was 7, the answer would be the same: a world traveler.
As a first grader in California, Tomich’s class participated in a pen pal program called Vicarious Voyage, in which students in her class would write to students on a Semester at Sea program.
“My teacher made it an amazing experience,” Tomich said. “We would dress up, do crafts, the parents would come in and cook us food, we followed the voyage on a map and we had fake passports that would get stamped.”
And just like that, Tomich’s journey to becoming a global citizen would begin 10 years prior to her arrival at Elon, a journey that would eventually lead her to national honors.
A passion for community service
Along with developing a desire for travel at an early age, Tomich also became heavily involved in community service.
“I have always had a passion for service,” Tomich said. “My church was very involved in mission and service trips to Africa, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Mexico.”
Her passion for travel and her desire to help others were combined in 2010 when she went to Swaziland and South Africa on a mission trip. While there, Tomich said it was the first time an experience had opened her eyes to global poverty and the world outside of the bubble in which she lived.
“It definitely was a point in my life that I can look back on and see that it shaped me into who I am today,” she said. “It has influenced my career goals, what I want to do with my life and how I want to live my life.”
Visiting Africa ignited a love affair between Tomich and the continent, leading her to become an Elon Periclean Scholar.
“I was invited to be a part of a small team that is working to keep the Ghana Periclean Scholar’s project sustainable,” Tomich said. “I have such a passion for Africa that I was taken on as a lateral entry, because the Ghana scholars graduated in 2010.”
Dr. Thomas Arcaro, a professor of sociology and the director of Project Pericles, noticed Tomich’s investment in helping the global community.
“I think she is a good model for a lot of us,” he said. “I continue to have the honor to work with the most globally aware students on campus and she fits into that mold perfectly.”
Tomich’s desire to help others is also noted by friends at Elon, leaving many feeling inspired by her desire to volunteer.
“Her passion for volunteering influences others to look in the mirror and see how they are using their talents to positively give back to the communities around them,” said sophomore Stephanie Kilmer, a friend of Tomich.
Cultural experiences on Semester at Sea
Tomich fulfilled her childhood dream of taking part in a Semester at Sea program last fall when she participated in the Atlantic Exploration program through Elon.
“We went to 14 different countries around the globe and I saw a breadth of different places rather than seeing the deepness of one culture,” Tomich said. “I’m so thankful I got to see so many cultures to compare the differences and similarities between them.”
During her time in Elon’s Semester at Sea, she volunteered for four nonprofits in four countries: Ghana, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil.
In Ghana, Tomich worked with A Ban Against Neglect (ABAN), an organization that works with young single mothers to teach them financial and life skills.
“Through Ghana Pericleans we have raised awareness of ABAN on Elon’s campus,” Tomich said. “I independently sought them out and asked them if I could come visit.”
There, members of ABAN gave Tomich a tour of their facility and the sense of community that has formed between the organization and the mothers. In South Africa, Tomich worked with Happy Feet, an organization that began in a township, which teaches children a local dance and provides an alternative after-school activity.
In Argentina, Tomich found the Helping Hands Feeding Program, which was started by one woman who helps feed her impoverished community.
“It’s expanded into almost a social business where they have their own garden and pasta business,” Tomich said. “They have clothing that they make out of scraps of fabric donated to them. They’re creating money for themselves, increasing the community and increasing the welfare.”
The final program Tomich volunteered for, House of the Little Indian Boy, was located in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Favelas are illegally built shanty towns that lie on the outskirts of Brazilian cities. The organization helps educate children after school in order to keep them out of gangs, get out of the favela and find a job.
House of the Little Indian Boy provides job preparation for people ages 15-25, produces goods out of recycled materials, holds Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every Saturday and provides reading and writing classes to adults.
Tomich’s time spent on Semester at Sea left a mark on her that can be seen by friends and faculty.
“That experience opened her eyes to so many new things and she is constantly looking for the bigger things than what is provided for her here at Elon,” Kilmer said. “Nearly every day she is researching different opportunities for the summer that will put her in situations where she can be out in the world making some sort of difference.”
But little did Tomich know her impact would extend beyond Elon. That is, until she received an email from the head of Semester at Sea.
A nomination for Clinton Global Initiative University
While on Semester at Sea, Tomich noticed a common trend between the four nonprofits with which she volunteered.
“The nonprofits were all started by one person,” she said. “That really proved to me one person can make a difference and that is really encouraging to me because I want to make a difference.”
After completing the program, Tomich received an email from the dean of Semester at Sea that informed her she had been nominated to represent the program at the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU).
Originally, she thought the email was spam.
“I thought they sent it to everybody,” she said. “I saw that I was nominated by Semester at Sea, then I had to apply through the CGIU representative. And that was only the first round of applications. Finally I had to apply again through the CGIU website for final approval.”
Tomich had to create an action plan for her application and used her time volunteering as inspiration for it.
“I saw on Semester at Sea that all of the nonprofits needed volunteers,” she said. “I had proof from my fellow voyagers that there are people who have a passion for service. It’s just a problem of how to connect that passion to a cause, especially when the biggest obstacle stopping people is money.”
From this observation, she began to produce a plan to create a social media website in which volunteers are financially supported by a business and can then find a nonprofit organization abroad to work at with no cost to them.
“The nonprofits would get the volunteers that they need and the socially minded business would receive PR and any sort of recognition that would increase their profit sales through helping people financially afford to serve abroad,” Tomich said.
The tentative name for the website is “Sponsor to Service.”
“I think it is a good initiative and I’m anxious to see how it plays out in the future,” Arcaro said. “Emily is the type of person who truly understands what commitment is and what it means to follow through.”
With this plan of action, Tomich was accepted to apply for CGIU. Out of the 500 students on last semester’s voyage, Tomich was one of four asked to apply. She was accepted into CGIU last month.
Tomich attended workshops at a CGIU conference from April 5-7 at Washington University in St. Louis. At the conference, she received critiques on her action plan and heard Bill Clinton, Muhammad Yunus and Stephen Colbert speak.
Tomich is on the path to becoming not just a global citizen, but a global leader. It all connects back to Tomich’s experience in first grade.
“It was my first introduction to the world, and it was more than just a geography lesson,” she said. “It was a lesson on the culture, on the lifestyle and what we could look forward to as college students.”