Experts & Activists

Nate Quick is a counselor at an international Christian school in Hong Kong, who teaches a class on spiritual disciplines, works on student leadership development, and leads spiritual retreats and service projects. He has made multiple trips to visit The SOLD Project, and recently, he brought a group of 24 students from his secondary school to come see our students and learn more about what we do. He ran a full day program consisting of English classes, Manderin classes, games and activities, and art classes. His students also helped with work projects, helping to move to the new city center and paint the upstairs room. Lauren Ellis interviewed him about the experience, and we’d love to share it with you here!

Thank you again for bringing your high schoolers to help with The SOLD Project! We’d like to start off by asking: Why did you/the school decide to work with SOLD?
I didn’t really think about it… It just felt right. But the things that I love about SOLD is that it is going to the roots of a problem. While it is right that we are targeting people to rescue and rehabilitate out of slavery, they are easily and quickly replaced–it’s a faucet. If we can go to the source of the matter, things like poverty, prevention, lack of education,etc.., now these are equally, if not more of a imperative. That’s what I see SOLD doing, going in and impacting the community, mentoring and educating, providing opportunities for students to succeed–this is too incredible of an opportunity not to want to get involved. I want my students at my school see an organization like this and learn about what passion and work looks like to solve a problem and get over obstacles–SOLD tells that kind of story.

What do you hope to see change in the world? What is one of the world’s biggest issues?
Wow. I guess selfishness–if we were not geared towards selfishness because of the nature we were born into, we wouldn’t have many of the world’s biggest issues.

What are you doing (as a group) to work towards solving that problem?
In my current position, I teach a new and better way of selflessness. If I deny my selfish nature and take on the mind of Christ who taught us to serve selflessly, then we will be looking to do what He did and restore and redeem that which has been defiled and not reflective of truth. But on specific issues, we as a school want to bring awareness and look for opportunities to serve and help.

What was one of their (or your) biggest takeaways from the trip?
For many of my students, they were impacted by the love of the SOLD staff. One of my students called them “real life superheroes.” My students loved serving in the school, and having a good time at SOLD resource center but to be able to hear about what SOLD does was inspiring.

For me my biggest takeaway is usually a dose of jealousy! I am jealous of the work that SOLD does and who they are as people. Each visit reminds me how great of project that SOLD is and I want people to know that.

What was a challenge for them? What was a success?
Actually the biggest challenge was the new environment. Hong Kong kids predominately spend most of their time in air conditioned buildings for a lot of reasons, mostly because it’s incredibly humid with poor air quality, and well, it’s more comfortable inside. Being out in the heat was a different lifestyle, and were prone to not feel well at times, especially if they weren’t taking care of themselves by drinking water! But some of them were challenged to be more of a leader or team player while putting on the program, which is always a challenge that brings various levels of success.

Why is it important for high school students to volunteer like this?
This is a tricky one–there are some potential pitfalls to having high school students, or anyone really, to volunteer on trips like this. Expectations versus reality is a problem to manage. Motivations to “why you want to help” can also be problematic philosophically as well. I’m not a big supporter of serving to make yourself feel good about life or yourself. However, when students are put in a position to volunteer, they have great potential to see people, themselves, and issues differently and as a result, grow as an individual. Within my context, I brought the next generation of potentially the world’s wealthiest individuals. What can I do to impact their perspective and how they see the world and the impact of poverty  and the system of poverty in various forms so they can be wise to lead, serve and give.

What would you do differently for the next trip?
Each trip is different, they cannot all be cookie-cutter programs. As long as it is useful to SOLD I would be up for [it.]

What would you say to other schools/groups that are thinking about having their students volunteer?
If you have a large group like we did, communication is always a key element in the preparation process. Have a plan with built in flexibility and contingency ideas. Be careful of personal agenda and do your best to have everyone be on the same page as much as possible.

Thank you Nate, for sharing your experience with us!

Lauren Ellis started working as a graphic designer at 18 and by 26, she left her agency job to help start up a small web agency in downtown Austin where she worked as Creative Director. Since then, she left her home in America behind to work in Thailand with The SOLD Project. Lauren teaches art therapy classes, designs all of The SOLD Project’s work and manages the social media accounts.