For Victoria VanHorn, helping others is more than a hobby—it’s a lifelong pursuit.
A junior studying secondary education (English), VanHorn says she wants to be a high school English teacher when she graduates in May 2017 and is using spring break to gain experience.
Spring break service: For the last two years, VanHorn has participated in UW’s Alternative Spring Break trips, which enlist volunteers to do service work in the United States and abroad. In 2014, VanHorn spent spring break in San Francisco’s impoverished Tenderloin District to help underprivileged students and, the following year, she worked in Seattle homeless shelters to better understand the needs of the homeless. She is currently preparing to be an Alternative Breaks (AB) coordinator, which would make her responsible for arranging amenities for UW students assigned to work in Trinidad and Tobago in early 2016.
Serving as AB coordinator takes extra work, but VanHorn craves the challenges ahead, despite the additional demands it places on her already busy schedule, including her work for the UW Office of Admissions and her role as vice president of Iron Skull (the junior class honor society).
“I get my energy from seeing smiles on other people’s faces and knowing I’ve helped,” VanHorn says. “The simple gratitude that people give—a smile, a handshake—I don’t need anything in return. If I have made a difference, that motivates me to keep going.”
Volunteering at home: VanHorn’s generosity has inspired efforts to help Laramie residents. She has been a leader in several National Days of Service. Through UW’s Student Leadership and Community Engagement (SLCE), she and other students are performing a wide variety of services for the community.
“From raking leaves in people’s yards to helping them clean their homes, we are involved in a lot of different things,” she says.
“I’ve been looking for ways to help others for as long as I can remember,” says VanHorn. While a student at Kelly Walsh High School in Casper, Wyo., VanHorn says her community-minded parents inspired her to be active in service through the National Honor Society and through her church.
“I am part of Tri Delta sorority, and a huge part of our motto is to steadfastly love others,” she says. “The world has given me so much. I want to give it back to them.”
