Changed perspectives, expanded worlds: NHI volunteers reflect on teaching and being taught

To celebrate National Volunteer Month, NHI is gathering the stories of a number of volunteers who are giving their time, energy, and knowledge to help advance the organization.

We’ve identified 24 outstanding volunteers — by no means a complete list — and throughout the month, we’ll be highlighting them in a series of stories. We’ve done a first installment featuring eight outstanding volunteers, a second installment featuring eight more, and here, the final eight we’re featuring — though, of course, there are many more volunteers doing great work for NHI.

Mario Cassina

La Salle College Preparatory High School, Pasadena, Calif.

Mario Cassina found the 2022 California Sol Great Debate, his first NHI experience, to be transformative. “The program helped me develop my voice and gave me the foundation I needed to be a leader,” he noted. “I decided that I wanted to help other students grow as leaders, too.”

Not only did he seek volunteer opportunities at subsequent California Sol Great Debates, he also helped create the relatively new NHI LA project to recruit and develop students throughout Southern California.

“I noticed that as students go through the NHI programs, they become more confident in themselves and their leadership abilities,” he reflected. “I see them getting more involved in their communities and making positive impacts through their work.”

In particular, he cited Audrey Montano, an NHI student who helped lead fire relief efforts in the Altadena area — and he notes that his volunteering now does beyond even NHI.

“By volunteering, I’ve realized the importance of helping others grow and have spent more time volunteering in my community,” he shared. “I now also volunteer as a soccer coach for 10- and 12-year-olds and serve as a teachers assistant in a nearby nursery. I work with kids to help them grow, inspired by what I’ve seen while volunteering at NHI.”

Mara Flores

TMI Episcopal, San Antonio, Texas

Upon participating in the Great Debate, Mara Flores knew she wanted to volunteer at programs as well.

“That was really the program that inspired me to make that transition, because towards the end of the program, I saw how much all the staff is putting into it, but also how much they seem to enjoy it and grow from it as well on their own end of the journey. As participants, you don’t just stop growing there. You obviously continue to grow and evolve as staff, as leadership, and I just really wanted to continue that journey, because I thought that my staff had shaped the experience so positively for me that I wanted to study that end of the experience.”

Flores has since elevated to a head coach role in San Antonio, where she’s helping to lead the next generation of leaders from a very engaged group with significant volunteer support.

“We just have such excellent communication, and we are able to rely on each other so much and really have that aspect of teamwork that we hold each other accountable, but at the same time, we know that people are going to pick each other up,” she said.

Being on staff has been integral to her for another reason; as she observes, “Just being on staff has been so much closer to the other people on my team. I’ve honestly made friendships for life.”

Evan Gaitan

Harold T. Branch Academy for Career and Technical Education, Corpus Christi, Texas

Like many in NHI, Evan Gaitan’s journey began in ninth grade preparing for the Texas Great Debate. Unlike many others, though, Gaitan won special recognition at the Texas LDZ the next year, winning the Ricky Miranda Award given to a particularly inspirational participant.

Along the way, he also decided that volunteering would be part of his NHI mix.

“I decided to keep on volunteering because of the skills I’ve developed over the years, the people I’ve met, and the opportunity that NHI provides,” he reflected. “One of the things that I’ve noticed about our students is how much more they progress out of their shells as the year goes on. From not really talking much, to laughing and joking with other students, the transformation is amazing.”

Now, Gaitan works on Corpus Christi students on Sunday, preparing them for the Great Debate — while growing himself from the experience.

“I’m definitely no longer afraid to voice my opinions when the time is right, which is a very important thing to know in my opinion, and I’ve become both much better at and comfortable with speaking to large groups of people.”

Diego Gómez-Zamora

Creighton Preparatory School, Omaha, Neb.

Like many others from NHI’s Midwest region, NHI starts at Augustana College for the Midwest Great Debate. Though Diego Gómez-Zamora was part of a cohort smaller than usual — as NHI programs were bouncing back from the pandemic — he found himself at home at that program and therefore called to do more with the organization.

“I saw 50 Latino students, all from different backgrounds, whether it be middle class, low income, upper class. We’re all there for a mission, and that’s to continue contributing to our community. And I did not have to continuously feel like the oddball out.

“Since then, I’ve always carried that back to my programs, regardless of where my kids come from,” he added. “Whether they’re in my team or on another coach’s team, I consistently tried to strive for that newfound love, or more than anything, the love I’ve always had for diversity within our community and pushing students to understand that their diversity, while at times, it may feel like it’s used against them … it’s the biggest powerhouse they have within themselves and the best tool they have to represent our community wherever they go.”

Though he’ll be moving from Omaha to attend college — at either Columbia University or Georgetown University en route to law school — he plans to make NHI volunteering stretch into his college years and well beyond.

“I must be in a hospital bed to stop volunteering with NHI,” he quipped.

Sebastian Green

Saint Joseph Academy, Brownsville, Texas

Friends inspired Sebastian Green to dive into NHI — not surprising, given that he’s at a school with one of the largest contingents of NHI alumni in the world.

“I was super confused,” he said of that initial Great Debate. “I had no idea what was going on … I went through the program, and as stressful and as difficult as it was, I really drove myself, and I had an awesome time. I saw that all my coaches were having a super awesome time, and there was a sense of community, and that was one of the things that attracted me to being a coach.”

But he also noticed something else: “The personal growth that I saw in my coaches, because obviously, I grew as a leader during my time as a as a freshman in the program, but I saw my coaches growing as well and learning from us while they were coaching us. So that was part of what attracted me, and just being able to give back to the community.”

Though competition is a big deal for the Tip of Texas team he coaches, with its history of Silver Cup wins, he finds NHI to be collaborative as well as competitive, and that’s helped him to grow as a volunteer.

“I’ve become a much more effective communicator, and I’ve become much better at understanding people. Because I feel like in the beginning, it was hard for me to understand questions that participants were asking me or answer them in ways that really made sense to them. But as I grew as a coach, that ability grew exponentially, and I would say that now I’m pretty good at that.”

Elizabeth Macaraig

Cristo Rey St. Viator College Preparatory High School, Las Vegas, Nev.

“That was one of my most life-changing experiences ever,” Elizabeth Macaraig said of her debut NHI program, the Colorado LDZ, where she was part of a contingent from the relatively new Las Vegas region. “And I feel that every time like I progress, because it has motivated me to become a lot more well-spoken and voice my opinion on things in the community. I think that it’s definitely encouraged me, and I’ve seen it definitely change a lot of other people.”

Noting that the program inspired her to think of how individuals can change their communities, she stepped up to help mentor younger students once her mentors graduated, and she’s found the experience gratifying.

“I have a lot more leadership qualities than I think I did,” she reflected, noting that she’s helped spread the word about NHI, and is formulating strategies to make NHI even more well known in Las Vegas. “Instead of being that shy kid in the class that they previously were like,” she said of students returning from programs, “they’re now raising their hands. They’re now advocating for themselves.”

Abbey Messner

West Career & Technical Academy, Las Vegas, Nev.

Abbey Messner remembers her NHI Great Debate experience vividly. She advanced to the Cross Examination semifinals, recalling that when she was knocked out of the competition, her coach
reminded her “that challenges weren’t meant to break me, but to shape me. That even without a trophy, I had something far more valuable: growth. His words reassured me more than winning ever could, and at that moment, I knew I wanted to return. But not as a competitor, I wanted to be in his position next. I
wanted to lead, to help students find their own voices, just as he had helped me find mine.”

From there, Messner has become involved with NHI’s Las Vegas program.

“I have personally witnessed students flourish through these programs.” She recalls one student at the first Great Debate program she staffed who dramatically transformed in just a few days. “I saw a different person from the one I met at the beginning of the week. Someone who had found confidence, purpose, and a love for advocacy. Someone who, through this experience, discovered his own potential. Now, back in his home country, he works with local politicians and leads his own youth leadership council. He is the reason I continue to staff and volunteer with NHI.”

It’s also shaped her own view of the kind of person she is and might become.

“Through this organization, I’ve met individuals who refuse to let circumstance define them,” she observed. “They have challenged my perspective, expanded my world, and shown me that no dream—no matter how ambitious—is out of reach. NHI hasn’t just given me a community; it has given me a deeper understanding of what is possible.”

Jorge Sainz

Coronado High School, El Paso, Texas

“After my experience with the Great Debate, I fell in love with NHI,” said Jorge Sainz, who loved participating in the Extemporaneous Speaking category and loved bonding with his El Paso teammates. That led him to want to guide other students in El Paso — and as the team has expanded to include students from Juarez, to help develop leaders living side-by-side in two separate but connected countries.

“Every year we’re getting better, we’re improving more and more, and it’s all thanks to our staff that come back,” he said.

In addition to coaching, Gaitan is shouldering fundraising duties, which he sees as more important than ever given the increasing number of students they’re attracting, and the different perspectives they’re able to tap into as part of their collective growth.

“We want to step it up and do as much as we can just for these kids to have that opportunity,” he noted.