From Marion to Guatemala and back

By FINN HARTNETT

Staff writer

It’s not often a Marion native departs for the mountains of Guatemala, but that’s just where Emmy Hess journeyed after graduating from the University of Kansas in 2023.

A former Marion high school valedictorian, Hess volunteered for 13 months for Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, a Latin American non-profit helping underprivileged children and disabled adults.

The organization operates a large campus with a health clinic, school, and children’s home.

Almost all of the children are there by court order. They include orphans and those who would otherwise live in extreme poverty.

At KU, Hess, a pre-med student, minored in Spanish before studying abroad in Spain.

Inspired by the experience, she switched her minor to a major and volunteered with Juntos, a Kansas City non-profit that works to make health care more accessible to Hispanic people.

“I was working with a lot of immigrants who didn’t speak a lot of English and who were afraid to seek out health care,” Hess said. “I want to be a physician, and that’s a population I’ve always been interested in working with because they’re super underserved.”

Upon graduating KU with degrees in biology and Spanish, Hess sought to learn more about Latino culture, practices, and beliefs.

“I felt like I needed to experience Latin America for myself,” she said.

She discovered NPH through the recommendation of a professor and traveled to Parramos, Guatemala, to join the organization.

Hess helped nurses in the NPH clinic, passing out medication and covering shifts.

She gave health presentations to children and adults on topics ranging from sexually transmitted diseases to the respiratory tract, worked in a pharmacy, and acted as a school nurse.

“Wherever they needed me,” Hess said.

Living in Guatemala, she was without many things Americans take for granted.

Her home contained no sink or air conditioning. She washed dishes and clothes with cold water outside.

But she said Guatemalans are much less helpless than most Americans believe.

“I think the view of Africa and Central America is so skewed here,” she said. “They think that these people are shoeless and clothes-less and don’t have anything.”

She highlighted Guatemala’s cheap and efficient public transportation system, which she used to explore all parts of the country.

“They had mountains, volcanoes,” she said. “They had the beach; they had the jungle. Really pretty lakes as well.”

One of her frustrations upon returning to Marion is that it’s much harder to get around than it was Guatemala.

She never drove in the country; lush beaches were always a quick bus ride away.

“It was kind of like a reverse culture shock,” she said.

Hess is now working at her family’s restaurant, Wagon Wheel Express, as a waitress.

She plans to get a job as a certified nursing assistant at a nearby hospital while she studies for medical school.

While Hess is pursuing her career tenaciously, she worries that others in Marion schools aren’t encouraged enough to chase lofty goals.

“When you do have a dream, they don’t really help you pursue that as well as they can, which is really sad,” she said. “If you don’t have the ambition to do it yourself, you need that external support.”

Hess did praise Marion High’s interdisciplinary approach.

“You can be in theater and sports and music and whatever,” she said. “In a lot of bigger schools, kids normally just stick to one thing.”

Most of Hess’ friends live in the Kansas City area. With far more downtime than she’s been used to over the past year, she’s finding herself bored quite often.

At the same time, it is peaceful.

“I feel like I learned a lot,” she said. “I grew a lot as a person. I gained more resilience and more consciousness of how to use my resources.”

After her shifts in the clinic or the school were over, Hess would spend evenings helping take care of a children’s group.

She reflected on the experience fondly — one of her favorite parts of the job.

“I spent all year with them,” she said. “In the evenings, I’d watch TV or help them with homework or play games. It was super sweet to form relationships with those kids and their caregivers.”