When Sherrie Dunlap spent spring break working with AIDS patients in Brazil earlier this year, she saw adults who were in the terminal stages of the disease; who were found on the street, suffering alone. When she met those people, when she heard their stories and held their hands, Sherrie knew she wanted to do more.

But soon, spring break was over and her time at Esperenca e Vida (Hope and Life), a Catholic AIDS clinic in São Paulo, came to an end. After helping people living with HIV and AIDS, feeding them, giving them medicine and talking with them, Sherrie had to return home.

"My new friends gave faces and a reality to a worldwide problem," Sherrie remembers. She also remembers the strong desire to continue her work — no matter where, no matter how. "Being in the presence of AIDS was an experience I will never forget, and I brought that reality home with me."