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Taylorsville Journal

Taylorsville teen Ellie Gomez is studying in Costa Rica this fall – the 11th country she’s visited outside the U.S.

Oct 08, 2024 10:26AM ● By Carl Fauver

Ellie Gomez made several new friends in Paraguay this summer, as she worked with them to upgrade an impoverished elementary school. (Photo courtesy Ellie Gomez)

What do you suppose is the percentage of Utah high school students who have never been out of our state of Utah? Could it be as high as 10 to 15%?

On the other hand, how many Utah high schoolers HAVE been outside our COUNTRY? Again, just guessing, does 25 to 30% sound about right? And it’s probably safe to say, the vast majority of those excursions were either to Canada or Mexico.

Then there’s Ellie Gomez – a former member of the Taylorsville Youth Council and a 4-months-ago graduate of Murray High School. The percentage in her category is surely measured in small fractions of 1%.

Gomez checked Mexico and Canada visits off her list nearly a decade ago. But, just over the past 16 months, she’s added nine more countries to her ‘been there, done that’ list: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, France, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, United Kingdom and, most recently, Costa Rica (where she is a Utah State University study abroad freshman right now).

That’s a dozen countries (including the United States) in her just over 18 years. Ellie says her mother and aunt had everything to do with developing and encouraging her desire to see new places.

“My mom has been to a lot of countries and has talked with me many times about the importance of understanding how other people in our world live,” Gomez said. “These trips have taught me what we have here in America is amazing. I am so grateful for my life and home here. To see people in dirt floor houses and run down schools makes me so appreciative of how we live. Sometimes we have to get out of our bubble. That’s what these trips have allowed me to do.”

Jessica Gomez – Ellie’s mom and a 1990 Taylorsville High School graduate – is quick to add, her daughter didn’t make these trips because the family is “rich.” She says they all made many sacrifices to make the
journeys possible.

“There’s a lot of privilege on these trips, kids with a ton of money; but that’s not us,” said the single mother of two. “Our whole family had to make sacrifices for the trips to be possible. We stopped going out to eat. Ellie did her own fundraising while also working. I thought the sacrifices were worth it to get her closer to God and to meet new people.”

Jessica Gomez says she has visited 14 countries while her sister, Audra, touched 50 countries before the age of 50. Ellie’s Aunt Audra also funded one of the three separate trips that took her to all those countries. Ellie and her brother Jonah accompanied their aunt in June to visit London, Paris and Madrid.

“My aunt paid for all three of us to make the trip, as a graduation present to me,” Ellie Gomez said. “Jonah has had many health issues; so we were thrilled he was able to go. That trip – to the United Kingdom, France and Spain – was the only one I’ve taken strictly as a vacation. My other two trips, both to South America, were humanitarian trips to do volunteer construction work at schools.”

Those other two trips – one in summer 2023 and the other just a couple of weeks after the European trip this summer – are the ones that required Ellie to raise money and her mother to tighten the household budget. The cost for each was “about $4,000.” Each of those excursions was operated by a Salt Lake-based organization called Humanitarian Experience (HXP).

On its website (humanitarianxp.org), HXP describes itself as “an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization aligned with the principles, vision and values of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, HXP is not sponsored or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young University or any of their affiliates. While primarily a member-created community, HXP experiences are open to youth of all faiths who are willing to follow our code of conduct. Prayer, scripture study and church attendance are a central part of all our experiences.”

On each trip, Ellie Gomez was in a group of about 20 people, ages 15 to 20. Both times she and the others did structural work to upgrade elementary schools. In 2023, the work was completed in Ecuador, while Ellie’s airplane also touched down in Peru on the way. This year, the construction work was done at a school in Paraguay, while the group also passed through parts of Argentina and Brazil.

“Our job this summer was to plaster walls and finish some brick and roof work,” Ellie Gomez explained. “I mostly plastered all week and it was very humbling. It’s really hard to do that work well; and, of course, we had no experience at it. I had to redo a few walls. But we made progress. The school was better when we left than when we got there.”

Also, as part of each HXP humanitarian trip, the group visited world renowned places of interest before arriving at their worksites. In 2023, that meant a 5-day excursion to the Galápagos Islands. This year’s trip took Gomez to Iguazú Falls, part of the largest waterfall system in the world. The falls are on the Iguazú River, the border between Argentina and Brazil.

“The excursions were so much fun,” Ellie Gomez said. “On the main Galápagos Island – the only inhabited island in the system – we went scuba diving, zip lining and swimming in caves. There were iguanas everywhere. Both of these stops were great before we began our volunteer work.”

One person who’s thrilled to see Ellie get these opportunities to see the world is Taylorsville Mayor Kristie Overson, who worked closely with Gomez when she was a member of the city’s Youth Council.

“Ellie is so energetic, joyful, always smiling,” Overson said. “She always brought the Youth Council members together. Always fun and effervescent. Ellie never seems to have a bad day. Our Youth Council was a bit bigger last year than ever before. But, with Ellie and several others leading the way, they developed such a tight bond.”

Gomez was able to mingle in and thrive on the Youth Council, despite being the only one of its members who was actually attending Murray High, while living within the Taylorsville border. Like several other high school seniors in the group, she had to depart the council upon graduation.

Which, finally, brings Ellie Gomez to her current post in life – a college freshman, now in the 12th country she has touched. In late September (after press time), Gomez was scheduled to fly to the small Central American country of Costa Rica. Roughly the same size as West Virginia – less than a quarter of the size of Utah – Costa Rica is sandwiched between Nicaragua on the north and Panama to the south.

“I will study business and language (Spanish) in Costa Rica through a Utah State University study abroad program,” Ellie Gomez concluded. “It’s only for one semester. I’ll return home for Christmas and move up to the Logan campus in January. I’ll live in a dorm up there.”

Ellie eventually wants to pursue a career in real estate acquisition, development and management. Based on the dozen countries she’s seen at barely age 18, it’s probably a safe bet she’ll one day be pricing properties in plenty of places outside Utah and the United States. λ

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