Jackie Becker
At our regular Club meeting on October 8, 2026, Jackie Becker offered a touching account of how her exposure to Rotary as a student changed the path of her life. In 2012, Becker was a student who “wanted to change the World”, as she put it. A Spanish tutor of hers told her about Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships. Curious, Becker looked into Rotary. She was impressed with Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self” and applied to the Ambassadorial Scholarship program. In 2013, she was awarded an Ambassadorial Scholarship to Lima, Peru. The Rotary Club of Nacogdoches, TX sponsored the Scholarship, which lasted a year.
Lima, Peru is home to some 13 million people. It has very affluent sections, such as the resort district, and very poor sections, such as the outskirts. Becker showed us a picture of the outskirts. It looked like a shanti town. Once she got to Peru, she also had a local sponsor; a physician who provided cleft palette surgeries to children in and around Lima, free of charge.
During her Ambassadorial Scholarship, Becker witnessed how acts of kindness, such as the cleft palette surgeries, can profoundly change lives for the better. She connected with local Rotaract Clubs. They engaged in volunteer activities such as planting trees in areas of the outskirts of Peru where there were no trees. However, the experience taught Becker that altruism has to be pragmatic to be effective. For example, gifts of plants or trees where there are none might at first appear to be a thoughtful and generous gesture. But if the gift recipients are so short of water that they have to choose between water for plants and water for humans, the gift does not turn out to be as useful as first imagined. While in Peru, Becker came to understand that, in her words, “to change the World, you have to get to know the World and let the World get to know you”.
During her Ambassadorial Scholarship, Becker fell in love with Peru and its people. After the scholarship ended, she would stay in Lima for another 6 years, working in a travel agency. There, she acquired her passion for selling travel to Peru. As Becker sees it, travel changes people for the better. It makes them more empathetic and aware of others. Since returning from Peru, Becker has spent 10 years working in the travel industry. She has expanded her reach beyond Peru, having booked some 1600 trips to 7 continents. She recommends that on each trip, travelers try to connect with at least one new person. The connection can add depth to one’s understanding of a part of the World and potentially, new friends as well.
Becker now books travel through her own company, Woven Compass Travel. For more information, visit Woven Compass | Luxury Travel Advisor.