【推荐1】When my family officially dropped me off at my new apartment in Galway, I felt a wave of different emotions. I was really nervous about what the next two weeks would bring. However, my roommates turned out to be overly welcoming and energetic, which made the transition very easy. Little did I know how close we would all become by the end of the two weeks!

For the next two weeks we attended classes and had field trips. It actually killed me because I was a terrible hiker. One day our teacher rented a bus and led us to go hiking to different spots. We arrived at a river to eat lunch and sit on the bridge. I sat up onto the bridge looking down at the water below me. My phone was in my lap while I ate my food. Suddenly I heard the actual worst sound — a splash (溅落声). Without even looking down, I knew that my phone had dropped into the river.

I was used to keeping my ID and bank cards in the back of my phone case. I stared down in disbelief at the flowing water. I stood up to jump off the bridge into the river, but Corina pulled me back. I started to scream because what else you could do when you were in a different country and your phone, ID and bank cards were about to disappear. Hope, one of my roommates, was along the bank and dove into the water to retrieve my things. With her help in time, I didn’t suffer any loss.

The best tiling that came out of my study experience abroad was my roommates who became my close friends. Corina, Hope and Emily made my study experience abroad so memorable. We had so many truly memorable experiences during our time in Galway. I was amazed at how close we became in such a short time. One thing I have learned this year is that you have to hold the moment now! If I had waited to study abroad until this summer, which I once considered, all of these friendships and memories wouldn’t exist.

【推荐2】In 2018, a severe drought brought Cape Town close to “Day Zero”, when it could have become the world’s first major city to run out of water. Dam levels in South Africa’s Western Cape fell to below a fifth of capacity and the province suffered its worst water crisis in 100 years.

“The water supply was dwindling and it just wasn’t raining,” recalls Thinus Booysen, a professor at Stellenbosch University, who had created a device in 2015 designed to help homeowners cut their power usage. Seeking to reduce water waste, Booysen figured he could adapt the device to measure water usage instead of electricity use.

Soon, Booysen launched a start-up, Bridging the Internet of Things (BridgloT), to develop his idea. Called Count Droputa, the device reports water usage once a minute while many conventional devices only record data once an hour. The system uses an app in the user’s cellphone and sends short messages in real time. “Within minutes, we would be able to tell the user, ‘Something has burst, or something is leaking,’” he says.

Then Booysen discovered that a key issue was maintenance (维修), with the poorest schools using by far the most water. Leaking toilets could waste 1, 000 liters of water per day. “We found that the biggest problems are things like children not closing taps properly, but often that would be because the taps just don’t close,” Booysen explains. During the test, the invention saved one school more than three million liters of water in three months. Another reduced its water usage 55 percent in four months.

Businesses including Cape Talk radio station and Africa’s largest food company, Shoprite, became sponsors, partnering with the Western Cape Education Department to install (安装) test devices in 350 schools. They saved more than 2.7 million and almost 550 million liters of water in 17 months. Booysen has looked at expanding to government buildings, hospitals and hotels. There are plans to roll out the device across Africa.

【推荐3】Minu Pauline is the owner of Pappadavada Restaurant in Kochi, India. Late one night, as she watched a homeless woman searching through the garbage bin outside her house, a realization hit her with full force — she had been abandoning perfectly good leftover food while someone in need was looking for food.

Touched by this sad sight, Pauline knew she had to find a solution to this problem. That woman had been sleeping and was woken up by her hunger, so she had to go in search of food instead of sleeping.

Inspired by her desire to make a difference, she decided to take action. The idea was simple but mighty: She placed a refrigerator at the entrance of her restaurant, stored with leftover food that anyone could take for free. This refrigerator became a beacon (灯塔) of hope for the hungry and the homeless.

Each day, Pauline fills the refrigerator with 75 to 80 packets of leftovers, carefully labeling each one with the date it was cooked. And there are days when she goes above and beyond, putting in 100 packets to ensure no one leaves hungry. The self-service refrigerator is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, allowing anyone in need to access a warm meal whenever they require it. It's about recognizing the value of resources and combating food waste.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, she passionately emphasized that while money may belong to individuals, resources are a communal asset. She believes that wasting resources, especially food, is not only a loss for individuals but also a disservice to society as a whole.

Through her selfless act. Pauline has sparked a ripple (涟漪) of kindness and compassion in her community.