Photo Credit: BradfordWhelan.com
John “Cooper” Davis has done more in his 19 years of life than you have probably ever imagined doing. This freshman at Sonoma State University has not only been around the world, but has developed some unusual hobbies as well.
As a 6th grader, Davis got his first taste of service-learning in Japan. He, along with his classmates, learned about the environmental issues over in Japan and spoke at lectures about how to fix the problems. Mind you, he was only 13 at the time. Most people don’t start doing this type of work until college.
“This trip really set me on my current path,” said Davis. “Their culture showed me how selfless people can be.”
In his freshman year of high school, Davis went to El Salvador to help with healthcare and Habitat for Humanity.
“In our healthcare clinic, we ended up serving around 1,300 people,” said Davis. “Our biggest problem that we faced was malnutrition.”
That’s not all this kid has done. In his sophomore year of high school, he went on a service-learning trip with his school to the country of Bhutan, a small country located near Nepal, India, Thailand, and China. It was here where he met a monk who was the inspiration for his future tattoo.
“He let me drink his mango juice, which is a huge honor in their society,” said Davis. “That experience just really changed me and that’s why I’m trying to get the words he spoke to me tattooed on my side.”
Junior year he headed back to Bhutan, but this time to work with nuns. The service-learning group that he worked with decided to take a different approach to helping this group.
“Instead of going in with the idea of helping them, we took a step back and saw what they needed from us,” said Davis. “We learned so much from them and by the time we got back we knew exactly what we needed to send them.”
In his lifetime, Davis has also helped raise money for children with disabilities. By helping a local Disability Center (currently undergoing a name change), the school helps teach disabled kids vocational skills, in which they can use to make a living for themselves and not be so dependent on others,
“It [helping the disabled] really changes the way you think,” said Davis. “Being around so many people who are less fortunate gives you a different perspective on life.”
This is just the tip of the iceberg for this Sonoma State student. He is also a competitive West Coast Swing dancer as well as one of 200, under 18, professional open water divers. This 19-year-old is also an event chef for the local restaurant ZaZu here in Sonoma County, a restaurant known for their competition winning dishes. He also plans on going to Machu Picchu over spring break to help with medical care for the locals.
While Davis might be young, he already has his life figured out, which is more than most of us can say.
“I want to not only expand my parent’s wine industry, but I want to help others around the world,” said Davis. “Service-learning has really impacted me for the better and I want to go further with it.”