Pitt junior wants to travel to help underprivileged kids

Junior John Hogg wants to travel to Guatemala and the Ukraine this summer to work in… Junior John Hogg wants to travel to Guatemala and the Ukraine this summer to work in underprivileged orphanages.

“I’m tired of materialism and competitiveness,” Hogg said. “I want to try something that would be more rewarding and living life more like it was meant to be lived.

“I hope to make a difference in the lives of these children. Orphanages are a major problem worldwide, and we can’t just ignore the sufferings of thousands of children who have no one to love them.”

Hogg, who is from Michigan, studied abroad in Moscow his sophomore year and volunteered at a local orphanage.

It was his first exposure to the poor conditions of orphanages. His parents adopted two girls from Russian orphanages in 2002, further sparking his interest in helping the less fortunate.

“Seeing one of my sister’s orphanages, and then seeing other orphanages when I studied abroad in Russia, made me aware of the enormous problem of abandoned children in the world today,” he said. “Too many orphanages around the world are just places where kids sleep and are given food until they’re 16, and then they’re put out on the street, and soon they have kids who end up in the orphanages, and it just perpetuates the problem.”

Hogg studies Russian, Spanish and Portuguese at Pitt, with certificates in Eastern European studies and Latin American studies.

He hopes to use his skills in a positive way when he travels to Guatemala for the month of July and Ukraine for the month of August.

However, humanitarian trips like Hogg’s are not free: He must pay for the expenses himself.

That is why he is undertaking a fundraising project on Pitt’s campus in early February. He plans to tread water in a campus pool to help raise the necessary funds.

“I’m in touch with the people in charge of the facilities on Pitt’s campus to see if they’d allow me to use their pool for such a fundraiser,” Hogg said. “I’m trying to allow enough time to organize the fundraiser and get the word out so as to raise more money.”

The orphanages are asking for basic materials such as soap, shampoo and children’s movies in Spanish. Hogg hopes to help provide these materials through his fundraising.

He will spend a month and a half working in the orphanages during the summer. He will arrive back in Pittsburgh just in time for the start of the fall semester.