COEUR d’ALENE — Tech entrepreneur Greg Carr hopes to inspire a North Idaho College student with an all-expenses-paid, monthlong trip to Mozambique this summer. 

Four finalists emerged from a pool of 13, and the Gregory C. Carr Foundation and Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations announced Tuesday that pre-med student Alex Karns is the lucky applicant.

“The big thing is being able to grow as a person and to serve a community,” Karns said. “I’m going to go there eager to learn.”   

Task force secretary Tony Stewart said the four finalists, Karns, Abigail Fitzgerald, Micah Jones and Samantha Bajorek, each received a $500 check.

“They’re remarkable students, NIC should be proud of them,” Stewart said, adding that their interest in humanitarian efforts and other cultures represents the heart of the agency. “For our 45 years as an organization, we’ve had incredible relationships all over the United States and even other countries."  

Greg Carr first stepped in to help fund restoration efforts in 2008. Since then, Carr has witnessed the team spirit and humor of the people of Mozambique as they work to rebuild. 

“The Mozambicans provide the world with a great example of what people can do when they have the chance,” Carr said.  

Severe ecological and human devastation during 30 years of war left native wildlife nearly wiped out, and 200,000 residents of the Gorongosa National Park in poverty.   

“History has not been kind to Mozambique: Colonialism, conflict, resource constraints,” Carr said. “As we Americans help the Mozambicans, we are not giving them a handout, we are giving them a hand up.”    

Today, Carr said Mozambicans run tourism businesses in place, and women hold leadership positions where they previously would have been barred. 

Karns will learn about the medical center and other community work.   

“After doing more and more research, I learned about the struggles Mozambique has been going through and the park at Gorongosa and what the Gregory C. Carr Foundation has done to help promote in not just the park alone but the surrounding area, helping them develop their agriculture, health care and education,” Karns said.

The monthlong trip will focus on health clinics and educational facilities established by the Foundation, with a particular emphasis on educating girls, since the current literacy rate for girls in Mozambique is 28% compared to 60% for boys.    

Karns is a graduate of Coeur d’Alene High School and North Dakota State University, and is attending NIC to complete his pre-med requirements before medical school.    

“I’ll take those experiences into my life and into my career in health care,” Karns said. 

Finalist Abigail Fitzgerald, who is studying law, said that when she first heard of the Foundation's offer, it sounded too good to be true. 

“I intend to travel a lot and become directly involved in these sorts of efforts that are actually doing something,” Fitzgerald said. 

Pre-med student Micah Jones said that although he didn’t win the trip, he will continue to channel his excitement for learning and growth through travel. 

“I enjoy traveling and being able to volunteer my time to help people on my road to one day hopefully becoming a doctor and to be able to see the joy on someone else’s face when I’m able to use my ability to help them,” Jones said. 

Veterinary medicine student Samantha Bajorek wasn’t present to receive her check in person, but in her application to the Foundation, she wrote that environmental learning experiences and hands-on work drew her to the opportunity. 

“This experience would transform who I am by expanding my horizons in both cultural and conservationist ways. It would prepare me for a career dedicated to the environment and helping wildlife by exposing me to wildlife that one could only dream about,” Bajorek said.  

Task force vice-president Christie Wood said she was thrilled to see NIC students share their passion to learn and encouraged them to follow that impulse.   

“I want you all to go see the world and make an impression on the world but please come back here,” Wood said.