Blackmore said the four months in Nicaragua cost about $4,000, including the flight, room and board, spending money and program fees. But the experience has also yielded rich dividends in return.
She keeps in touch with her host family who she affectionately calls her "Nica family" and has been back three times to visit.
And Blackmore recalls the precise moment where it went from more than just a volunteer stint abroad to become transformative.
"We had just come back from working on about a 10-hour day in a really, really, rural clinic and I was riding in the back of a pickup truck, and we were coming down the side of a mountain and the sun was setting," she recalls.
"It was just a pristine moment, I couldn't probably ever repeat it ... but it was the moment when I realized that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."
She is heading to London, England where she plans to complete a master's degree next year in sexual health and reproduction and also plans to go to medical school in the future.
Blackmore said she would ideally like to work with organizations like the World Health Organization or the UN, but ultimately would like to end up with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders.)
"I think a lot of where I am today both educationally and personally has been a result of Nicaragua specifically. Since coming back from that trip, I have changed so much as a person," she said.
"It was kind of the moment I realized what I wanted to do and discovered my passion in that - and that's a very powerful feeling."
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