Tropical Storm Agatha arrived several days later, triggering floods and landslides. In some towns that had the misfortune to be situated within reach of the storm and the volcano, rain and ash comingled to form a black sludge that clogged drains and streets.

"It was so surreal-like outer space," von Ritter Figueres said.

Von Ritter Figueres is a senior in the yearlong leadership development program Service Opportunities in Leadership. The program's centerpiece is a community-based research project that is collaboratively designed with a community partner. For her project, von Ritter Figueres traveled to Guatemala to analyze why local women were reluctant to use the clean-burning stoves that they had been given by HELPS International, a charitable foundation that promotes healthcare, education, economic development and environmental protection around the world.

Scholars have found that the use of primitive stoves in Africa, Asia and South America has negative health, environmental and economic effects. Nearly 2 million people worldwide die each year from lung and heart disease and low birth weight as a result of the stoves, according to the United Nations. The noxious smoke the stoves spew is also considered to be a significant contributor to global warming. In late September, the United States pledged $50 million over five years to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which aims to supply 100 million efficient stoves by 2020, The New York Times reported.

But in Guatemala, shifting the villagers' habits proved to be more complicated than installing the clean-burning stoves, von Ritter Figueres's research found.

"These women have been cooking the same way all their lives-their mothers cook the same way, their grandmothers cook the same way," she said. "For an outsider to come in and say you should change the way you live-that's hard."

Von Ritter Figueres was passionate about her project, but when Mother Nature struck she felt the need to change course. At the time of the flood, von Ritter Figueres was staying in Antigua, a tourist town that hovers above the parts of the country that were hit hardest by the flood. She decided to hitchhike to the villages where Guatemalans were suffering most.

The soil surrounding the villages was so eroded that it had provided no protection from the flood. Tree trunks, rocks that came up to von Ritter Figueres's chest and a river of mud flowed into the villagers' homes with little opposition. Von Ritter Figueres and her companions struggled to help the villagers save what they could of their possessions.

"I didn't know what I was getting into," she said. "The worst part was just seeing the women and the kids crying. The pain on their faces-I'd never seen that firsthand."

Later that day, in between shuttling loads of belongings from the homes, von Ritter Figueres glimpsed a group of men carrying a dead body from the ruins. She did not cry at first; the shock was too great. But once she returned home and began washing the mud from her legs, it hit her.

"I just curled into a ball and was crying until someone asked me what was wrong," she said. "I was thinking of these people in the town that don't have clean water. These people don't have anything to eat. They have nowhere to sleep-nothing."

For several days thereafter, von Ritter Figueres was torn. She was committed to doing a research project on a topic that was important to her. But she felt compelled first to help those around her, whose immediate needs were so staggering.

So she resolved to divide her time and energy between the causes. To address the need for clean drinking water, she launched a fundraising campaign, e-mailing everyone in her address book to donate money for filters. The appeal struck a chord-her family and friends donated more than $4,500 over about two months.

When she returned to the villages to distribute the hard-earned water filters, von Ritter Figueres felt a responsibility to do something preventative, something to help ensure that a tragedy like this would never strike Guatemala again. She realized that perhaps one modest answer lay in her own research.

If Guatemalans had efficient stoves in their homes, they would use less wood, stopping erosion in its tracks and guarding them better against a future storm.

"Even though we won't notice the results right away, I know that in the long run what we're doing will help," she said.

Von Ritter Figueres helped spearhead HELPS International's relief efforts, but she cannot yet fully measure how much she grew over the summer. The people of Guatemala are often present in her thoughts, even as she goes about her life back at Duke.

"I learned so much, I did so much, I went through so much. It challenged the way I think about what I do, what I prioritize, what I grumble about at Duke," she said. "I just couldn't live with myself if I didn't dedicate my life to... making life better for people who haven't been as blessed as I have. I've felt this way for many years now, but this experience has shown me I can do it."

One Guatemalan, in particular, is on her mind-a woman who was not the mayor of her town, or even a formal leader, but knew each family as if it was her own and helped von Ritter Figueres carry out her research. This woman challenged von Ritter Figueres's conception of what it means to be a leader.

"When I thought of leadership before, I always thought of someone in authority or someone in power," she said. "This woman is not a big-shot, but in the way that she communicates with people in the community and gets things done she is a leader."

As enthusiastic as she was about her research, von Ritter Figueres also saw how much could be learned by setting her ideas aside and listening-an important component of effective leadership.

"In the beginning I talked a lot about my ideas, but toward the end I began just really listening, and a lot of my ideas changed," she said. "Listening to what people were telling me helped me grow and learn."

The time in Guatemala also heightened von Ritter Figueres's global identity-she has German, Guatemalan and Costa Rican citizenship, though she grew up in Washington, D.C. Born in Guatemala, she soon traveled with her parents to Costa Rica, where she learned her first words.

After graduating from high school, von Ritter Figueres delayed her freshman year at Duke to return to Guatemala and teach English and health.

"I had citizenship, but I didn't feel Guatemalan. I lived there, but I didn't remember," she said.

Von Ritter Figueres sought out the research opportunity with HELPS International to deepen her ties to the country. Guatemalans did not expect a blonde-haired young woman to speak their language, know their slang. But von Ritter Figueres quickly corrected their perceptions.

"I'd say, I'm chapina like you," she said, using the colloquial Spanish word for "Guatemalan."

Now, having lived in Guatemala once more-this time in a moment of crisis-von Ritter Figueres feels this truth more deeply than ever before.