EYE-OPENING TRIP ABROAD: Maria D’Ambrosio  spent part of last summer in El Salvador, learning about the lives of people who seemingly don’t have it as good as many Americans, but are in many ways far happier, she said.

“It made me appreciate what I have so much more,” said the 15-year-old sophomore at Plymouth North High School. “Whenever I hear someone complain that they don’t have the latest iPhone, I think of the people I saw there. They have barely anything, but they are the happiest people I’ve ever met.”