Student’s decision to help not irrational

Her relief plane will evacuate 150 people from Puerto Rico

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Fascinated by studying why people make irrational decisions, Rosana Guernica picked Carnegie Mellon University because it is the only school in the country that offers decision sciences as an undergraduate major.

Nearly two months ago, after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, many people — including her own grandmother — told her that a 22-year-old college student’s decision to try to personally charter a relief plane to the U.S. territory was not just irrational, but crazy.

She not only proved them wrong then — raising money to charter a plane on Oct. 4 — but would do so three more times. Saturday, she will fly down to Puerto Rico on the largest relief plane yet, carrying 28,000 pounds of supplies and bringing 150 patients in need of medical care to family waiting in Miami.

She has raised more than $150,000 so far for all her missions through a crowdfunding site, but is about $25,000 short for Saturday’s flight, which costs $75,000 to charter.

Some of the referrals for patients to transport have come from the Puerto Rico Governor’s Office and even from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“To be here eight weeks later and still be evacuating people, to get referrals from FEMA and the Governor’s Office for people who can’t get out any other way,