Reflections: A Publication from the Davidson College Center for Civic Engagement by Davidson Serves

[ REFLECTIONS ] Davidson College Center for Civic Engagement 2014-2015

Photo Credit Michael Matti

Service and Civic Engagement has the unique ability to connect us to a sense of place, belonging and shared identity. Furthermore, as we interact with complex social needs and structures through service, the opportunity for deep, engaged learning presents itself. Reflections is an annual publication from the Center for Civic Engagement to showcase this learning; it is a publication which comprises a collection of essays from many Davidson students involved in a wide range of civic engagement activities. These works have been edited for space, but the original structure and meaning has been maintained.

[ REFLECTIONS ] Table of Contents:

SERVICE AND CONNECTION SERVICE AND GROWTH SERVICE AND LEADERSHIP SERVICE AND SOCIETY

pg 4 pg 23 pg 46 pg 66

“Don’t assume, because you are intelligent, able and well-motivated, that you are open to communication, that you know how to listen.” - Robert Greenleaf

SERVICE & CONNECTION

Brad Goldsmith ‘15

Photo Credit Brad Goldsmith

food production are not the ones most Davidson College Farm Internship worth meeting. The community I’ve come in contact with through working I think community is all-incluon the farm this summer ranges as far as sive, it’s an integrated whole. CommuConcord to Barbee Farms where Tom nity is wherever there is relationship Barbee walked us through his fields, between two or more people. You can along with a young Guilford graduate start with people and let everything who sold compost and toured our farm else fall into place; objects, money, economy, form, function, because their to offer his perspective from managing the Guilford farm. S and D Coffee even relations flow from people. There’s no provided a truckload of coffee grounds unrelated strand you can extract from the whole, but it begins with the people. for us to till into the fields to increase Or you could say it begins with the land nitrogen content. and the sustenance it provides to human Centered in the Davidson comlife. However, no matter how essential or elemental dependence on the land is, munity, even outside of the college, the farm had numerous visitors inquiring people define their own relationship to about the workings of the farm or even the land as well as their relation to the with interest in volunteering. Within the community. In their relations with othcollege community, a number of stuers, individuals define the needs of the community, rather than the community dents work on the farm through workas a whole defining the needs of individ- study. Patterson Court organizations and athletic teams volunteer and contribute uals. For ease, efficiency, and quantity, the Davidson College organic farm may compost. Professors and staff occasionally volunteer (more because they are not be the best option, but there are gardening enthusiasts and neighbors). enough people in the community of The Physical Plant staff helped to build the opinion that these needs regarding

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the high tunnel and a number of them still have a great interest in the well being of the farm. Whether it’s picking up mulch, leaves, sand, tractor equipment, trapping animal pests, or even just stopping by to say hello, there is a close working relationship between Physical Plant and the Farm. The Commons staff came out to the farm to work on several occasions this summer. Holly literally took the basil from field to kitchen as she cut the basil herself and then made pesto, completing the entire process. Even outside of reunion dates, alumni would often drop by out of curiosity or old connections. Each time a visitor came by, whether an experienced farmer friend offering advice and wisdom or a curious stranger interrupting the workday with hopes for a tour, Theresa would graciously entertain, listening carefully to whatever words of advice were given or taking time to explain the workings of the farm to the unfamiliar. This is all a part of farming, and I underestimated at

first the social nature of the trade. At the risk of being cliché, I think its worth including that Theresa did perfect justice to the Robert Frost poem “A Time to Talk:” WHEN a friend calls to me from the road And slows his horse to a meaning walk, I don’t stand still and look around On all the hills I haven’t hoed, And shout from where I am, What is it? No, not as there is a time to talk. I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground, Blade-end up and five feet tall, And plod: I go up to the stone wall For a friendly visit. I wouldn’t say farming is a profit driven enterprise, much less organic farming. Sure, it can certainly be profitable, but if you’re looking to make a good deal of money, it would pay to look elsewhere. Farming is about relationships more than profit and mass production. Large-scale “agribusiness” farming may be able to deal in the quantitative economics of bottom line profits, which cares for little beyond the cold hard facts, but small-scale organic farming prioritizes character and quality. Large-scale commercial farming operates like an industry where workers function like specialized machines built around maximizing yield. Smaller organic farms, without the aid of machinery operating across impersonal acres, cultivate the land with an intimate relationship to the land’s condition, working with its strengths and deficiencies naturally rather than relying on the dint of artificial fertilizer and pesticides. Farming retains a character of craftsmanship, a trade rather than an industry. Having a local organic farm run by the college really does reconnect the people with the land and with each other, something equally as important as the energy-saving and sustainability benefits. I got to study abroad in England last summer, but this experience was equally formative in my education as a college student. Instead of getting away from the “Davidson bubble,” I got to go

a little further inside and truly enjoyed building connections within Davidson. Davidson feels a little more like home now. I was able to see some of the inner workings of the college and see the relationships between Theresa and the Commons and Davis Café staff, Physical Plant, and a wide variety of other Davidson employees. Frances Alexander, from the Pre-Med department, called because she thought an old cabinet might be of use for storing seeds on the farm. When we went to pick it up from Preyer, Dr. Stell was cleaning out his office and disposing of a number of books and told us we could take our pick of the collection if we found anything of interest. Certainly. As a farmer, fellow employee, and neighbor, the connection that Theresa and the Davidson farm have throughout the college community is something special. I’ve heard it said that the Davidson College staff is like a family, and from what experience I’ve had in relation to the farm, I’ve seen that to be true across a number of different departments. As there are few unrelated aspects of community, this experience showed me that you can’t separate learning from everyday life. I think sometimes you can see a truer love of learning outside of an academic setting, where it can often be viewed as merely a means to an end; often academic performance is incentivized by profit and power. That’s oversimplifying it quite a bit and I don’t mean to say that schools lack of a love of learning, for that is certainly not the case, but I do think there is a large number of students (not here at Davidson) whose primary motivation is to pursue whatever agreeable course that will lead to the most lucrative personal benefit whether it’s law, business, finance, medicine, etc. These are all phenomenal ends and of great benefit to society (likely more so than farming) and most are undertaken with the goal of aiding the community, but the potential downside is a less than pure passion clouded by ambition. It’s easy to slip into these pursuits because

of the profit, power, and prestige they may offer while telling yourself you are doing for the community, but these can often lead to relationships that are more competitive than cooperative. Learning, like farming, can function just as well when pursued as an end in itself rather than a means, still leading to a different profit of its own. The labor itself is more rewarding than its fruits. I got to know Jimmy Freeze, who has worked in Physical Plant for over three decades. Now the supervisor of the mechanical shop, he has worked on the college heating and air system as well as being in charge of the college’s locksmith work. An interest in blacksmithing began the acquaintance and he quickly offered to teach me. Aside from blacksmithing, I quickly learned that Jimmy is kind of a jack-of-all-trades. Outside of his Physical Plant duties, Jimmy still farms some of his land, owns a number of horses, has several shops where he tinkers with clocks, horse carriages, tractors, an old Model A Ford in mint condition, and a blacksmith forge. He’s also taught himself how to play an ancient pump organ, as well as the guitar, bass fiddle, and banjo. There may not be a lot of profit to these, when compared to the highly specialized education of someone working in finance, business, or law, but there’s something to be said for these pursuits in which the value of the process far outweighs the product. Just like there’s a value in learning for learning’s sake, I think there’s a value in farming for farming’s sake. There were days on the farm, that we’d spend planting a 170 foot row of cucumber seedlings that simply didn’t produce or died in the sun. We’d plant a row of melons and they would all dry up and split or end up providing a meal for the deer and raccoons. We’d spend a day weeding a field, and before we could return our attention to it from other tasks, it would be entirely re-grown. Sometimes the soil just simply wasn’t fertile enough and would require months or even years of careful

maintenance to work more nutrients into the beds. What of it? That is where the continuance of effort “builds a relationship with the land.” A relationship for relation’s sake that will eventually be productive because it is not built around results, but the process. As the summer came to an end, I felt I knew the Davidson community a little better. I met quite a few community members over the summer through working on the farm, not a tremendous amount, but more than I expected. When I began working on the farm, I was a little unsure of how to define community in the context of the work I was doing, which I assumed would just be grunt work in the field. I felt the “Davidson bubble” get a little smaller, if that makes sense. The relationships built were a lot more meaningful and I enjoyed the opportunity to be able to work outside. As far as where I go from here, I hope to still continue spending time at the farm when I can throughout my last year at Davidson. I hope the college will continue to make a committed investment in the Davidson farm as a staple, not only of the Davidson dining services, but of the Davidson community. The Davidson farm has a lot more to offer than just a local source of organic produce. As it grows, I think it can be an integral part of the character of Davidson College, offering students a more well-rounded aspect of a liberal arts education that escapes some of the narrow focus of specialized academia or even academia itself. I think farming is one of those endeavors where it becomes most clear and obvious, as I saw from Theresa, Jim King, and much of the Davidson staff, that the people who do the work and their community are far more important than the work they do and its immediate effects. That’s clear enough but I think it’s worth the reminder from time so that community can function properly without slipping into valuing its functions and its work over the people and relationships that enact

them. In “The American Scholar” Emerson writes of the fragmentation of community into unrelated mechanized parts who each work toward their own ends rather than working in harmony. “There is One Man, --present to all particular men only partially, or through one faculty; and that you must take the whole society to find the whole man. Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all. Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier. In the divided or social state, these functions are parceled out to individuals, each of whom aims to do his stint of the joint work, whilst each other performs his. The fable implies, that the individual, to possess himself, must sometimes return from his own labor to embrace all the other laborers. But unfortunately, this original unit, this fountain of power, has been so distributed to multitudes, has been so minutely subdivided and peddled out, that it is spilled into drops, and cannot be gathered( Emerson). Man is thus metamorphosed into a thing, into many things. The planter, who is Man sent out Into the field to gather food, is seldom cheered by any idea of the true dignity of his ministry. He sees his bushel and his cart, and nothing beyond and sinks into the farmer, instead of Man on the farm. The tradesman scarcely ever gives an ideal worth to his work, but is ridden by the routine of his craft, and the soul is subject to dollars (Emerson).

Caitlin Reilly ‘17 - WWOOFing in Ireland

The term community was completely reframed for me through my experience at Sunny Meadow Farm in County Galway, Ireland. I was a member of several different communities at varying levels. At the smallest level, I was part of the Sunny Meadow Farm community that was comprised simply of the O’Mara family and the four WWOOFers who lived and worked there. Sunny

Meadow strives to be as self-sufficient as possible and so we lived, worked, ate, and interacted with one another within the framework of the farm. We cut lettuce for our salad only moments before we ate it, depended on one another to move heifers safely across the road, and lived every day together in our small four-person cabin. We were also part of a larger community as well. The other WWOOFers and I biked the ten kilometers to the nearest town on weekends and went to the market to sell Sunny Meadow’s produce. Although in some ways we were very isolated on the farm we were also very intimately connected to the community around us through the food we grew. When we visited town, locals would happily talk for hours about the delicious vegetables they received from Sunny Meadow and the ways in which their access to local, healthy food had helped to shape their lives. My experience within the community of WWOOFers at Sunny Meadow was both a surprise and one of the best parts of my time in Ireland. Living with people around my own age from Germany, Spain, and Ireland both challenged my preconceived ideas about those countries as well as taught me more about their cultures and their views on American culture. Hearing about my fellow WWOOFers experiences at their own universities helped me to see similarities between us, and form connections with the people with whom I was living. I was also concerned, at the start of my trip, that I would encounter people who were unwelcoming to Americans. While my fellow WWOOFers and others certainly had stereotypes in mind about Americans, especially college students, they were still open to changing these ideas and learning more about what life in the U.S. is really like. My time in Ireland also allowed me to realize a greater sense of independence than I feel here in North Carolina. At Davidson, there are always

people around to support you and the college is always able to help you achieve your goals, which is one of my favorite parts about my college experience so far. It was also fulfilling, however, to be more on my own in Ireland. I arranged travel plans, had to rely on myself to get where I needed to go, and was generally responsible for myself and my actions in a different way than I am at Davidson. By discovering this about myself, it has allowed me to better assert myself since I’ve returned home and as I reintegrate myself into the Davidson community. In addition to the greater sense of independence that I gained during my trip, there are also more concrete contributions to my college education. This includes small things, like learning a new way of training tomatoes that I’ve brought back to the Farm at Davidson College as well as a more complete sense of the way in which environmental systems interact in order to hold balance in the ecosystem. This was demonstrat-

ed through practices at Sunny Meadow such as movable chicken coops that we moved from field to field, following the herd of cows. This allowed the chickens to clean up after the cows and to gain nutrients and health benefits that would not be possible through artificial feed alone. I also learned about the amount of work that goes into supporting even a relatively small human population. From preventing pests and watering polytunnels, to collecting eggs and maintaining on-site compost, every part of the system at the farm had to be meticulously maintained in order to produce the necessary output. These hands-on learning experiences will help me to better understand environmental concepts in my classes at Davidson and will allow me to bring a fresh and more direct perspective to my environmental studies major. Davidson has already taken so many steps toward sustainability in the last few years. We have a Sustainability Office, the Environmental Studies

major, recycling and compost, and the farm on Grey Road. These lessons that I took away from my time in Ireland have inspired me, however, to try to further these initiatives. I certainly plan to continue my work at the Farm at Davidson College and in communications at the Sustainability Office but I also hope to bring more sustainable food options to my eating-house and the college in general. Agriculture is an integral part of every Davidson student’s life as it both provides the food that sustains them and is one of the founding principles of the college we call home. Despite this, many students seem to live oblivious to agriculture’s contribution to their daily lives and I hope to bring our college’s farm closer to the forefront of its students’ minds. Events like Farm Formal and volunteer days at the farm are great ways to do this and are programs that I hope to work harder to promote in my time at Davidson.

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

Courtney Rufh ‘15 – Pearls for Creative Healing

When I first got the news that I was paired with Pearls for Creative Healing, I was slightly disappointed. I had hoped that I would be paired with an education based nonprofit such as Communities in Schools, especially since I am planning on working in college access/higher education upon graduation. However, after talking more with my advisor and reading the position description, I decided that this disappointment was unwarranted. After all, who was I to judge my summer before it had even started? Now that I am in my final week as a Community Engagement Fellow, I can say with certainty that this summer was a pleasant surprise. I have made strong friendships and connections, heard incredible stories of strength and resilience, and grown stronger in my own self-awareness.

Photo Credit Yijiao Chen

My supervisor at Pearls for

Creative Healing has become an incredible mentor and friend. Even upon our first time speaking (via Skype while I was abroad in Denmark), I found myself confiding in Sandra about the importance of graduating on time from Davidson as a first-generation college student. Within the first few weeks, we would joke about being each other’s stalkers after I got a notification that she had viewed my profile on LinkedIn and consequently admitted that I had googled her name before my first day in the office. However, beyond the ease of our friendship, Sandra offered important lessons in how to present the best image of myself. For example, she suggested that I work on coming off as less emotional. This might seem like a harsh comment, but it was something that I had wanted to improve on for a long time. Sandra mentioned that one of the best tips she ever got was when her husband reminded her of the importance in remembering the facts of every situation. Doing so is crucial in making the most practical decision, especially for someone like me who finds it easy to get swept up in feelings. I also found myself inspired by the other board members who I met. Whereas one member had a quiet profoundness about him, another led the group with her wonderful sense of humor. Hearing each member’s own personal story and experience with domestic violence helped me better understand the target audience of the organization. Although no one story of domestic violence is “better” or “worse” than another, there is one particular

story that an “End the Silence” participant shared that has stood out in my mind. This particular participant was only a child when she was impacted by the violence of an abuser, which makes her a child observer. However, she will forever remember the night that she was forced to watch the abuser stab her mother to death. Perhaps this story has resonated with me the most because of my own close relationship with my mother. Or maybe it was the graphic way this participant described the experience of her mother’s blood squirting on her siblings and herself. Either way, I have learned that the most important part of being a survivor of domestic violence is having the strength to move on. As this participant shared, a day does not pass where she doesn’t think of her mother. Yet she has found the ability to use this experience to raise awareness in order for others to avoid similar situations. She shared this story at a recent event, commenting on the need for her to keep a positive attitude. I think this is what is most unique about Pearls for Creative Healing. Although domestic violence is not a situation that anyone would choose to endure, Pearls for Creative Healing has found a way to make being a survivor something to be proud of by embracing the strength and beauty. I loved that I was able to be part of such an interesting perspective on a topic that has otherwise been cast in a somber and sad light. One of my biggest concerns at the beginning of the summer was whether or not I would be able to handle a 9 to 5 job. Although I am used to working several jobs on top of classes, this summer is the first time that I have been asked to work on a consistent basis. While my schedule has been more flexible than I had originally imagined, I have realized that working a 9 to 5 is still within the realm of possibilities. However, one thing I did learn about myself is that I do not work well in a noisy, communal space. This is a practical lesson that will be useful as I look to future employment opportunities. Lastly, although

I had not realized it coming into the summer, I have found that I really enjoy using my graphic design skills to create fliers and images. I am grateful that Sandra has challenged me in this aspect by assigning me several different graphic design projects. Beyond the time that I spent at Pearls for Creative Healing, I am extremely glad that I was able to form deeper connections to each of the other 9 Civic Engagement Fellows. Although I did not know many of them well going into the summer, I can confidently say that we will walk out of this experience as greater friends because of the time we have shared reflecting and serving. Together with my experiences at Pearls, I would say I certainly learned a lot as a Community Engagement Fellow.

Erin Nieusma ‘16 – International House

What I failed to think about for most of this summer was that the students I taught would possibly miss me when I was gone. I am very aware that my service was very hands-on and allowed me to work directly with the people I served, but I guess I never gave myself the credit to think that I was actually having a very positive impact on peoples’ lives. Granted, I’m still not convinced that I was qualified enough to actually teach a class, as I have never researched or studied anything related to education (my only qualification is that I have a couple different tutoring experiences). What I was able to provide my students was a welcoming, humorous at times, non-judgmental space to learn. And, I also taught some English. I didn’t really start thinking about how my students would be affected by my departure until the third to last class session. After I had dismissed the class, I was cleaning up the room when one of my students wrapped me in a big hug and told me “I very very love you, teacher. You my grand-daughter”. Candidly, this student was my favorite. She was an old woman from Kyrgyzstan who really brought the humor to every class. She quickly became friends with a young man from Guatemala, and he would help her with things when she didn’t understand. He also started teaching her some Spanish.   At that point, I had a sense that this woman would be sad to see me go, and I

felt good that, even if I wasn’t the best teacher, my students liked me. This is a crucial part of service I think, not making the people you’re helping feel like you’re some grand person looking down on them. Not making them feel othered. Even though I had a feeling I was being missed, I didn’t think about the consequences my leaving could have. Then, the Monday of my last week, the same woman came back in for our English tutoring program. She had missed the first two sessions because her grandson was sick. After each time she missed, she would come to class and explain that she would be there for me to teach her the next week. Each time I explained that we had a special tutor just for her, but I think that was lost in translation. So, when the students showed up for tutoring another Monday, she immediately called me over to be her “teacher”. I told her that I was not her teacher today, but that I had a special teacher just for her. She was not happy with this and

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

One thing that hadn’t been on my mind too much this summer, but is very relevant now that I’m leaving is: what will I be leaving behind when my service ends. Unlike some of the other fellows this summer, my site supervisor designed my summer project to have a definite start and end date. I was responsible for designing and teaching the eight-week summer English as a Second Language course at International House (IH). This course was specifically planned for my time at IH, and was only offered because I would be at IH this summer. Without my service, IH couldn’t have afforded to hold the class, and this was the first time this summer class would be held. Any secondary projects I had were mostly picking up the slack where need be for my supervisor, Megan—and she had a lot to do, but there were no other long-term projects I needed to help IH with. The combination of these factors is what, I think, made it easier to disregard what the state of things would be without me. Megan would find new volunteers to do the weekly, mostly short-term tasks that always need to be done, and things would run as usual (though they would

be less hectic probably, without adding the extra ESL summer class to the list of programs).

told me “if you not my teacher, then I go”. She started getting up to leave, but I convinced her to wait for her tutor, who luckily, had just arrived.   Later that day, I was talking with a staff member from the legal clinic. I hadn’t gotten to know this woman too well in my time at IH, but we occasionally would talk at lunch. She asked me how things were going with my ESL. I told her that I was really enjoying my time teaching, but that this was my last week. She sadly told me that Megan would miss me when I left - that was the way it always worked with volunteers. “We get to know them and like them, and then they go”, she said.   I knew going into this summer that I was going to International House for one summer and would have a specific purpose that I would accomplish in eight weeks, and then the education department would move on. However, it never occurred to me that my students might be really sad to see me go. This is, I think, an unintended consequence that frequently comes up when we do direct service. I was only there for the summer, but my students will be there much longer. They will probably see a lot of tutors or teachers come and go, and I’m sure that the turnover can be confusing and stressful, especially when you can’t even speak English and fully understand what’s happening. Service can be a wonderful thing, especially when you are lucky enough to directly interact with those who you are helping. But it is important to keep in mind that, no matter how much good you do during your service time, it’s always difficult, for both parties, when you leave.

Hannah Sikes ‘16 – Crisis Assistance Ministry

Walking into Crisis Assistance Ministry on the first day I had grand ideas of what my role would look like, and how I would be able to make enormous progress for the city in my 10-week stay. Although I did not realize it at the time, I viewed my

clients as numbers. They were statistics that I wanted to help and change, and fix and serve. Over the course of the first few weeks, I quickly became aware of my misperception of why I was there. No matter how many clients I saw one day, the lobby would be full the next day. No matter how much I wanted to help someone, I was bound by rules and regulations much bigger than myself. Although I encountered this struggle multiple times each day, one example in particular sticks in my mind. A young woman sat in the chair across from my desk. She matched my kind and professional demeanor throughout the interview, despite the intensity of the content of our discussion. She spoke about her fear of being evicted from her house as if she was reading a textbook – slow and practiced, with little emotion or eye contact. The details about the actual circumstances were given easily enough, but I had to pry to get the background information that I needed. I learned that she had been unemployed for the past 11 months due to a criminal charge that would not be wiped from her record until the next month. Previous to her unemployment, she had nearly owned her house, but had fallen behind on mortgage payments and began selling her belongings to buy food for her son. She had finally ran out of things to sell, and had run out of people to help her – Crisis Assistance Ministry was her last resort. I went through all the necessary steps to fill out my paperwork and left her in my office as I went to consult with a supervisor about her case. Upon my return, I let her know that we would be able to help with part of her payment, but that she would need to come up with $106.07 in order to prevent eviction. In my mind, the case was a success and I was mentally checked out, preparing for the next client who might not be as lucky. I glanced back at the once calm and humble woman and noticed that the look on her face had changed from shame and detachment to fear and desperation. She

began to cry – shattering the illusion of resolution to which I had been clinging. I watched in horror as this adult woman transformed into a screaming child. She sobbed and begged me to give her more money. I was paralyzed. I was overwhelmed by her reaction. We did not have any more assistance to offer her, yet my heart was breaking. In the moment I did not have the grace or foresight to excuse myself from the office and get a superior. So, I sat and waited as she tried to come up with the needed money. I listened as person after person hung-up on her – her sister, her best friend, her neighbor, even her mother. Her cries grew more desperate with each call until finally she was able to secure the money from her ex-husband. After a few moments of composing ourselves, I walked her out of the office and to the lobby door like any other client. I reentered my office and shut the door. Immediately my professional exterior shattered and tears began to fall. I wept for the fear of the future for this woman and her son. I wept for the loneliness she felt as her family and friends abandoned her. I wept for the shame I felt in experiencing her brokenness so intimately. I wept, because I knew that I had $106.07 in my checking account to spare. It was seeing this woman sacrifice her humanity and dignity in front of me that I began to see what my role truly was at Crisis Assistance Ministry. I was not there to pay peoples’ bills or give them a list of community resources. Those things were good and necessary, but that is not the ministry that Jesus preached. I was there to make space - to simply stand beside each of my clients as a fellow human being, and allow them to be just that – a human being. To make space for all of their victories, all of their brokenness, all of their personalities, and all of their hopes and dreams. I wasn’t there to fix something, or change someone, or serve a certain number of hours. I was simply there to be in community with any person who walked into my door. After

that day, on no account of my own, my small 5x8 office became a holy space. There were many days when I wanted to run away and slam the door behind me. Letting people be fully themselves in your presence forces you to marinate in the messiness that is the self within you as well. This process of being instead of doing, was a big change for me, but one that helped me grow significantly. I began to recognize people by their inherent worth and dignity simply because of the fact that they exist. I also began to tangibly recognize myself and my own worth granted to me as a privilege of being a child of God. It cannot be ignored that this process was guided and encouraged along by many incredible friends and mentors. The community created by the Stapleton-Davidson internship was again, far more than I could have imagined. Each intern, co-worker and leader helped me to see another facet of my identity as well as challenged me to see how much brokenness and need there is in the world and in the city. How this summer applies to my future is a big question that I wrestled with for a long time before writing this reflection. My day-to-day life at Davidson looks very different than life in Charlotte for a working mother with three children, or a social worker in an office at a non-profit. However, when I took into consideration all the things I had learned, two patterns emerged.

The second pattern was harder to see at first. I was reminded that planning can be good, and is often necessary. I opened my eyes to the fact that the world is messy and broken and sometimes we have to be willing to throw our plans out the window. So yes, I do still think I am playing the game of “Life of Hannah,” and the uncertainty that lies ahead is a reality. While I can be very intentional in directing some aspects of my life, I feel much more settled with the fact that showing up and simply putting yourself out there is often enough. Jesus does not ask us to have a perfect 10-year plan. He simply wants us to be with people and treat them with dignity and honor. Whether that means letting a mother sit and cry in your office, or choosing to stand with those in poverty in your medical career, or simply saying hello to a first year student when they pass you on campus. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a Stapleton-Davidson intern this summer. I can say with confidence that it has been the most defining experience of my spiritual and personal life thus far.

Joi Stevens ‘17 – Girls, Inc.

I still remember my voice trembling as I told my Girls Incorporated family goodbye. Before I could begin my journey at Davidson College, I would have to leave the women that helped me transition from an impressionable preteen to a bold young-woman. My departure was very difficult, to say the least, but I vowed to come back and influence the lives of others. This past summer, as my Bonner Summer of Service, I fulfilled my vow. Girls Inc. is the oldest girl-serving organization in the United States. Girls Inc.’s mission is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Girls Inc. offers after school, summer and mentoring programs. These programs vary from economic literacy to robotics to poetry. Through this organization, I have been exposed to various career fields, advocated for women’s rights with policy makers and discovered my worth as a woman in this ever changing society.

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

This summer I learned the value of a conversation with a stranger on the bus. I learned that accepting hospitality with grace is the first step to being able to extend it to another. I was reminded that in order to love people as well as I would like to, I must first love myself. I learned that any space, no matter how small and stuffy, can be made holy if we are fully present with another person. Although I may never experience or interact with people living in poverty in the same capacity as I did this summer, I have learned how to see the dignity

that is inherent in each human being, regardless of circumstance. My career path or list of student activities may not shift much, but I hope that the way I choose to approach those things will be drastically different – with a focus on honoring the worth of each person that I encounter more than the concern of personal achievement or success.

Being a girl in today’s society is not easy, but Girls Inc. goes beyond just acknowledging that; Girls Inc. encourages girls to do something about it. Returning to Girls Inc. of San Antonio this summer, I was no longer a volunteer or mentor, but a program facilitator. I was now a member of a team that creates an environment for girls from all walks of life to explore intellectually, emotionally and mentally. After nearly 200 hours of training, tests, and interviews, I was confident in my abilities as a program facilitator. I began this journey, assuming that I would be facilitating discussions on women and media, on the meaning of sisterhood, on the importance of goal setting and on what a balanced life looks like. However, my role in these girls’ lives was more than I could have ever expected it to be.

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

I was proof that women of color can and do graduate from high school. I became motivation to speak up even if you think you may be wrong. I made

girls laugh, and cry, and think, and speak up. However, it is undeniable that they changed my life, too. These young girls are fearlessly passionate about the world around them. In my media literacy class, I taught them how movies are created, and then challenged them to create their own scripts. I was impressed that developing movie scripts in a way that has never been done before did not scare them. I was absolutely baffled when one girl interrupted my self-defense class to ask for permission to combine moves, and test whether or not the moves were useful. When I facilitated small group discussions on bullying, the girls were not concerned by how others might judge their opinions. My job was very stressful. I had many strict rules to abide by, many forms to keep track of, many schedules to manage. But looking back on my summer, all I see are their eyes full of hope and curiosity. I think of them

whenever I’m afraid to speak my mind. I think of them whenever I get the urge to ignore a problem that doesn’t directly affect me. I think of them when singing along to the Frozen soundtrack. I hope that they still think of me.

Keri Register ‘16 – Lutheran Hospice Homes

This summer was filled with contrasts between vastly differing communities half way around the world, as well as surprising commonality despite the immense distance across oceans. I began the summer volunteering with Lutheran Hospice Homes of South Carolina, an organization that focuses on providing facility or in home health care to patients identified as terminally ill. After 3 weeks, I set off for Mwandi, Zambia, where I spent my days at the UCZ mission hospital, providing care to patients of varying ages and afflictions, as well as Kandiana, a hospital facility dedicated to elderly community members with no family to care for them. The life lessons and experiential wis-

dom I gained from both organizations changed my perspective on health care in developing and developed countries, but most importantly, I learned about the value of learning from the experiences and life stories of the elderly who have seen and done so much more than we can ever imagine. Lutheran Hospice offers its services to about 50 patients at a time, with the majority residing at a nursing facility, while about 10% continue to live at home. The hospice offers medications, personal care supplies and nursing care at no cost to their patients. Every resident was assigned a team of professionals, incorporating a holistic approach to end-of-life care. Besides an overseeing physician, a registered nurse and a nursing assistant, residents had regular interactions with a chaplain and a social worker, as well as a volunteer. Every week, all staff would come together and share observations regarding not only the patient’s health, but also spiritual and social well-being. As the only non-profit hospice in the state, the level of personal care each patient was treated with struck me. The staff all referred to patients by their first name, took time out of their busy professional lives to just check in on their patients at all hours of the night, and brought them gifts and treats for special occasions like July 4th. This differed drastically from the nursing facilities that I became acquainted with while my own grandmother was in hospice care, where most interactions between staff and patient were strictly professional and impersonal. Those who worked at Lutheran Hospice truly had a passion for elder care and above all were focused on caring for the entirety of the person, rather than minimizing them to a medical case. Similar trends were found at the UCZ Mission Hospital and Kandiana. The United Church of Zambia Mission Hospital opened its doors wide to nine Davidson students this summer, showing us the joys and tragedies of health care in a developing country. During

the month that I spent working side by side with Mwandian nurses, doctors and missionaries, I was welcomed into a community that persisted in hope and fellowship despite unimaginable tragedies and difficult circumstances. During my time at the hospital, every day was met with drastic contrasts such as the birth of healthy babies and the deaths of numerous HIV or meningitis patients. The hospital staff, together with the Davidson students, rejoiced when sick children became healthy, but seconds later mourned when a child with a treatable condition passed away because the medications or equipment were not available. Interestingly, many nurses and mission employees were fully invested in the care of the patients, but some, such as government-employed doctors or clinical officers, refused to view the patients as people. The nurses, who basically single-handedly ran the hospital would stay hours after the hospital closed to teach us about varying medications or educate us on trends in HIV and AIDS, but the doctors often refused to even touch their patients or would accuse the patient of lying instead of admitting they were wrong. However, those who truly cared persisted in hope that things would get better, and were willing to share their experiences and knowledge with us. They became not only our teachers, but our friends, inviting us to play soccer with them after work or eating dinner with us. During my time in Mwandi, I also spent a lot of time at Kandiana, meaning “small village”, dedicated to the elderly of the village with no family. Though elders without families were typically ostracized from the community, forced to beg from door to door in order to get food or a place to sleep for the night, Kandiana provided a safe haven for 12 from this vulnerable population to live out their lives in relative peace. One woman, Catherine, ran the whole facility, cooking, cleaning and bathing the residents every day for as long as they lived. The job gave her enough resources to provide for her 5

children, but her purpose and passion was worth far more than that. She said “caring for the elderly is a blessing”, despite the impossible pressures placed on one person’s shoulders. Catherine introduced me to every resident and translated for me as I learned the life stories of each of the residents. I met a 90 year old man who worked his whole life hunting tortoises in the Zambezi River, a blind, elderly woman who danced with me when she first met me, and many railroad workers and coal miners who had lives filled with hard labor and loneliness. All in all, this summer taught me to appreciate the depth and authenticity of the lives of many of the forgotten populations ignored by much of society, be they in the developing world or right here at home in America. I learned so much from everyone in the communities I worked in, and saw that the more I invest myself in those relationships, the more I would gain from their knowledge and wisdom. So very often, we get caught up in the busy-ness of everyday life and forget that the most important things we could ever learn are held by the people we meet.

Leslie Alvarado ‘17 – Barium Springs

I must admit that when my advisor first assigned me to Barium Springs, I was frightened. I did not think I could work with kids, much less with kids that had behavioral issues. But after spending eight weeks at Barium Springs I could not be happier. On the first day of my internship I drove to work with fear and anxiety sitting in the pit of my stomach but on my last day as I drove back to Davidson I couldn’t hold back the tears as I left Barium and my Barium Boys behind. Even the thought that I would hopefully be back in the fall semester could not stop the tears. I got attached to a group of boys who changed my perspective on a lot of things and I couldn’t be more grateful for getting the opportunity to meet them and interact with them.

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

When I first arrived at Barium Springs it was still unclear which class I would be working with. I would be interning with the day treatment program and within the program there were two classes: early and middle/high school. Once my training was complete I was assigned to the middle/high school classroom. As the intern I essentially had the same authority as any other staff member, I just couldn’t be left alone with the boys. I could teach them and give them positive and negative points. It took the boys a couple of days to warm up to me, but once they did, they had no problem accepting me as both a staff member and (I would like to think) as their friend. The boys were all there for different reasons and had different skills they needed to be working on. They also had been at Barium for varying amounts of times; some were relatively new to the program while others had been there for months.

I worked with the boys for the following six weeks and on occasion would go into the early classroom and work with them as well. I helped my boys with their art projects, working alongside them and creating my own project that I could compare to theirs, I played games with them, and lost in both Connect Four and chess more times than I can remember. I even taught them a couple of Spanish phrases and words, which they absolutely loved. When I worked with the early classroom I typically just watched the youth as they played at the local YMCA pool, and talked with them as they ate their lunch. In short, I was a mix between a teacher and a mentor. I was young enough that they felt comfortable around me, but old enough that they still knew I had authority. My boys taught me that someone’s first impression or past tells you nothing about them. On file these boys seem incredibly scary, but in person they’re sweet, kind, and harmless gentlemen. They’re just like any other teenage boys. They love Frozen, Connect Four, Uno and soccer. They’ve made mistakes and done bad things, but you can’t judge them for that because if you do then you’ll never get a chance to know them, which would be a great loss. These boys each have great personalities; they’re hilarious, compassionate young men and it’s a shame that they haven’t been loved in the way they deserve. My boys are all at Barium because they made bad decisions but their bad decisions are typically the prod-

uct of traumatic events in their pasts. Spending time with my boys has made me really cognizant of people and how they treat their children. I find myself watching mothers and fathers interacting with their children in stores and I get really sad. For the most part, parents are affectionate with their children, but most of my kids got the short straw and weren’t loved like they deserved. This summer has made me more compassionate and more willing to look past the mistakes someone has made. I believe people are not only their mistakes, but also what they make of themselves after their mistakes. I think my whole experience at Barium Springs and how it changed me can be summed up in a lyric from rapper Watsky’s song “Sloppy Seconds”. Before Barium I would have never thought that children with backgrounds like my boys at Barium could be saved. But after Barium my mindset is more “I don’t care where you’ve been, How many miles, I still love you”.

Nathan Argueta ‘16 - Camp Finberg

I’ve been struggling with what to write about. Naturally, I would write about one moment in particular that lit a spark at my summer of service site and enlightened me to the world of service and philanthropy. Or, I could write about a time when I truly felt I had made someone’s day, or even their summer, through an act of kindness—or maybe even when someone had made my day. But really, I didn’t have one of these experiences—I had dozens. I would not be doing my summer justice to only speak about one event that truly made me feel proud to not only be a Bonner Scholar, but to be a camp counselor at the YMCA Camp Finberg in Norton, Massachusetts. However, for the sake of storytelling, I will give one example as to why spending the summer at Camp Finberg is truly a magical experience.

Throughout the summer, the camp counselors develop wonderful and meaningful friendships with each other, and undoubtedly with the campers as well. One friendship I made this past summer was with a girl named Maggie. Maggie is an 11-year old girl with the ambition and athleticism of a young LeBron James—no really, she’s nearly untouchable at almost any sport she plays. - even against the boys. Actually, the boys generally pick her first to be on their team. Now I know what you must be thinking, this girl must be about 6 foot 8 with a 7 foot wingspan and can bench 300. Nope. She is about a foot shorter than most of the girls in her age group, and she is definitely no Hulk Hogan in the weight room, but the thing that separates her from all of the other kids is her drive and willingness to never give up once she sets her mind to something—sports in particular. I remember one soccer game when she would not stop playing until she had scored a goal.

And eventually she did. But along with her enthusiasm for sports, Maggie is the perfect example of a teammate you would want to have off the field as well. She was quick to lend a helping hand to a friend in need and she never hesitated to make someone’s day brighter when they were not having the best of days. She was also a terrific helper to the counselors, and me in particular. I would lose my camp schedule, on average, four times per week—weekends not included—so most days, I would struggle to keep track of what activities we would be doing and where we would be going. Maggie quickly offered to hold on to my schedule for the week and be the official schedule announcer when we would have to change activities and head off in a different direction. I immediately thought she would lose the schedule as well, so I went home that night and made about a dozen copies of my schedule to keep in my bag just in case

she misplaced it. She never did. In fact, she probably even had it memorized by the time the end of the summer rolled around. That’s just the kind of awesome kid Maggie was, and although she probably never knew it, I was inspired by her and all of the other kids at camp that give 110% every day. During the last week at camp, counselors generally give out their staff shirts to the campers that best exemplified what being a Camp Finberg camper should be like. During this week, counselors get hounded and bribed and treated extra nice by all of the campers trying to win over a last minute staff t-shirt—but not Maggie. Maggie’s last week was just like her first week; giving all she had to the activities at camp and not treating anyone differently in order to win a prize or token of gratitude. While I wish I could have given all of my campers a t-shirt, I only had three - and at this point I was positive

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

Photo Credit Taylor Brendle

that Maggie had earned one. So, on my last day at camp, I showed up with my three staff shirts ready to hand them out, and who greets me but Maggie with her list of campers that she thinks deserve a staff t-shirt. She was nowhere present in her list. As soon as she was done listing out her examples of outstanding campers, I asked her if she could give me the approval on the t-shirts I had decorated for my three campers. I showed her the first two and she lauded my choices. Finally, I showed her the last t-shirt with her name on it. At first, it was clear that she had not recognized that it was hers, but as soon as she saw her name her face suddenly lit up and she grabbed it and ran, thanking me as she held it over her head to show the director of the camp. After she had showed her friends in the most modest and non-bragging way I have ever witnessed, she ran back to where I was supervising the pool area and handed me a small package with candies and my name on it. I thought

she was giving every counselor a type of goody bag on the last day of camp, so I didn’t make much of it at the time, but once I got home and reached for the candy I found a note inside: “Dear Nathan (Grandma), I’m so sad that it is your last day today! I wish you could stay for the rest of the year… I wish you didn’t have to go back to school. All I can ask for, is that you come back next year, and the year after, and the year after that, AND the year after that, and so on. LOL! Ok, I don’t know if you’re capable of coming back EVERY year, being in college, and all… (Though, that’d be awesome…) But I just hope to see you next year! You were more than just a ‘counselor’ to me. You were my friend. Thank you for an awesome camp year! Good Luck in School. P.S. Remember how at the beginning of the camp year you gave us all that candy (Jolly Ranchers)? Well, I have decided to return the favor.

Now, it may not be a whole bag of Jolly Ranchers, but at least it’s something! Maggie” You’re probably wondering why I have the nickname “Grandma,” and I wish it were because I could bake really well, or because I have my own cookbook. But, I actually got the nickname because one day all my kids wanted to do was play tag and at a certain point I just literally could not run anymore so I had to sit down… and they called me grandma ever since. Her letter to me on my last day of camp really meant a lot to me. It meant that not only did I devote my summer to helping these kids have fun and be active, but also I was also able to make a difference in some of their lives. That’s what service is all about—giving something everything you’ve got, because it could make the difference for one life, one person or in my case, one camper. And believe me, the last day of camp shows just how

much not only I am doing for these kids, but all of the other counselors as well. With everyone crying and hugging their best friends and counselors, it is clear to me just how amazing Camp Finberg and the YMCA as a whole are.

Noah Driver ‘16 - Cannon Memorial YMCA

I chose to return to the YMCA this summer because of a sense of loyalty I had toward the organization. They employed me and offered me opportunity after opportunity throughout high school, and many of the greatest memories and friendships of my life have come out of that building. Yet, I knew this wouldn’t be a radical service departure for me, and several negative ideas popped into my head in the months leading up to this summer: the low pay (worsened by a lack of supplies), the whole “doesn’t-build-my-resume” thing, and, honestly, the thought of comparing my summer with those of jet-setting/ globe-trotting Davidson peers. There was a lot of selfishness and self-focus that I had to get past before making my decision.

So I prayed on it, was discouraged by some, and encouraged by

The kids made me want to be a teacher or a youth pastor or something. I don’t really know what I want to be, but I have a much better idea now. They were so many things at one time, so complicated, so compassionate, so caring, so disrespectful, and so inspiring. I know this is starting to sound like a corny diary entry, but I don’t care because I sound like a corny diary entry whenever anyone asks me about it anyway. I didn’t learn about large-scale nonprofit work. I didn’t learn any technical, transferable skills. I didn’t learn any fancy service buzzwords. And it honestly didn’t feel like service. It felt like work - sometimes

fun, sometimes stressful, sometimes sad. But always work. I felt like I was fighting to make those kids into better people, and, by summer’s end, I could see some of the results showing up right in front of my face. It was different than the service I’m used to with Bonner. It wasn’t theoretical or big-picture (not that there’s anything wrong with that either). It was ground floor, hands-on service that really felt like change. These weren’t predominantly at-risk youth, nor were they a population that Bonners typically seeks to serve. They were just regular kids at a day camp. Their problems were often small by comparison to the populations I have served before. But I feel like I can honestly say I did good, meaningful work here. My supervisor and coordinator are not planning to return next summer (after 26 combined summers of YMCA camp). The young man whom I consider to be the best male counselor

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

Then, my supervisor at the Y asked me to come back in a lead counselor role. A lead counselor runs their own group, plays a large part in the hiring process, and leads training sessions in the weeks leading up to camp. This was a position that I had been looking forward to holding since I was a junior in high school. I looked up to my lead staff members during my summer at the Y and always envisioned how I would act in that role. But I sensed a problem. Most people worked several summers before being offered this position, and I had only worked one at this point. Though I really wanted to take this as a compliment of my amazing camp counselor skills, I knew he was offering me the position because so many of his more experienced counselors had decided not to come back.

others (and talked to my advisor about it--naturally), and obviously ended up taking the job. Spoiler alert: that ended up being one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! I absolutely loved my experience this summer, and I have grown tremendously in my understanding of service, my future, and myself. I met so many fantastic kids who stole my heart immediately. I also met some kids who literally stole things from me and others who poured out their deepest fears and anxieties about school, friends, faith, and life in general. There were “troublemakers” who turned into examples for the younger kids at camp, theatrical devotions, dodgeball, color wars, more dodgeball, a heartbreaking expulsion, a thousand conversations about Minecraft and middle school drama and sports, a building-wide game of manhunt at 3:00 am, and a million other memories that I’ve spent the past week replaying over and over in my head.

I’ve ever met is leaving after 11 years of being enrolled at or working at this same camp. And my girlfriend, Peyton, who is far and away the best counselor with whom I’ve ever worked (no bias there, I promise), will also be moving on next summer. These four departures make me quite sad, and I worry over the future of this camp and its wonderful participants. I fear that my own leaving may push the camp past a breaking point it may have already reached. I know it’s sort of difficult to explain to anyone who hasn’t worked camp, but these thoughts weigh heavily upon me. I don’t know where I’ll be next summer. I barely know where I’ll be next Tuesday. But, whether or not I return for another summer in 2015, I know it will take an entire lifetime for me to forget this summer. And now I’m tearing up, so good-bye! :’).

Stefano Blandino ‘16 – YMCA Camp Hanes

Being on staff at Camp Hanes was an entirely new experience, even from my time working at a YMCA summer day camp as I never attended or worked at a sleep away camp before. Through this experience I learned many aspects of mentoring young adults, specifically when holding such an influential and important role in their lives. This experience allowed me to explore a number of personal interests, both physically and mentally.

One of the first goals I set out for myself was to improve my archery accuracy, and to be honest, it was the activity that first drew my attention to Camp Hanes. My Colombian grandfather was an expert marksman who even won a few competitions. I felt that if I could understand the discipline and patience necessary for archery, maybe I could grow closer to him. At camp this became the activity I familiarized myself with, going so far as to practice on my off nights and weekends. This got me noticed by camp officials, and I was assigned to teach archery to campers for the majority of the summer. Through teaching my campers week after week, I obtained a very strong foundation in the fundamentals of archery.

nication techniques in how I spoke to these young men. First and foremost, I referred to them as men whenever I wanted their attention as a group. In addition, I scheduled challenging team building obstacle activities the first two days of camp to try and foster a strong cabin unit and comradery. What was most effective in building team spirit was when I would have the campers sit together at night in a circle on the floor and say either something someone did for them that they appreciated, or something someone did that was awesome. Every camper would have to say something kind or encouraging about another camper. The most crucial lesson I learned during my summer at Camp Hanes was that “The greatest human need, is the need to feel appreciated . It was seeing complete strangers within the span of a week, encourage and uplift one another that truly showed me the power of positivity. It is this lesson I hope to incorporate into all of my ser-

Another goal I set for myself was to improve my overall physical health. Camp provided the right kind of daily physical activity that put me on track for my goal. I decided to schedule a hike in our Hidden Cliffs hike each week, and would bring as much energy to each new group of campers as I brought week one. The Cabin Counselor is a position of great influence over the campers. At Camp Hanes, for one week these young men were under my care at all times. By Monday, I would earn their respect by giving them clear expectations of how the week would work. I took the approach of allowing them to decide what kind of week we would have, making their decisions directly responsible for what they would get from me as a counselor. I also employed empowering commu-

Photo Credit Taylor Brendle

The YMCA requires training for all of its employees on basic first aid and abuse (for both adults and campers) prevention. The other half of my training week consisted of team building exercises and instruction on managing different activities using the YMCA protocols. During this instruction I was taught the basic fundamentals of archery, rifle and shotgun safety, how to use a paddle board, how to belay people climbing the alpine tower and climbing wall, how to properly canoe and kayak, paintball safety, and how to attach harnesses to both the water and treetop zip lines. I, however, gravitated towards

archery as it had been an interest of mine for quite some time. A few insights missing during the training week were guidance on the daily schedule (including how to plan for the week) and how to handle difficult situations that, I would come to learn, occurred regularly.

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

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“It’s where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we are.” -Joyce Carol Oates

SERVICE & GROWTH

Adam Stanaland ‘15 – LitWorld

LitWorld, where I worked this summer, was founded in 2007 as the sister organization to a company called LitLife. Loosely, LitLife can be described as an agency that performs “extreme classroom literacy makeovers” for various private and public institutions throughout the country. LitWorld was formed in an effort to directly apply their principles and practices to children through a series of camps, after-school programming and other types of clubs, which take a variety of forms. This summer, I worked on and at a LitCamp for children ages 5 to 14, but there are also LitClubs designed more specifically for a wide variety of children, teens, mothers and families. More formally, they seek to “cultivate literacy leaders worldwide through transformational literacy experiences that build connection, understanding, resilience and strength.”

the curriculum ended up consisting of a good amount of my lesson ideas, songs, skits and so on! Other than developing curriculum, LitWorld graciously assigned us to a variety of career-building opportunities. For example, I had a staff mentor named Yaya who is the domestic planner for LitWorld. She was an amazing resource and provided me with connections at Columbia University’s graduate school and helped tremendously to resolve an issue that came up between myself and another intern over the summer. Both of the connections she provided are board members for LitWorld who came to speak with us about their experiences in the education/ literacy field. In addition to these two men, many contributors to LitWorld gave their time to run workshops, teach, or simply talk to us. Hearing from so many different people all passionately dedicated to the same cause (and orga-

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

My summer internship with

LitWorld was spent in two very different, unique phases. The first five weeks of my summer were dedicated to more administrative work: learning about LitWorld, collaborating with the staff on a variety of projects, hearing from guest speakers, and mostly designing the curriculum of the upcoming LitCamp. This wide variety of tasks was a hugely beneficial learning experience for me. On most days we were sitting with full-time staff, going through pages and pages of previously used material, adapting it for our own camp, while also designing much of the material from our own previous experience. It was hugely rewarding to be able to apply my knowledge and receive feedback from the experienced staff. Sometimes, however, it was frustrating to feel limited by the very-specific LitWorld “lifestyle.” Although they were generally open to new ideas, my co-interns and I sometimes felt unimportant when our proposals weren’t even entertained. Regardless,

nization) was both inspiring and empowering. These meetings sometimes even took place over Skype, utilizing the power of technology to hear from LitWorld camps and camp leaders from around the globe. Beyond these meetings, I was assigned to assist another staff member in developing what is now being called the “LitCorp” program. She recruited me because of my knowledge of the best practices of educational organizations and gave me much authority in terms of starting the program almost from scratch. These experiences combined to give me an incredibly rounded and holistic skill set that I can take with me in my future endeavors (related to education or not). This first part of the summer taught me how to better collaborate with other passionate individuals in a business setting; it taught me that I need to work somewhere where all are as zealous as they are competent. The last five weeks of my time at LitWorld were devoted almost entirely to implementing our curriculum at an actual LitCamp in Harlem. The camp ran from 9:00am to 3:15pm for the kids, and we were there from about 8:00am to 5:00pm Monday through Thursday. The day began with what was called a “Morning Meeting” that was full of songs, ‘shooting stars’ (compliments) from the campers to each other, the plan for the day and skits from the counselors. After that time, the students were split into two, 1-hour long classes that were designed and taught by the interns and teen counselors based around the theme of the week. These were taught mostly in the park. Lunch followed, and then there was free-play time, where the kids got to participate in games in the park or go enjoy the sprinklers. After all of this, we headed back inside for independent reading, and the day ended with bunk time, where I read aloud to the students in my “bunk,” did a core activity with them, and some other activities depending on the themes of the week. Overall, the schedule was extremely tiring, but very rewarding. The kids filled out reading logs, and

this allowed us to gauge their comprehension in an informal way, while also watching their passion for reading grow exponentially. The summer culminated in a book fair, where the students got to pick their favorites (donated by Scholastic) to take home with them forever. Still a young organization, LitWorld has its act together, especially concerning the intern program. Their culture is extremely empowering, for the most part. Although I feel as though they have a lot to learn as they expand, LitWorld provided me with an amazing summer experience. I learned that I am probably not meant to work with students on a daily basis (it’s exhausting and takes a special kind of person!), but I want to do something where I can make social change in a business setting with regard to education. Consulting for non-profits while getting to work directly with their people would be perfect for me. Ultimately, this summer served as a great cornerstone for helping me determine what kind of work I want to do and with what people.

people, we had put money down on 211 Armour Street. The former residents were the gentlemen of the Fiji fraternity on campus. Our move in date was bumped back, and I had to scramble to house three of our housemates for 2 weeks. Then we went to the house to move in it was disgusting. We spent a week inhaling bleach and trying to clean desiccated dog poop out of the carpet. I also learned how to set up utilities. Rather, how very difficult the utilities companies are and how expensive it is. None of this seems to pertain to service, but it does relate to a community need that of affordable utilities.

My next lesson came during my first week of work as I was combing through US Census statistics to update the statistics in the previous assessment. A) There is a lot of information out there. A lot. And most of it is pretty useless. You can average commute times and distances all you want, but it isn’t going to give you a clue about someone’s ability to get to work because you don’t know what method of transport their using, or how much traffic they will have to sit in, or one of a billion other Ali DeMarco ‘16 – Davidson factors that may affect their ability to College Center for Civic Engageget to work. B) Grant writing must take ment forever. The information is not easy to I have nicknamed this summer access nor is it easy to synthesize. I think “my summer of learning experiences.” that a shared database that keeps up to I spent my summer of service living in date statistics on the community would a house in Davidson and working for be a huge assets to nonprofits for fundthe Center for Civic Engagement as a ing purposes and to just get a better idea research intern performing a community of what the population they serve looks needs assessment. My job description like and what resources are needed or included updating statistics, interviewing already available. nonprofit leaders, and evaluating the resource gaps in the greater Davidson As I began interviewing later community. I expected to learn a little in the summer, the picture that went about the administrative needs of the along with the statistics began to emerge. community, meet some people, and I learned that statistics on their own spend the rest of my time buried in are not enough to create a portrait of research. I was living off campus with a a community but, more importantly, I few friends but they were all probably learned that firsthand accounts aren’t going to be busy doing DRI research so enough either. Some of the community I would just focus on my work. Howevmembers I interviewed voiced issues er, I ended up learning more this sumthat were more apparent just looking at mer than I could have ever imagined. the statistics while others spoke of It started with the house. In a panicked things that would never show up in effort to find a place big enough for 6

a census report. I loved getting to talk with the people working in the trenches, as it were, and also finally got to see the beauty of the Davidson community. I have never see a place where the community members are so dedicated to improving their community and making such a huge effort to get to know the community. Listening is a key piece of service work that I had always sort of skimmed over in my mind. Yes, obviously you can’t serve people if you don’t know what they want, but you also need to look at the community holistically before trying to fix it. Well-meaning people can very easily fall into the trap of providing unnecessary services or see themselves as benefactors, swooping down to save people from poverty. But working with clients, as partners, has a much bigger, better, and lasting effect. My experience this summer has reshaped the way I look at service work and has given me new insight into the administrative side of nonprofit work. My work in the needs assessment has allowed me to meet many wonderful community members devoted to making the community a better place. I learned a lot about the town of Davidson, it’s people and its history, and was given new insight into the college’s role in community development. I have also learned about working on my own project and moving it forward with very little supervision, an experience I have never had outside of an academic setting before. Most importantly, I have learned about myself, how I work, and how I live on my own. I am so glad that I decided to spend my summer in Davidson, and, although there were ups and downs, I wouldn’t have traded it for any other position.

Austin Crouse ‘17 – Forest Foundation Fellow at FUEL Education After the orientation program at the start of my summer as a Forest Foundation Fellow for FUEL Education, one idea ran through my mind. Craig McEwen, a professor

of sociology and anthropology at Bowdoin College spoke about moving past volunteerism and becoming wholly engaged. That’s what my experience was this summer - an immersion program in the non-profit and philanthropic sector. I came in with a clear plan of what I would be doing with my ten weeks. However, amongst my major projects, I did twice as much as I thought possible. That is just the reality of running a non-profit program. Everyone is wearing too many hats, doing things they may not completely prepared to take on (yet), and they don’t have enough time to do it. The summer was a series of ups and downs. My first several weeks were spent nearly in isolation learning about the FUEL Education and other Children’s Savings Accounts (CSA) and other family engagement programs like it. I emerged from my isolation to deliver a report on where we stood as an organization and what we can learn from other CSA initiatives around the country. This report would serve to be the knowledge base and a guide for the direction I would help us move as we looked to build capacity as an organization. I hit the ground running. I conducted new family recruitment and outreach, developed curriculum for parents with children younger than high-school-age to supplement our existing curriculum, I wrote scripts for our new Online video education program, I evaluated our Lynn, Massachusetts site financial aid, scholarship, and savings data to present at a national conference, and I evaluated our program for lessons learned and wrote an article as a response for a national call for an increased knowledge base on CSA programs. To top it all off I successfully wrote a $5,000 grant for a new Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM Power) initiative for

South Boston’s Artists for Humanity, helping students stay off the streets, employed, and heading to college in all disciplines including the STEM fields. I felt like I was constantly being productive for FUEL, just as I knew their support was helping me grow as an individual. I feel prepared to help any non-profit organization either with programing or fundraising. I loved being involved in all aspects of a non-profit but was also overwhelmed by it. This summer taught me a lot! I think the next step is to find where my niche is in an organization and to see how I can best use my newfound skills to help an organization grow into their mission. I want to make a long-term impact, not simply be a volunteer. This is what we, as Bonner Scholars, can do - and that is what this intensive summer taught me.

Ben Williams ‘16 – Lake Norman YMCA

As my summer internship comes to a speedy close, I am ripe with many emotions, sentiments and thoughts about the course that this summer has taken. Among these are my experiences, my motivations, my thoughts about the YMCA, my growth, and my evolving understanding of non-profit work. While many of these topics could warrant their own ten page essays, I will try to give each their due while being brief. The experiences I had at the Lake Norman YMCA will last with me for the rest of my life. The hardest thing for me will be severing the personal relationships that I forged with each person that I worked with. One person in particular really stuck out to me. Week three’s readings touched on servant leadership and what it entails. The person whom immediately came to mind at the YMCA is Executive Director, Ben Pinegar. My doppelganger is the epitome of a servant leader. Ben effectively holds the reins at the YMCA not with an iron fist, but with a kind heart. He is a leader who is respected, yet he leads with a calm, friendly demeanor. From

the beginning, Ben took me under his wing and made it his job to show me how the YMCA operates, guiding me to understand the ins and outs of this special non-profit. Further, additional experiences that I will treasure are sitting in on board meetings, sitting in on branch leadership meetings, shaking the hand of our CEO, Andy Calhoun and learning how to capture a moment with a single image via photography.

My experiences at the YMCA all involved doing things that made the community stronger – whether it was marketing a sprint triathlon or helping choose a movie for family movie night. The Y prides itself on putting into prac-

tice events that provide an opportunity to build healthy spirit, mind and body for all; this is what I have learned and what I will miss the most.

Danielle King ‘16 - Centers for Disease Control

As I venture from the Atlanta border and my home for six amazing weeks, I can’t help to reflect on my experience at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). I feel accomplished about my work, privileged for the ability to contribute to CDC’s service, and more knowledgeable about the mosquito vector issues in Central and South America. I want to give a brief overview of my work before I truly reflect on what the internship meant to me. I worked in both the lab and the insectary at CDC in the Entomology branch and Division of Parasitic Disease and Malaria Control. There were 6 women working in

Photo Credit Danielle King

While I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at the YMCA, I do wish that I had done a bit more background research on the Y’s mission and the work that it does in local communities before coming in. I believe this would have helped me to understand how my work as a marketing intern helps to snowball some of the meaningful impact that the YMCA does. Thus, I could have tailored my expectations and motivations for how I wanted this experience to pan out. Switching gears, working at the YMCA, listening to other fellows experiences and reading the assigned readings have prompted me to turn my gaze inwards and ask myself: what drives me? While I still do not have an answer to this question, participating in the Community Engagement Fellows program has led me to reflect on how I see service and volunteerism, and what it means to me. While I do not have an answer to life’s biggest questions about service, volunteerism and non-profit work, I think that as an individual if I can find a need in a community and work for meaningful change in an area that needs it, then I am serving that community. There are many debates about motivations for those looking to make change and how they go about it, but I believe that because we live in such an expansive world with so many pressing needs that garner attention, choosing one that you

are passionate about and trying to make a dent in it is the best way to go about initiating change. Looking forward, I would love to see more Davidson students get involved at the Lake Norman YMCA. I believe that the Y would benefit from having Davidson students as volunteers and students would also benefit because the YMCA is structured differently than most non-profits. Its structure allows for students, and anyone for that matter, to come as they are and jump right into a position. Further, it allows for students to volunteer in an environment that may be suitable for those who would prefer service that links families to the community.

Photo Credit Ikra Javed

my department. There were two other students in the lab with me, and our jobs were to help with the projects of three other CDC workers. One project included growing our own mosquito colonies in the insectary and performing bottle bioassays, knock down resistant (kdr) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) genotyping, and bio-chemical assays with the mosquitoes. With the bottle bioassay, we coated bottles with five different insecticides and used a mouth aspirator to place the mosquitoes into each bottle. After 15 and 30 minutes, we counted the number of dead and alive mosquitoes in order to determine the susceptibility phenotype of the mosquitoes. Although I am not allowed to make conclusions about any of the results we saw, I will just say that we did see resistance to certain insecticides. Then, we did kdr genotyping on the susceptible and resistant mosquitoes to determine their genotype. We wanted to find out if the mosquito was homozygous wild

type, heterozygous, or homozygous mutant for two different known mutations, and then determine the correlation between phenotype and genotype. The bio-chemical assay was used to determine the metabolic reasons for the susceptibility trait if it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t caused by genetics. For another project, we helped one of the fellows identify the species of over 800 mosquitoes from Yemen because many were identified incorrectly in the field. We also helped the same fellow on her project to determine which mosquito species feed on either human or different types of livestock. And for our last project, we helped a masters student from London genotype her mosquito samples she brought back from Merida, Mexico. We were busy performing tests and learning many different protocols.

Even though we worked thousands of miles from the scene of the major issues of malaria and dengue fever carried by mosquitoes, I was able to remember the impact we were making to control the vectors. During research, this is something I learned could be easily forgotten with the continuous motion of pipetting. However, all of the researchers with whom I worked at CDC had traveled to the field sites in the Americas for a significant amount of time. These people shared their stories about their time and experiences in the foreign regions, which made me more motivated to research in the lab. In addition, when I actually grew my mosquito colony

from San Juan, Peru, I directly worked with the mosquitoes from the foreign region. After my internship at CDC, I have a much better appreciation for the collaboration the CDC has between the labs in Atlanta and the fields in Central and South Americas. Words cannot describe how much I have grown during my experience at CDC. Not only have I learned about lab techniques, lab etiquette, and how to work within a research team, I have grown to see that I can make an impact in foreign countries while I remain in the United States. This enables me to not limit my contributions to needy communities to short time frames: when I am able to physically travel to the foreign regions. Instead, I now know and am motivated to continually try to make an impact in a variety of ways when I am unable to travel. Because I am more knowledgeable about the issues in the Americas and know that Africa is not the only region that needs help with mosquito vector control, there are endless possibilities in the ways I will be able to help in the future. After traveling to Africa in the winter and having direct contact with malaria patients and traveling to Atlanta to work indirectly with the problem, I am more inclined and excited to pursue a Masters degree in Public Health in addition to my future career in the healthcare field. Also, my CDC experience has made me more interested in the global health/epidemiology courses Davidson has to offer, in order to enhance my learning in these subjects. The combination of taking these classes and pursuing a Masters in Public Health will allow me to continue my aspirations in impacting both the communities in the United States as well as the communities outside of the border. My definition of community has altered since interning at CDC. I used to define community as a group of people living in the same region, with a similar culture, living style, and values. However, now I include to my

definition a group of people who endure similar issues. In this particular case, the issue is mosquito vectors of malaria and dengue fever. This is because this is what CDC uses to determine the needs of communities and also which communities need immediate help. The CDC begins fieldwork in areas they determine needy, but they establish CDCs in foreign location that would be able to benefit a larger, local population effectively. The CDC does a great job in locating needy communities, but it takes initiative among people like me to follow its lead and work on projects in those locations. I spoke with CDC worker and Davidson alumnus, Audrey Lenhart, about potential thesis projects that I could do while at Davidson. She offered me the opportunity to collaborate with her and return to CDC to complete a thesis project on relevant topics such as mosquito vectors, insecticide resistance, and/or dengue fever. She even

said I could go to Mexico with a team to enhance my project. After working at CDC with mainly insecticide resistance of mosquito vectors of dengue fever, I realize I do enjoy the subject, but I would be very interested to research the drug resistance aspect of malaria and/or dengue fever. I will take her offer very seriously because I will be able to learn more and actually have my own project. I have to thank the Center for Civic Engagement and the Class of ’89 fund for relieving me of financial stress and allowing me to focus solely on my service at CDC. The experience would not have been as enjoyable or rewarding without the Center for Civic Engagement’s aid.

Julie Park ‘16 – Educating Youth, Vietnam

On July 1st, the first day of my service trip in Hanoi, Vietnam, I walked downstairs from my room in the

homestay and found the children of the homestay family screaming and running around, because they were trying to catch a squirrel that got into the house. From the crazy first day of trying to catch a squirrel to my last day of flying out of Hanoi during a typhoon, I have definitely changed my perspective on life in a developing country. Entering the service site, I was scared to death being all by myself volunteering in a foreign country with a language barrier. Leaving Hanoi, I was so sad to leave all the people I met since we all became such good friends. I was humbled by everyone’s generosity when they have so little to offer in comparison to people’s lives in the United States. Instead of being scared about riding a bicycle in the city traffic to school, I was more scared about leaving some of the children since their living conditions are so poor. As I experienced what a daily life in Vietnam was, I embraced their culture and was amazed by the locals’ hospital-

Photo Credit Julie Park

ity. Through them, I learned how lucky I am to be living in a house with my family and being able to go to a school with great teachers. I learned that being a Korean-American gave me more opportunities to understand and connect a different culture to mine. There were similar words in Vietnamese that have the same meaning in Korean, Korean food, technology, and school products were the most popular in Vietnam, and the American songs we sing along to on the radio are just as popular in Vietnam. I learned how globalization truly influences the lives of people around the world and how it also influenced my life as a Korean-American. I also realized that being an English teacher among Vietnamese students taught me how to be more creative in teaching approaches. I had to make sure they understood my English by using simple words, drawing pictures or acting out their new vocabulary words, and playing educational games with them to gauge their interest. My experience was totally different from what my initial expectations were. I expected to work with a non-profit organization called REACH Vietnam to teach underprivileged youth English for vocational needs. I was less nervous working as an English teacher assistant for a private elementary since I had worked at the Ada Jenkins Center and DCPC Preschool previously. The students, however, were a lot more misbehaved and physical than the students I have worked with in the United States, and it might be due to the physical punishment that their Vietnamese teachers used sometimes. I did not expect the teacher to hit a student with a ruler for not listening, which was scary to witness. I tried to use lollipops as positive reinforcements to those who paid attention in class and did their work. I also learned that checking their classwork and giving out stickers, or writing a good mark really encourages them to do better in school. One English teacher at the school, Ms. Trang, told me her most prized possession is a stamp

she received as a gift from a friend in Singapore. It was a stamp that she would use as she grades the students papers that says “Good” on it. As I stopped in Seoul, South Korea I sent a package to Ms. Trang in Hanoi, which had a dozen stamps with “Great,” “Good Job” and fun images on them for the kids. Hopefully these positive strategies would be used more in the future at the school, as they use the stamps for the students’ self-motivation. As a Bonner Scholar working at the DCPC Preschool and the Ada Jenkins Center, I knew how to handle one-on-one tutoring with students. However, I was not used to standing in front of a class of 30 students to teach all at once. So, having this experience at the Hanoi Private School truly shaped my view of how difficult it is to manage an entire class as a teacher. Thus, this service experience aided my interest in pursuing a teaching career. I was able to teach an entire class by myself and learned that the younger the classes, the harder it is to manage by oneself. I think after this service trip, I would still like to become a teacher. I am not sure of what age group I would like to teach yet, but I love seeing students learning and improving. This experience also challenged my assumptions of how a developing communist country should live. Vietnam’s economy relies heavily on tourism. As a tourist, I noticed some propaganda of how everyone admires Ho Chi Minh through the many pictures, statues, and songs. As an English teacher, I watched the students perform a dance that reenacted the war between the French and the Vietnamese using wooden guns and army uniforms as props. My first perspective of thinking these songs and dances are all propaganda now changed into the idea that they are merely patriotic, as I am on the 4th of July. The way I view things changed and truly surprised me when I reflect back on my trip by telling stories of my service trip to friends and family.

My friends and family back home are part of my community. I define community as a group of people who live in the same environment and have similar perspectives and goals. The community’s needs, therefore, is defined by the community. In particular, the community’s needs that I served in Hanoi includes dental, eye, and mental health care. The students I served had rotting teeth, most of them needed glasses but could not afford them, and some students showed symptoms of ADHD and autism, but were not getting treated. From here, I hope to not only choose a path into a teaching career, and go back to Hanoi and visit the friends I have made there soon. I felt terrible leaving the children and new friends in the low living conditions, but I hope that the volunteer program (VIVPS) would emphasize their greater need in recruiting health care support at the private school after I told them about my experience and the students’ needs. I’ll never forget the moment I realized how to teach this one 7-year-old boy in particular. He had cuts along the sides of his arms and legs because he would scratch himself with his nails – a symptom of autism through self-injurious behavior – caused by the frustration of poor communication and receptive skills. He would act up in class and the English teacher basically “gave up” on the child and let him do whatever he wanted in the back corner desk. From my past experience of seeing him doodle in his journal, I noticed that he has the talent to draw. So I sat next to him, took out his small chalkboard from under his desk, drew a banana, and wrote the word “banana” underneath, and had him repeat the word out loud. He understood my teaching technique soon enough and started to draw other foods, spell the word, and pronounce the word correctly with my help. Knowing that with a different approach in teaching, anyone can learn if they set their mind to it was encouraging to both the English teacher and myself.

Lydia Bickell ‘17

– SCAN (Stop

Child Abuse Now)

This summer has not been the way I imagined it. I thought I would have a much clearer idea of what I wanted to do with my life, and how I can solve issues I am passionate about through non-profits. Though I have definitely gained much experience and insight through working with Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN), I am leaving with many more questions in my head than answers to go with them. I think this is a good thing, however. They are important questions that people invested in the non-profit field should consistently be asking. I have really learned to look at my actions and decisions critically, through both readings and conversations with peers and co-workers. Some questions I am starting to ask are: • Is my calling working with people, or working behind the scenes of a

non-profit? • What kinds of justice am I seeking, and who am I seeking it for? • What kind of structure is the best for a non-profit? • Which is more important--donor relations or client relations? How do I make the best decisions for the people I serve while still pleasing the board of directors? Learning the importance of these questions brings me one step closer to answering them, and one step closer to becoming an effective and thoughtful advocate. The tasks I completed, and projects I worked on at SCAN did not initially feel important. I was not bored or dissatisfied by the work, but I had a hard time seeing how I could possibly be helping fulfill the mission of stopping and preventing child abuse. Over time I have reconciled and realized that I don’t have to be the direct fulfiller of this goal. I have helped by reduc-

ing stress and creating space and time for the experts (my lovely co-workers, who have degrees in social work and far more experience with children and parenting than I) to accomplish our mission. In my mind, serving them is just as important as the services they provide. I believe I have contributed to the stability of SCAN through strengthening technological security, developing a technology policy, and organizing the office. I was available for IT support, which I was called upon for often. This meant less work time was spent trying to understand and fix confusing technological problems that I was able to resolve quickly. I was happy to do any task that could help, which ranged from Spanish translation to shredding outdated financial records to recycling old copiers and computers; that’s how things tend to work in such small organizations. One thing I can say I certainly love about the setting of a small

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

non-profit is that everyone there is truly a family. I feel so grateful to have been accepted into that deep relationship that develops through a shared dedication and passion for the work that is being accomplished. SCAN is a wonderful example of a group of people who go above and beyond to achieve their mission; many of these women work far more than their timesheets and payroll reflect. This commitment is more inspiring to me than concrete facts and figures about the number of people we have served, taught, or guided.

Photo Credit Tommy Rhodes

In terms of myself, I have been able to discover the habitat and atmosphere I thrive in. Because I did not have one permanent work location such as an office or desk, I was somewhat nomadic, which was difficult for me when continuing projects from previous days. I adapted quickly enough, but I think stability in location is an important factor for me to pursue. On the other

hand, I have absolutely loved working in an office in which people talk to each other throughout the day. The ability to run ideas past people, brainstorm together, and consistently communicate kept my mind active and kept me from feeling burnt out from work. As a college intern I approached the experience with the goal to learn, but I believe that should apply to everyone; we can all learn from each other’s experiences and perspectives, and should seek out other opinions in work situations. One of my largest challenges was learning to accept that sometimes small tasks can take a ridiculous amount of time and energy to complete. This can be frustrating at times, but many things are not in my control, and it is important to focus on one thing at a time in order to handle these situations. For example, while recycling many electronics and other hazardous waste items, I tried to find a recycling location for 5 fluores-

cent tubes (the kind of lights found in most offices and dormitories) that had burned out and been replaced. After being turned down by Iredell County’s large recycling facility, 3 calls were made to other stores that were rumored to recycle the large, unwieldy bulbs. After all rejections, more Internet research was performed, and I eventually found a store, Batteries Plus, in Huntersville that would take them. After the long drive, I ended up having to pay $1.25 per bulb for recycling them. This task took far too much time, but fluorescent bulbs with mercury are not legal to throw away, and it was a job that needed to be done. Despite the seeming meaninglessness of the task, it was done correctly, and I have to remember that these light bulbs were part of “the small work in the great work” as Victoria Safford puts it. Despite all the professional knowledge and wisdom I gained at this

placement, the most valuable information I will take away is what I have learned about parenting. Not only have I absorbed so much useful information for interacting with children, but I have realized that everyone has the potential to abuse or neglect children without proper training. Being a parent is no easy job, and I have seen how crushing stress, common lack of knowledge, and past problems can make a kind, well-intentioned person into someone who could harm a child physically or emotionally. I certainly didn’t know most of what I learned about good parenting this summer, and honestly I would not have pursued a parenting class if I eventually have kids, because it isn’t a social norm. Coming out of this I truly believe people need to seek training before embarking on a lifelong commitment to raise another human being. I have learned an immense amount this summer, but I think I could

have really utilized the opportunity to be mindful and process what I was doing more than I did. I wish I had been more intentional in immersing myself in my work and in an exploratory journey to learn more about myself and what I want to take from this experience into the future. Because the future is now. If I want to speak up for things I care about and make a difference, there’s no good reason I should wait until after college or when I have enough time. I will never have “enough” time. There will always be some distraction that could hold me back from pursuing a cause wholeheartedly. This summer, through my failing to do so, has taught me that I just need to figure out a way to do what I’m passionate about anyway.

Matt Gore ’16 – Implementing

Computer Technology, Tanzania It’s been almost a month since I left Africa, but it still feels too soon to reflect on my time there. I’m still tired.

It would be easy to blame that on illness, and that’s probably a large part of it, but Africa left me deeply exhausted. This makes it difficult to know how I have changed. What is exhaustion, and what is permanent character growth? That’s hard to say. My instinct, though, is that I have found deeper reserves of strength. Our project required us to go local, to live like Tanzanians. Doing that feels like an adventure for the first week, but after a month of insufficient and ill-tasting food, the adventure is no longer an adventure. The trip wore me down like few things in life ever have. I struggle to pinpoint what exactly did it, whether it was the travel (I spent more time in buses than classrooms), or the diet, or the impossibility of getting anything done in Tanzania. But after about a month, I was on my last reserves of strength. I ran on empty for the last five villages. But it’s experiences like those that create real growth, and now

Photo Credit Matt Gore

I know I can put up with an enormous amount of unpleasantness. Like the time I left HQ for a remote village still barely strong enough to walk. It wasn’t a smart thing to do, but I did it, and now I know I can do a lot more than I thought I could before. In Tanzania I both grew a lot and learned how much I could do. As I said in my mid-trip reflection, plans don’t last long in Africa. I thought I would spend a lot more time teaching than traveling, but that of course was not true. I thought the teachers, who theoretically teach all of their classes in English, would be able to speak good enough English to easily communicate. This was not always the case. Almost nothing went like I thought it would. But as they say, Africa is the place where nothing works but everything works out.

are ubiquitous, in part, because they facilitate Tanzania’s pre-existing communalism. That is fine; I don’t want to impose anything on Tanzanians. However, I think it is important to recognize that the international dialogue that paints development as the unquestioned good and shared telos of the world community is just flat wrong. Some folks are happy just the way they are. If they really want to change, we ought to help, but in the mean time we should let them be. My perspective on development radically changed, maturing from the understanding of a well-read undergraduate to that of a practitioner after his first project.

As my mid-experience reflection talks about, my perspective on aid workers shifted considerably. I think I got a glimpse at what Western intervention must look like to Africans. I won’t say I This trip was enormously imhad negative stereotypes confirmed, but portant for my education. I am an AfriI now understand where some negative cana Studies major and I have read most stereotypes come from. For instance, of the major books on development. I in one village a well’s pulley system was had an excellent theoretical knowledge broken. It had been broken for months before I stepped on the plane. The and made drawing water (a hug chore) experience of actually trying to run a much more difficult. No one had bothsmall development project, though, was ered to fix it. Using junk I found around a revelation. Two things stand out. First, the school, I had it as good as new in an to borrow from Clausewitz, there is a hour and a half. My Tanzanian friend friction to getting anything done in Afri- laughed at my American initiative¬– fixca. Part of it is just a product of the low ing the well was not a Tanzanian thing to levels of development, but a large part do. I still don’t feel like I really underof it is cultural. Tanzanians do not share stand why no one fixed the well, but I American norms of work, efficiency, or think a lot of stereotypes about Africans discipline. As a result, accomplishing being passive or lazy stem from incianything is much more difficult than dents such as this one. I won’t say Afit needs to be. Second, I realized that ricans actually are lazy or passive, but I Africa will develop no faster than Afriwill say that their culture does not value cans want it to. Development cannot be work and initiative like our culture does. coaxed out of or imposed onto a counThey just really don’t care if something try against the will of the people. Of is broken, and they don’t ask themselves course, Tanzanians always say they want if they can fix it. It’s not a difference in development. But do they really? Are capabilities, but values. they willing to change cultural norms to accommodate the capitalism that is cur- I think that, in many ways, the rently synonymous with development? I last question, “Who defines a commufound that, by in large, the answer is no. nity’s needs?” gets right to the heart of They embrace the parts of development the matter. Before I went to Tanzania that they enjoy and that their culI spent two weeks with Dr. Menkhaus ture can accommodate. Cellphones in Kenya taking a course on the Horn

of Africa. My fellow students were aid workers, diplomats and military personnel. I came away with the distinct impression that Western aid is not about helping communities. The massive bureaucracies that administer foreign aid are driven by their own internal logic that does not have room for the needs of the people they are ostensibly there to help. For instance, after a long, depressing day analyzing the scenario in Somalia, I asked, “If foreign aid is such a contributor to the problems in Somalia, why don’t we stop giving it?” A Canadian aid worker responded, “But we have 30 million dollars that we have to get rid of this quarter.” Bureaucratic momentum trumped the needs of the people on the ground. The people involved in these institutions are generally wonderful people, but they get sucked into a system so broken that they end up more worried about this quarter’s budget than the hurting people of Somalia. After this trip I believe that only a community can define its needs. No, that’s not quite right- I believe a communities needs are objective, but if they aren’t leading the charge to address those needs, then any effort to address them will be fruitless. Although in this report I mostly talk about the work that Luke and I did, the truth is that we were entirely dependent on Tanzanians. They came up with the idea of putting computers in the schools, they shepherded us between the schools, they will do 99% of the computer teaching, and they are the ones who will make the project succeed or fail. If we, a couple rich white guys, tried to run our own project in Africa, it would have flopped miserably. If our project proves to be a success, it is because Tanzanians were in charge. I wish I knew the next step. In many ways, the discovery I just described shuts the door on further work. I only went to Tanzania because they didn’t have anyone who could do the job we did. Now there are many people who can do the job I did. Moreover, I

am now convinced that all development work must stem from the communities themselves; projects imposed from the outside are doomed to fail. The highest good a guy like me can do in Africa is to enable, to train others how to execute their own idea. That’s much harder than doing something yourself. And, to be frank, I don’t like working with Tanzanians. They don’t have a modern, Western respect for efficiency, time, or quality. Their values are categorically different, and that makes working with them very frustrating.

run for the next four years and that the World Bank is correct to say that computer skills seriously improve a person’s economic prospects. It really wasn’t that hard. There is enormous opportunity to do good.

I came away with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, the need is desperate and it’s easy to make a big difference. With grants from the Center for Civic Engagement and Dean Rusk, supplemented by private fundraising, Luke and I seriously improved the lives of about eight thousand kids in rural Tanzania. That estimate is based on the reasonable assumptions that the labs will

So I’m stuck. There is good to be done, but I’m just not sure I’m the guy to do it.

But on the other hand, I thoroughly disliked it. I just don’t know if I could stand working there for very long. Most aid workers get around this by retreating to an ex-pat bubble, a solution I must reject because it leads to the problems I described earlier.

Naomi Coffman ‘16 – Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training On the car ride from Davidson, North Carolina to Washington D.C.,

I tried to explain to my chauffeur/dad exactly what I hoped to gain from my 2014 summer of service in the nation’s capital. I told him how much I had always wanted to live in D.C., how fantastic an internship opportunity this would be, and how excited I was to work with actual American diplomats. Nevertheless, I was eventually forced to admit that I didn’t really know what I wanted or why I had decided to give the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) two months of unpaid work. I was facing a mid-college crisis. Having completed two years of higher education, friends and family members were starting to ask me exactly what I intended to do with my liberal arts degree. The problem wasn’t that I had no answers for them; it was that I had too many. Would I spend a few years abroad or go immediately to Graduate School? Did I want to work for the Federal government or for a non-profit agency? Should I focus on gaining

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

work experience or travel for language skills? For years, I had planned to join the Foreign Service at some point after graduation, but I was starting to secretly question whether I wouldn’t prefer to live my life in D.C., with all the comforts of American amenities, rather than spend my life hopping from country to country every two years. I accepted the ADST internship to give the Foreign Service lifestyle a trial run and, I hoped, to narrow down my post-college choices. First, some background - The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training works in conjunction with the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) to train rising Foreign Service Officers (FSO), educates the general public about American foreign policy and preserves the United States rich diplomatic history. Located in a tiny, white cottage on the FSI campus, ADST employees and interns spend hours and hours simply listening to stories. We recorded the oral histories of retired FSOs, helped them publish books and wrote articles about their exploits for the ADST website. We also attempted to disseminate their stories by reaching out to more popular websites, such as Reddit, RealClearHistory, and even Buzzfeed. The end goal is to build a bridge between the insular community of the Foreign Service and the general public, giving American citizens a better understanding of their government’s role in global politics. During my summer internship, I personally wrote a total of twenty-three articles for the ADST website, and researched dozens of the international crises which have taken place over the past sixty years, from World War II to 9/11. I also wrote ‘Fascinating Figures’ pieces on important contributors to diplomatic history, such as Secretary of State and Davidson College alumnus Dean Rusk, and humanitarian giant Mother Theresa. Throughout my internship, I was thankful to be in an environment in which my work was both appreciated and important. I was never

asked to make coffee, answer phones or file data, and every article I wrote was or will be uploaded to the website. Moreover, although my supervisor would occasionally request specific pieces, the interns were mostly left to their own devices and encouraged to research and analyze issues which they found interesting or important. One of my favorite pieces, “Breaking Chains—Fighting Trafficking in Persons” recorded the introduction of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act and the consequences for international human trafficking. Another of my pieces, which I wrote specifically as a Buzzfeed article entitled “12 Badass Women of Diplomacy,” listed some of the most influential women of the Foreign Service and State Department. Although these two articles strayed from ADST’s more popular subject matter, I felt free to pursue topics of personal interest, which was an extremely gratifying. On the other hand, I was also afforded the opportunity to research issues to which I had absolutely no previous exposure. I learned more about Cold War politics during this summer than I had ever known before, and wrote articles on regions as diverse as Kashmir, Biafra, Croatia, and the Philippines. Aside from what I learned about the Foreign Service, the education in American diplomatic history, which I received at ADST, was an amazing and unique experience that few people have the opportunity to enjoy. Nonetheless, I have to admit, my first few days at ADST were underwhelming. I spent the majority of my time underground, in a basement, staring at a computer screen for seven hours a day. I learned exactly how difficult it is to cut hundreds of pages of oral history down to a four-page article. I Googled “important events of the month of” June, July, August, and September half a hundred times in dozens of different ways, looking for subject material. I spent hours looking at major events such as the Tiananmen Square crisis, the reintegration of Germany, and the Iranian Revolution, trying to find an

angle which had not yet been covered ad nauseam. Two weeks into the internship, I was certain that whatever I was looking for, I was looking in the wrong place. That’s not to say I didn’t learn anything. In fact, the first few weeks at ADST were a crash course in the Foreign Service. I learned to speak the FSO language, to discuss USIA, DCMs, and RSOs and hundreds of other acronyms. I learned how an embassy works, the tensions between career ambassadors and politically appointed ambassadors, how to evacuate Americans from active warzones, why the State Department prefers short-term posts for its employees. I listened to or read the stories of dozens of former FSOs, USAID workers, CIA agents and other federal employees who spent more time with terrorists and dictators than businessmen or elected politicians. ADST honors these employees and publicizes their achievements, which are often classified or simply forgotten. Although I was thrilled to have this firsthand look into the lives of former FSOs, I was no closer to making any decisions for my own future. So what happened? There was no road to Damascus vision or Eureka moment, but my experience with ADST did change my view of the Foreign Service and of the work they do for our nation. Somewhere between getting lost in the State department, participating in embassy simulations and navigating the Foreign Service Institute’s enigmatic bus system, I realized that a career as a Foreign Service Officer was exactly what I wanted. I noticed the change in my perception sometime around my third or fourth visit to the State Department for a tour of the 24-hour Operations Center, the nerve center of the State Department, which monitors all international developments. It was the first time I felt truly excited about what the Foreign Service was doing around the world. It was also the first time I allowed myself to map out a career path and to

imagine what a life as an FSO would mean for me. That’s not to say my ADST internship gave me an exact plan for my post-Davidson career. Rather, it highlighted the opportunities which were truly important to me—travel, a say in determining American foreign policy, the ability to represent American interests in both friendly and hostile nations—and showed me an avenue to pursue those opportunities. My internship also helped me resolve many of the personal conflicts I had faced for months. Although I’ve focused on Middle Eastern and North African issues, the Foreign Service would allow me to develop as a political generalist, capable of analyzing political situations in a multitude of nations. Although I wanted to work for the government, I also needed to feel like I was serving others and was pleased to learn that FSOs often work in humanitarian or human rights bureaus. By more fully

introducing me to the Foreign Service lifestyle, my internship at ADST reminded me why I decided to major in political science in the first place. I now hope to take the Foreign Service exam sometime in the next two years and join the State Department sometime in the next five years. Thanks to my time with ADST, I feel more confident moving forward into a career with the Foreign Service and more prepared for what that career entails.

Nate Casey ’17 – Roof Repair and House Transformation, Grenada

This summer I had the opportunity to travel to Grenada on a mission trip with two other classmates and teammates, thanks to the provision given by the Office for Civic Engagement. Leading up to the trip, our team spent months fundraising over ten thousand dollars to rebuild two roofs, paint, and provide supplies.

Our two-week trip began as we flew from Atlanta to Miami, and then Miami to Grenada on May 18th. We arrived late at night and drove almost two hours across the island to reach our destination. For two weeks, we live on the base of Youth With A Mission in Grenada. YWAM housed us for the entire two weeks and provided transportation and meals for a low cost. Our arrival was different then we had expected. I had never been to Grenada before, however, I had been to surrounding islands. I expected to see a very poor third world country. I was surprised to find that Grenada was very developed and clean. I went in with a stereotype of the country that was proved extremely incorrect. After a day of rest from travel, we got right to work. We began with destruction. One of the student hous-

Photo Credit Nate Casey

es had a roof that was rotted out by weather and termites. Every six months, YWAM hosts a discipleship training school that prepares people of all ages to go into the mission field. People come from all over the world to study together. Due to the present danger, YWAM was not able to house the maximum number of students for their discipleship training school. Our job was to tear down the old roofs and reconstruct new ones. We started by tearing down the outside frames of the roof and recycling the wood into separate piles. The price of lumber in the Caribbean is so high that people try to conserve as much as possible. If they tear something down, they use the materials to build something new. Tearing down was a little simpler than the rest of our project and only took one day. Day three, we began construction. Building a roof on a preexisting building is a difficult and specific

process. We had to recast the entire circumference of the walls with new cement. During that process, we had to carefully frame the roof with specific dimensions so that the cement would not dry before we finished. We had to mix the concrete by hand the first couple of days because of a delay on our mixer delivery. Mixing by hand and passing individual buckets of cement was a tedious process and slowed our production down quite a bit. Luckily, we worked with a persistent and motivated crew of local students and teachers that kept us going. Once the framing was completed, we began the real construction. Our work began to move quickly and we finished the plywood on the roof in less than two days of work. Following the plywood, we insulated and put the galvanized roofing on top. The last step was putting gutters on the roof to help water flow during the rainy season. We finished the large roof in eight days.

Photo Credit Taylor Brendle

Our next project was painting the campus. We were able to repaint two houses and the main dining area in one day. The new paint really gave the whole campus a face-lift. It was the first time the campus had been painted since its construction in the 1990’s. After a day of painting, we returned to build the second roof. By this time we knew what it took to finish the project and we finished the smaller roof in three days.

We accomplished a lot in two weeks in Grenada. Our help gave YWAM the opportunity to house more people and attract larger group of students. However,

some of the most enjoyable moments of the trip were not spent building. We lived with the people we worked with and learned a lot about their individual cultures. Our fiends were from Haiti, St. Lucia, Aruba, The Dominican Republic, Grenada, and the United States. Several students, including some of us, played instruments and we got to sing in English, Spanish, and Creole. Language is one of the greatest ways to break down cultural barriers. The food in Grenada was amazing. Our chef cooked us pork, fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, and pastas of all kind. Grenada is known as “The Spice Island” and that was evident in everything we ate. Fresh fruit was available everywhere. There were mango trees, coconut trees, oranges, and bananas all over the campus. Our trip to Grenada will only further my study of other cultures and religions. As a religion major, I love to travel and interact with new cultures. Faith and religion play such a large role in culture and traveling is one of the most effective ways to experience that. I learned not to view every Caribbean Island the same. They are each very different in their specific language and culture. Community was redefined to me in Grenada. I experienced living with people from all over the world, in unity. It was a truly amazing experience to see how so many different cultures, languages, and religions could come together and work for a common good. That is what community is: working together for a common good. I will never forget learning those valuable lessons while working alongside such a wonderful and inspiring group of people.

Nick Drury ‘15 – Charlotte Rescue Mission

My summer at Charlotte Rescue Mission could not have been a more rewarding or valuable experience. Previously, I had relatively little experience with larger non-profits and issues such as homelessness and addiction. I was not completely sure of what I was getting myself into, but I was excited to chal-

lenge myself and start something new and different. From the first moment I met my supervisors, Kristin Kelly and Amy Sinclair, I knew I was going to enjoy my time at the organization and have a positive experience. Both were explicit that they wanted my experience to be rewarding and productive to The Mission, the abbreviated title of the Charlottebased group. My job description included writing grants, researching foundations, and starting a “College Advisory Board.” Kristin and Amy volunteered copious numbers of ideas and were so passionate about their work that I knew I would stay busy and be surrounded by positive people. I was not only enlightened and thoroughly informed of the homelessness and addiction that plague most communities, but also taught how to research foundations and communicate effectively in a work environment. I came away with a greater understanding of the time and effort that goes into a non-profit organization.

physical, social, and vocational needs are met. Rebound is a 90-day intensive program whereas Dove’s Nest offers a longer, 120-day program. However, Charlotte Rescue Mission additionally emphasizes self-sufficiency after graduating and provides longer housing to those actively seeking jobs. The Mission’s success rate is significantly higher than national averages of similar non-profits and keeps in touch with residents long after graduation. Yet, all of their good deeds require funding to continue to operate on a daily basis.

Charlotte Rescue Mission’s mission statement is ‘To minister the Good News of Christianity to individuals caught in the crisis of poverty, hopelessness, or addictions by meeting their spiritual, physical, and emotional needs.” The Mission stays true to this cause and is devoted to helping the men, women, and children affected by homelessness and addiction in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. Charlotte Rescue Mission believes in transforming individuals from the inside out because one cannot begin the healing process before addressing feelings of worthlessness, helplessness, inferiority, and shame. Counselors are on staff to help residents work through these feelings and provide support and guidance at all stages. The Mission strives to maintain an open and welcoming environment where residents feel loved and cherished.

My job this summer involved researching new funding opportunities and ways to further integrate the surrounding communities. I was part of the Development Team and worked alongside very capable, smart individuals who worked hard to spread awareness and obtain funding. There an overwhelming amount of work to be done for such a small staff, so having me on staff offered the team the luxury of being able to explore uncharted territory and more thoroughly assess our current list of foundations. My first project was to evaluate our current foundations and prioritize which ones were the best for The Mission. Next, I researched potential funding opportunities that could help the organization grow in order to serve more people. I was also asked to send the Board Members a list of foundations to establish any connections that might exist. For the last and most exciting project, I began brainstorming and outlining a “College Advisory Board” for The Mission. The Board will be comprised of undergraduates attending academic institutions in the area who are passionate about combatting homelessness and addiction. These college students would meet a few times a year, have discussions, and plan a fundraising event to raise money and awareness.

Charlotte Rescue Mission is comprised of Rebound men’s program and Dove’s Nest women’s campus. Both programs offer a residential recovery program where spiritual, mental,

Though much work is still needed, I hope to continue to help with the College Advisory Board this coming semester and stay involved with The Mission. Charlotte Rescue Mission is a

great organization comprised of genuine, competent individuals, and I would recommend everyone stop by for a visit to witness first-hand what they accomplish.

Nick Ragsdale ’17 – Roof Repair and House Transformation, Grenada

This mission/service trip to Grenada was amazing. I learned a tremendous amount about the culture of Grenada. The first part about their culture that really sticks out to me is the hospitality. The group we have been working with greeted us with hugs and had already prepared food for us to eat. Literally every person we met welcomed us with kind hearts and love. As far as the service goes, we finished laying all the concrete for the foundation to the roof yesterday. It was pretty interesting because even though I have worked on construction sites before, I have never had to mix the cement, rocks, sand, and water by hand in order to make the concrete for the project. Also, since they don’t have every tool known to man, it is interesting to see how creative the people get when finding different ways to use a single tool. All in all, the entire trip has been better than I could have ever expected. One thing that has surprised me throughout the experience was the fact that the people on this side of the island have very rarely seen any Caucasian people before. When we walk around town, people will look at us and yell, “Look! White Folk!” It is something that I probably should have expected, but for some reason it just surprised me. However, even though the people are so surprised to see “white folk,” they still all show a marvelous amount of hospitality. If I was one of the people receiving services, I would be extremely happy with the progress that was made on the transformation house. Everybody worked constantly and as a team, which led to great progress being made on the house. I believe that the

people who I am interacting with see me as a kind hearted big guy who lifts a good amount of heavy objects for them. I see that we have helped a ton through our services because we have drastically sped up the process of making the transformation house livable again. If I were in charge I would change the fact that they space small work activities out among an awkward amount of time. For example, we will have just finished the roof for the day, and we all go in to rest. Then about 40 minutes later they call us back out to do a simple task that could have been completed before. Then after finishing that we will go to rest again, and then after about 40 more minutes they will call us out again for another simple task. If I were in charge I would get all of the small tasks done together so that I don’t keep interrupting my workers’ breaks.

Photo Credit Nate Casey

Remy Jennings ‘17

– Mooresville

Soup Kitchen My summer at the Mooresville Soup Kitchen (MSK) was nothing like I expected when I accepted the job. Maybe it is that I just didn’t thoroughly think through what working at MSK would be like, or maybe you really can’t understand MSK without jumping into the organized chaos that the place is every day. This summer has been so much fun, and it has pushed me to think and grow in many ways.

aspects that go into getting a meal on the table each day. I worked on researching grants and contacting donors, and came to understand where the funding for their organization comes from. Although professional skills weren’t the first thing that I thought of when I pondered things I might learn working at a soup kitchen, I have seen this summer how much business proficiency it takes to keep a non-profit sustainable.

I also learned a lot about the demographics of the clientele of the My notion coming into the sum- Mooresville Soup Kitchen. Meeting the guests at MSK challenged a lot of mer was that non-profits were all about heart and good intentions. But, working assumptions that I had about poverwith Vickie for the last eight weeks made ty. While I knew that more than just homeless people were soup kitchen me realize how much business knowlguests, I saw people of all ages, races, edge it takes to keep a place like MSK and backgrounds frequent MSK. Being financially sound and running smoothat MSK each day allowed me to interact ly. I learned about the importance of networking and community publicity by with people that a lot of society overlooks – the criminals, mentally ill, or attending events with Vickie. I analyzed drug addicts – and to see these people the expense report and saw all of the

as individuals rather than simply grouping them together and pushing them away. I also learned that not everyone comes to the soup kitchen for the same reason. While some people are primarily interested in a hot meal, others come more for the fellowship and to find a place where they feel like they belong. Beyond just the people I met at the Soup Kitchen, visiting the MSK Markets exposed me to a new sector of need that I hadn’t considered in the past: the working poor. This summer also revealed to me a lot about the structure of non-profits. As MSK is a Christian-based non-profit, we don’t accept government money. This means we might have to look a little harder for funding, but it grants us the freedom to accept everyone who comes through our doors looking for help; guests don’t have to present paperwork or qualify to come dine with us, and prior to working at MSK, I had

not realized how important this can be to ensuring that we are able to adequately address the need in our community. Additionally, I saw how much the way that we serve people matters. We try to give our guests as dignified an experience as possible. We let them select their own food off of a line to take home rather than handing them a bag so that they receive food that they will use and so that they have a grocery store-like experience. We have parties and sing “Happy Birthday” to share life together as a community. We tell the guests how glad we are that they joined us. I had always thought that as long as people got the resources that they were lacking, it didn’t matter how the non-profit got the job done, but I have found that it is not only what you do but how you do it that matters. I will leave this summer internship with a greater understanding of how a non-profit is run and more factual

knowledge about poverty, but Vickie says several times a week, “It’s the little things,” and as I reflect back on my summer spent immersed in the operations of the Mooresville Soup Kitchen, it is the little things that stand out most. When I was asked what my top five favorite moments of the summer were, many happy memories flooded my mind, but I struggled to find even one that sounded significant enough to make the top five. At the end of it all, I realize that it is the little moments that made this summer so special. It is handing out fresh flowers to a little girl and seeing her face light up. It is helping a guest carry her groceries to her car and her giving me a big hug before she left. It is the guest who took my picture when he found out that I went to Davidson and told me that he was going to show it to his son, in hopes of inspiring his son to go to college. It is the volunteer who remembered how many days of work I had left. It is the guest who brought each

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

staff member a present and brought me one too. It is the many mornings spent laughing in the office with Vickie and Judith. It is being told to “have a good weekend” by everyone I pass on my way out the door during the chaos of lunch on Fridays. It is giving a tour to the Davidson Service Odyssey group and getting to share the great work of MSK. Perhaps my biggest take-away from my eight weeks at the Mooresville Soup Kitchen is that life is about people, relationships, and moments shared together.

Ricki Hollins ’16 -

Neighborhood Associates

Photo Credit Aly Dove

I was planning to go back home for the summer - I was not expecting to travel to the nation’s capital. See before Davidson, I never left home for more than a day. I spent my last summer of service at home, so I was expected to do the same this time. However, once I got the call, I knew it was time to see if I

could really be on my own. When I got home the first task was to look for housing. It was a very difficult task to find something close, as well as cheap. D.C. transit is pretty expensive. I ended up getting an amazing deal in the end, $1400 for 2 months including all utilities, Internet and cable! I even got to take care of 2 adorable cats in exchange for the reduced rent. I was in the city, I was right by the metro station and everything just felt right. Even though I wasn’t in the capital just yet, it felt like all the pieces were coming together. I took a 17-hour train ride to get there the Saturday before I started work. It was actually an amazing experience. I met a lot of people and got to see a few different cities I would not be able to view from a plane. It was also the cheapest way to go, only costing me about 94 dollars total. When I finally got to my apartment I was greeted by the landlord

as well as the cats I would be caring for the entire summer. Once I realized that they were sweet, friendly and my only company I was honestly excited. My family called to say they were proud of me, and I was ready to start working the next day. When I stepped into Neighborhood Associates I was nervous. It looked like a serious office, but everyone in the building welcomed me, and they even threw the interns a party. I was amazed at how well everyone knew each other and knew Davidson College. My supervisor gave me some serious reading to do, and I was officially a member of the corporation. My job was to create a survey for the newest affordable housing neighborhood built in D.C. The survey would provide us with what the community needs of this new neighborhood were. This would then lead to a portrait

process that would give a snapshot of what the community looks like to the residents. Our goal was to change the way that community partners approach residents in affordable housing. Even though we were in the office, we wanted the residents to know that we cared about them (aka servant leadership). I got a chance to see all three of the local communities and even got to meet some residents. I was amazed at how much I learned about myself in such a short amount of time. I learned that I love listening to people and their stories, it’s okay to not be the smartest person in the room, and I that can cook! Without Bonner this would not be possible. I traveled outside of my comfort zone (something many of my peers thought I would never do) and conquered. Now I have friends in D.C. to visit when I go back. P.S- Did I mention the president of Bonner worked at the organization I volunteered with? AND I met him because he invited the entire office over for dinner? Best….summer…ever!

Sam Ongchuan ‘17 – Science Fun for Everyone

Science Fun For Everyone (SFFE) is a week long day camp for children ages 6-12 with themes associated to fields of science. For example, one week’s theme might be “Gooey, Green, Science,” which would involve making slime and recycling plastic bottles to make solar energy powered night lights. Another week might be “Robots, Reactions, and Reptiles, which would involve exactly the description. The camp, which has two main lab rooms (one for the older children and one for the younger children), has about 60 children everyday with three to four lead scientists, and roughly two total volunteers. The camp is well established, located in a large building with ample amount of supplies and animals. SFFE also works during the school year with school classrooms promoting science through fun activities.

The day starts at 8:30am with “morning care,” which is for children that need to get dropped off early. Most children start arriving at 9:00am, which allows for free time until 10:00am. Normally I would play or referee the ever-popular foosball table, or play Jenga and card games with the children. This time for me was always relaxing in the beginning of the week and hectic at the end of the week when all the children had become best friends with each other. SFFE has a front room, the blue (back) room, a lunchroom and two smaller themed rooms: an arts and crafts room, and a space room with invisible ink walls. Often it got hard to keep the volume and running down. I noticed that I have grown stricter with the children as I grew to be a more experienced volunteer. Before, I was often mistaken as a camper due to my relaxed demeanor, popularity among the children, and lack of height. However, by the final month of my volunteering, I grew an air of authority that made me more stern with children with raised voices and disrespectful behaviors. I think over the weeks, I gained foresight that if children keep running in the halls they would eventually bump into one another and hurt themselves. This actually happened one week; one seven year old received a mild concussion from bumping into another running child. I realized to be a good counselor one must have the intuition to consider the worst-case scenarios in terms of safety, and always treat children fairly. After morning free time, all the children would go to the blue room to get split up into two groups. I would work with either group depending on the activity - most of the time I work with the smaller children because they needed more guidance. As I helped them construct and use microscopes, I often found myself explaining some basic scientific concepts that would cause them to marvel and get excited about the topic we were learning about. Moments like that made my volunteering site quite worthwhile. I also learned that

service can be very fun. SFFE conducts experiments that are very interesting and engaging, even for a college-aged volunteer. I would often take on challenges posed by the lead scientists, such as building a structure out of string cheese and wheat thins to withstand an earthquake (vigorous shaking of the table), and come out defeated. After graduating from SFFE I realized that I had learned a lot; from learning how to make slime from polyvinyl globules and sodium borate, to programming Lego robotics and creating simple circuit boards. I was even excited to apply concepts about capacitors, conductors and semi conductors I had learned from taking Physics I and II at North Carolina State University to the camp. It was an enlightening experience to see conductors and semi conductors work in the circuits of the simple machines we built and understand the science behind it. I was able to tell the children from a physics student’s standpoint. It was a unique experience to be a long time volunteer at this particular camp. I got to be very comfortable working with children and the adults that worked there. A different program would occur every week and it was comforting to see the same children walk through the doors week after week. Service at SFFE felt natural as the days passed and the hours volunteered there went by relatively fast. I was trusted with more responsibilities, often dealing with children that needed more focus during class. I also noticed how the lead scientists tweaked their lesson plans as the weeks passed, always improving and making things easier for the children. I feel that service, in general, is always a learning experience. Not only did I learn about the inner workings of a non-profit summer camp organization - how everyone worked so harmoniously together - I also learned about how I should deal with children between an authority and friend point of view—something I often struggled with from my earlier tutoring years. I realized I couldn’t always let them

get away with watching YouTube on my IPhone and just doing what they want. Sometimes there is an appropriate time to take their coin away (this was the reward/punishment system SFFE had; the more coins, the more prizes they could buy at the end of the week). Still it is important to always listen to the camper and always look out for their needs and interests. Overall, volunteering at this site was an amazing experience and made me realize some things about myself.

Sarah Klett ‘15 - Serenity House

This summer I had the opportunity to volunteer at Serenity House. This internship was a bit of an experiment because I spent two months in London working for a startup company during the day and continued my service work at night and on the weekends. Even though it had its challenges, I learned so much more about Serenity House from an administrative and organizational perspective. Before and after I left for England, I volunteered on 4-hour shifts every day at the house. Serenity House is a hospice care home that takes care of two residents for up to 3 months. During that time, all medical and living costs are covered and provided for the residents. There are always two volunteers there caring for the residents until 11:00pm, at which time a hired CNA takes over. I loved volunteering at Serenity House and having the opportunity to connect emotionally with the people there. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to serve there because it has completely shifted my focus and perspective on what type of work I might want to do after I graduate from Davidson. I met both a hospice nurse and hospice social worker while on shift, and they both gave me a lot of insight into what a career in both fields would look like.

I had the opportunity to meet Suzanne Donati, the marketing

and development coordinator at Serenity House. She was my main point of contact during the time I was in London. We had a meeting where we sat down and outlined the work I needed to complete for the summer. This meeting was very important because we were able to establish the direction and focus of my summer, and come to a common understanding of what we both needed in order for the summer to be successful. The biggest challenges I faced this summer were time management and communication. Because I was also doing work for another company, I had limited hours in the day that I could devote to my service. Luckily though, the company I worked for was very flexible with my hours and allowed me to set my own schedule. As for the challenge of communication, because I was able to sit down and clearly outline the summer before I left, face-to-face communication was only necessary when problems arose, which wasn’t very often. While I was in England, I worked on creating infographics for their Annual Report. In order to create them, I compiled information about the house and the residents and the volunteers and developed visual ways to express and communicate them in a way that was much easier to understand. I really enjoyed working on this project because not only did I get the opportunity to develop new skills, but I was also able to see the big picture impact that Serenity House has on our community. Overall, this summer of service was both a challenging and eye-opening experience and I am

so thankful that I was able to have this opportunity.

Zoe Hayes ‘15 – Our Towns Habitat for Humanity

This summer has been an interesting one for me—working for Our Towns Habitat for Humanity has been my first real taste of service, and I have to say that it wasn’t quite what I expected. Prior to this summer, service in my mind was something that you go home from feeling very satisfied with yourself for “being a good person.” That’s how it was marketed to me in high school, and that’s why I never really took interest before. Instead of an ego-boosting volunteer opportunity like that, I had a much less artificial experience working with Habitat. When it’s your full-time job and you work behind-the-scenes, you deal with more real, day-to-day issues. It’s no longer all smiles and pats on the

back, and I thoroughly enjoyed it that way.

solidify my decision to go into a medical field instead. One of our readings talked about “passing on a better world,” and I really like this idea. Being able to hear about the other fellows’ roles and organizations has helped me realize that there are countless ways to help and to make an impact. I really do want to help people, make the world a better place, and any other cliché phrases you can think of, but I have yet to find a method or organization that I feel intensely enough about to really be invested. Even though I didn’t find my passion, working for Habitat this summer has been a great start.

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

I’m not sure that this summer really made me any more passionate My main task for the summer about the issue of affordable housing, was writing a construction manual. Every but I certainly learned a lot. I knew year, a new group of AmeriCorps mem- practically nothing about the issue, or bers come to Our Towns Habitat and about Habitat as an organization before they normally have little or no construc- this. One thing that I did learn about tion experience. They are expected to was how a non-profit works. I sat in on hit the ground running and quickly learn countless meetings that got a little tense how to do different tasks so that they and witnessed many of the ups and can lead volunteers in building on Satdowns, especially concerning planurdays. My manual is going to be used ning, resources, and budget, that many as a training and reference tool for the non-profits face. Before this summer, AmeriCorps members and for the more I thought maybe I’d like to work in the experienced site supervisors. While this non-profit sector after I graduate. If I assignment was much more office-based took away anything important from this than I had hoped, it was a good exercise fellowship, it’s that non-profit work is in communication for me. I was able not the career path for me. This isn’t beto observe others interact in the office cause I had a bad experience; in fact, I and I had to make phone calls and send had a great summer—I loved the people emails, so this experience definitely I got to work with and I learned a ton— strengthened my ability to communicate but I just realized that this isn’t the type effectively. of organization I can see myself working for long-term. This summer helped me Coming into this summer, I knew nothing about construction. The thought of writing an entire finished book about it seemed extremely daunting, but it turns out that my lack of knowledge came in handy since I could provide an outsider’s perspective and rephrase or reword things that wouldn’t make sense to the average person. (For example, “plumb” means vertically level… No layperson would know that!) Working four days a week on writing this manual was painstaking work and at times, downright boring. What kept me going was knowing that on Saturdays I would get to work on-site, assisting with the actual construction process. (I learned how to install laminate flooring, cut and mark plates, build sub-assemblies, and install door knobs and blinds.) Since I’m a visual learner, it was really helpful to see in person the processes I was writing about in my manual. Also, I learned some valuable life skills. I feel significantly more at ease with power tools now, and I’m confident I could complete little tasks around my future house if needed.

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

“Don’t wait for something big to occur. Start where you are, with what you have, and that will always lead you into something greater.” - Mary Manin Morrissey

SERVICE & LEADERSHIP

Gabriel Pureco ‘16 - The Latin

American Women’s Association

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

Last summer I interned at Mecklenburg Ministries, a non-profit organization that promoted freedom, equality and justice through the understanding and acceptance of all faiths and religions. While my time there was invaluable, there were some unfortunate circumstances that affected my experience working there. For one, Mecklenburg Ministries was in a transitional stage between Executive Directors, so there was no leader to give direction, and no one to manage my time effectively and efficiently. Secondly, the transition period brought a standstill to several projects that I was promised to work on as the organization was focusing its efforts to hire a new Executive Director as soon as possible. Nonetheless, I was grateful for the opportunity provided to me and I was able to acquire a glimpse of non-profit business operations. This summer, I wanted to ensure that I

would be working alongside the Executive Director so that I could acquire a fuller, more profound understanding of non-profit organizations. Thus, my internship with the Latin American Women’s Association was created. The Latin American Women’s Association (LAWA) is a non-profit organization that seeks to improve minority students’ academic performance through tutoring and mentoring programs such as Padres y Padrinos and High School Series, as well as provide scholarships in order for them to be able to attend the university they desire. LAWA also aims to educate its members and the community about the richness of Hispanic culture. LAWA is host of events such as Sabor Latino and the Latin American Festival which demonstrate the uniqueness of the gastronomic treasures that belong to Latin America.

LAWA’s Executive Director, Violeta Moser, was the supervisor of all my projects throughout my internship with the organization. My main projects consisted of the following: 1) Read and revise LAWA’s Fiscal Policies and Procedures Manual, 2) Assist in reconnecting with present and past LAWA scholar recipients, 3) Assist with the planning and execution of LAWA’s Padres y Padrinos program, and 4) Assist with the planning of LAWA’s Sabor Latino event. My first project, revising LAWA’s Fiscal Policies and Procedures Manual, was by far my most significant project. This project required two full months as well as constant communication with LAWA’s Executive Director, Board of Directors, Treasurer, Accountant and Program Director. Together we read over the manual at least a dozen times in order to make sure every policy and procedure was read thoroughly.

This project taught me two very important lessons, patience and teamwork. LAWA’s staff consists of the Executive Director, the Program Director and the ESL instructor/curriculum specialist. Everyone else is a volunteer. This meant that while the Executive Director and Program Coordinator could focus on reading and revising the manual, the volunteers had other priorities to take care of. They were contracted by LAWA, so they may not have had the same motivation as the LAWA employees to revise the lengthy manual time and time again. However, thankfully, LAWA’s volunteers were determined to complete this project, which officially started the summer of 2013. Even though some of these volunteers were vacationing or busy with their own work, we were able to remain well-communicated through emails or phone calls, and found ways to revise the manual together and have a draft ready for the August board meeting in hopes of getting the manual adopted by the Board of Directors, marking a historical event for LAWA.

able to contact a total of ninety Scholars ranging from 2006-2014. After reconnecting with these 90 Scholars, I was given the role of Project Coordinator and tasked with organizing a social event where all of these scholars could meet each other as well as re-kindle a relationship with LAWA. This was by far the most exciting project as I was the boss and had the freedom to make my own decisions. This part of the project taught me all the processes that surround event planning. Even though I was able to contact ninety Scholars, only forty responded to our emails. Of those forty, thirty were able to attend the event. Reflecting back on this project, I feel that the timing of planning the event could have been better. Planning for the event began in early July, a time where most people are out of town. Nonetheless, being able to reconnect with forty LAWA Scholars meant that the project was successful.

(the Mint Museum and Food Lion) to begin planning for the event held on September 25th. Planning for this event was simpler than I had expected. All three parties (LAWA, Food Lion, and the Mint Museum) had a very similar approach in the logistics of the event, so finalizing decisions went smoothly and quickly. My task was to make the necessary reservations or donations for the equipment that would be used at the event such as: wine, tents, decorations, music, etc. This event will provide the opportunity to taste real, authentic Hispanic cuisine, as well as educate patrons about the history of the dishes that will be presented at the event.

Overall, this internship was everything that I hoped it to be. Not only did I feel like I was more involved, but I truly felt that my work made an impact. I was able to finish the LAWA Policies and Procedures Manual and, hopefully, LAWA has adopted the manual as an official document of LAWA; I was able My third project consisted of to get several Scholars to reconnect with collaborating with the ESL specialist, Ra- LAWA which, hopefully, turns into a chel Longbrook, and assisting her with long-lasting relationship; and thanks to My next project—assisting in planning the Padres y Padrinos SumVioleta Moser’s guidance and superreconnecting with past and present mer Camp. This summer camp took vision, I was able to learn more about LAWA Scholars—required me to place at the Simmons YMCA. LAWA non-profit organizations. I could not communicate with all LAWA scholars provided six students (3rd-5th grades) ask for a better way to spend my sum(1992-present). I knew at the start of with the opportunity to receive tutoring mer. this project that I would be facing one and mentoring in language arts vocabumajor obstacle, outdated emails. This lary and reading comprehension as well George Mukosera ‘15 - Fish project showed me how important it is as a chance to learn how to play soccer. Farming for Economic Peace, for a company or organization to conTutoring these kids was much simpler stantly be organized and maintain updat- than I had expected. This was probably Zimbabwe I started part of the fish-farming ed contact information on its members, because I have been tutoring throughout project in the spring semester of 2014. scholars, donors, clients, etc. Many of my college career at Ada Jenkins and the LAWA scholars supplied LAWA working with kids who fit similar profiles This was mainly paperwork such as with their college or university email ad- as these six kids. Even though this camp initiating the registration of the project as a trust in Zimbabwe, and coordinatdress as the preferred method of comonly lasted one week, these same kids ing the siting of the space on which the munication rather than a private email. will be a part of LAWA’s larger Padres College/university emails shut down y Padrinos program, which commences fish ponds were going to be built. The project was successfully registered as shortly after a student graduates and at the start of the academic year. Kurera Development Trust, and siting without another email address on record was successfully completed with the help we had no method of communicating My final project was very simof Aquaculture Zimbabwe. The bulk with them. Phone numbers posed the ilar to the Padres y Padrinos summer of the work, which included formally same problem because many people camp project. This project, assisting in relocate or change service providers, re- planning for the upcoming Sabor Latino addressing the community that I was quiring a person to change their phone event, entailed that I accompany Violeta going to work in, purchasing resources needed to build the fish ponds, and number. With this being said, I was Moser to meetings with our sponsors the building of the ponds, awaited

my arrival in Zimbabwe in July. From the 10th of July until the 20th of August I was directly involved in operations, which mainly included but was not limited to purchasing needed equipment, transporting them to the project site, and supervising the pond building. Most of the work was completed during my stay in Zimbabwe, and I left Zimbabwe while the ponds were still being perfected and before water/fish were added to them. The work is currently on-going. Even though my project was on fish-farming, I went to the service site with virtually no knowledge on the subject. During my first week in Zimbabwe I had the chance to have a free mini-training at the government of Zimbabwe’s Henderson Research Institute that specializes in fish farming. The knowledge that I obtained at the research institute allowed me to be able to manage/supervise the pond building process in the absence of experts and decreased our over-dependence on fish experts which would have slowed the progress. I also retained most of the knowledge, and I can safely say that I came back from the service project with more experience within fish farming. At the service site I had to adapt to working with community who were depending on me for some of their decision making in terms of pond building. I had to adapt to being at the helm of decision making especially where technical knowledge was required. Before going to the service site I had seldom occupied positions where my knowledge/opinion was a key determinant to the progress of a project/event. During the course of the project I also had to manage expectations and demands from the community workers, and also ensure that everyone worked amicably during the process of pond-building that started with limited digging equipment that the workers were prone to squabble over. The task left me more responsible and more able to handle work-related pressure than when I first arrived at the service site.

Even though the project was for the benefit of the community, our failure to access cheap excavating equipment meant that community labor was going to be required. The community members were intent on helping out in pond building to the benefit of the community at large, but they were also hesitant to leave some of their mini-projects which had potential to help their immediate goals (most able-bodied individuals were brick-making). After consulting with Chengetai Mukosera, (whom I left in charge of operations), and the village elders, we decided to give the volunteers some compensation for their time. I had initially not planned for this compensation since I had wrongly assumed that people would be willing to sacrifice their time for the benefit of the community. After reaching the project site it seemed noble to compensate the workers because the work was really laborious and time-consuming. Since I also participated in the pond-digging, I could empathize with the workers and see some of their needs that were not apparent from an outsider’s viewpoint. Even though I was working on a constrained budget, I managed to give the workers some compensation that they were satisfied with without jeopardizing the project’s progress. The needs of the Shangwe Resettlement Village, where the ponds are being setup, were described to me by individual village members, and also through their mouthpiece, the village headmen. I define this village as a community since I think that a community is any group of individuals who exist in a common space with a level of proximity that allows them to interact with each other and to share similar experiences. The Village D members have many opportunities for interaction, live close to each other and share many common experiences. The political structure of the village is such that individual members can identify individual/community needs, but they give their suggestions to a council composed by elders (The Council of Seven) who subsequently

weigh on the gravity of the need and design a way forward. I had to work with members of this council in trying to address the need that I had noticed in the community, and they gave me their blessing. The project was not finished by the time of my departure but I am still involved in tracking and distantly supervising it, until completion of the pond building part. Currently the ponds are being lined by a special material that is needed to for water retention. After lining, water will be added to the ponds and left for two weeks to develop a safe environment for fish breeding. At the completion of the two weeks, fish will be added to the ponds. My ideal schedule had August 31st as the day by which water would be added to the ponds, and September 15 as the day when fish breeding would start. This deadline is still achievable. But the project has also taught me about the uncertainty of real-life work that is often not apparent on paper. I have learned that sometimes work does not proceed as smoothly as envisioned, like I noticed throughout the project, but I am still hopeful that the fish will be growing by September. Beyond pond completion, this project is actually about sourcing funds to develop the infrastructure of a village and to economically empower its members. The first goal of the project is to build a clinic that will serve three villages, and I will continue helping out with fundraising to make this goal achievable soon. I will also keep communicating with the people who I entrusted the project administration to, so they always carry the project’s vision and maintain its integrity.

India Green ‘17 - Ridge View High School

I felt that my experience volunteering at Ridge View High School (RVHS) showed me how school did not stop during the summer. Administrators, faculty and staff still worked throughout the summer to officially close out the last school year and prepare for the new school year. However,

there was a dramatic decrease in the available staff in the building and therefore a mountain of work was put on the shoulders of a limited amount of very busy people. Administrators were therefore very grateful for student volunteers like myself to help them during this busy time. I really felt like I helped out a lot through my assistance with organizing and cleaning the school library, cleaning and setting up classrooms and re-locking all of the lockers. Along the way, I formed good relationships with the staff and with the student workers that were also helping over the summer. At the start of my volunteering, I spent most of my time helping Ms. Parsons, who was the only librarian left to clean up the library at the end of the year. I was surprised at how much work she had to do. I started with scanning hundreds of class reading books into the libraryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s system. Then, all of the books had to be dusted and hundreds of posters sorted into their various genres. I helped her organize her office, the adjoining room and the two back rooms. There were countless items that

had to be either sorted or thrown away. All of the carts, countertops, shelves and various other items had to be wiped down and cleaned. Much of the sorting prepared the library for use by student clubs that needed extra materials. In addition, several of the posters were for holiday events and special boxes were set aside for holiday themed items. In the end, I put up posters for the reference section and vacuumed the carpet. Working in the library was difficult solely for the sheer amount of work that had to be done. I was not very stressed while doing this work, however, and I actually enjoyed having something to organize and clean due to my personal affinity for organization. Ms. Parsons was very grateful for my assistance; we were able to finish everything in a week together than she would have been able to finish in two. She had a personality similar to mine in that she was quiet and particular about where things went. I was happy that she was able to leave for summer vacation earlier because of me, and that next yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s students would have a well-prepared library at their disposal.

Another project I worked on was the setting up of and cleaning of selected classrooms. I worked with a student groups from the South Carolina Works program on this project most of the time since there were a few male students in the group that could take care of moving larger furniture. I helped move desks into classrooms that needed them and cleaned up rooms that needed to be cleaned. The main project was the setting up of a computer class. The school had recently received a grant to put towards engineering and therefore needed to set up a room for a future engineering class. I helped set up the desks and computers for the room. In addition, I helped to set up the school store. My third big project was to clean all of the lockers and reassign all of the locks. The locks all needed to be renumbered and assigned serial numbers. There were about 1,400 locks, so it took weeks of work to do. The locker projects was very time-consuming and getting them out of the way seemed to cut down on the summer workload for the administrators.

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

Photo Credit Matt Gore

Student workers from the SC Works program helped the RVHS faculty and staff with projects and I was usually grouped with them. Even though I was only a year older than them, at times I felt responsible for them. One girl in the program, Romae, was very hardworking. The others, another girl and three or four other boys, had work ethics ranging from very focused to not so focused. Also, since they all just graduated from RVHS and knew each other, they were prone to talking a lot during work and getting very little done due to being distracted. I tried to be friendly and direct them the best way I could. The faculty trusted me the most and therefore I was the unofficial chaperone of the group, so I directed whenever necessary. For instance, Mr. Seay, my supervisor and one of the assistant principals, had to be absent for a week and therefore I was left to give the rest of the group instructions for writing all of the lock numbers on the cards to be distributed during

orientation. I assigned everyone one hundred numbers and told them where to place the number and serial number of each lock on the card. In this way, nearly all fourteen hundred locks were finished in a few hours. The most important thing that I learned about service from the volunteering at RVHS is the importance of forming positive relationships with the people from the service site. I remembered a few people from the school since RVHS was my former high school. Many of the people that I helped were happy to have alumni come back and volunteer. I was friendly with everyone and offered my assistance whenever possible. Therefore, when the staff thanked me over and over again for my help, the service felt even more rewarding. I also made friends with the SC Works students and our ability to cooperate improved as a result. In the end, I thought that my experiences not only gave me

an insight into the hard work needed to keep a school running but also showed me how rewarding it was to form bonds with the people that I help.

Javier Robles ‘15

– St.

Benedict’s Prep

“Hey Javier! You gonna be here for another summer?” inquired Darnell, who stood merely 5-feet tall when I was a senior at St. Benedicts. “Yea man, I just couldn’t get enough of you guys,” I said as I now looked up to Darnell. Last summer, the Bonner Scholars program allowed me to volunteer in the counseling center of St. Benedict’s Prep. SBP is a private non-profit secondary school in the heart of Newark, NJ. SBP prides itself on its ability to teach at risk youth in the neighboring inner cities and sending them to top tier higher learning institutions. In addition, it has an excellent counseling center that offers its services to the students and

their parents. Newark and its neighboring cities deal with everything from gang violence, drugs and extreme poverty. Living in such a destructive environment could affect anyone, so it is no surprise that a large amount of SBP’s students deal with substance abusing parents, absent parents, homelessness, domestic abuse, etc. The people at the counseling center are like angels to the kids, and I have heard them be referred to by others as such. I was overjoyed at the opportunity to gain experience in my field, serve the community, and give back to my school. While I learned a lot during my first summer at SBP, the summer of 2014 was completely life changing. I can honestly say, without a doubt that Bonner has lead me to my destiny. For that, I am forever grateful. What made this summer of service so life changing cannot be explained easily as there were many independent moving parts that converged to reveal my destiny. To begin, I must start with an idea I had before going back home. I was hoping to go abroad to Czech Republic that same summer but I was not able to go because I hadn’t raised enough money to go on the trip. Realizing that everything happens for a reason, I refocused my energy on utilizing this opportunity to the fullest so I could grow as much as possible. I awoke a couple nights before I left Davidson in a cold sweat, stressed and unaware of what I was going to do next. I lacked direction, and as a human being, that is arguably one of the biggest hindrances to happiness. In a flash, it came to me: a 10-year plan that would put me on track to achieving my dreams. It started with a plan to develop a performance enhancement program for the student athletes at St. Benedict’s Prep. While at the counseling center this summer I carved out some time to work on and develop the program. I currently plan to implement the program in the form of a psychology study

as an independent study here at Davidson with one of the teams who compete in the spring. As I reflect on not just this summer, but also my entire involvement with Bonner, I look back with such gratitude and joy. The Bonner Scholars program has helped me tremendously in regard to knowing myself and my place in this world. There are so many problems that plague our world, and while I don’t mean to over generalize, I believe that knowing and loving oneself is the key to solving them or ensuring they never get solved. Bonner has opened my eyes to all the evils of the world, and more importantly the power of one person. Prior to Davidson, I questioned how much power or impact a single person had in this world. Through my various experiences, facilitated in one way or another by Bonner, I have learned that one person can make a difference. Each of us has enormous potential to be great, and what is obvious to me now is that service is the key to unlocking it. Not just in regard to giving back to get ahead, but giving back because everyone wins! This summer I spent a lot of time getting to know myself and thinking about my journey to greatness. While I did not make the decision to join Bonner, I am tremendously happy to have been a part of it. Bonner changed my life for the better, and honestly, my future is looking promising.

Marin Williams ‘16 - BIG ARTS

This summer I worked with BIG ARTS (Barrier Island Group Arts) in Sanibel Island Florida. Big Arts is a non-profit arts organization that offers the community a variety of different arts related activities such as preforming arts (dance, music and theater performances) visual arts (gallery exhibitions, a variety of art classes) and educational talks and lectures (weekly current events discussions, Forum series and art history lectures). BIG ARTS is made of up of two performance halls, Schlien Hall and the Herb Stauss Theater; and two art

galleries, Founders Gallery and Phillips Gallery; along with classrooms, a pottery studios and the administrative buildings. My position with BIG ARTS was as a Program and Community Outreach Intern, working with the Associate Executive Director. Growing up on Sanibel Island throughout my childhood I attended art and dance classes at big arts as well as several dance and theater performances a year. Because of this previous exposure I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to work with BIG ARTS. Some of my first assignments included creating a flier for a museum day trip to Saint Petersburg, Florida, where attendees got the opportunity to visit the Salvador Dali Museum and Dave Chihuley collection. I also created brochures for the Forum Series, a series of six lectures dealing with current events, and learned how to navigate the BIG ARTS member database. Through these first few assignments I learned a lot about the organization and what they offered to their members and the community at large. Through BIG ARTS, day trip attendees have the opportunity to explore two of the most renowned art museums in Florida, which due to distance and time might not otherwise have been available to attendees. Furthermore the forum series allows attendees the opportunity to hear experts speak on topics that the community of Sanibel has decided are of interest to them. For example, one of the talks this upcoming season is on the 2007 Great Recession and how the economy can hope to improve in the future. As the summer progressed I received the opportunity to work on larger projects and interact with other parts of the organization. Having been trained in how to make transactions, and the daily workings of the gift shops and galleries early in the summer, I was later entrusted to train new volunteers in these areas. They also had me create an advertisement for the local newspaper classifieds asking for volunteers in

the gallery areas, as well as for assistance in the performing arts areas. Another assignment I was given was to create a template and later detailed write ups of the classes and workshops that BIG ARTS offers such as pottery, painting, printing, photography, computer classes, language classes, writing classes and many more. This showed me the vast span of areas that BIG ARTS offers to the community. The last two assignments I worked on were the most exciting for me as I was given the opportunity to come up with my own projects and execute them. Something I had noticed throughout the summer was the low amount of gift shop/ Founders Gallery sales. The gift shop, formally called the Founders Gallery is comprised of artists’ work where the artists receives 70% of the commission and BIG ARTS receives 30%. However, due to the lack of sales I came up with the idea of hosting a sale that we called the Christmas in July sale, although it extends through to August. We decided to offer a 25% discount, and thus I had to take pictures of several artists work to be featured and then create a press release for our email list, a flier to be displayed at several public places around the island, and a newspaper add to run in a local newspaper. My last project was to create a post card which would we used throughout the year to send courtesy notes to individuals from the organization. For this project I took pictures of the various buildings that comprise BIG ARTS and designed a postcard using those images. Another extremely exciting aspect of my internship was that because of my position, I was asked to attend several gallery openings and meetings with major artists and art contributors in the Southwest Florida region. Along with several other staff members of BIG ARTS I was asked to attend an opening at HOWL Gallery, which was very interesting to me as I gained firsthand experience about how a gallery opening is conducted. I was later

asked to attend another gallery opening at the Mivelle Gallery. While both of these galleries are for profit, BIG ARTS works closely with them to help support the art community in Southwest Florida. As an art history major, attending these gallery openings was a great learning experience for me. I felt I impacted BIG ARTS most by working on the workshop descriptions. I hope that by having made a standard template for them it will be easier in the future to create the descriptions, making for a more efficient system. Additionally, by creating these workshops descriptions, I hope that more people will be aware of the classes offered at BIG ARTS and will sign up for them. Through the Christmas in July sale there has been a noticeable increase in people visiting the gift shop and Founders Gallery, as well as an increase in sales. Previous to announcing the discount sale, there had not been any sales made at the gift shop or gallery, and a very low amount of visitors to both. A major challenge I faced this summer was that during my internship, BIG ARTS underwent, and was in the process of undergoing several different new hiring processes. This impacted me most when the Executive Associate Director, who I was working most closely with, announced that she would be switching jobs to begin working with the Florida Symphony. This made the internship difficult at times as I would show up to work and there would be nothing for me to do. While this was difficult for me to deal with, it forced me to go around the office and ask various different departments if they had anything I could help with. By doing this I learned more about BIG ARTS as a whole, rather than just the area I was assigned to. I got the opportunity to work a little with the web design department, music department, movie board and the tech directors. This unexpected change forced me to take more initiative and be assertive, without this challenge I don’t think I would have had the opportunity

to create and develop the Christmas in July sale, or the new post card design. These skills are things I plan to take with me back to Davidson and to use daily in my future endeavors.

Nate Casey ‘17 - Kanakuk Kamps

This summer I had the opportunity to volunteer as a camp counselor at Kanakuk Kamps in Branson, MO. I volunteered for seven weeks this summer and was a counselor for middle school boys. During the summer, I had the opportunity to coach football and run several other activities such as the blob, crafts, kayaking, etc. During my time at Kanakuk I really grew in areas such as teamwork, communication, and leadership of small and large groups. The lessons I learned at camp will definitely carry over into my future volunteer opportunities and my service in Charlotte. The environment I was in this summer required a lot of teamwork. Whether I was working alongside fellow counselors or other campers, I was always in a position to exercise my teamwork abilities. I have been used to specific moments where I have had to use these skills I’ve learned, but it was rewarding to rely on others to do their part, as well as being relied on to do mine. I learned how to take charge and lead when necessary. I also learned when it was important to delegate tasks to other people and rely on them to do things that they are skilled in. There was no off time at camp. Even when the day ended, I was still responsible for keeping my barn in check, while also maintaining a fun environment. I was expected to be in constant communication with my leadership team and my boss. I had to communicate which kids were having a rough time, or had family emergencies, etc. There was a lot of responsibly on my shoulders to make sure each kid had the time of their life at camp. Each morning we had a moment where all of the counselors and leadership team would

meet, which gave me the chance to use the communication skills I have learned in the Bonner Scholars program, as well as Davidson College. At camp, I learned the importance of leading both large and small groups. At times, I was in charge of leading and organizing up to one hundred kids. At other times, I was only in charge of my barn consisting of ten kids. I learned that there are different dynamics between leading in a large group setting and leading in a small group setting. You have to be more personal and assume more responsibly in a small group. In a large group it is important to be able to take charge and be confident. It’s imperative to be able to delegate certain responsibilities to other people so that you don’t have to do every little thing - you have to trust people to do their part. It’s also important to recognize when someone is more skilled in area than you are. At that moment you

have to take a step back and let that person do what they are good at. Working as a camp counselor was one of the best experiences of my life. I was always having a great time and often felt like I wasn’t even working. At the same time, I had the opportunity to affect so many kids’ and counselors’ lives by volunteering at Kanakuk Kamps this summer. I was awarded one of the best counselors from the summer and had great relationships with my boss and my co-counselors. It was an opportunity I am glad I took advantage of. I learned a lot of lessons in leadership, communication and service during my seven weeks at camp. I look forward to my future volunteer opportunities and I am excited to take the lessons I learned at camp to my future endeavors.

Philip Yu ‘16 – South Central Scholars

When I accepted the lead intern

position with South Central Scholars, I honestly did not know what to expect. On the one hand, I thought it would have been a mere extension of my position from last summer. On the other, I had no idea what being a leader for a non-personal project meant. Over the course of the summer, I developed an understanding of both. I learned to let go and trust others over this summer. As a leader, I had to delegate tasks and trust my coworkers to accomplish their task. This was the first time I did not practice my excessive multi-tasking and micro-managing nature, and I ended up liking this change. It made me understand that leadership is not about controlling everything but creating a group dynamic where everybody works best in a team. I believe that I managed to create a place where everybody was working at the best of their ability while remaining friendly and casual. While it was not always perfect all

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

the time, it gave me the opportunity to understand how to work with different people and maximize their productivity.

Photo Credit Aly Dove

I have also developed a greater appreciation for what South Central Scholars is doing for the inner-city youths of Los Angeles. Last summer, I liked my job; worked with students that reminded me of me, and that was it. This summer, I have a better understanding of why the founders, James and Trisha London, have dedicated the last eleven years of their lives for these youths. I have not met any students more curious or dedicated than the 112 I have had the luxury to work with. While my initial interest was to make sure they would not go into the college process unprepared like I was, I ended up learning as much from them as they did from me. As I helped them with their college essays, I had a better glimpse into the failing public school and social programs that underserve their lives. It was this summer where I

have decided to return to Los Angeles and make sure that these students and others like them are able to have a mentor and somebody to fight for their right to an education. This summer also helped me personally resolve a few mental blockades. As I preached to my students about the importance of asking for help when it is needed, I never used that piece of advice myself. I look back into my own work as a mentor to my students and they are able to call me their rock while never truly appreciating the people I have had in my own life that supported me. I hope that in the future I will be able to use more of what I try to teach others myself, and both appreciate what I have, and be more willing to ask for help when I need it as my journey through life will contain challenges that I myself do not have the answers to.

Raphael Douglas ‘17 – East-John Youth Center

During my summer, I volunteered at East-John Youth Center as a summer camp counselor. The demographics of the East-John Youth Center were largely minority youth ages four to fifteen. As a camp counselor, I planned activities to entertain the campers. The activities included sports, crafts and games. We went to the pool two days each week and I chaperoned swim time. I also chaperoned a number of field trips, such as to the local marine museum and to a baseball game. Along with these activities, third-party groups provided lessons on issues such as handling bullies, healthy eating/

living and science experiments. The primary target population of East-John Youth Center is the families who could not otherwise afford to send their children to camp. It was different interacting with these children considering the area I live in is considered one of the wealthier counties in Maryland. I grew very empathetic throughout the summer because many of the youth come from rough backgrounds and brought additional hardship with them every day they came to camp. It was rewarding to see those same youth grow during their time with us and become comfortable around the other campers from whom they were originally distant. I learned how much of a difference some attention towards a child makes, even if it’s just laughing at a corny joke that I had already listed to approximately twenty-thousand times. I also learned how to be organized and how to plan a daily agenda. Overall, my time at East-John Youth Center, though chaotic and frustrating at times, was a very rewarding experience. I learned a lot from interacting with children, such as how to interact with them if they have issues going on at home, or were just having a bad attitude for the day. I also learned about the importance of structure when it comes to dealing with a large group of children. I hope my other service ventures at Davidson will be as rewarding as was my time at East-John Youth Center.

Ryan Felice ’17 – Roof Repair and House Transformation, Grenada

The first, and really only word that comes to mind when reflecting on our trip to Grenada is rewarding. From our acute Davidson College bubble, we were able to travel to a developing country and work alongside some of the most inwardly beautiful people on planet earth. And on top of that, were able to provide them with two roofs so the school is able to house more students and train more missionaries.

When we first arrived in Grenada, the school was in good shape, but the dormitories were in serious disrepair. They had no roofs, and inside, the rooms were small and cluttered. By the end of the trip, the two roofs were built and the rooms had been organized and made ready for students to come and live in them. Construction is some of my favorite kind of work because it really allows for a person to see the immediate benefits of their hard work. This isn’t always the case, demonstrated by our football team’s record last season. We undoubtedly put in as much effort and hard work, if not more, as every team we played, but we were not able to see tangible results of that. That is another reason why this trip was so rewarding; we got to immediately see the benefits of our labor. In addition to building the roofs, we were able to accomplish a number of painting projects, namely repainting the entire house of the couple that runs the school and ministry. When we arrived, the paint on the house was peeling and molding. We were able to repaint the house, as well as replace screens on windows and help the couple clean their house. Those at the school were always so focused on serving and putting so much effort into the school, that they seemingly do not have time to do anything for themselves. This trip provided us with the special opportunity to serve these people who consistently serve everyone else; again quite a rewarding process to be apart of.

In addition to the work accomplished and the introspective time I had to learn about myself, this trip also allowed for me to break down walls and stereotypes that many Americans (me included) hold of developing nations. First of all, Grenadians are some of the most genuine people I have ever met. A few of the Grenadians I will stay in touch with and they will be some of my good friends for the rest of my life. The people I met are incredibly smart and talented – and the trip helped me to see this – to not be constricted by the notion that developing nations are only impoverished and second-rate places to live. And while Grenada certainly did not enjoy some of the luxuries of the United States, it was a beautiful place to be and live and this trip opened my eyes to this. Lastly, one of the most beautiful things about Grenada was the sense of community. Community, by my definition, is a group of people who live around each other and this group of people lives almost as one family. They take care of each other, look out for one another and make sure everyone’s essential needs are met. This concept

was taken to a whole new level in Grenada. Being such a small island, most of the Grenadians knew almost half of the people on the island. This became evident when we were driving down the road and our driver kept waving and stopping to talk to people he knew. He would also give rides to anyone he could and helped fix many houses (he was a construction worker). Community was such a large part of society in Grenada and it really left me with the feeling of desire and want for that to happen more at Davidson. We are such a small community and I would love to see everyone be more focused on serving and helping others, rather than just being so preoccupied with everything the individual feels they need to get done. The grant office absolutely does a wonderful job with this feeling of community, and I wish to see it extend to all people at Davidson. The next step for me after this trip is to hopefully return there next

Photo Credit Rhea Costantino

This trip was not just an incredible opportunity to serve and bless others who in turn bless the world, as going to Grenada also gave me the chance to learn quite a bit about myself. Earlier in the year, Davidson gave me the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica, which was my first time out of the country. I absolutely loved it. Being able to go to Grenada again gave me the chance to travel, see the world and experience different cultures. And through both of these trips, I learned possibly one of

the most important things about myself - that I love mission trips and that this is something that I wish to be doing for the rest of my life. I had much time to think and contemplate during my time in Grenada and it became clear to me that mission work must be at least a part of my life from this point on, and that realization would have never been achieved if it hadn’t have been for Davidson’s incredibly generous grant program.

summer and continue to work, because much more is needed to be done, but we just did not have the time. I would also love to explore the options of traveling possibly to the Dominican Republic, but all I know for sure is that I will be going somewhere to serve. The amount of appreciation and thankfulness I have for these grants is beyond words but I wish to express it as much as possible. Thank you so much for the chance to travel to Grenada and to travel in the future, these grants really touch more people than you could ever imagine.

Sarah Taylor ’16 – Empowering Refugee Populations, Ohio

Photo Credit Sarah Taylor

When I told people about my summer plans, I said, “I’m making a documentary… I hope.” Held to this task by the commitment I made to Davidson College and the Center for Civic Engagement, I surprised myself, and those around me, by filming and actually finishing a 24-minute documentary about Columbus, Ohio’s refugee popu-

lation. Through intensive networking, phone calls, and copious advice from friends and professionals, I set up each shoot, gathered B-roll (post-interview footage of their daily lives), obtained permission to reproduce the footage, edited and completed my film. The day that I worried would never come, did, and my friends and family at home have all be able to experience a piece of my summer with refugees with me. Another one of my duties at Community Refugee & Immigration Services was to teach beginners English every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Over the course of two months I went from a bundle of nerves in front of my students, to a competent and semi-autonomous teaching assistant. I built a positive relationship of mutual trust and respect with my students. Even during the month of Ramadan, when half my class was hungry, thirsty, and tired, they greeted me at 8:45 am with smiles and left the 2.5 hour class with calls of “goodbye” and “thank you, teacher.” Most often I taught the pre-literates. They could not even read and write in their first language, so the task of teaching them English was a daunting one. I was always grateful in those moments to have the lesson plans from the main teacher downstairs. However, often we deviated from the lesson plan to review the basics: the alphabet, the difference between “are” and “is”, etc. or to talk about our families, my students’ favorite topic of conversation. Many a time my refugees suggested that I get married as soon as

possible and have eight children, “inshallah” (God Willing). Through this experience I have learned that my life is a life of privilege that I take for granted in some way every day. I am a native English speaker, I finished elementary, middle, and high school, and I now attend a top-tier college. With ease I navigate life in America, from daily interactions, to paying the cashier at the grocery store, to turning on my tap to receive fresh, cold water. Many of my refugees never even got the chance to go to school, let alone complete the fifth grade. They cannot speak English, drive, or get a skilled job here in America, yet they are so happy to be here, to be safe, and to see that their children have the chance at a better future. I learned that my compassion for others has an outlet in the workplace. I can find fulfillment and meaning in my work. Life-changing opportunities do not only come from traveling and volunteering abroad, but in the daily acts of kindness and selflessness I accomplished in my hometown. By strengthening my organizational skills, keeping track of all monetary transactions, coordinating shoots for my documentary, and navigating the non-profit world, I (hopefully) made a positive difference in the refugee community. I had expected to make my documentary in 4 short segments and to release these segments every few weeks. Instead, I filmed all of my subjects in July and edited the five interviews (countless hours of footage) down into a 23 minute, short documentary. Between writing blog posts for the organization, teaching English, and working on my film I also had hoped to complete a few side-projects that my supervisor, Hannah, and I had brainstormed. My expectations for all the additional side-projects that I could complete were over-ambitious. I started and outlined the details for many social media campaigns, namely a picture

series entitled Refugees Contribute, but never was able to complete one of them fully. In retrospect I wish I would have chosen and completed one rather than doing a little bit of work on each one. In previous summer internships, I spent weeks in a cubicle, bored and overlooked. In my best projection for this summer, I imagined myself bored for a majority of the time. However, with the variety of my schedule and daily tasks, each day I interacted with inspiring individuals and expand my knowledge of refugee needs and social work. I looked forward to every single day in the office and left feeling like I had made a positive difference in other people’s lives, even if in just a small way. CRIS valued me and the work that I did. The sheer diversity not only of the client base but also of the staff at CRIS was refreshing. Every staff member spoke at least one other language and many were from foreign countries themselves. I interacted every day with Somali, Ethiopian, Nepali, Lebanese, Congolese, and American people. The immersion in such a richly diverse environment only reinforced my belief that almost all imagined insurmountable differences become moot once diverse peoples interact.

Through this experience, I have also come to a better definition of community. I define community as a group of people with common goals and values. The CRIS community was an ethnically diverse group of people brought together by their interest in helping refugees, America’s most vulnerable, newly arrived population. The CRIS community defined its own needs on an as-needed basis. CRIS’ needs ran the gamut: ranging from extra access to consistent funding, volunteers, skilled lawyers, translators, improved social media outreach, “Welcome Baskets” for new refugees and vans to transport clients. From this experience I will continue to hone my movie-making abilities. I may even incorporate my acquired video editing skills to a summer internship in D.C. next summer. As a result of my positive experience with CRIS, I want my future internships and jobs in the years to come to allow me to give back to others. This may lead me to masters degree in Public Health or a law degree in international law or human rights

or to pursue a critical language in the non-Western world while volunteering with the abjectly poor. Where exactly I will take this incredible experience, I am not sure, but I am sure that I want to leave work every day feeling as if I have made the world a better place, even if only in a small way.

Stephanie Piperno ‘15

Davidson Farmer’s Market The Davidson Farmer’s Market (DFM) is one of the most established and well-attended farmer’s markets in the area. It is widely known throughout the community and even has customers who frequently travel all the way from Charlotte. It is unique because it’s a producer-only Market that has an application process in January, instead of all year round. The selection process for new vendors is a lengthy and careful process, as the Market aims to keep a small and reliable community of vendors each week. The Market is much more than just a place to buy local food;

Photo Credit Steph Piperno

Because of this internship I am a more well-rounded and self-aware college student. I want to target my studies toward the acquisition of critical foreign languages such as Arabic and Hindi and explore the public health field, a critical need for the developing world. I want to narrow my extra-curricular activities to ones through which I can make a positive difference in the world, such as an organization like Half the Sky which raises awareness about the rights and value of women around the world. Before interning with CRIS, I assumed refugees were “takers”, that they took government-sponsored aid (Medicaid and Social Security), and did not contribute much of value to society. I held

this stereotype because, while I had often seen refugees all around Columbus, I had never gone out of my way to interact with them. My internship with CRIS provided me with a ready opportunity to interact with this population. As a result of my interactions with them this summer, I realized that, while they do depend at first on governmental aid, they immediately become contributing members of society, opening their own businesses, paying their taxes, and learning English.

it is a place people come to, eat, drink Summit Coffee, listen to music, learn about local food, and socialize.

Photo Credit Caitlin Reilly

The official title of the summer internship is the Farmer’s Market Marketing Intern. My responsibilities included generating the weekly newsletter, which is distributed to about 2,000 people and is consistently read by about 700, creating promotional materials for special events, organizing Kids Club Activities, performing other organizational tasks, and of course, setting up, taking down, and being involved in each Market. Before this summer, I had no concept of the amount of work required to make the Farmer’s Market run every Saturday, and I quickly found out that I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t aware of what goes into making each Market successful. Most students and community members know that the Market exists, but have no idea that every Saturday morning at 6:30 am, a small group of volunteers come together to put up all

the tents and tables for each vendor. Setting up the tents and tables for the vendors is a unique aspect of the DFM and serves as a way to take some pressure off the farmers as they rush to set up their products in the morning. Working for the DFM this summer was truly an incredible experience, and I enjoyed every minute of it. There is no doubt in my mind that I underwent a personal transformation—most notably, I learned the values of patience and flexibility. As a student at Davidson, I have become an expert in managing my time. My to-do lists are posted all over my desk, and my planner is usually covered in ink. Being organized and extremely time-driven has been both a blessing and a curse. Managing my time well is extremely useful in the classroom, but can be detrimental to other aspects of my life. This summer, I took a step back and allowed myself to “go with the flow” and abandon my usual highly calculated lifestyle. A farmers’ life is anything but predictable. They live day by day and have no idea what will be thrown their way. The Farmer’s Market is truly a reflection of this. Each week we had to respond quickly to bad weather, farmers not showing up, or the need for additional tents for people who we weren’t expecting. No matter how prepared we thought we were, there was always changes that had to be made. Although I wasn’t used to such an unpredictable lifestyle, I was able to adapt and developed a deep appreciation for the farmers and all the hard work they do. Most of the farmers depend on their crops and livestock for their livelihood, but how well they succeed is of-

ten out of their control. Of course they take every precaution to be as successful as possible, but the most important aspect of farming, the weather, is out of their hands. Before the Market, I had never had experience working for a non-profit organization. I really enjoyed learning how non-profits are organized and run, and I thought the board did an amazing job interacting and sharing ideas. Seeing such successful collaboration in action reinforced what Davidson College is all about. One of my favorite aspects of Davidson is everyone’s willingness to help each other and to share ideas. The Market’s mission is to educate the community on local food and sustainability, and, although the board members are from many different disciplines, they are united by a common goal. While different board members had different opinions on certain matters that came up throughout the course of the summer, everyone respected each other’s point of view and ensured that the various stakeholders were brought into the discussion. Despite differences, everyone’s opinion mattered and was taken into consideration. This collaboration is what Davidson College strives to instill in its students. I can apply what I learned this summer to my classes in the environmental studies department because finding solutions to environmental issues depends upon incorporating ideas from different disciplines. Some of my favorite parts of the experience were the farm visits. Due to the Market’s strict producer-only policy, Courtney and other board members make farm visits to each vendor to ensure that they are following Market regulations and to just learn more about each vendor.! Farm visits were such a special experience because each farm we visited was extremely different, and I was able to witness all of the careful planning and intricacies that go into farming. Before this summer, I had never given any thought to how much planning goes into the farmer’s presentation of their goods. I assumed that the

produce was randomly laid out nicely on the table. This, however, is far from the truth. One farm in particular comes to the Market almost two hours early to carefully set up the table and place certain items next to each other. For example, leeks are placed next to the potatoes because people see the pairing and realize they can make leek and potatoes soup. The Farmer’s Market is truly a community event and a wonderful place for families and friends to gather and enjoy food and laughter. There is a misconception that the Market is for the wealthy; however, the DFM board works hard to make the Market a place where every community member feels welcome. A community, in my opinion, is a group of people that share spaces and places and people in the same community can come from a diverse array of backgrounds and be very different. It might surprise many, students in par-

ticular, to learn that next to Davidson’s gorgeous campus is a very poor neighborhood that’s still very much a part of what I think of as our community. The Market brought this to my awareness by doing something called gleaning twice a month. Gleaning is when the farmers donate left over produce to people who may not have the means to shop the Market. After Courtney and I collected the gleaned produce, we delivered the items to houses behind Main Street. Although I have been going to Davidson for three years, I never knew that such poverty existed so close to Davidson’s campus. Courtney and I drove around the neighborhoods and stopped whenever we saw people outside their homes. The people were ecstatic when they realized that we were giving away free vegetables. It was such a wonderful feeling knowing that we helped these families, even if it was in a small way. Most of the people we gave produce to live only a half a mile from the Market, yet don’t

attend because they maybe can’t afford it or are intimidated by it. Gleaning is meant to help these families, but also to show these individuals that the Market welcomes them and wants them to feel included in the DFM community. In addition to reaching out to the community through gleaning, the Market partnered with the Ada Jenkins, a community center that helps people in need, and created a drawing for individuals who qualify for the national food stamp program. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides individuals with a EBT card, similar to a debit card, which cardholders can use to redeem $1 chips at the Market. The purpose of the drawing was to not only provide fruits and vegetables to people in need, but to also raise people’s awareness about the Market and that the Market accepts EBT cards. We chose two names per month, and the winner of the drawing was allowed to choose a few items from the Market. Each winner was

Photo Credit Tommy Rhodes

almost in tears from excitement when they found out they won the drawing. It was a wonderful way for SNAP members to gain awareness of the Market and also a step toward uniting all individuals of the community. Working for the Market has reinforced my passion for the environment and sustainability. I want to continue to volunteer at the Market throughout the year and continue my involvement in raising people’s awareness about the importance of local food.

Stephen Mershon ‘17 – Ocean Elite Basketball

I worked with Ocean Elite Basketball for my summer of service. This organization focuses on helping children develop both basketball and social skills in a safe and nurturing environment. Ocean Elite offers a summer league, various tournaments and a skills clinic for children of ages seven to seventeen. Many, but not all, of the children I worked with come from low-income homes and would otherwise be unable to compete in athletics over the summer. Through my work with Ocean Elite Basketball, I not only helped children in my community become better basketball players, but I also learned a bit about myself as well. I have worked with Ocean Elite Basketball for the past five years, so I had a rough idea of what to expect going into my service. During the summer league and tournament games, I kept the scoreboard running and recorded fouls and points in the official scorebook. I also created the schedules for the league and tournaments. During the skills clinics, I helped out wherever I was needed. For example, I would help retrieve basketballs, transport the players from station to station and run drills with the players. I also talked with the children and made sure that they maintained positive attitudes at all times regardless of their performances on the court. This ended up being the most rewarding part of my service, as I enjoyed getting to know the chil-

dren I was working with. Ocean Elite ensured that all players who wished to participate in the summer’s activities were able to. This belief closely aligns with my own. I firmly believe that all children, regardless of their parents’ financial background, should be able to participate in athletics. Growing up I was fortunate enough to be able to play on several different teams in several different sports. Hearing stories about players not being able to play sports because of financial hardships has always depressed me. Ocean Elite charged all of the players a certain fee to participate; however, if one of the players could not afford that fee, Ocean Elite worked with the parents to work out an appropriate deal. For example, if a family could not afford the registration fee for the summer league, they could help sell drinks and snacks during the game. I thought that this was a good compromise; while not all of the families were able to pay with money, they were able to contribute their time to help the program run smoothly. It was very interesting to observe the way the players and parents behaved during the league and tournament games. I’ve worked with and played on several different youth sports teams over the years. While on these teams, I frequently noticed that many of the parents and players (myself included) treated the games almost like they were life-or-death. These games were frequently filled with tears, yelling, and intense pressure. I can appreciate the competitiveness of these intense games, but my experience with the league and tournament games this summer served as a nice and refreshing contrast. The games were played in a more relaxed environment. While obviously everyone wanted to win, there was not much screaming and crying. The players were able to focus on playing the sport they enjoy and have fun while doing it. I learned some things about myself through my service. The major-

ity of my tasks this summer involved socializing with several different people of various ages, backgrounds and skill sets. Coming into this experience, I was unsure if I was going to be able to properly communicate with all parties in an effective manner. I was pleasantly surprised to find this concern was not a major issue. Whether I had to talk to a parent about scheduling or joke around with the players to lighten the mood, I was able to effectively get my point across. My service showed me that I am able to successfully communicate with people of diverse backgrounds better than I originally thought. My service organization worked with youth development through athletic participation. Some people might argue that Ocean Elite’s mission, while admirable, is perhaps not as “important” as the mission statement of an organization that works with issues such as poverty or homelessness. However, I believe that organizations that involve youth athletics are just as important and necessary. Through my experiences, I have learned that athletics are an excellent creative outlet for children. In the future, I hope to work with other organizations that have similar missions.

Taylor Brendle ‘17 –

Davidson College Center for Civic Engagement This past summer has been exciting and fun, stressful and interesting, and everything in between. I had the pleasure of working with the Davidson College Center for Civic Engagement as the Service Odyssey Intern. This internship entailed creative thinking, logistics, and bringing three distinct groups of freshmen together for one cause, social issues. I started the internship off with the Bonner SLI conference at Berry College in Rome. This conference opened my eyes to a whole network of people doing great things in their respective communities, all while being a part of something bigger. SLI inspired me

to be the best I can, while doing my best for others. Throughout the week, I felt that Davidson could grow into an even better program through other Bonner programs. After the SLI conference came the real work. Through contacting community partners and church staff, the Service Odyssey sessions began to take shape. Each session had a unique set of community partners that encompassed the majority of social issues, while still having the ability to be fun. I began to reach out to the participants and they were all very enthusiastic about the upcoming sessions, as was I. Sooner than I thought, Service Odyssey Session 1 was upon us. I coled the trip with Lauren Billotto and I learned so much just from the first session alone. I was truly worried about how our group would mesh and come together from such different walks of

life. Once again, I was impressed by how service can bring awesome people together for one reason. Session 1 was stressful but enlightening for all of us. I learned to take things as they come and to really listen to what others have to say and allow their words to help shape my thoughts and views. Session 1 was definitely a success in many ways! As I came off of Session 1, Session 2 was coming sooner than I ever thought. I had less worries about the week ahead and I knew our group would be awesome, but I didn’t realize how awesome we would do. Session 2 truly impressed me during reflections. The service was amazing, but the true magic came from our time together talking about our days and also our pasts. What I learned in my time with Session 2 is hard to explain. I was surprised by how honest and lovely every one of the participants (Xzavier, and I included) was. We started every session

of Service Odyssey reflection the same, “reflection is like Vegas, what happens in reflection, stays in reflection.” People took that statement to heart and thoughts and wisdom flowed nightly in our circle. Ideas were supported; thoughts provoked, and little by little we became a family of service. We shared our life stories, service narratives, and all of our worries in reflection. Throughout the week, a community was built much stronger than I have ever seen in such a time. Session 2 was a special experience that I will cherish for years to come! Session 3 came right after Session 2, and it was our largest of the Odysseys. The things I learned in Session 3 were less about the participants and more about the non-profits themselves. I learned more and more that non-profits need to work better together so that nothing goes to waste. Long Branch made me think more critically

Photo Credit Taylor Brendle

about having a non-profit circle where all of the non-profits work together to overcome the same obstacles. This thought inspired me to think of how our Bonner program and Center for Civic Engagement can possibly facilitate such a communication. Overall, this summer has definitely changed my life. I will forever look back upon this summer as a time of growth and struggle, and love and hardship. Thank you, Center for Civic Engagement for giving me this awesome opportunity to grow and become more involved in and aware of the non-profit world!

truck and apparatuses the other days. The trucks have to be ready for any situation at any time. Just as the station has to be cleaned daily, the trucks have to be washed often in order to maintain a proper public appearance. Just as a firefighter wearing a department shirt represents the station, so do the trucks and apparatuses. Physical training had become a daily fixture. Firefighters must remain in good physical condition in order to properly protect their community. Another important key to representing the station is public relations. The best example occurred when I went to a birthday party with a few firefighters. We rode up in the big, impressive fire truck and the kids ran up to the Thomas McDonough ‘16 – driveway awestruck. They looked up Lebanon Volunteer Fire to us, and we tried to instruct them on Department the importance of safety and planning This summer, I became reacduring emergencies. The station and its quainted with Lebanon Volunteer Fire members must have a good relationship Department in Durham, NC. It was with its community in order for the pubvery reminiscent of last summer’s adven- lic and the firefighters to work together ture with the civil servants of Durham optimally in cases of emergency. County. I continued training as a rookie toward my goal to become a fully Last summer, I attended Rookcertified volunteer firefighter. Again, I ie School. That is an overview of the gained knowledge and experiences that essential knowledge that a firefighter I believe will help in college and life should have. While there, I learned a beyond. lot about the basics. This summer, I Structured routine remained central for the life of a firefighter. Time is everything - from arriving to the station on time, to dispatching en route to a call. A firefighter must always be prepared. Arrival and accountability still required check-in and sign out. It is very much preferred for a firefighter to arrive 15-20 minutes early for incidents near the end of shift. A call can range from about 20 minutes to several hours, which is very taxing for someone who has already been on shift for hours seeking to head home and relax. Station life remained the same as last year. Every day, the daily duties of cleaning the station are performed as well as the checking off of trucks. Each truck is assigned a certain day for a thorough, weekly check. The drivers have to do a personal check on the

had the rescue class. This class is aptly named - it teaches a firefighter how to approach rescue, whether of a victim or a fellow firefighter. The final class was on a Saturday. This, like all classes, has a practical before the exam. The Saturday class took place at the Durham Tech Fire Academy training grounds. In the practical, we were paired up to search the maze. This type of search gives a near realistic account for when we enter a burning building. The maze was dark and smoky, but not burning. We were required to wear our self-contained breathing apparatus to increase the realistic feel. A requirement and aspect for fighting fires is to know the layout of every truck at the station. A firefighter must know where each apparatus is located on a truck and how each tool is

operated. It is optimal to know multiple uses (if applicable) for each tool. One cannot earn their black hat if they do not know the layout of each truck, which means they are not allowed into an active fire without a black hat. This summer, my knowledge of trucks was used on a few medical calls when an AED and powered suction were needed for a patient. This summer we also had new volunteers join the station. It was interesting having the perspective of a returning member observing someone being introduced to the field. Some shifts I was assigned to show the new volunteers around the station and help them learn the truck layouts. This reminded me of what it was like last summer when I was asking other firefighters to teach me how certain equipment work. The station operates on a 3-shift system. The shifts, A, B, and C, operate on a rotating system of two shifts alternating for eight days, each having 4 shifts. At that point, one shift rotates out and the third rotates in. While on shift, the firefighters have to perform the daily duties, complete the daily training, and perform other mandatory objectives. But in between or after dinner, many firefighters still brush up on knowledge of methods and equipment as well. Again, the best part of my summer was the people I worked with. The relationships I’ve made and the people I met are what made my summer of service great. I learned and improved on skills that are great for college and the real world. Time management and maintaining sound public relations are essential in the life of a firefighter.

Photo Credit Taylor Brendle

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

Photo Credit Cy Ferguson

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.â&#x20AC;? -Chimamanda Adichie

SERVICE & SOCIETY

Aly Dove ‘16 - Foundation Claude Monet, France

Photo Credit Aly Dove

Through my experience volunteering in the gardens at Fondation Claude Monet, I have come to value simplicity and developed a greater understanding of American culture. As a college student in the United States and more specifically at Davidson College, I am a product of a culture that values efficiency and growth. My generation has experienced the effects of these values through an intense pressure to succeed. In high school, this pressure took the form of getting into a reputable institution. Without a degree, our generation has no chance of getting a job, earning income, and living a successful life that aligns with the American Dream. While I believe there are a multitude of exceptions to this way of living, it is a philosophy that most Americans have adopted as truth. As a result, young adults focus on filling their schedules with extra-curricular activities—athletics, community service, arts--while also taking as many rigorous courses as possible. Rigor has become a tactic to achieve success and as a result, “You’re so busy…how do you do it all?” is a comment that we consider a compliment rather than a sign that we are overwhelmed. One might perceive participation in a variety of activities to be a positive method to construct a well-rounded individual;

however, I think there are many consequences to this way of thinking. Living in a society where there is institutional pressure on youth to become a jack-of-all-trades, results in stress, conflictions of identity, and a generation of students who are capable of many tasks, but lack the ability to execute any of these tasks exceptionally. Because students are busy balancing so many other activities, they are incapable of refining a skill so that they can execute one task well. With the pressure to build a résumé and commit to a multitude of presented opportunities, it is inevitable that the student will experience stress. For many students, this stress develops into serious mental health conditions; however, our society has also constructed a stigma around mental health because it is a sign that the individual cannot keep up or handle the opportunities our system has provided him or her with—as a result, youth perceive seeking help for anxiety, stress, depression as taking on the identity of someone who as failed. But why? American institutions have set up an impossible series of expectations for the next generation of job-seeking youth to meet. American employers and educational institutions have constructed the ideal employee as someone who is both

a leader and team member, involved in both their local community and the world, both creative and intelligent, both innovative and intuitive, and cooperative but self-sufficient. As someone who has experienced the pressure to fit into these molds, this expectation is unhealthy because it is impossible. Rather than encouraging the next generation to value breadth, we need reclaim the value of depth—of learning a few things, but understanding the majority of the concepts being taught; of partaking in a few activities, but gaining a large sense of accomplishment from being a loyal, engaged member to of your organization; of understanding the value of interdisciplinary, but of also knowing it is okay to devote the majority of your time to one discipline in order to excel in it. Because we are both a part and product of a system which values complexity over simplicity, we must remove ourselves from this system in order to understand the agency we maintain to develop our own definition of success rather than conforming to the definition of success based on the American value for efficiency. Experiencing French culture and the simplicity of life in the countryside helped me to understand aspects of American culture I support, and aspects of American culture that I find ineffective. Our consumerist,

capitalist culture has blinded us to efficiency that is inherently built into the natural world. Houses in Giverny are centuries old, and homeowners know and understand why larger windows and skylight windows are placed on certain sides of the home, and why their home is positioned to utilize the winds rather than air-conditioning in the summers. The intentionality surrounding architecture and construction in Giverny is often overlooked in the United States where efficiency in based on profit. Homebuilders put as many houses as possible on one plot of land to maximize efficiency and products. We lack an appreciation for the environment and problematize aspects of landscape that can serve to help us. There is no consideration for the windows selected or position of the house to reduce resource usage and energy bills. Rather windows are selected based on individual choice and house is positioned to allow for the maximum amount of houses to be built. The difference in our perception of efficiency stems from intentionality. Intentionality in the United States is based on our material culture. We express our identity through the objects we own, and the objects we own define our success based on how much money we make and what we can and cannot afford to purchase. I think the concept of expressing our identity through material items stems from the idea of achieving the American dream and the self-made man. We have a desire to communicate success, or the act of achieving the American dream, through material items. This mode of thought applies our cars. We purchase cars based on how they express our identity rather than their utility. People who own SUVs in the United States, let’s use Land Rovers as an example, probably do not need the power of the vehicle to carry equipment up a mountain or travel across bumpy terrain (its utility), but rather, purchase the vehicle as a sign of class and wealth. Cars in France are all very small, and the chance of a collision with a large vehicle is min-

ute. Because everyone has a small car there is no pressure to purchase a large vehicle. As a result, the individual’s gas bill is much cheaper, and the country’s carbon emissions are much lower. This example surrounding transportation in the United States and France gave me insight into how our cultures define efficiency. I see France’s system as more logical and efficient because it is energy and economically efficient; however, depending on the values of the culture from which we come, we perceive efficiency differently, and our motives for consumption, identity versus utility, can be drastically different.

ment. This will involve shifting the way we produce energy, changing our transportation systems, and realigning our consumerist values. Efficiency no longer looks like smoke stacks, and diesel pickup trucks; efficiency is clean, renewable energy, and strategic transportation systems. The same concepts of innovation and efficiency that created the American we know today are at play, we just need to reimagine and rethink the application of these concepts and trust that change can lead to a better solution rather than simply relying on the next generation to “handle” the impending climate crisis.

Overall, my experience at a While the concept of the Amer- micro-level has shown me the healing ican Dream and the self-made man power of immersing oneself in simple have led many Americans to develop tasks outdoors. For me, it alleviates the their identity through consumption, I stress and “go-go-go” environment at also think these concepts have given Davidson. To continue the environmenAmericans a value for innovation—a tal immersion this semester, I am leadconcept which I appreciate. We support ing two Davidson Outdoors trips, and I the generation, process, and execution am photographing outdoors as much as of new ideas. Our society encourages possible through my work-study at the individuals to invent and to create and in Communications office, my work with turn, we empower individuals to change YouthMAP, and through my indepenexisting products, services and systems. dent study in visual anthropology. I also As a result, we tend to view change as just returned from the People’s Climate the ability to continually generate newMarch in New York City and am now ness. It is my hope that we can generreinvigorated to spread awareness about ate newness to an issue I find of great climate change and environmental significance due to its ability to poteninjustice occurring in frontline comtially destroy the world in which we live, munities to members of the Davidson climate change. College community. As a member of the Davidson College eco-house, I have Our generation has been handa greater appreciation for intentionaled the task to, for lack of better words, ity and community living through the save the world, or go down with it. Wacomparison of American and French ters are rising at unprecedented rates, culture. Gardening in Monet’s garden at methane gases, which are twice as toxic a macro-level provided me the opporas carbon dioxide, are being released tunity to compare capitalist-based and into the atmosphere due to the melting socialist-based societies and the ways in the tundra. In addition, acidity levels in which these economic origins have in the ocean are increasing at a rate that shaped the cultures we are a part of plankton, the source of oceanic eco-sys- today. While I do not thing one culture tems, may no longer be able to live in. is superior to the other, I do think our In order to prevent mass-destruction, we differences can help us learn from one are going to need massive, institutional another, and improve our ways of life in change. As an influential world-leader, each country. the United States has the ability to apply its value for innovation and change, to Christi Moore ‘15 – Mary our energy systems and our environ-

Queen of Peace School

Teaching at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cape Coast was a truly amazing experience. I found myself more prepared than I expected. Not knowing what books I would be teaching from or what my day would consist of made me a bit anxious. However, I soon discovered that my experience as a Servant Leader Intern with Davidson College Freedom Schools greatly prepared me for my role as a seventh grade English teacher. Initially the thought of being thrust into a classroom of preteens was a little scary, but I understood that the Headmistress had faith in my capability and expected me to deliver in my role. I took this charge seriously and implemented the practice I received in my last summer of service to assist in this position. I did, however, find that although the methods of preparation were similar, my delivery to the students would have to be different. I found myself working to make sure I included relevant cultural contexts in lessons. After all, it is important to find methods that will keep students engaged or they will not absorb the information that is presented to them. I also found myself adjusting lessons plans that were designed for the week if they did not receive the response I anticipated. My goal was to maintain engagement in class and present material in a way that the students could enjoy. Interactive teaching is something that I have always enjoyed and was ecstatic to see the positive response from students when I employed that method in the classroom. Although it is not my goal to become a teacher, this summer of service further reinforced my passion for service in the field of education. I know that it is a field that I will continue to work with. I find joy in helping students explore, learn and grow. It is such a reward when students express their gratitude and you can see the difference you‘ve made in a child’s life. Their innocence is precious in manner and it is disappointing that it is often taken advantage of. It is my plan to remain steadfast in devotion to combat this

evil that is thrust upon children and prevents them from receiving the resources that tend to hinder their progress in academics. I am excited to have started a potential long-term partnership between Mary Queen of Peace School and LEARN Works Bridge, my Davidson service site. Before introducing the idea of a pen pal program to my students, I grew nervous when thinking about their responses. Not only did I think they would consider the idea uninteresting, but I thought they would laugh in my face. To my surprise, they were excited about the program and eager to begin work immediately. The same day I spoke in classrooms I received letters to bring back home. Students were excited about sharing their culture with new friends right here in Davidson. Although students in the Bridge program have not heard about the program just yet, I am confident that their response will be the same. I am excited about the partnership because it will offer both LEARN Works students and Mary Queen of Peace students the opportunity to experience different social and cultural aspects of foreign places without depending on the portrayal from media sources that are often distorted. As my time in Ghana drew closer to the end, I knew that I was leaving an amazing place, especially reflecting on my initial feelings of uncertainty. However, I don’t think I could have ever been more wrong. Although it may sound cliché, this was an experience that has undoubtedly changed my life. I am ecstatic that my first time traveling outside of the country was to a place like Cape Coast, Ghana. Never did I think I would feel more at home in a place so far away from my beloved family. While I completely understood that I was a foreigner in Ghana, the faces of so many people here resemble a cousin, aunt, uncle, even my own parents. At the market, church, on my way to teach, I’ve done so many double takes because faces seem so familiar. I’m not so sure

one can understand my amazement, excitement and joy in this discovery unless they were to see it with their own eyes. To look at another face and see Aundrea, Vette, or Carolyn was a surreal experience. As African Americans, we learn that our ancestors hail from West Africa, but I am unsure as to how many of us really believe this is fact. I believe now, more than I ever did, that my family has roots in places other than South Georgia. This experience compelled me to share with my family the discoveries I made and we are now committed to tracing our genealogy. “Looking in the mirror” made me feel like I was home in a nation that I’d never been to before. In America, where I face so many challenges as a woman and a Black woman, understanding that these are entities that have their own problems and are not always unified, it was comforting to feel a sense of belonging. I often resent the repressive conditions minority populations suffer under in America. I was more than overjoyed to not be exposed to such a feeling during my trip. It was truly a refresher from constant battles, both internal and external, that I face each day as a Black woman in America. It was a surreal experience to see the place that many of my family members could have come from. There was a connection I felt with this place and the people despite the language barrier, different landscape and varying lifestyle. A mirror can never tell a lie someone once said. I just hope one day the rest of my family can see the reflections in the mirror I was so blessed to encounter on my journey in Ghana. Of course I have not found everything to be pleasant here, but is there any place where this concept exists? What I may find to be problematic works for some people. What I find to be chaotic is a daily routine for some. The amenities that I take for granted are quite rare elsewhere, but somehow people make do. When I reflect on my experience in what was formerly known as the Gold Coast, I choose to see the

Cy Ferguson ’16 – Youth Empowerment and Education, Uganda

When I left Davidson’s campus May 19th at 5:30 A.M., venturing out into the cold, dark morning seemed to be representative of the lack of clarity I had concerning the next six weeks. By the time I reached the Charlotte airport, the sky had brightened, but my uncertainty had not diminished. Prior to this trip, I had never been out of North America. Thus, the fact that in about 24 hours I would be in a developing nation far from home was both exciting and daunting. Living for six weeks on farmland near the small, rural village of Kyetume, Uganda, was a fascinating, challenging, and at times difficult experience. When I entered this service site, I did not know what was to come. I had purposely tried to avoid creating expectations during my preparation for this trip. As far as I’m concerned, placing expectations on things that I cannot control only makes disappointment and frustration more likely. That said, I couldn’t say that I had no expectations. In my mind I still harbored an idea, a picture, of what my service would be like, what my living situation would look

like, and how people would respond to me. Over the next six weeks of service, everything I had envisioned was stretched, twisted, and otherwise challenged in every way. Service outside of one’s usual context is a good experience, but it is also a messy one. I do believe that I have changed, learned, and grown as a result of this service experience. One attitude that was most definitely challenged during this trip was my attitude towards time-management and productivity. As a student at Davidson I have been trained to value productivity— we Wildcats love to be busy. No matter how much I complain at school about how stressed I am, or how much I have to do, it is all a direct result of my own choices. I picked my schedule, I chose to be a Bonner Scholar, and I decided to get involved in several different clubs and activities. I feel compelled to use every moment of my day to accomplish something (from the noble to the trivial), and the Davidson culture (which is informed by contemporary U.S. culture in general) encourages this addiction to productivity. From the first day I entered Africa this addiction was tested. Time works differently in Uganda. One of the most noticeable characteristics of the Ugandans that I worked with was

Photo Credit Cy Ferguson

side that people tend to not harp on. Yes, developing countries have issues with political, economic and educational institutions. But, there are other nations that suffer from the same hardships that are deemed to be leaders of the world. I saw problems and I saw things that other places could use as a learning tool. My hope is that simply because Ghana is a nation labeled as developing, people will not assume that the problems which exist here are exclusive to only Ghana. The same problems exist elsewhere; they are just manifested in a different way. We must open our eyes to see the lens of privilege that exists when we evaluate our experience in new environments. If not, then experiences such as this are void of purpose. As I marvel at the place that was home for six weeks, I couldn’t help but think what it would be like to have been born and raised among my own people. I say “my own people” not because we share the same skin color, but because I know my roots are here somewhere, in West Africa. Although I’ve not traced where my ancestors specifically originated, I know in my heart that I was home. I believe this is why I was enraged and offended by some of the unpleasant remarks, lack of cultural sensitivity, or sheer carelessness when speaking about people from a different cultural background. After all, my peers are educated adults, so I should feel justified for expecting more at least some of the time? I’m not so sure I can employ this rationale and that it will encompass as many people I once thought it did. I understand new experiences can be scary, an adjustment, or just plain different for many people. However, I never believe we can justify our juvenile and offensive behavior because we are not accustomed to something. When I look back on the time I spent in Cape Coast, Ghana I am amazed at the structure of education, the independent manner of young children, and as my sister Cidney Holliday put it in This Little Carcass Went to the Market, the “organized chaos” that made it so special.

their flexibility towards time and schedules. I love having things scheduled—a plan going forward gives me a slightly inflated sense of purpose and security. I quickly realized that I was not going to receive a daily schedule of the tasks I was to complete that day, and the time allotted for said tasks. Usually there was about one task or activity per day that us volunteers could work on—far below the number of tasks and activities that I would label “productive.” I learned to do less, and be okay with it. I learned to be flexible with timelines, deadlines, appointments and anything else relating to time. I learned to take initiative. The community often underestimated us volunteers, and thus I found that if we did not initiate something on our own, we would be left sitting idly in our host family’s home. Thus, I had to give up the comforts of clear volunteer direction and create service opportunities on my own.

Photo Credit Cy Ferguson

This service experience has contributed to my education as a college student in that it gave me an opportunity to observe ideas I’ve learned about in real life, in addition to illuminating the areas in which my education has been useful, and ways in which it has hindered my development. In some ways, the “Davison bubble” is an actual phenomenon. I find that it is easy for me to become wrapped up in looking out for myself— which classes will be best for me, which internships will help my career, which weekend activities will I enjoy the most. This self-focusing becomes detrimental when it distracts from the needs of the world around me. Spending all my time and resources on myself is a sure way to become unhappy and unfulfilled. Thus, I am thankful for the Bonner program for providing a way in which I can continually shift my focus outward. This trip provided me with several clear moments of realizing that the world is much larger than me, and that it has needs that far

outweigh my own. Although college life can be detrimental to personal development in some ways, I am convinced that my education aided me greatly during this trip. There were several moments where I saw skills encouraged by a liberal arts education—problem solving, communication, and teamwork—emerge during moments of need. I arrived in Kyetume expecting to be heavily involved in building a goat house, followed by transporting goats, and then giving away these goats to children in need. My fellow volunteers and I were involved in construction of the goat house for the first day, and no more. The issue with this expectation was that Uganda Rural Fund (the organization I worked with) had hired local contractors to do the building of the goat house. These contractors only spoke Luganda (the regional language) and could not direct us due to this language barrier. Simi-

larly, we could not help URF’s director in purchasing/transporting the goats, because it was only a one-or-two-personjob that again, required the ability to speak Luganda. While it was frustrating to not be involved in the project that I had set out to accomplish, I soon realized that I would need to find another way to contribute, or spend six weeks in a cramped living room watching American movies dubbed in Luganda. Thankfully, I was introduced to Mabiriizi John, a teacher at Hope Academy (the secondary school run by URF) and Youth Empowerment Coordinator at URF. John provided my fellow volunteers and me a way in which we could serve the community with the knowledge and abilities we had. By working with John, and applying skills and problem-solving learned and practiced at Davidson, I was able to speak to over 2,000 students in the Masaka area about the importance of education, as well as helping revitalize a debate system at Hope that was doing more harm than good when we arrived. My background in communication studies and public speaking (I am a Speaking Center tutor at Davidson) gave me the skills and confidence necessary to contribute to the community in an engaging way. Who is the “community” and how are its needs defined? These questions are much more complicated than I had first thought. Before this trip I tended to think that the community we would be serving and interacting with was simply going to be made up of the children at Hope. In reality, I needed to interact with numerous people including our host family, members of URF, teachers and administrators at the school, citizens in the broader community, and yes, students. Every day was a challenge and learning experience when it came to communication. I soon realized that if I was to provide any sort of service to this community, I needed to be flexible, culturally aware, and willing to adjust the way in which I communicated in order to facilitate more meaningful interactions. As far as the

question of determining a communities needs goes, I ran into more muddiness. After having this experience, I think a sort of middle ground is necessary. An outsider should not simply project what they think the community needs, and yet, neither should they assume that the community knows exactly what it needs. In preparation for this project I was excited to hear that URF is a “grassroots nonprofit.” To me, this meant that the organization had started in the community and thus would be better able to communicate to and assess need in the community. What I did not account for is the fact that the concept of a nonprofit differs depending on the cultural context. I found that due to the fact that the same Ugandan family runs URF almost entirely, it looked less like what I think of as a nonprofit, and more like a family business. While the close ties between workers likely provides a unique bond, it also provided rivalry, suspicion towards outsiders, and a lack of financial accountability. I became frustrated with some of these issues, and often wondered why this organization was not being run with the efficiency and transparency that I consider necessary for any nonprofit. It was then that I realized that I was appraising this situation from the perspective of someone who is used to doing service in the United States. How can I judge people that have never seen the way in which a nonprofit functions in the United States? To what extent can I criticize people that are trying to provide for their family in the most readily available manner they can? Although someone serving a nonprofit abroad cannot apply expectations created by a domestic ideal, the perspective of an outsider can provide helpful insight into an entrenched organization.

library for the school, and leaving in a week. My aforementioned addiction to productivity makes me uncertain that I left Uganda having done enough. And yet, when I feel this sense of disappointment, I think back to the moments of my trip in which I felt the joy of connecting with someone. Moments like my last day in Uganda, when Peter and Andrew (two young men who are students at Hope) told me that they hoped I would return to Uganda someday, because my time spent at Hope had encouraged them to pursue their studies and to speak confidently in public. In reflecting on these moments I recognize the fact that service is meant to help individuals—to make an individual feel empowered, encouraged, and loved. I realize that I, like many other Americans, am attracted to big numbers. I love to hear that the Gates Foundation has nearly eradicated polio, or that Warby Parker has given away more than one million pairs of eyeglasses to people in need. While these great feats are inspiring, smaller, less-noticeable acts between individuals are equally important. If we neglect doing what is in our power to do, no matter how great or small, we create a society that is complacent, self-indulgent, and neglectful of its members. I do not regret spending half of my summer in Uganda. I do not regret working with URF. I gave what I could, served those who would let me, and learned more than I could have imagined. I may return to Uganda, or I may never set foot on its dark, lush soil again. What I hope is that the things I have learned will inform my future service, giving me a global mindset, an awareness of differing communication styles, and a heart to reach out to the individual.

This summer’s experience has left me feeling conflicted. On one hand I feel as though the six weeks I spent in Uganda ended up being more about personal development than direct service. I wonder if I could have had more impact by simply flying out with a couple thousand dollars, buying a new

College Biology Department

Dustin Atchley ‘17 – Davidson My summer of service has been a truly enriching experience. Originally, I was not exactly sure what I was going to be able to take away from my experience, but I now understand how my summer has changed me.

Photo Credit Aly Dove

I spent 10 weeks volunteering in a synthetic biology lab under the supervision of Dr. Malcolm Campbell. The goal of the project was to optimize metabolic pathways through programmed evolution. The broader impacts of the project included, but were not limited to: increased diversity for STEM education, recruitment of underrepresented groups, a trained STEM workforce because the students involved will be highly valued as a result of their authentic research experiences, potentially reduced costs for industrial-scale commercial chemical production and pharmaceuticals, potentially improved American economic competitiveness, improved infrastructure for research and education on the two home campuses, and enabling the investigators to continue to serve as national leaders in undergraduate synthetic biology education and research through the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT). In hopes of bringing my research experiences directly to the Davidson com-

munity, I have created a presentation to convey not only what I have learned from my research this summer, but also the opportunities that science presents as careers and the importance of science education. I hope to present to the students in the Davidson area as well as in my home county, Rutherford County, NC. This extension of the project was important to me, because I came from an underfunded public school system where the sciences were often neglected due to the monetary requirements. There were many times that our teachers would buy lab materials with their own money in order for us to have labs. Online labs are not very similar to the real thing, and very few of my professor were in a position to buy lab supplies out of their own pocket. Until I got to college, I thought I wanted to be an engineer. Why? I had always heard that engineers made good money and it was a stable line of work. It was not until college when I realized the plethora of opportunities that were available with a biology or physics degree. I did not know about these opportunities, because no one had ever told me, which is the purpose of me designing the presentation. I wanted to share the opportunities that are available for students out there and where a career in science can take you. Students do not have to wait until their undergraduate studies begin to get real experiences in science â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a reality I was not aware of. My summer experience improved my communication skills far more than I had anticipated. I can effectively communicate complex ideas to

a variety of audiences. I also gained a different perspective on the world from my fellow researchers that I found truly enriching. I learned more about myself than I had originally anticipated, because I faced various forms of adversity daily. Overall, I could not be happier with my experiences this summer.

Grace Li â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;17 - Environmental Education, Bali

During my volunteering work at a local community in Ubud, I have done both construction work and teaching. For construction, we renovated a local elementary school during a major religious holiday at Bali so that when students come back they would be able to use a brand new classroom. I joined the work the second week and was able to see the end of construction. We were able to sand and repaint all the tables and benches of five classrooms, and; we also painted the walls of classrooms. Even though the construction work doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t require me to interacting with others, the teaching part involves interactions with both other volunteers and local students. The teaching was the best part of my volunteering work in Bali. However, it was not at all like what I expected. What I applied for was an environmental education program, and I understood that there would definitely be a language barrier. At the beginning, I was told that I would be teaching elementary school students, but finally I had to teach high school students. At first, I was happy because I thought it would be easier for me to teach environmental education if the students were older and able to communicate easier with us. However, that is not the case at all. During the first day, we found out that they only knew very limited words and sentences. It was even hard to have a basic conversation, so I hadve no clue how we would talk about concepts such as global warming or sustainable energy with these students. Thus, for our lessons, we would dedicate some time

to teach them English first and when we were teaching environmental education, we would translate all the key terms in their local language Bahasa so that they would understand them faster when we explained the concepts. Yet, the language barrier was not the only problem. Before coming to Bali, I wanted to focus on the different kinds of garbage and recycling for my lesson plan because that seemeds like a practical thing to learn when Bali produces around 20,000 cubic meters of garbage every day and 75 percent of which is not collected by any service. However, I was able to walk around streets in downtown Ubud during my orientation week, and I did not find any recycling bins. I did see some compost bins for food, but there were no recycling bins for soda cans or plastic bottles. Thus I knew it would be impossible for me to teach recycling because even if the students recycle, they would still be

put into one trash pile in the end since no recycling service is offered in their country. Fortunately, we were able to find other topics to teach the students, such as the ozone layer and global warming by using simplified posters to illustrate the concepts.

would able to help me. Even though the first day was not as successful as we expected, the rest of the lessons were very good. Through this opportunity, I have more confidence in myself knowing that I have done a good job this time taking the lead.

It wasn’t me alone who taught these high school students. I worked with four other volunteers and: we planned the lessons and taughteach together everyday. When I have to do group works in school, I usually don’t take the lead. I would do all my jobs, but I was just never willing to be the leader because I didn’t think I would be a good fit. However, this time I stepped up when I was working with these volunteers. They were not like me since I have a specific topic that I wanted and was supposed to lecture on, but they were only here to teach. I had to let them know what I wanted to teach for environmental education and how they

As an international student, this trip further makes me believe how important it is to learn English. The fact that I am studying abroad in America shows how much I valued English and chose to come to an English-speaking country to have continue my education. During the trip, I was able to talk to some locals. One of them expressed his concern: he thinks that some children in Bali still do not understand that English is an important language and how knowing English would improve their lives. Many kids in his daughter’s school would not hang out with those who prefer speaking English in school. I think both the Balinese culture and language

Photo Credit Grace Li

are beautiful, and it is crucial that those will be kept and passed on. However, we cannot neglect the fact that knowing English means more opportunities, especially for a place like Bali, where there are countless tourists coming in every year. Being able to speak English can provide these students with not only jobs but also opportunities to broaden their horizons and learn about cultures from the rest of the world.

Photo Credit Ikra Javed

However, English is not the only thing that is crucial to the community; they also need those who teach it. The numbers of volunteers from overseas would never be enough to fill all the local schools. The local people who are able to speak English mostly decide to leave their hometowns to find better jobs in big cities, thus that means less opportunities for children to learn English. Nonetheless, is English really what the community needs the most? This is only my opinion, and thus it probably is not what the community believes.

It should be the people who are from that community decide what is needed the most, not from an outsider like me. Yet, it is hard to call a group of people a community because community for me, is not only the group of people who live in the same area, but also I believe that a community is bounded by the same beliefs and interests. Perhaps for some of them, the best situation would be not having contact with people from the rest of the world. For example, rice that grows in Bali is never exported, and it’s only for families. So people have different needs and interests and it is nearly impossible to define what is more important. Even though it is difficult, the decision is left for the people in that community to decide the priority order in meeting the community’s needs. Even though the teaching part could have been more effective, I still considered this trip a great opportunity for me to learn and grow as a student who wishes to pursue a path in worksworking with NGOs. I don’t think I have done enough in Ubud this time, and thus I hope that when I get back to U.S., I will put more effort in finding more opportunities to educate children about the environment. For example, I will continue to participate injoin the ecoteam, a student organization that educates elementary school children every week in Davidson. I will also keep in contact with the local organization at Ubud to see if there is anything that I could do to help continue the education on this subject. I can definitely communicate with volunteers who take my position so that they can continue with other subjects instead

of repeating the same topics that I have already taught. Most importantly, I will continue to equip myself with knowledge on environmental studies so that I will havebe adequate knowledge to teach in the future.

Hadley Finley ‘15 – Hinds’ Feet Farm

When I began to look into my options for service sites for my second summer of service I expected to end up doing something like I have done in the past - working with kids and/or the medical field. I decided to stay in the Davidson area, but nothing really caught my interest until my love of horses led me to begin volunteering at Hind’s Feet Farm with a fellow Davidson student who had spent the previous summer volunteering at the farm. The opportunity seemed perfect and I made all the necessary arrangements to do as she had, expecting to be working mostly with the horses and helping out with the members when they were doing equine therapy. It was not until I had a meeting with the director of Hind’s Feet Farm that I realized I would not be working with the horses at all, but directly interacting with the members and, once a week, helping with paperwork. I was absolutely terrified to work with a group of people (those with brain injuries, acquired or traumatic) as I had next to no contact with previously, but was committed to seeing it through. When I began my work with the program I expected that most of what I would learn would be about the difficulties of living with a brain injury and caring for those who do. I expected to have my limits tested and be uncomfortable most every day based on the prejudices I had somehow gathered about the effects of brain injuries. I expected inappropriate behavior (of which there was some) and violent outbursts (of which I saw none). I was warned that these could happen, but didn’t believe how rare they were until I saw it for myself. The community of people living with brain injuries who welcomed me each

day was something I never expected. They were, for the most part, like everyone else. Some had physical difficulties, of course, and many had emotional issues they were sorting through. But that can be said of most groups of people. Many of them behaved in a slightly juvenile manner, telling knock-knock jokes and being entertained for hours by mad-libs. It was easy for me to join their community because of who they are; all the difficulties were in my own mind. This realization, that I had been prejudiced about an entire community with absolutely no basis for it was startling and upsetting to me. I have grown up in a family that has always emphasized being welcoming and loving towards others, an ideal that I am always aware of. An open-mindedness and caution against prejudice has been just as important, and I somehow let that slip without realizing I had done so. Although it was unsettling to see in myself a quality I have disliked in others, I am glad to have had this experience not only to set me straight in my expectations of the brain injury community, but also because it has forced me to recognize a flaw within myself, a flaw I can now address. My time and experiences at Hinds’ Feet Farm are invaluable to me and I hope that I will be able to return to their community from time-to-time to check in on the friends that I made. I hope to have the opportunity to share more about my summer with others to help change the way that people with brain injuries are viewed. I also hope to use my new self-knowledge to pay more careful attention to where my ideas about people come from and why I rely upon them as to avoid future prejudices.

Kerry Honan ‘17 – Camp Ramah

Of the many communities that I was blessed to be a part of while growing up, Camp Ramah is among those that most strongly impacted me. Besides being the source of my closest adolescent friendships (and romances), Ramah shaped many of my religious practices, personal values, and future aspirations. The relationships and experiences that I had during my six summers there taught me to question my beliefs, explore my spirituality, voice my opinions and to be a leader in both my Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Throughout my youth, I saw Ramah –those “150 acres of magical space”— with no flaws whatsoever. After my last summer as a camper, I excitedly awaited the day that I could go back on staff and give to campers all that I had received. Naturally, I was devastated to return as a junior counselor the summer after my senior year, and view camp from a completely different angle that revealed not my childhood heaven, but an organization that, like any other, possesses cons alongside its pros. While I began to recognize Ramah’s

institutional strengths and weaknesses during my first and second summers on staff, it was over these past nine weeks –perhaps because I knew they were my last – that I allowed myself to be most critical. Two years after graduating high school I returned to Conover, Wisconsin to find that I had even less in common with those I once called my best friends. Ramah deserves every ounce of praise it receives for making its staff members into active Jewish leaders, however, the path towards leadership that it seems to encourage young adults to take is one paved by Jewish sororities and fraternities at Big Ten Universities, like Michigan and Illinois. Though I’d known we were drifting apart in college, I found it extremely difficult this past summer to understand why all of my camp friends, whose values had always seemed to align with my own, chose to insulate themselves by the solely Jewish (and overwhelmingly wealthy white) crowds at

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

Starting around February each year, I would begin to apprehensively count down the weeks, days, hours, and even minutes until my departure for Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. Especially in junior high and high school, as I wad-

ed through final essays and exams that I felt I’d never survive, camp seemed to be a shining light at the end of the tunnel. Illuminating the distance, it was a utopia in which all of my troubles would cease to exist. There was simply no time that I felt more content, more myself, than those warm evenings spent sitting on the shores of Lake Buckatabon with my closest friends, just watching the sun set over mossy woods and ancient white cabins, fading away to Hebrew tunes and the scent of grilling corn.

their respective schools. Entering Davidson, I found it only natural to take the leadership skills I had gained at camp and contribute them to a diverse range of clubs and organizations on campus. Assuming that my camp friends would do the same, I was heartbroken to see them move from one sheltered community to another, unwilling to step out of their childhood comfort zones in the way I thought Ramah had taught us. It seemed as if camp had demonstrated all the most important lessons and instilled in us the noblest of morals, but had somehow neglected to show us how to embody these lessons and morals in our adult lives.

Photo Credit Matt Gore

Just as I began to notice the aforementioned trend amongst my fellow staff members, the hours I spent guiding and observing my campers each day led me to a similar discovery about the next generation at camp. While I truly believe that Ramah’s ultimate goal is to instill strong core values in Jewish children, thus nurturing future Jewish leaders, I came to realize that there is

often a disconnect between the camp’s mission and how it is executed. Once a place where “nobodies,” kids from nearly nonexistent Jewish communities around the Midwest, could grow into strong leaders, it seemed that camp is now only a place where those who are already destined to leadership will thrive. Over the past two months, I watched the success of campers from the North Shore of Chicago and the Jewish suburbs of Minneapolis, kids who attend Jewish day schools and whose parents serve on the boards of their synagogues. At the same time, I watched as Cara from Madison, Wisconsin and Lilah from Boulder, Colorado (Jewish hinterlands) struggled to keep up with camp’s fast-paced Hebrew and to learn the prayers that many of their peers had known since kindergarten. What pained me most about noticing these bothersome aspects of camp is that it made me rethink my own time as a camper with a degree of bitterness. I now look back and realize that, as a pre-teen, I somehow instinctively knew

to admire the counselors that sported Indiana University sorority t-shirts, or those whose fathers were well-known rabbis, or whose older siblings had all gone to Ramah. It is a type of legacy and entitlement that I was oblivious to as a camper but which I am now unable to ignore. At the same time, however, I realize that perhaps not belonging to an entitled “Ramah family,” as many of my friends do, was all the more reason for me to go back this summer. Had I not returned, my campers would’ve only been exposed to the type of counselors that I myself had. They would’ve looked up to college students who, rather than venturing into more diverse territory, choose to seek leadership roles within safety nets like that which they knew at camp. Perhaps by simply being there –a counselor with an unfamiliar last name and a pending-degree from a small liberal arts school— I was for my campers an alternative to what, in the past few decades, has become the camp norm. I was a leader that had not been predestined to be such. Despite the flaws that I’ve

pointed out, I have only fond memories of summers as a camper and I am so grateful to Ramah for making me the person I am today. Regardless of the bitter sentiments I’ve expressed, I wholeheartedly agree that camp is a place in which “campers and staff members from around the Midwest and Israel join together each summer to create an exceptional Jewish community.“ As its website says, “For campers, Ramah is a second home where they have fun, learn new skills, gain independence and build lifelong friendships.” I cannot argue that, for despite the less positive side of camp that I saw this summer, it certainly provided all of those things for me. Though I’ve struggled recently to balance my feelings about Camp Ramah –a place that sits dangerously close to my heart— I now understand that looking at the organization more realistically and identifying the elements that need work, does not mean that I must resent the experiences I had or deny the growth I underwent there. On the contrary, I feel that I owe my true opinion to the organization that guided me so lovingly through my youth. If I, like others who have surely felt alienated by aspects of camp’s culture, turn angrily away, I am allowing these aspects to become the norm. However, if I, and others who feel uncomfortable with Ramah’s legacy-like tendencies, maintain our relationships with camp over the years, we may help it to once again be a place where nobodies can become leaders.

Luke Burton ‘16

– Implement-

ing Computer Technology, Tanzania In the weeks approaching my trip to Tanzania, I redefined the word meticulous. My two years at Davidson have shaped me into a detail-oriented, schedule driven individual, and tackling a mountain of planning, purchasing supplies, and packing was food to my task-hungry soul. During the preparation process, I relied heavily on two concepts for both peace of mind and

efficiency. These concepts were expected punctuality and access to information. What I failed to realize is that I take both of these for granted on a daily basis. Ultimately, I brought my American expectations of these concepts along with me, and my time in Tanzania absolutely transformed them. Throughout the course of five weeks, Matt Gore and I spent time in four separate schools scattered all across Western Tanzania. Unlike many other NGO’s, we had no access to shiny land rovers or pickup trucks, but had to rely fully on the Tanzanian bus system. The stories we have walked away with are innumerable and unforgettable, and I can honestly say that every expectation of timeliness, every desire to schedule, every inkling of panic and frustration were ripped from me in those five weeks. Recurring sixteen-hour bus rides as a 6’6” tall individual taught me patience and humility, but also taught me the valuable art of relaxation. Africa is known as the continent where nothing works, but everything works out, and it is true. As an American student, a victim to time and efficiency, I was forced to wait, to follow, and to relax. Spending time with my Tanzanian friends taught me the value of trust. They bought our food, planned our schedule, and communicated for us. Unfortunately, arriving an hour late for meetings or a flight is still unacceptable stateside, but exposure to Tanzanian society has broadened my perspective on time to allow for more serenity in my life. Although I certainly felt changes occurring in my habits throughout the trip, I was also pleasantly surprised to encounter powerful realizations about my deeper desires and abilities. I have always possessed a natural inclination towards teaching, but I never had an opportunity to become immersed in the classroom while in a teaching role. We spent the majority of our days instructing Tanzanian children and teachers in the Mavis Beacon typing program, and I was soon struck by two understandings

about myself. The first is that I am not as naturally gifted as I always assumed. I have weaknesses in the classroom, often involving my patience, sometimes my tendency to over-explain. However, I also realized that I cherish the teaching experience. Overcoming the language barrier, developing trust with students, watching kids succeed and rejoice - I loved it all. Despite being under qualified and often clueless, Matt and I both had a fantastic experience tinkering with our teaching styles and streamlining our lesson plans. I was never surprised to feel so comfortable and fulfilled in the classroom, but I was satisfied to know that my desire to teach was no longer in its incubation stage. This was a unique trip in many ways, but most of all in its tendency to be unpredictable. We had high expectations for our experience, but never fully understood the details of “how, when, why, or where.” The relative mystery of our journey was mostly due to the planning style of the Tanzanians we were working with. They expected three computer labs, but we ultimately raised support for fifteen, so we usually had no idea which school we were going to until the night before. On a personal level, I only had one expectation for the trip. I knew that it would involve adventure and teaching, two things I love dearly, but otherwise, I only expected that the experience would change me on a deeper level. Many return from abroad with a superficial change in perspective or personality, and I had even experienced this in past trips, but I knew and predicted that this adventure would be different. Ultimately, I was right. My views on education and societal gender roles will never be the same. I will never complain about legroom again. And I will always remember the giddy laughter of students after successfully using a computer for the first time. Five weeks in Tanzania proved to me that the classroom was my calling, not out of obligation or romanticism, but because I love it.

I will certainly continue

Photo Credit Mackenzie Carey

to pursue psychology as a major, as I believe that understanding the way the mind works is a valuable tool in the classroom. I will also continue to study education, and I plan to declare the education minor this fall semester. While in Tanzania, I often wished for more instruction and guidance. I hope that the faculty in the education department can direct me and guide me further. My interest in education as a system also extends to other areas. Seeing how access to school affects every aspect of a student’s life and creates opportunities for gender and tribal equality was fascinating, and I will pursue any classes that discuss education as a social equalizer. On a larger scale, exposure to a culture that values access to education so highly has created a new sense of gratitude and love for the opportunities that I’m given at Davidson College. Even through telling my Tanzanian friends about Davidson, I came to appreciate aspects of my education that previously I had taken for granted. I know that I will approach my

work and my classes in the future with a changed attitude and renewed vigor.

truly beautiful ways. The four schools we visited all were found in remote villages, far away from big towns or cities. Thanks to an American upLack of exposure to the larger flow of bringing in a hardworking family, I have Tanzanian culture and lack of proximity always subconsciously believed that into other regions created small commuefficiency is a form of failure. In the first nities that were tightly knit by tradition, portion of our trip, I found myself retribe, and family ties. The schools we treating to this assumption, often to find worked in were built by community myself become frustrated or irritated. In initiative. Village Schools International Tanzania, time is not measured care(VSI) would only provide concrete and fully, and there are no bonus points for roofing for the school buildings, on the style or efficiency. As our friends and condition that villagers would clear the co-workers demonstrated a nonchalant land, make the bricks, and haul them attitude towards gross inefficiencies in by hand to the construction site. Even both scheduling and task management, in our daily experiences, we saw the I believed that many of our initiatives power of community, especially how were rife with failure. Thankfully, my villages absorbed the schools into their perspective was changed. I noticed that very essence, supporting and loving the tasks were always completed thoroughly teachers as their own. Sometimes VSI and carefully. No tangible harm, diswould travel to certain areas and ask comfort, or loss came from doing a job to partner in building a school; but the inefficiently. Furthermore, the removal majority of instances involved village of concepts like hurrying and multitask- leaders approaching VSI and asking for ing allowed for personal interactions and cooperation and support. Although VSI moments that otherwise would never certainly acted as a powerful foundahave existed. Once, tion for these schools and managed the we spent an entire day-to-day operations, the communities afternoon sitting in themselves realized their needs, and our kitchen while we created partnerships. For us, that was waited on a mechanic truly powerful to see small villages rally to fix a generator that together and create something that will had never been oiled last many generations. or maintained. That afternoon was filled From here, I will continue to with fantastic converpursue teaching. At the end of our trip, sation and a beautiful we were both offered the opportunity hike that I will never to teach in VSI’s new training college, forget. Matt often quot- which is an offer I am excited about and ed G.K. Chesterton, certainly considering. I am truly grateful saying “inconvenience for the personal growth and the many is only an adventure memories I treasure from my trip, and wrongly considered,” will always encourage others to travel and I felt that the senti- and live abroad. Although my five weeks ment fit our trip well. in Tanzania were often challenging, difficult, and stressful; I grew as an indi Community vidual, discovered a genuine love for the is any collection of classroom, and formed memories that I individuals who bond will always cherish. over common interests or values, and bind to- Mackenzie Carey ’17 – Health gether for a collective Education at Pwoje Espwa Sud cause. In Tanzania, Orphanage, Haiti we saw community in When I first arrived at my gate

at the JFK International Airport, the waiting area was filled with a couple hundred people; most of them were Haitians and Haitian Americans who barely spoke English. I began to think, what have I gotten myself into? How am I going to communicate in this foreign country? I started doubting myself and was wary about my journey. By the end of my trip, my attitude had made a complete shift towards the opposite perspective. Ironically on my trip home, I was at my gate at the Port-auPrince International Airport there was flocks of mission groups all in matching t-shirts thinking their weeklong trip had changed Haiti. I am not saying that the trips other volunteers do not impact the lives of Haitians in a positive way, but it is hard to grasp the true turmoil in the country in just seven days. Those last couple of hours had me clinging on to the culture, the language, and the atmosphere of the country where I grew as a person exponentially.

Pwoje Espwa Sud is located in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the

I have always been a compassionate person, but I was able to strengthen a strong sense of compassion while being among the vulnerable and orphaned children. Spending time with the children of Espwa taught me how to truly love everything I have. The children love life and are grateful for everything the orphanage provides for them. But sometimes, I was able to see they missed their families and their homes. I was grateful that I was able to communicate with the children on a deeper level so I could be an additional support system for them during my stay. Something that I really appreciated was that the kids were not partaking in a constant pageant show, entertaining visitors so they could get adopted

or receive lavish gifts. Since the orphanage does not offer adoption services, the children truly enjoyed spending time with each and every visitor. One thing that shocked me was the desire to learn. In America, there is a stigma that children dread going back to school. In Haiti people would do anything for an education. Receiving a primary education in the United States is so commonplace it is hard to imagine there are places in the world without the same luxury. When going through the villages, students would huddle around solar powered streetlights striving to get the most amount of studying accomplished. When I was in Haiti, the World Cup was happening and the country’s power supply, which is run by one of the five powerful families, would turn off power for days at a time to ensure that there would be enough power so everyone could watch the next match. It was astonishing that the government officials would allow that to happen right in the middle of standardized final

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

By the time I got settled into the Pwoje Espwa Sud orphanage, I had already experienced the culture shock of living in Haiti. After only being in the country for two days, I had the opportunity to travel even deeper into the country and explore the most rural and impoverished areas. It opened my eyes to some of the problems that stricken the land. The town, Tiburon, had all of the poverty you would expect in a developing country. With only one school in the area, it was devastating to lock the door on all of the students’ education. In the capital, there are five families that control ninety-five percent of Haiti’s economy and they can afford to send their children to the best schools and receive the best educations. I found it extremely disturbing that the wealthy could live such lavish lifestyles with all the modern amenities, and we were closing down one of the only non-profit school because Free the Kids could no longer support it.

capital and hub of Haitian’s politics and economy. The orphanage is supported through Free the Kids, an American based organization that funds the organizations through grants and sponsors. The closest town to the compound was Les Cayes, which was about a ten-minute ride on some of the most rugged terrain. Other than small trips into town for food and other necessities, I lived on a self-sustainable compound. Since we were outside of the capital, few people spoke English. It forced me to really embrace the language. Due to a family emergency, my translator, who was helping me teach my first aid class, had to go back to the United States suddenly. I did not know how I was going to teach my class, but with the help of a Haitian Creole dictionary, I was able to accomplish more than I thought I was capable of.

exams. It proved to me that education is something that we often take for granted and when you have one there is no way to comprehend what it is like to be left in the dark.

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

For myself, I learned that I am capable of being independent. Sometimes I rely on being surrounded by people I know and who know me. This was the first time I was in a completely foreign environment, isolated from everything I know and have become accustomed to. Even though I was at first doubtful if I could be accepted into the community of Espwa, I soon realized that my worries were unnecessary. There were so many children that live on the compound, roughly five hundred, and close to another thousand come to free school everyday in the village. When out in Les Cayes it was clearly visible that even though Espwa provides a safe haven, there are so many children still left out in the streets. I met many young boys and girls who traveled across the country for the opportunity Espwa provides. One boy named Marco

lived in Port-au-Prince and lost both of his parents when he was twelve. He then made the five hours van ride through the mountains on foot to find Pwoje Espwa, his and many others saving grace. There is a sense of independence Haitian children learn at a young age. It is very different from the United States whether children are coddled for much longer. Neither way is better than the other, but the cultures are dramatically different. The community of Espwa is a safe haven in the heart of one of the poorest countries in the world. As a whole, Espwa provides a nurturing environment that encourages the growth of self and molds the impoverished youth of Haiti into moral citizens with opportunities that would not have been afforded to them. In Haiti, the people with the power and the money see no need for change. They have everything they could need to sustain their wealth and status. With out power and money it is nearly impossible to make change in the Haitian society.

My next step is to continue to support Pwoje Espwa Sud and Free the Kids. I plan on making a return trip next spring in order to continue teaching first aid at the orphanage. There is a strong desire for me to host a class for the housemothers. The housemothers spend all day with the children expect for when they are at school. Learning first aid is a vital skill for them while they are responsible for at least fifteen children at a time. I hope that I can continue to develop my relationships with the children of Espwa and find ways to help them both in Haiti and at home.

Rashaun Bennett â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;16

â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools My summer interning with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools provided me one of the best insights into charter schools, non-profits and avenues for change. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools seeks to promote and support charters schools across the country. One of the

best things I was able to learn was what makes charter schools so unique and effective as an option for education. Before starting my internship I knew that I wanted to gain a better understanding of methods and pathways to ensure that each student receives a quality, effective and enriching educational experience. In the first week of my internship I was able to visit one of Washington D.C’s best charter schools, an elementary school called Achievement Prep. This school had achieved record high-test scores and increased the value-added of student’s math and reading levels. At a school with a significant amount of underserved students, Achievement Prep has achieved what many say is impossible. I was able to see that the “secret” behind Achievement Prep’s success was their attitude of putting the child first, instilling the thoughts of college in an early age, displaying students’ achievement on boards, and tailoring education models to a specific child. When charter schools provide open enrollment, no restrictions and put the student first, they have the capacity to truly change the education landscape of the United States. During the summer I worked with the Communications and State Advocacy Departments. Within the Communications Department I worked on a project designed to debunk myths about charter schools. I also worked on projects to increase charter school publicity and expand charter school support in states without charter school laws. Within the State Advocacy Department I focused on ways to rally constituents and stakeholders in Kentucky in order to try to pass the state’s first charter school law. I also worked on a case study in Oklahoma that examined the per capita investments in students versus superintendent’s pay. I was also able to get a keen insight into how a non-profit works. I was able to see how NAPCS networks with other organizations in order to share data and resources. I was able to

see how they plan for their huge annual Charter School Conference, which was held in Las Vegas. Although, this meant lots of box stuffing on my end, I was able to see how much planning and logistical coordination is involved for such a massive event. The conference was a way to engage all stakeholders (including Davidson’s own President Quillen, who is on the Board of Directors of NAPCS) and increase publicity of charter schools. I believe the biggest impact that this organization has had on me was seeing how the power of an idea and the passion behind an idea could change society. Charter schools are a relatively new phenomenon, with the first one opened in 1992. However, within the span of their existence, charter schools have begun to multiply all over the country with a greater target towards helping inner city students. Everyone in the organization shared a vision of creating a better educational environment for students. It was amazing and encouraging seeing that if someone has the passion and willpower to see an idea accomplished, the idea could definitely be achieved.

Rhea Costantino ’17 –

Education and Early Childhood Development, Nicaragua After spending just two months in Nicaragua this summer, I feel as though my world has expanded. I feel connected to people who live thousands of miles away, and there’s a newfound closeness despite the distance. While forming lasting friendships and interacting with so many people on a daily basis, I gained so much more than I had initially anticipated. After a month of working with the organization Planting Hope in the small town of San Ramon, I moved on to a bigger city called Masaya, where I volunteered for about nine hours a day at an understaffed daycare called the CDI. It was located next to the municipal market, about a fifteen-minute walk

from where I was living with ten other volunteers. I developed an immediate fondness for the children at the CDI, as well as a deep appreciation for the women who devoted so much of their time and energy toward keeping them happy and healthy. I also got to teach English from time to time in an English school called MASINFA (short for Masaya sin fronteras, or Masaya without borders), where I got to work with some of the most motivated students I’ve met to date. Above all, I feel immensely grateful for what I got to experience in Nicaragua this summer. Because it wasn’t my first time there, I got to experience it in a completely new way. I could sense how things had changed, and I got to settle into a more natural rhythm and form my own little community within each new space. By community, I mean that there was an evident support system, a feeling of mutual goals, and a sense of comfort within each relationship and a lack of inhibition. There were people I could ask for help and for favors and those I could assist using my own skills and background. I found serendipitous joy in the smallest and seemingly insignificant moments, such as buying a dozen bananas for only twenty córdobas after a long day at the CDI, or listening to the endless chant of agua gaseosa agua gaseosa of vendors walking up and down the aisles of the bus to Managua. In San Ramon, I grew accustomed to waking up to the sound of chickens scuffling around next door, or my host mother singing to herself as she made tostones, or of ripened mangoes falling with startling thuds on the roof overhead. These were signs that I was absorbing the nuances of life there and that I was paving a path of familiarity for myself. This was an important achievement for me. I remember my desperate longing to stop being seen as a tourist, and to learn how to feel like a normal person in a foreign place. To do so, I had to embrace boredom. I had to remind myself that it was okay to be frustrated, and to feel uncom-

fortable. I had to be patient. Coming from the United States, where opportunity tends to be plentiful and the standard of living is noticeably comfortable compared to other countries, I think it’s easy for people to come into a community like San Ramon or Masaya with a sense of paternalism. Yes, there is poverty, a serious lack of job opportunity, and fresh memories of the revolution. But there is also hope, ambition, innovation, admirable work ethic, and a steadfast commitment to the peace that has been reached. I’m reflecting on my experiences in Nicaragua with the knowledge that while this was a service-oriented trip, the most valuable thing that I could personally contribute to these communities is what I choose to do next. It’s not so much what I did during my time there, but more so how I can continue to support these organizations while I am not physically there. I think that forging stable and lasting international relationships is the first step toward sustainability when the end goal is to properly serve struggling communities. There was only so much that I could do with my limited time and capabilities there, but the ability to support a community by listening, learning, and then raising awareness is an incredibly powerful tool that I can now utilize. It was difficult to wrap my head around the extent of poverty and unemployment in Nicaragua, and I have only just begun to understand the deep complexities of a country that I have only very briefly visited. However, there is so much that I have learned and so much appreciation and gratitude I have cultivated through working with the women of the CDI, having conversations with young English students in Masaya, and traveling to schools surrounding San Ramon with the staff of the bibliomovil (or mobile library). Through these conversations and relationships, too, came a flood of information about the reality of many of these Nicaraguans’ situations: financial, social, etc. Planting Hope became more than just the bubbly

group of Nicaraguan teachers who took foreigners to schools full of laughing children, as my experiences in my high school days had shown. As I settled into the rhythm of daily life in San Ramon, I found that I was learning more and more each day about the multifaceted and complex nature of this nonprofit organization. Relying on donations and the contributions of brigades (primarily from the U.S.) in order to travel, teach, and perform in neighboring resource-challenged schools, Planting Hope was in a much more precarious situation than I had previously experienced. This was troubling for me, but it also instilled a very important and motivating desire within me that I have rarely experienced on this level. I suddenly understood that my purpose there was not only to lend an extra set of hands, but also to gather what I could from the communities that I had been so graciously welcomed into, and bring it all back with me. I want Planting Hope to continue to inspire young Nicaraguan students, and I want women like those who worked at the CDI to be recognized and supported in their hard work.

returned from such a positive experience is to find ways to collect more funds for the staff of Planting Hope in the hopes of giving back to a group of people who helped me grow as a human being in what little time we got to spend together. We may be geographically separated, but we still have the ability to collaborate with and support each other, which is a definite source of optimism.

Santiago Navia ’17 – Educating Youth, Guatemala

After spending six weeks at Camino Seguro, I came out feeling extremely grateful for everything I have. The opportunity to work with the kids turned into an amazing opportunity to analyze my lifestyle and myself as a whole from a different point of view allowing me to compare my life to that of the children from Zone 3. Before this service experience, I was not completely aware of how much I own, how much free time I have, how much food I eat and how pleasant my life is. It was shocking to witness the poverty with my own eyes, and the stories that my 10-year-old students told me were even more surprising. I have come to realize As a college student, the world is how blessed I am and, at the same time, wide open to me. I still don’t know what I am more conscious of the unfortunate career path I’ll choose to pursue, or and ever-present injustices in this world. what aspirations I will fulfill. However, I was settled on becoming a teacher after this experience, I feel as though I before I went to Camino; after this sumhave become newly fueled. We conmer, I am sure this is what I will do, but stantly dwell on the idea that the world is I also know that I will work with marginsmall, but at the same time I’ve realized alized communities and help bridge the (as simple as it may sound) that it is also gap between the poor and the wealthy. vast. The fact that I was able to find such joy in this little-known space in the As I expected, this journey was world is incredibly energizing. Although not only one into a new country, but it was hard to leave, I was comforted in also into myself. The everyday challengknowing that I can always return. My es when dealing with the kids, such as friends there reminded me that I will the guilt that arose from being wealthy, always have a place to stay and that I pushed me outside my comfort zone, will be welcomed back with open arms. revealing interesting aspects of my perBut if I don’t go back, or if eight years sonality. I learned that although I conpass before I do so, I will always carry a sider myself an impartial and just man, piece of this experience with me – and I can avoid recognizing certain inequalmore importantly, I will be able to apply ities and pretend that they do not exist. what I have learned as I navigate my way This selective justice may be due to my through future travel experiences. What diplomatic nature that prevents me from I would like to begin to do now that I’ve provoking any kind of trouble or distur-

bance. I have a hard time speaking up and confronting someone, especially if that person is someone I know. On the other hand, I learned just how patient I can be and how much I like to teach and play with children. As a result, I can bond with kids pretty easily and keep up a healthy and friendly relationship.

could learn and immerse themselves in academia. However, my experience outside Davidson also helped me understand the need to balance in-class experiences with hands-on activities. Toward the end of the spring semester I was feeling a bit trapped inside campus and over-concerned about essays and homework. I knew I needed to have While at Davidson, it was hard to more contact with the outside world and picture myself in Guatemala and in the engage in unusual experiences, which program. I did have expectations, but was another reason why I looked forthese were very broad and flexible. As ward to working with Camino Seguro. I had anticipated, I had a great time, I This service experience was a great way confirmed my desire to teach and I also to balance theoretical and academic learned about Guatemala, its people and learning with experiences outside the its history. My role in the classroom was classroom setting. An example of this a bit different from what I had pictured. complementary educational experience Teachers needed constant help running was applying what I learned in an eduerrands such as bringing the snacks, cational course (EDU 221: Schools and printing handouts and getting materiSociety) inside the classroom. I could als for the classroom. So aside from identify certain techniques used by the helping within the classroom, I was also teachers and some obstacles the chilhelping with duties not strictly related dren were facing. It was amazing to mix to teaching. It was then when I realized the theoretical aspect of education with how many resources are needed for a actual teaching experiences. school to run properly and how often students fail to perceive all that is going Another way in which this seron behind the scenes. vice program contributed to my college

Most of what I learned, I learned from the kids. I got the chance to get to know them through our daily interactions and in doing so, I learned

Photo Credit Ben Wiley

Another direct consequence was a greater appreciation for Davidson College. I could now better understand the collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts to grant an outstanding education and to create a wonderful place where students

education was in reminding me of my priorities in life. As I mentioned before, I felt stuck in college toward the end of the semester. Since most of our necessities are taken care of while in college (housing, nutrition, transportation), we, as students, can focus on our schoolwork without major inconveniences. The problem is that when essays, reviews and projects consume our time, we tend to take for granted most of the commodities we are provided and, simultaneously, restructure our priorities. Working with the kids from Zone 3 in Guatemala City reminded me of my priorities in life: my health, my family, my emotional state, my relationships with the ones around me and yes, my career and academic performance. I am thankful for this lesson because having my priorities in place allows me to live in peace with myself - a key ingredient when one wants to have a positive impact on oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s environment.

about their families, their routines and their story. It was surprising to notice the level of maturity and independence exercised by some of the younger kids. Some of them had to take care of their siblings, had to walk them to school and help with the house chores. These responsibilities forced them to assume a different attitude than that of other kids their own age and pushed them to grow up faster in an emotional and psychological way. Witnessing this maturity forced me to acknowledge that young kids can be capable of great things and responsible not only for themselves, but for others as well.

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

While at Camino Seguro, I slowly started to understand what a community is. In my opinion, a community is a group of people that share common values, a common space and work together for the well being of the whole group. A neighborhood can be a community, just as a family or a church group, yet the opposite may not be true: a family or a neighborhood is not necessarily a community because there needs to be

a connection between members and a willingness to cooperate and work together. I believe Camino is both part of the community of Zone 3 and a key component for this sense of community to persist. The organization provides a space for kids and adults to interact, a space where these members of the community can learn to support each other and bring about a better future for themselves. In fact, Camino is itself a community that at times feels like a family. Children, volunteers and teachers interact constantly and create bonds that go beyond teacher-student relationships, bonds that drive everybody to help each other. According to Brazilian sociologist Paolo Freire, the needs of a community are better determined by its members rather than by outsiders. I agree with him to a certain extent because it is true that people who are part of a community know how it works much better than anyone else. They are aware of the issues and challenges they have to face and deal with them continually.

Nonetheless, people from outside the community may have unique tools and knowledge that allow them to observe and understand underlying issues and big-picture phenomena that are imperceptible for those who live inside of it. Locals and outsiders should work as a team to identify the necessities of the community, but locals should initiate and lead the process. My experience in Guatemala is over, but I carry with me all that I have learned. This service project has been a unique opportunity and it has opened my eyes to the complex world of service and NGOs. My wish is to make service an integral part of my life and not simply an isolated matter. As a teacher, I believe I will be serving children wherever I go. Additionally, I would like to work with NGOs that have an educational focus. Spending six weeks in Guatemala has been one of the first steps in this life-long plan, but it has done even more: it has been a catalyst for motivating me and convincing me of my vocation.

DiemTien Le ‘17 – Allenbrook Elementary

I am the product of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. I graduated in 2013 at Berry, which is literally right down the street from Allenbrook. And working with Education Scholars this summer has been interesting, as I forget that the students we were trying to serve were me at one point. I am the free lunch student that you see in the statistics. I am the student whose first language was not English. I am the student who lived in a single mother household. I am the daughter to parents whose education ended at the 8th grade. I am very fortunate to be here today, as a Davidson student, but my educational story didn’t have parents who were heavily involved with my school. This is why my main summer project is dear to me. This summer, I had the opportunity to work on two projects. The goal of the family engagement project was to increase parental involvement. I conducted research through surveys, got to visit a couple of our parents on home visits and developed a system to better track and reward our volunteer parents. I also worked on our fall carnival. I had to plan all the details, got to talk with community partners and helped fundraise so that the carnival was a success. This has been a very rewarding summer, but I want to take this time to not focus on the projects, but on what I found challenging about the projects. As a child of a single mother who didn’t speak English well, I didn’t have very involved parents in my education. I have realized through my work that parents care about their children’s education… but sometimes don’t know how to advocate for them and often don’t even know that they have a voice. This has been my framework and motivation for working this summer. Because I wanted the best for our kids, I wanted change to happen somewhat immediately and drastically.

The problem was that I was making plans for something I would never see. Both the carnival and the family engagement project could only be implemented once school started. I eventually had to accept that the project was going to be under the responsibility of someone else to trust. Through my experience working with these projects for Allenbrook, I have learned to respect that change takes time. Change may not happen in the time that I work at Allenbrook, but what I can do is build the foundation for others to continue the work. At times, I feel like a change maker who wants to solve all the problems in our Education System, especially the one that I graduated from. And although the system has redeveloped over many centuries, it is unrealistic to think that I can change the entire system in my lifetime. Through working with Allenbrook, I am reminded not to rush at solving a problem in our society, but to make progress towards the solution, no matter how small the steps may be. I want to highlight a well-known figure that I feel encapsulates this idea. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I have a Dream” speech in 1963. And it’s 2014. Do the math, and that’s only been FIFTY ONE (51) years ago. To this day, we are still fighting for equal rights for all. The problem of racial equality and justice has not been solved, but we can thank MLK for providing the foundation for others to continue his work and to work toward change. At Allenbrook, the Black student population is over 70%. Many of our parents are being affected by generational factors, and now work long shifts, have limited access to transportation, and have likely had bad experiences with school themselves. If we want parents to be invested in their child’s education, they’ve got to trust us first. And that doesn’t happen overnight.

Although change doesn’t happen overnight, I believe we all have the opportunity to live our legacy, leave a legacy, and inspire others through our words and actions to continue working toward change. I encourage everyone to think about who has influenced you, who you have influenced and what people will remember you by.

Will Vaughan ‘15 – Speak Up Magazine

At one of the vendor meetings a few weeks back, Matt asked the question, “What do you speak up for?” I thought about it for a second. It wasn’t, “What do you want to speak up for?” or “What are you passionate about?” It was present-tense...what do you actually speak up for right now? I wanted to say racial reconciliation. After all, that is what I’m passionate about. But have I done anything that really allows me to say that I speak up for racial reconciliation? Next I thought about equal access to education. Specific people, both back home and here in Charlotte, came to mind. Antonio, a young man from my neighborhood who was supposed to graduate the year before me at a nearby high school, never got his diploma because he had no support from his family and very little from guidance counselors or administrators. He transferred his junior year. Then he dropped out. Dwayne, a guy I met by the Free Store in Charlotte, encountered a similar situation but got involved with drugs at an early age to escape the madness of his life at school and at home. These are two examples of many stories of friends, acquaintances and others who have not had the same opportunities in school that I had. Again, equal access to education is something I want to speak up about. But do I? The point that I’m trying to make is that Matt’s question stuck with me. It challenged me, for as we went around the room and talked

about what we speak up for, I realized that each of the individuals there had an incredible voice. They each had their crazy stories, their awing experiences... but even more than that, they each had a unique, valuable voice—a voice that spoke up for different things, but spoke up nonetheless. It made me look inward at myself. I have been blessed with an inspirational family, a wonderful education and countless invaluable relationships and yet I couldn’t say that I use all of that to speak up for something in particular. This summer has been different. I’ve been able to speak up. I’ve been able to go into Charlotte and strike up conversations with people from all walks of life and hear their stories. I’ve been able to create projects that not only raise awareness about homelessness in Charlotte, but also enter non-homeless people into the discourse on homelessness. But I have not been able to jump into these things without fear, hesitation or uncertainty.

up, no matter how strong the odds are against them. This summer, I’ve learned that it is time for me to stop resisting a truth that presses me day in and day out. I will speak up for those around me who have been caught in cycles of homelessness and unemployment. I will speak up against an ever-present white privilege, a reality in our society that benefits me as a white male. I will speak up for the many oppressed communities that try again and again but have their voices shot down by the mainstream. My summer at Speak Up has opened doors for me that I couldn’t have anticipated. But most of all, it has taught me that the time to speak out is not five years from now, or even one year from now when I [hopefully] have my Davidson degree. The time to speak up and speak out is now, and I must live with this conviction every day.

Xzavier Killings ‘16

– St.

Luke’s Free Medical Clinic

This summer has been a defining moment in my quest to be a dedicat At first, this disturbed me. I ed and optimistic public servant. Seeing wanted more than anything to put firsthand the need we, as a society, have myself out there and not be afraid or for healthcare providers who don’t care hesitant. Then I thought about the many about the wealth that his or her profesleaders who have devoted their lives to sion may generate, but about the lives social justice--not just the Martin Luther of the poor and uninsured citizens who Kings or Nelson Mandela’s of the world, need his or her help, time and expertise. but the Desmond Tutus and the Peter Volunteering at St. Luke’s Free Medical Storeys, too. I thought about how these Clinic in Spartanburg, SC was rewardbrave, courageous leaders have put the ing, but it also was an experience filled lives of others well above their own, with learning how to manage numerous going into situations with the same fear volunteers, how to stop people from and uncertainty that I had but knowing abusing the access to free medical care, that they were doing what was right. It’s and how to screen applicants and manknowledge that Peter Storey calls ‘truth,’ age the caseload of people who need and it’s a knowledge that transcends any quality care. form of fear. Truth is found in the work that Speak Up and countless other organizations do. Truth sits above the many types of oppression, discrimination and systematic disadvantages that we see (or ignore) every single day. And truth is what motivates people to speak

Coming into St. Luke’s, I was really hopeful and excited about the impact I could have as a volunteer. This hope was fulfilled, but I also received insight into all aspects of providing health care services that I didn’t expect to encounter. For instance, no matter how good of a cause the free clinic

serves, there will always be people who try to take advantage and abuse the system. I learned this the hard way when I heard about perfectly legitimate patients trying to get illegal narcotics, or trying to register for assistance programs that they didn’t need. The nurses at St. Luke’s taught me how to be firm and straightforward with patients trying to take advantage of the clinic. Another issue I didn’t expect to encounter was the miscommunication gap between volunteers. Numerous volunteers, doctors and nurses, support the clinic, but there was a point where there were too many volunteers for the amount of work that needed to be done. Miscommunication on tasks also led to disconnect in appointment scheduling between volunteers because everyone didn’t enter patient information into the database the same way. This was frustrating because I felt as if we were hurting the cause more than helping. On the bright side, there is room for improvement and I feel as if the clinic is making strides toward that. Before I finished my internship they implemented a new process where they would train volunteers for specific jobs or give them specific tasks to keep them accountable. This helped rid some confusion and made work more efficient. These experiences taught me to expect the unexpected, if one can truly do so, and stay accountable for my work and how I’m helping. Despite these challenges, interning at St. Luke’s was better than anything I could have hoped it would be. I learned invaluable information about patient care, medical practice and operations of a medical facility. I also formed great relationships with doctors, nurses and administration and have been challenged to be the best I can so that I can be in a position to help those in need in the future. I would definitely say my social skills have improved over the course of this summer and my level of understanding and sympathizing has improved. I am able to better communicate ideas and plans of action between patients, nurses and doctors. I

value organizations like St. Luke’s that help those in need out of love and care, and I am so excited to come back and serve my community. I’m glad I had the opportunity to intern at St. Luke’s this summer, I know that I will take everything I learned and propel forward toward my future endeavors.

Yijiao Chen ‘17

– Teaching ESL

Literacy Development This summer, I served as a tutor for International House’s six-week summer ESL literacy development program, Youth English Tutoring Program (YETP). I worked closely with two groups of students at Merry Oaks International Academy and Pinewood Elementary. The service experiences have brought me valuable insights into early childhood literacy development for bilingual children and the struggle public education system is experiencing. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), the school system I worked for this summer, currently has over 33,300 language minority students, which accounts for about 23% of total stu-

dent body. Among them, about 15,000 students are assessed as having Limited English Proficiency (LEP). That being said, half of English as a Second Language (ESL) population in CMS needs additional support in their literacy and academic development. Prior to this summer, the statistics above did not concern me as much. However, after tutoring rising first-graders and second-graders at CMS, I realized the time and effort required to help our young English Language Learners (ELLs), especially those who just picked up the language. Although the students in my group are assessed to be on the same level, I can see that they benefit a lot more from individualized lesson plans given their different strengths and weakness. Besides, the process of language acquisition requires lots of repetition and reinforcement, which the teachers may not have time to do during the school year. My time working with these kids reminded me of my time at school learning English as a second language. Before coming to Davidson, I studied the language for almost 12 years, and it remains a big challenge when I tried to

adjust to the all-English social and academic environments. I understand the pressure and anxiety these kids feel in school. And different from my gradual learning process, they are expected to catch up with their native speaker peers in one or two years. Otherwise, they will get retained. It is a common belief that kids have amazing potential to master multiple languages at the same time if they are exposed to them at a young age. The summer service experiences drove me to question the assumption and began to realize that language acquisition process for multilingual children is not as natural and effortless as we imagine, and the kids need proper guidance throughout the process. I wonder if it is this belief that rationalizes the insufficient assistance ESL students receive in public school system. In one of our professional development sessions, the guest speaker, Dr. Leyva, explained how instructional strategies impact student’s literacy development. She also emphasized that, effective support needs to be carefully planned and strictly executed

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

by teachers and parents. While extensive immersion in the language environment might facilitate childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s literacy development, we need to be aware that our young ELLs could be intimidated and overwhelmed by the intensive exposure. Also, when facing challenging situations, kids with varied levels of resilience will respond in entirely different ways. This is how the gap between available school resources and actual student needs starts to form and gradually becomes the biggest concern for the U.S. public educational system. My experiences and observations this summer has heightened my interest in learning more about educational linguistics, since language acquisition appears be a far more complicated process than the one I pictured previously. By analyzing the process from a more theoretical perspective, I hope to provide more effective support to young ELLs. I also came to realize how much of a privilege it is to have stable access to high-quality education resources. This is the first time when the negative consequences that the unbalanced distribution of educational resources has caused are not something that I read in newspaper and discuss in sociology classes. It is something that happens in front of me and affects the future of millions of children. One of my students this summer lives in a neighborhood where nobody speaks English. I was utterly surprised when the lead teacher told me that these kids needed to translate school newsletters to their parents so that their parents can understand what is going on in the school. I have heard stories about abusive family environments. One of my kids even told me that she felt so insecure that she did not want to go home. Educational equity has always been something that concerns me. However, I never truly understood how much it meant to those children from underprivileged communities. For some of them, school is not just a place to learn knowledge and skills, but also a place where they get love and

hope. In some sense, these kids are in the most urgent need for quality educational opportunities. Ironically, they are exactly the population where educational resources are most out of reach. Fortunately, there are more and more non-profit organizations that recognize this difficult situation and are working to provide them with what public educational system are not able to offer. International House is one of them, and YETP is their effort to promote changes for the problematic reality of educational inequity. It is incredibly rewarding for me to contribute my summer to YETP and get to know these sweet kids. The community International House serves is the large low-income immigrant population who has recently settled in Charlotte. My experience as a YETP tutor only gave me a peek into their situations and needs. I always feel some sort of connection with the immigrant community probably due to the fact that I am also new to this country. Just as my parents want me to be successful and happy, these families also have the hope for their kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; brighter futures. This summer, I developed deeper empathy for and connections with these children. I witnessed how much difference my every little effort makes in these kids lives. I also realize what it means to me to see every little progress they make, every new word they learn, even every time they smile. I am not sure if I actually developed the emotional connection during the summer or I just discovered it as it has always hidden somewhere inside me. That being said, it is not just that I brought positive changes to their lives but that my interaction with these kids also enlightened my way of viewing the world.

Photo Credit Bill Giduz

Photo Credit George Mukosera

Photo Credit Taylor Brendle

Photo Credit Kyle Goodfellow

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT The Center for Civic Engagement at Davidson College, through its programs, events and resources, works with students, faculty, staff and community members to promote learning through engagement with our local and global communities. This engagement takes place in a variety of ways over the course of the academic year, ways including: community-based or service-learning, direct community service, engaged scholarship, social action, civic participation, social justice and philanthropy. The following are some quick facts and statistics about the center. Approximately 90 percent of Davidson College students participated in community work during the academic year, contributing over 80,000 hours of service. The Center for Civic Engagement advises 29 student organizations whose primary purpose is either direct service, social justic or advocacy as part of the Civic Engagement Council. The Center works with over 165 public and non-profit community organizations. This academic year 21 courses were offered that had community-based learning components or social action context. Over $42,000 in grants were awarded to nearly 20 student projects. Grant requests totaled over $100,000.