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Kaleid scope THE NEWSLETTER OF UWC-USA, THE ARMAND HAMMER UWC OF THE AMERICAN WEST
JUMPING SCREAMING page 7
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No More Deaths When Border Politics Intersect with Heritage page 10
JUEGO DE PELOTA page 8
A Student’s Artistic Journey
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PRESIDENT ’S MESSAGE:
editor in chief Elizabeth Morse contributing editor
Most of us are familiar with our lofty mission: UWC makes education a force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. What it takes to achieve this mission is deep engagement, commitment, and extraordinary perseverance. As President of UWC-USA, I consider it a tremendous privilege to be a part of the challenges we all face here and to witness the steady growth and transformation that occurs in the student body as they struggle through the challenges of culture shock, health issues, learning English, and so much more. The unity and support we offer each other in the process of facing the myriad of personal challenges is what lies at the heart of our ability to attain the UWC mission. I invite you to read about some of the challenges our students face, what they have learned, and how they have grown. I know that I am always grateful to learn from our diverse and inspirational student body here at UWC-USA. And in keeping with this issue’s theme, after over 20 years of commitment and service to UWCUSA, Adriana Botero and Peter and Betty Hamer-Hodges are all moving on to embrace new challenges. Each of these colleagues has made invaluable contributions to our students and the campus community. We are grateful to each of them, and I hope you will join me in extending our best wishes to all.
Emily Withnall MUWCI ‘01 designer Danielle Wollner contributors Mounia Abousaid ’11 Dereck Alleyne ’11 Zeinab Bailoun ’11 Charlotte Benishek ’11 Natalie Chan ’11 Simone De Cia ‘10 Gabriel Ellison-Scowcroft ’10 Marc Figueras ’10 Ben Gillock Rachel Hampton ’11 Khatira Hassan ’11 Rodrigo Huerta ’11 Ben Johnstone Shafee Jones-Wilson ’98 Victoria Kizza ’11 Tom Lamberth
Lisa A. H. Darling President UWC-USA
Sara Barrales Reyes ’10 Yim Rodriguez Sampertegui ’10 Ebenezer Sefah ’11 Sharon Seto Dristy Shrestha ’07
SUMMER 2010
Gareth Smith ’09
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Danielle Wollner Mark Zelinski contact
Generosity Abounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
UWC-USA
DEBATE: Should There Be Curfew at UWC-USA? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5
PO Box 248 Montezuma, NM 87731
Life After UWC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
USA 505-454-4200
Jumping & Screaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
publications@uwc-usa.org
Juego de Pelota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9
Kaleidoscope is published biannually by the UWC-USA Development Office, for the purpose of keeping the extended UWC-USA community connected and aware of current news and dialogue.
No More Deaths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Breaking Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Thinking Clearly with Dale Holm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
feedback
Losing the North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Send an email to publications@uwc-usa.org, or post a comment online at www.uwc-usa.org/read. We look forward to hearing your comments and critiques!
Truth, or Diplomacy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Faces of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Bringing Electricity Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 -17 Alumni Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 -19 2
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On the cover: Students at White Sands National
W Monument W W . Uin New W CMexico. - U SPhoto A . credit: O R Ben G Gillock
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Sometimes when I tell others about my UWC experience, I realize that they are looking at me like maybe I am a little out of touch with reality. But this is the thing: all of the alumni I encounter seem to feel like this. From the bankers to the activists, regardless of the year we graduated or the campus we attended, regardless of our national origins, beliefs, jobs, or families, we are each other’s people. If only everyone could feel this way: that the world’s people were their people too. UWC remains a continually important part of who we are and how we became this way. We give back to UWC because we care about each other and recognize that these relationships were made possible by donors. Now, as we continue to reap benefits of the gift that we were given, we feel the desire to say ‘thank you’ by giving back.
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—Shafee Jones-Wilson ’98, USA
Ben Johnstone
p Shafee sits in a vat of 250 kilos of rose petals. The rose petals are harvested near Cannes by Pierre Monteaux ’98, France, and his family. The petals are then distilled into absolute rose oil and sold to a famous perfume maker.
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Marc Figueras ’10 Spain
Over 80 percent of students either think curfew should be abolished or are indifferent to its existence.* Here are their main reasons: Curfew is not respected. In fact, the rule is broken on a daily basis by the great majority of students. The average UWC-USA student breaks
Curfew does not make students sleep more; and even if it did, there are better ways to induce students to sleep more. curfew four out of five nights, every week. This means that, only this semester, curfew has been broken an estimated 13,120 times! Now, it could be argued that lack of enforcement is the reason for such high figures; but can curfew really be enforced? Reality tells us it is almost impossible to enforce curfew. First it would be almost impossible for a Resident Tutor (RT) to check the beds of all students regularly enough that students be deterred from spending the night in another room. Even discouraging friends from visiting each other past midnight is something hardly conceivable. As Rena Sapon-White ’10, USA-OR, put it, “People who break it always will, and people that don’t, won’t.” Second, the dorms are very close together; it takes less than 1 minute to go anywhere in lower campus, and less than 30 seconds in the castle. Third, RTs are usually very popular among students, and they are trusted by students. This very nice ambience would probably be very different if RTs policed the dorms at night. In Shruti Korada’s ’10, USACT, words, curfew “doesn’t encourage the maturity we should be fostering among students,” as this is considered to be a “bridge school.”
Should There Be Cu In spite of all this, it is known that some RTs have actively tried to enforce curfew. Mike Hatlee, RT of Mont Blanc, is known for trying to catch students walking between Chum and Mont Blanc after midnight, with some degree of success. Yet typically a student is more worried by the cold of the night or finding a skunk in the dark than by being caught by an RT. “I don’t even factor it into my thinking,” said Tessa Nasca ’11, USA-NY. And she has reason not to be worried: out of 64 students surveyed, only two had been caught breaking curfew this semester. This means one has less than 0.05 percent chance of getting caught breaking curfew! Curfew does not make students sleep more; and even if it did, there are better ways to induce students to sleep more. Only in rare cases would sleeping habits change if curfew were abolished. Nearly 94 percent of students say they would not change their behavior in any way if curfew were abolished (besides perhaps studying outside or with a friend instead of studying in their room). Now, lack of sleep is a big problem on campus. The average UWCUSA student goes to bed before midnight less than once a week! This is not surprising, given the workload of students and how much students like to socialize here. Recent efforts to encourage students to sleep have included an RA-sponsored Sleep Week, and limiting the maximum number of activities and services to five. There are also better ways to enforce quiet time after check. For example, corridor lights in the castle are turned off at night. Also, showering individuals for their birthday was prohibited last year. But many better steps could be put into place to prevent noise after 10:00 pm. To conclude, curfew is an antiquated rule that is neither respected nor enforceable. The impracticality of this rule has become a symbol of the administration’s reluctance to change. It is not in-line with the image that they have built over the years: that of a liberal, modern, and understanding administration. It does little more than to exhaust the staff who try to enforce it.
* All data is taken from an anonymous email survey by Marc Figueras, in which 64 students participated. All calculations hereafter refer to the data from this survey. 4
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urfew at UWC-USA? Throughout the history of UWC-USA, curfew has been one of the most opposed school policies. We say that we do not see the reason for it, and that in some other UWCs it is unheard of. But there are strong reasons for curfew and a number of solutions to our problems with the policy, besides having it done away with. As expected, the main reason that curfew is part of school policy is so that we may get enough sleep. Janet Swinton, Resident Tutor (RT) of Chumolungma House, says “To us, it’s very important that the students get enough sleep. That is the main reason curfew is enforced.” This reason is made known to us before we even join the UWC community, and we all know the wonders that good sleep does for us, physically and mentally. It is almost surprising how opposed we become to curfew soon after we start life at UWC-USA. Knowing what we know about the value of good sleep, this reflects a lack of concern for our own well being, as well as the administration’s good intentions. But many of our school population do see the value in the policy. In a [separate] survey conducted to find out students’ views on curfew, in which 54 students participated, 57 percent felt that curfew is a necessary part of school policy, in some cases with a call for more enforcement, and in others, a need for an extension of the time. The majority cannot be ignored just to make our school resemble others in policy. Curfew should remain in place for the good of everyone, whether this good is seen or unseen. One common argument against curfew is the lack of serious enforcement on the part of the administration. Shruti Korada ’10, USA-CT, says “Curfew should either be enforced or removed, because right now it makes no difference.” Seventeen percent of the students who took part in the survey believed that curfew would be more effective if it was enforced more strictly. What we need to realize is that it is a sign of the administration’s good faith in our decision-making that they do not herd us into our dorms every night. And since the main issue at hand this year has been the inactivity of the student council, one possible solution is for the student council to become responsible for curfew observation, making curfew a studentimposed policy, rather than doing away with it and disregarding those K A L E I D O S C O P E
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Victoria Kizza ’11 Uganda
who need their rest. In a school that emphasizes understanding of each other as one of its main teaching points, we can reflect on what we are taught by acting in a considerate way to meet the needs of others. Janet Swinton also tells me, “Many of the non-residential buildings such
“I really like the idea of quiet time. It’s really sad that it never actually gets to happen.” —Lizzie Cuevas ’11, USA-NH as the IT Center, classrooms, library, and auditorium need to be locked up for the night.” On many nights we see members of security come and ask us to leave some of these buildings at midnight. The locking of the buildings is necessary security on the school’s part. The only reasonable assumption with locked non- residential buildings is that students will be in their dorms, hence the curfew policy. Curfew should be left in place to make the job of our dedicated security staff possible, and of course, for our own safety and peace of mind. Another aim of the curfew policy is to give students much needed quiet time to study and catch up on assignments. In [my] survey, 56 percent of students said that they need quiet time but that it is not observed. Lizzie Cuevas ’11, USA-NH, says, “I really like the idea of quiet time. It’s really sad that it never actually gets to happen.” Here, we could compromise to cater to everyone. If curfew time was moved from midnight to eleven o’clock, and quiet time as we know it now, at 10:00 pm, was removed and made part of the time after curfew, everyone would be catered for; those who need to socialize more would have an extra hour without bothering anyone, and those who need quiet time would have it after 11 pm. In this case, curfew would be necessary as the dividing timeline. Tendai Shirley Masangomai ’11, Zimbabwe, says “For me, curfew is a good check point when it comes to managing my time. I use it as a base and organize my timetable around it. It’s also a way for the administration to make sure that everyone is safe.” If we could all take Shirley’s point of view, curfew might open our eyes to the fact that we actually have more time for our work than we think we do, as is the common grievance on this campus. Watching over students from all over the world can be no easy trifle, so let us afford the adults some peace of mind and let them know that they can depend on us to keep ourselves safe. Rather than argue for the freedom that is afforded students elsewhere, it shows more responsibility on our part to work within our own community. We do not know the price that other students have to pay for their freedom. Want to share this article with a friend? Go to www.uwc-usa.org/studentfocus 5
Life After UWC Danielle Wollner Communications
Gareth Smit ’09, South Africa
For more than a quarter of a century, Peter and Betty Hamer-Hodges Betty served as the RT for Aconcagua, ran the campus store with the have been an integral part of the UWC-USA community. help of student assistants, and worked for many years as Development Peter served as Math Teacher, head of the Get-Away Program, ResiAssistant. She has left a lasting impression on students who were lucky dent Tutor (RT) of Hamer-Hodges House, and later, as Dean of Adminenough to spend time with her. istration. He led numerous trips to the Grand Canyon and took students Eva Kolker ’06, USA, remembers, “From the first day, crying in your on a number of Project Weeks. apartment, to the last day, crying Peter spent many Saturday afterat graduation, you were always noons refereeing soccer matchthere for me. I don’t know how es at the school and served as I would have gotten through president and treasurer of the UWC without you. We always Las Vegas Recreation Youth Socknew Acon was the best dorm cer League. He organized tennis because we had you! I wish you and squash activities, helped the best wherever you go, and I with rugby coaching at New hope to see you wherever our Mexico Highlands University, paths can meet.” and, for a time, refereed rugby “Betty was like a mother to matches with the Rio Grande me,” remembers Natalia Bernal Referees Society. ’05, Colombia, “She even took Dan Pringle ’93, New Zeame to dinner on my birthday land, writes, “I have fond memobecause she knew it was hard ries of playing and talking rugby for me to be away from my parwith Peter. Rugby was a great ents. She knew how to make love of Peter’s. I’m very grateyou think. I learned responsiful to Peter for getting a few of bilities and love from her. She us involved with the NMHU is without a doubt one of my rugby team (Los Vatos!). Peter favorite people ever.” still had it, too. I can clearly reBoth Peter and Betty remember sprinting for the line main committed to UWC stuonce, only to be tackled hard by dents long after they graduate. p Peter and Betty Hamer-Hodges Peter who’d run me down. Peter Trustee Mike Taylor ’91, USA, showed great trust (and good remembers, “Somewhere in judgment!) in granting us a few those stern corrections was a days off school to play at the US pretty good method for lots of “Really, I never got the chance to properly collegiate regional championpresentations in life besides thank him for all his time and effort. The least ship in Tucson, Arizona. A very Maths. [Peter’s] been a wondermemorable trip.” ful go-to person when I visit, I can do now (10 years later) is to remind all of Even with all those commitconnecting me with my own us of this man’s brilliance and dedication.” ments, Peter’s dedication to the past and the current happenstudents always rang true. Emings on campus. We got to have —Ibrahim Khader ’00, Palestine manuelle Abrioux ’89, Canada, vicious squash matches. We realizes, “Now that I have two talked soccer and rugby, travel, boys of my own, I am amazed at how [Peter and Betty were] able to juggle personal finance, school policy, wilderness trips, and life changes. Betty all of our needs alongside those of [their] family.” too has shown great interest in my young daughter, pushing me to share Ibrahim Khader ’00, Palestine, remembers, “[I] will never forget the photos and stories of her life. They’ve been great friends, a great anchor extra hours [Peter] dedicated to tutoring nightly classes right before the for my relationship with UWC, and I will miss them terribly.” official IB exams. Really, I never got the chance to properly thank him for Peter and Betty have been an instrumental part of nurturing, supall his time and effort. The least I can do now is to remind all of us of this porting, and educating 27 years of UWC-USA graduates. The number of man’s brilliance and dedication. I wish him the best in his new endeavor. alumni tributes submitted attests to just how much they are both appreciI am sure he will be missed by many, and especially by the struggling ated, and how much they will be missed. math students of the Higher Level class to come.” Want to share this article with a friend? Go to www.uwc-usa.org/read 6
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Jumping & Screaming Mounia Abousaid ’11 Morocco
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Instructions for a Girl Living in a Dorm Rachel Hampton ’11 USA - New York On journeys, wear a demure hat, and your luggage will be carried for you. Do not lose your rings or bracelets in airport bathrooms. Upon arrival, make sure bats cannot get into your room. Make sure annoying people cannot get into your room. Ignore the noises coming from the other side of the wall. Ignore your parents’ emails if they make you hurt. Experiment with how much sleep deprivation you can handle. Ben Gillock
Before coming to UWC-USA, alumni alprompted us to run around crying in overlyways told me that I would make memories dramatic voices, “Frogs! Come to us!” that I’d never forget. “These moments! They The next two days, we cut down young will stick with you,” they said. I dismissed willows, in order to replant them closer to the their words as sappy nostalgia and bought my bank, to limit erosion. ticket to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I thought Finally, we built a stone structure that UWC-USA was just another school. A very looked somewhat like a dam. A river was gogood one, certainly. One where I’d learn a lot. ing to be redirected, and we built a stone strucBut I couldn’t see myself being as affected and ture where its stream would be in order to slow as changed by my experiences in Montezuma down its speed and thus reduce erosion. as alumni’s stories implied. After all, it was only a school, wasn’t it? However, during my Project Week in March, I think I made one of those memories. I distinctly remember sitting on top of a dune at White Sands, on our first day of Project Week. My eyes were closed and I was feeling the gradual appearance of sunburn. In the background, I could hear Ben Gillock, the Environmental Systems p Vichea Tan ’11, Cambodia, completing the winning jump and Societies teacher, talk about the formaThen, we drove back to Montezuma tion of dunes. Meanwhile, most of our Project through a snowstorm. Week group were having a sand dune jumping I learned a lot on Project Week about ecolcompetition, which quickly became a “who can ogy and restoration from the activities we did make the most graceful jump” competition. Viand simply by hearing Ben talk. What I’ll rechea, my co-year from Cambodia, won. There member, though, has nothing to do with comis a picture of him in mid-jump where he looks plex ecological systems or the geological history like he’s about to perform a side kick. As soon of the area. I’ll remember jumping in the river as that picture was shown, the contest was as we cut down willows. I’ll remember screamclosed, as he was the undisputed winner. ing over-dramatically about absent frogs. Our Project Week group also volunteered I have made one of those memories that with Sky Island Alliance, a conservation orgaall those alumni alluded to. It turns out that nization, in the southwestern corner of New what they said, while sappy, is true. I haven’t Mexico. We did wildlife surveys of endangered come through UWC unchanged—because it’s species, and helped on various conservation more than a school. I do not mean that UWCprojects. In the first couple of days, we went on USA is a perfect, happiness-producing utopia. long hikes to ponds and rivers in the area, in I just realize that when you put 200 teenagers hopes of finding leopard frogs. Leopard frogs together, a whole lot of learning and memorywere the endangered species we were supmaking ensues. Even while sitting on a dune at posed to look for. We did not find any—which noon in White Sands, New Mexico.
Be more sleep deprived than you can handle. Record any conversations that occur after two o’clock in the morning. Keep clothes stored in your friends’ rooms. Remember to return your friends’ clothes after you forget to store your own. Study at times when your eyes can focus. Change your sheets. Do laundry. Do not flush your phone down any toilets. Do not panic when the ramen bubbles over in the microwave. Do not panic. Everything is going to be all right. 7
Juego de Pelota: Interview with Yim Rodriguez Sampertegui ’10, Peru Emily Withnall, MUWCI ’01 Communications Yim Rodriguez Sampertegui ’10, Peru, is a painter and a musician who is interested in art’s role in affecting change and in preserving stories. Yim’s personal challenges at UWC-USA included undergoing two heart surgeries in his second year. Yim prevailed through his surgeries with grace and continued to contribute much to the UWC-USA community. He will continue his studies at Earlham College in the fall.
Yim: This painting is called Lucanamarca; it refers to the massacre held by a terrorist group in Peru called Sendero Luminoso. They assaulted Lucanamarca, a farming town, and they killed all the farmers there, including children, babies, women, men, old women, old men, because they rebelled against the communist leader in that town. There was a lot of injustice. Emily: When did this happen?
Photo courtesy of Yim Rodriguez Sampertegui ‘10, Peru
Yim: 1983. In what was one of the first attacks of a terrorist group in Peru. [This painting of the massacre] took four months to plan and research. Most of the pictures [ from the time] are really shocking and really striking and you can see the head of a baby there because… I don’t know if I have to describe it! But it was really cruel and crude, and they stepped on the heads of the babies, and all the bodies they put in that church, which is the deepness over there, in the dark. And after this massacre, many others came along, but I think this is the one that got lost in the history of Peru. That’s why I am trying with this painting to not lose part of the history even though people say that we don’t have to remember really sad things—but I think that’s a part of the culture and you cannot get rid of it. You have to learn how to avoid again the same situations p Yim, painting and that’s my aim now with my style of painting. [The mural] has as well a lot of influence from Picasso’s Guernica, which was created in reaction to the bombing of Guernica during the Second World War. I think more than showing a painting for galleries or for an exhibition or things like that, I think it’s more for the people and that’s why I paint in murals—because it’s the easiest way for people to look at it. And even if you don’t understand the colors and the faces, they do not make me feel comfortable, because it’s a massacre. [The mural makes] me feel thoughtful about what is going on, even though I don’t understand. You see a girl who is holding a stick? I’m getting controversial when I’m talking about that girl because that girl is the motherland. [Her] monument is in the Commerce of the Republic, and it is a sculpture with Greek pictures, really beautiful. But for my mural I make it really ugly and really uncomfortable and really grey and really dark, and its expression scares me. For me, it means my country doesn’t care about justice. 8
The nice thing about painting those characters is that you can create a story even though they are not real. There’s where art becomes a messenger between the past and now. For me art has to be shared; it has to be promoted as well. Art, and in this case muralism, became stronger with the revolution; for example, in Mexico and with the bombing in Chile, where art became really important for complaining about human rights. And I think that’s the new vision, from my perspective, of art which is not made by the artist, but with the history of the people as well. [This] doesn’t put me out of the picture; it can make me the facilitator of the history of my town and the painting itself. Emily: So this history isn’t taught in schools as a part of the curriculum? Yim: No. You raise an important point. Education in Peru: you don’t analyze the facts of the terrorism or of Sendero Luminoso, which was the communist group in Peru. Maybe if you study law or if you study anthropology you can see it at university, but if you don’t study it, you are not able to know those issues. I was one of the ignorant people who just was talking about terrorism but didn’t check the facts. Emily: I remember you saying at the Choose Your Weapon Conference that you organized unions for labor and you sold stuff on the streets? Yim: Yeah, my experience as a child was a little diverse because I have been working since I was 10 years old. I have been doing conferences in Latin America, and in universities, about human rights, but from the perspective of the children’s movements in Latin America. But I learned so much from the streets as well, which is really cruel, it’s really crude, it’s really cold. And I think that is where I had to learn that you don’t have to forget from where you came. That’s why I don’t want to forget what my country had in the past. Emily: What did you do—you sold things? Yim: Yeah, I sold stuff in the streets, like candies and potatoes. When I went to the capital it was more to talk about another level of participation. I think, personally, child labor is a level of participation. Because you don’t think about a child as a potential citizen until he becomes 18 or 21. And that’s something that is unfair, because a child at some point will make an opinion [at home]. Why not offer the opportunity to [a] child to rise as a citizen [ from when] he is 10, 12 years old? Society always looks at the child as the receptor of things but not the producer of things. That’s the misunderstanding of how you understand children—but that’s a pretty broad topic. I’m aware that not always that situation is the same situation for everyone, because you have exploitation, children who are abused in their work, and things like that. There is no reason for saying, for example, that prostitution is a way of working for children. That’s a way of exploitation, it’s simple. Emily: Is it that aspect that you were addressing in trying to go to conferences and schools to talk about children’s rights—the exploitation aspect? Yim: Latin American movements, in the case of children who work in the streets, they are organized now, and that’s the important thing. If you are organized and if you can have a group of people who can support U W C - U S A
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p Lucanamarca by Yim Rodriguez Sampertegui ’10, Peru you, that’s fantastic, it’s like a family. That’s how social movements begin, by helping your neighbors, by helping your town, by doing lottery, fundraising, for example. Simple, simple things. That’s what I was doing— sharing the opinion of the children with the adult people. We don’t want to convince them, we just want them to hear us, and based on what we do they can have an opinion. And that’s the hard part. Emily: I write poetry, so I know it’s hard to write happy poetry, uplifting poetry—is it difficult to paint something positive? Yim: That’s true. I just paint sad things. [laughs] Happiness and sadness are two emotions that are totally related to other things, so it cannot be that difficult to paint happiness or sadness. You have to be like a child to paint what you really feel, emotions like happiness and sadness. If you analyze the whole picture, happiness can be introduced in this case as hopefulness; that child is holding a bird, there’s another bird coming out from the legs of the guy who is lying on the floor, there’s another bird that’s lying on the dress of the girl. And that’s the way for expressing happiness as well, by introducing hopefulness. Emily: What are you hopeful about? Yim: I am hopeful that people in Peru can see this mural. I’m really hopeful that it can have an impact. I would feel so frustrated even though I finished this but I cannot take [it] to Peru or to show to the people what I did. I’m not seeking fame or I’m not seeking money, I just want to put it somewhere, where someone can see it, and to support those kind of programs, because I know in Peru and in Latin America, painting is the teaching of how to paint and that’s it, but not the function of painting itself, what painting has to do with society, what painting can contribute to a relevant society. Emily: Is that something you hope to see in the world? Artists having more of a function in society? Yim: Yes, that’s totally true, that’s what I believe, for art, not just for painting. Maybe it sounds really idealistic, and that’s something that frightens me. K A L E I D O S C O P E
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But I don’t think you have to pass through an academy to become a painter. I mean, I didn’t know about muralism until I read about the Mexican Revolution, and then I came up with ideas like painting about my culture, my native culture in Peru. One [of my murals] is a more cultural one; it’s not from my background, but I think at this point I don’t belong anymore to Peru, just to Peru, I think I belong to every place where my co-years and friends here belong. And that’s something as well that helped me to paint the fourth [mural], which is the Mayan ballgame—Juego de Pelota. There are two courts, and there’s a racing act, with many people trying to catch the ball, and at the bottom there is a god watching them. Emily: It’s true that the winning team was sacrificed? Yim: Yes, that’s the normal rule in all ages. Emily: So it was an honor to be sacrificed? Yim: I don’t think that they thought it was an honor to be sacrificed at that moment! [laughs] But I think the game is about honor. The game itself is about honor, and about being able, even though you are going to die, to do everything possible for being the winning team. It was, I think, a game of trying to measure myself, to measure my team, to measure how brave I can be because of my race or because of my culture. At some point that has a really deep meaning because that’s something that we lack—we are not sometimes really brave about our culture, and we just let our culture be stepped on by other cultures. Emily: That sounds like a metaphor for life, too, standing up for what you believe in, and doing your best even though you’re going to die. Yim: Life is like the Juego de Pelota. [laughs] That’s true, we should write it down.
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No More Deaths: When Border Politics Intersect with Heritage Rodrigo Huerta ’11 USA - Illinois basic human necessities such as food and water along trails to prevent migrants from dying. I remember that on my first patrol I was deeply challenged by seeing the amount of trash and tattered clothes that belonged to the migrants and their children all scattered in the desert. Each garment, water bottle, and sandal tells a story of their struggles and of the desperate measures that these people are willing to face to provide a better, more sustainable future for their children. These stories have never been depicted in American media, which always insists on delivering the same form of condemning, degrading, and exaggerated rhetoric towards people who only seek a better life that does not exist in their homeland. Perhaps what bothered me most was the fact that my own family sought out this journey towards the United States, a country that threatened their lives on a daily basis on the same border. I had never personally realized the human element that is deeply ingrained in the constant flow and influx of immigrants into this privileged nation. You don’t consider this until you actually go out in the treacherous desert, become thirsty beyond belief, become fatigued by the pounding sun, and walk and walk so much that you cannot feel your legs, realizing when you stop for a break how badly cut and bush-wacked your legs, arms, and chest have become. My experience allowed me to see the abuse by the government-financed Border Patrol, which has militarized the border to such an exaggerated extreme that it appears that they are fighting a war of their own in the south of the United States, complete with a man-made wall intended to isolate us inside our country, rather than keep people out. Not only that, but they handcuff migrants and force them to march across steep mountains in mid-day while the soil burns beneath their feet and the sun pounds their backs, and without an immediate source of food or water. What I have learned from watching this inhumane behavior that we inflict on our neighbors is something that will never ever be presented to the American people. What hurts even more is the fact that these migrants are my own people. In the faces of these people I see my cousins, my aunts, my uncles, and my parents. It is a difficult experience to assimilate in the mind, yet nevertheless I feel that it will guide me and inspire me in my future endeavors to never forget my roots and the privileged life that I lead thanks to these courageous people.
p Sustenance placed on the trail on the Mexico-USA border by UWC-USA students
Sharon Seto
During the March 2010 Project Week, a group of UWC-USA students took a trip to Arizona along the Mexico-USA border. Being an American citizen and having both parents originating from Mexico made this trip all the more intriguing to me. I would finally get the opportunity to experience first-hand what really goes on in the southernmost part of the United States, a region depicted by the media as being a constant battle against drug traffickers and people who are out to take American jobs. Working with the organization No More Deaths, which has its base in Tucson, Arizona, we were driven about ten miles north of the border where we had the mission to go out on patrols every day and provide humanitarian aid to migrants. This aid consisted of leaving
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Breaking Barriers As our small caravan of SUVs approached San Pablo, a remote vilguarded and the change in the atmosphere was almost tangible. Howlage in Copper Canyon, Mexico, children lined the dirt road, their faces ever, we still were not quite sure what to do with the kids. The answer framed by the dusty twilight. There was an unmistakable mixture of fascame from an unexpected place—Hikaru, from Japan, who couldn’t cination and timidity on their young faces. For many years, UWC-USA speak a word of Spanish, began to chase a little Tarahumara girl around students have been coming to San Pablo to perform a cultural show and a pillar, growling and making faces. The little girl giggled and ran faster, give a fiesta for the children. The village is unique because the majority of the residents are the … a cluster of children were ferrying our packs like a small army of indigenous Tarahumara people. ants—extremely jubilant ants. All fourteen of us, representing twelve countries, piled out of the SUVs and greeted the village the bright colors of her traditional skirt and bandana vivid in the twiteachers as the children huddled together, furtively glancing at us. We light. As you might imagine, this simple game quickly evolved into a walked over and introduced ourselves. With encouragement, they offered game of tag that included everyone —Tarahumara children and UWC their names as well. students. We had earned a small victory. A barrier had fallen, as we As we walked over to the pickup truck to unload our gear, I noticed always thought it would. a table filled with handmade baskets, carved figures, and jewelry—gifts for us. We prepared to unload our huge wilderness backpacks, but before we knew what was happening, a cluster of children were ferrying our packs Charlotte works on an art project q like a small army of ants— with children in Copper Canyon extremely jubilant ants. That was when I stopped to really look around. The sheer joy on the children’s faces, their enthusiasm to act as our porters, the table of carefully crafted gifts, the warm welcome of the teachers, and the scene of the last bits of sunlight filtering into the canyon through the smoky air of the village rushed over me in a wave of emotion. I looked around, speechless. I hadn’t felt that strong a positive emotion since I received my acceptance to UWC-USA nearly a year before. I didn’t know what to call it. Looking back, I think it was an intense mixture of being humbled by the village’s generosity and standing in awe of the children’s wholehearted joy at our arrival. The unloading had made them slightly less K A L E I D O S C O P E
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Ebenezer Sefah ’11, Ghana
Charlotte Benishek ’11 USA - Wisconsin
Thinking Clearly with Dale Holm Dereck Alleyne ’11 & Natalie Chan ’11 Barbados & Hong Kong Dale Holm, a retired scientist from Los Alamos, first became involved with UWC-USA when he was invited to speak at a student-organized “peace conference” in 1986, wherein he was given the topic of “The Moral Justification for the Use of Nuclear Weapons.” Dale described this as “like being invited to a banquet where you are the main course,” but also called it a highlight of his career. Dale reprised this role by visiting campus in February 2010 to speak at this year’s student-run annual conference, which explored the implications of medically extending life expectancy.
Derek: Can you tell us a bit about your life story and where you’re from?
erything [was] wonderful, [and then] I would spend time thinking, “How could I be wrong?” That was extremely important. I used my intuition and my subconscious and dream analysis to find out where the mistakes could have been. In fact, one time, I was new and every time I did an experiment, I got the best data. Well, that’s kind of suspicious, and [my section leader] thought it was very suspicious since I was the new guy on the block. So he arranged to do an experiment with me. True to form—best data ever. He congratulated me. The next morning I looked him up and I said, “It’s wrong.” It took me over half an hour to convince him that [it] was [wrong].
Dale: I was born in Portland, OR on January 23, 1924. I lived there until WWII started. I decided, against my brother’s advice, to join the Navy. He had spent four years in the Navy and said, “This war is going to be over very soon; you don’t have to worry about enlisting.” After spending three years, nine months, and 11 days in the Navy, I was discharged. I took a couple correspondence courses in the Navy and I got out of the Navy, I think it was January 18, 1946. Two days later, I enrolled in college. I became a physicist. I wanted to work at Los Alamos as a scientist and I heard that they had a graduate research assistant job that I might get. I stayed in Los Alamos and I like to say I couldn’t hold a job, Natalie: It seems like your whole life is so successful because you albecause I changed fields ways believe in yourself. many times, always trying Have you ever found out to get a new challenge. I later that your opinion “Whenever I hear something, I listen, and then say, worked in a reactor diviwas wrong? ‘Do I agree with it or not?’ And if I didn’t agree, I sion first and did materials Dale: I used to tell my kids: would say so, and I got into trouble, frequently. “ science reactor construc“I have never made a mistion, and analysis. take,” and then I said, “Oh Natalie: What is the greatest challenge that you have faced in your life? yes, I did make one mistake. I thought I made a mistake.” They thought I really meant it. Dale: Greatest challenge? It was when I volunteered to work on the test When I was in the intelligence division I was a new person there. operations in 1962 as a scientist for bomb tests. I had never done that, They said, “We’ve got this problem that we have a contract for, for so and I thought this [test] was the last one they would ever have. I was asmany thousands of dollars. We’ve spent half of it, and we have no usesured that there would be people who were experts and they could hold ful data. Will you work on it?” I had no experience, but I knew people, my hand for anything I didn’t know. And that was very comforting, except and I knew their competence; I would accept the job and get the right it was very wrong. people to help me. I found out that it was wrong when I started calibrating our instruIn one case it was on spy dust. This is a thing that the Russians put ments and I concluded that I was maybe making an error in absolute on classified documents to see who touched it. The CIA had spent a values of a thousand or more. And so I called the experts and told them couple million dollars trying to understand how to do that. They asked why I thought that, and they weren’t worried because they got the results me if I would do that. I had no experience whatsoever that I thought was they expected, on the computer. And that was the most challenging time germane. But I had a fellow working for me [previously and] I thought, in my life because I wanted to do a good job and I couldn’t get the help “He’s very creative and I’ll see if he can help me.” With his help, and I needed. The test was terminated for a while because a bomb blew up a couple of other people, we solved the problem. When the CIA came, on the pad and contaminated Johnston Island. I cleaned things up and they were happy that we solved the problem, but they were very undecided to go home. But it was a month after the cancellation of the test happy that we went two hundred and sixty dollars over the quarter of a before I relaxed. million dollar budget. Whenever I hear something, I listen, and say, “Do I agree with it or not?” If I didn’t agree, I would say so, and I got into trouble, frequently. But I decided that the way I did experiments was not the normal scientific method. I formed my conclusions, and I gathered my data to support those conclusions. Sometimes I would do the experiment two or three times, each time doing it better. After I was done, I [had] all the data, ev-
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Derek: Sounds pretty weird. I would feel good that I actually found a solution. Dale: One of my favorite sayings is “What I lack in ability, I make up in confidence.”
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Losing the North Sara Barrales Reyes ’10 Spain dancing next to the Africans at the parties. We understand each other without needing words. But the real challenge will come when I leave this place and find myself out of the stimulating environment I have experienced for four semesters, being exposed to reality and having to apply all my knowledge and skills to new situations. The real Sometimes it is very easy for some of us to lose our challenge will come when going back to my life before UWC-USA and adapting myself again without the peoNorth and forget the reasons we came here. ple who understand me and support me the best. At the end, anything that means a risk or a complicaAt times like these, it is easy to freak out and break down in tears, forgettion is a challenge and an opportunity to grow. Coming to UWC-USA is ting about the purpose of the activity and the solution to the problem. a challenge; exposing ourselves to this kind of situation in which we are All of this keeps our minds and bodies occupied, and sometimes it is continually tested allows us to get to know ourselves better. However, I very easy for some of us to lose our North and forget the reasons we sometimes wonder if it is worth it to develop such strong connections came here. and relationships with people, knowing that we will have to live without But these are the kind of challenges that, little by little, have shaped them afterwards. Knowing that these two years will become just memomy personality and helped me to mature both intellectually and emotionries, and that all the people who have been part of my experience will ally. They are small pieces of the whole UWC puzzle. continue on their own paths. This can be very painful and frightening Now that I am preparing myself to leave and start a new adventure, sometimes. Nevertheless, I would not have it any other way. I realized the biggest challenge has yet to happen. The most difficult task is to leave this place after q Sara finds her North on a UWC-USA two years of exceptional and unwilderness expedition forgettable moments shared with the most peculiar people I have ever met in my life, although I have known since the first day I took a plane from Spain to Albuquerque that this experience would last for only two years. Time is always present in any aspect of our lives, but it acquires special meaning for UWC students. Arriving new to this unfamiliar and extraordinary environment involves getting to know many gifted peers and professors, but it also means getting attached to them, and when this happens, we don’t usually think of the ending. We all know how it feels to live with so many talented people, to share a room with someone that you cannot easily communicate with, to have to go to classes after having spent an entire night writing an Internal Assessment, to eat ramen at two in the morning because there is nothing better, or to feel ridiculously clumsy when K A L E I D O S C O P E
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Gabriel Ellison-Scowcroft ’10, Canada
On Navigation Day, I found myself lost in the middle of nowhere, trying to understand what I interpreted incorrectly on the map and how to get back to school healthy and safe. In academics, I have found myself many times struggling with incomprehensible texts and endless papers.
Truth, or Diplomacy? Zeinab Bailoun ’11 Lebanon “Peace is what we need in the Middle East. This Arab-Israeli conflict, public. It appears to me that diplomacy and political correctness have it’s driving us crazy.” not led anyone anywhere remarkable before, to tell the truth. Does being “Peace? How can you talk about peace when no justice has been achieved? “nice” and using terms that will hurt no individual’s feelings mean you How can you call it a conflict when all there is to it is occupation?” are stepping down, being puny, standing up for nothing, or does it mean “What are you talking about? The suicide bombers are everywhere— you are being polite and respectful? You will never please everybody, so all Israel does is for the sake of its protection and the protection of its why try? Why say that perhaps we should consider being a little sweeter to people! Do you want another Holocaust to happen?” black people and improving their separate water fountains, just a little bit, “A holocaust is already happening, and this time it’s not the Jews who when we know perfectly well that there should be no differentiation but are the victims—it’s the Palestinians.” rather complete and equal integration? Why use terms such as “perhaps,” “What are you saying? What are you accusing us of?” “maybe,” “I hope,” “I think,” or “consider,” when we can simply stand up “You know exactly what I’m saying. You know exactly what I’m acand say “This is what needs to be done”? Being a leader is about being a cusing your government of. You concoction of different things— also know that what I’m saying but sometimes it will call upon is completely true!” one’s ability to be assertive. This When it comes to the truth and issues A discussion like this is typidoes not mean one should not important to us, we cannot afford to “avoid cal at UWC-USA. I recall being be open to criticism, either; on offending others.” involved in these discussions at the contrary, one should be willthe beginning of the year, heated ing to admit mistakes, which ones involving the Israeli occuprovides further basis to the pation, and not being able to keep calm. A claim that Lebanon had stolen claim that we should be straightforward. Israel’s water set me off into a long rant on how Israel’s right to exist was When it comes to the truth and issues important to us, we cannot disputed in the first place. Similarly, attacks on Palestinians would set my afford to “avoid offending others”—had the world been less diplomatic blood boiling. It seems like just the other day that I was told by my fellow and spoken up against Hitler at an earlier stage, it might have avoided the Arabs that I needed to just calm down, enough so that people could begin tragedy that was the Holocaust. Similarly, when we see and hear of the to listen to me and hear what I was trying to say rather than how I was sayhorrors going on in Palestine today and decide not to speak up for fear of ing it. Perhaps I needed to learn to keep calm and not attack people with hurting certain Israelis’ feelings, we are doing much more harm than we my words, but did that mean I should become diplomatic? are good. It is not politically correct today, for example, to denounce Israel One conversation changed it all. One conversation made me rethink and its actions—for if you do, you will be accused of being anti-Semitic. the way I saw things—and made me question everything I had previously What does it mean to be anti-Semitic? Isn’t it more anti-Zionist? People believed in. have to learn not only to recognize subtle differences in wordplay but also “How do you think this looks to everyone else?” to accept that not everyone will side with everyone else. If you cannot take “What do you mean? I’m saying my opinion, that’s all. And it’s backed a term you do not agree with, then you do not deserve respect in the first up with facts, isn’t it?” place. What does it mean to be politically correct if it means you will only “Yeah, but think about the image you’re giving. Think about the imbe sugarcoating the truth? pact this might have on some people who don’t see the whole picture I believe my experience here at UWC-USA has helped me reach —who don’t know the whole story. Who are they going to believe, the something of a balance, and I’ve improved greatly from the fiery, pascalm speechmaker or the angry, defensive, argumentative fighter? Who’s sionate fighter I was at the beginning of the year to a more mature dereinforcing stereotypes now?” bater. Questions still circle and surround every activity I do, every speech I don’t agree with everything that was said at that point, but what I make, and every article I write. What constitutes a win-win situation? the conversation did accomplish was to make me think, make me ask Should we endeavor to be liked, or to be truthful? Truth is the major questions. How does one define the terms “diplomatic” and “politically component in this debate, because there are always the questions of how correct?” Are they what we should be aiming for? Diplomatic implies truthful one should be and what in fact constitutes truth in the first place. the “ability to avoid offending others or hurting their feelings,” as the Is it right to tell the truth in a roundabout way, or must one tell it in an Random House Unabridged Dictionary makes clear. We are constantly assertive and straightforward manner? told that we need to be careful in our manners of speech and perhaps The challenge we all face is that of reconciliation—reconciling our diplomatic, in some senses of the word—but is that what we really want? need to be calm and polite in certain situations with our need to stand up, Is that what we really need? speak out, and tell the truth regardless of public opinion in others. The world has seen Palestinians suffer at the hands of their diplomatSometimes, people need a wake-up call, and sometimes they need ic and compromising leaders, while South Africans overthrow apartheid to learn to stand up for whatever the hell it is they believe in. There’s no with ideas no “diplomatic” person at the time would have dared make need to apologize for it. That’s what freedom is all about.
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The Faces of Life Khatira Mohammad Hassan ’11 Afghanistan How life changes every day. We drive In my culture, we respect everyone, especially along facing the different faces of life. We get those who are sleeping. lessons every day from our lives. We experiThe other thing which was so shockence new changes in life which help us to be ing for me was that the word they use in so strong. all their communication is “f*** you” and Coming to UWC-USA, I never thought “what the f***.” All those words enter my that I would face so many cultural problems. ears like weapons. I was saying, “What a Problems like culture shock, miscommunidisrespectful community this is; they don’t cation, and being misunderstood by people. have respect at all for the next person.” In The challenges of life at UWC are totally difmy culture, if a child uses these words, it is ferent and difficult because of the way a new the parents’ duty to punish the child until place, new people, the child promises and new culture that they will not shape a whole conuse those words in All those words enter my cept of life. their lives. ears like weapons. Here, I was so Coming here shocked that girltaught me a lot, like friends and boyfriends are a common thing, sharing a room with a person you have never and that people are with someone today and met before. There is encouragement to unwith another person tomorrow. Talking about derstand each other. Everything that you don’t sleeping together is the everyday topic among like here, your mom takes care of at home. I students. This is kind of uncomfortable for learned that there is no more mom. You have me, personally. People don’t care about relato adjust to people, which I think is great, betionships, and they also suggest that people cause my mom always tried to teach me all shouldn’t stay with a person. This is totally these things and I refused. Now, at UWCdifferent from my culture. We care about reUSA, I have learned. lationships a lot. The best thing at UWC-USA is the coopThe culture of not sleeping at night and eration of my awesome teachers who help talking to others and disturbing people sleepme in every difficulty I face; they encourage ing at night, doesn’t show respect and considme to face the challenges of life. They have eration for sleep. People come in at 2:30 or helped me a lot, and I learned how to work 3:00 am to say goodnight to their friends. I with other people because of my outstanding don’t know how this shows love or friendship. teachers. I love them a lot, and in life I will never forget them.
Further Simone De Cia ’10 Italy Whenever the soul grows the evil moves
further
into our colder and barer forest. A subtle smile appears where once we harbored fears, blaming our burning desires kindling indifferent fires. Time pushes
further
to turn us experts of human sorrow and human vice. And again the evil moves
further
into our land of ice.
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Bringing Electricity Home Emily Withnall, MUWCI ’01 Communications “In Nepal, there was an old campaign that said ‘Let’s develop our own village,’” says Dristy Shrestha ’07, Nepal. “It encouraged people to start projects individually and locally, because we are the most familiar with the resources and needs of our own villages. As a Nepali, I [wanted to] start locally—from my country, and possibly expand to the global community in the future.” And start locally she did. In 2009, as a sophomore at Middlebury College in Vermont, Dristy heard about Projects for Peace, funded by philanthropist, Mrs. Kathryn Wasserman Davis. She jumped at the opportunity to give back to her home country of Nepal. She knew she wanted to do something related to development, but she wasn’t sure where to start. After much research, she discovered the idea of micro hydropower. She drafted a proposal outlining a plan for using micro hydropower to generate 3KW of electricity from a small river in a rural part of Nepal to a remote village, using a Nepali-made machine called a Peltric Set. The village was far removed from the national electricity grid system due to the complicated and extreme geography of Nepal, and was unlikely to ever be connected to the grid. One of Dristy’s hopes was for her project to serve as a “Model Micro Hydropower Project in Nepal” and draw attention to that sector of hydropower of the country, particularly since Nepal is the second richest country in water resources in the world. Dristy’s project was selected as a Runner Up from Middlebury, which did not secure her the funding she needed. Dristy said, “I could practically see the entire project in my head, so not winning the Projects for Peace Competition was heartbreaking for me. I had so much faith in the idea and was almost desperate to see it happen because I knew how much it would benefit the villagers.” Discouraged, but still determined to see her project come to fruition, she submitted the same proposal to the Clinton Global Initiative University Outstanding Commitment Award 2009 (CGIU). The results pending, she convinced Middlebury’s president, Ronald Leibowitz, to fund the project out of the $10,000 President’s Discretionary Fund. Funds in hand, Dristy traveled home to Nepal in May and June of 2009 to complete her project in Gurdang Village of Mapikhel VDC, Lalitpur. She talks of the challenges presented by attempting a project during the summer monsoon season: The first part of the project was purchasing the equipment and transporting it to the project site. We had hired a truck and were planning to transport everything at once. It was only drizzling, but towards late afternoon and the evening when the truck headed towards the village, at moments I had doubts that it would make it. The road to the village is just a dirt road. Accidents in rainy season like trucks slipping or skidding [are] considered normal. Although it took them what seemed like forever, they made it to the village safely with all the equipment so the next morning when the truck could be unloaded, the construction work began. The construction work, like digging the canal to fit the pipes, and construction of the power house, had to be halted on days of heavy rainfall. 16
While the project was under construction, Dristy remained hopeful about the success of her project, dreaming about children playing, working, and participating in bringing home earnings, people being able to read and study at night, and women having spare time after the sun went down to do some extra work. Dristy imagined this all leading, eventually, to the economic development of the village by allowing for additional income-generation and lifestyle improvement. The villagers were also concerned about the success of Dristy’s project. She says: When I first went to the village, I was expecting an excitement among the people because they had already been told about the funds that I received [and] planned to use on a micro hydropower project for their village. Later I learned that these villagers had been struggling to get electricity for 15 years and had been given several promises which clearly hadn’t been kept so they were a bit skeptical and weren’t completely willing to believe that a 21-year-old Nepali girl who studies abroad was going to make a new promise and keep it. I remember how warm and welcoming they were, but also the doubt and skepticism they had until the actual equipment was purchased and transported to the villages. I was not prepared to see such a reaction but am glad that by the end it changed to positive energy and [they had] electricity in their houses. Dristy’s project generated electricity for 32 houses, and the village has continued to receive electricity since June 2009. During her last days in Nepal, as she finished up her first project, Dristy discovered that she’d been granted the CGIU 2009 award, and therefore had the opportunity to replicate her project in another village. Dristy returned to Nepal in January 2010 during her winter break at Middlebury and successfully completed the project in Tallo Kerabari Village of Bhimkhori VDC, generating hydroelectricity for 32 additional houses. One of Dristy’s most memorable moments occurred during the inauguration of the second project: Both my parents and I had hiked up to the village to attend the ceremony. The roller coaster of emotions that I went through that day is still very hard to describe. I have won several awards in my student life, but that day I realized that those frames of reference were so poor compared to the garlands the villagers put on me, the vermillion powder all over my face and clothes, and their endless gestures of Namaste. [Being] honored by the villagers in such a manner was the most respect I have ever received from anyone in life. No wonder I couldn’t hold my tears while making my “thank you” speech at the ceremony. That was my reward—the feeling that one gets in return for serving others. U W C - U S A
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Dristy also faced the continued challenges of bandhs (strikes) called by Maoist forces that frequently brought Nepali life to a stand-still:
ties, to be able to see new dreams and struggle tirelessly to make these dreams come true.
Since Nepal was going through tough political times and there was very recent change in the government, such strikes disrupted our work and decreased our efficiency. There isn’t any particular way out in such situations, but after the equipment arrived at the project site, away from bandh zones, the villagers could proceed with the construction work. We always stayed well-informed about the possibilities of bandhs while we were working on the project, and did our best to get as much as possible done when days appeared normal.
I feel like it is my duty to make the most out of [my opportunities] for myself, and for others—especially my country. because it is really in need of this kind of attention. It isn’t even just about “making a difference.” For me it is about doing all that I, as an individual, am capable of. Even today, when I read about or hear from fellow UWC [graduates and] how they continue finding ways to “do their best” in their individual ways and [transform] the ideas and dreams they had talked about at UWC, it adds in me more strength, courage, and zeal to do something.
Dristy confessed that being away from Nepal and hearing about her country through the news was a challenging experience. She admits to almost losing her faith at times, but says that her two projects have left her more hopeful and have given her a new faith in Nepal’s potential:
Dristy continues to find ways of turning her dreams into reality. She was recently chosen as one of the winners of Davis Projects for Peace 2010. With this grant, she has plans for an entirely new project, one which entails a National Nepali Scout Camp with the aim of bringing together more than 500 Nepali Scouts of different castes and ethnicities from every corner of Nepal in a symbolic national event that emphasizes peace and unity in the country. She says, “I know that I am very fortunate and blessed to have all these opportunities and resources available to me. I just hope that this is the beginning of my journey in which I continue living this spirit of service to my country and global community and take the role of a ‘global citizen.’”
I feel like I have grown stronger and more optimistic as a Nepali citizen. It was at UWC-USA that for the first time, I actually got to take on a “Nepali” identity. Being one out of the two Nepali students there and sharing about my country reinforced this identity more than ever before. My experience at UWC made me think about what it meant to be a Nepali [and] I realized how lucky and blessed a Nepali I am. Thousands of Nepalese migrate to foreign countries to work, for better education and opportuni-
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Photos courtesy of Dristy Shrestha ’07, Nepal
p Clockwise from top left: The Peltric Set and control box inside the Power House. Hot water is collected in the barrel after being used to generate electricity, and is re-released to the same river; Dristy leads the way to Kerabari village, two hours by foot from the road. The galvanized corrugated sheet will be used for the roof of the Power House; Dristy is honored with tika by the micro hydropower project’s committee chairman in the village of Kerabari and Lord Bhim is asked for his blessings for the smooth generation of electricity; Dristy and her parents, at the project’s inauguration.
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Alumni Profiles Doug Turner ’87, USA, completed a run for the Republican nomination for Governor of New Mexico, in the June 2010 elections. He did not secure the nomination, but he is bound to be noticed in the political arena in years to come. A native New Mexican, Doug has provided political and strategic counsel to Fortune 500 companies, elected officials, and government and nonprofit organizations. He has owned and operated DW Turner, a public relations firm in Albuquerque, NM, for 12 years. In the late 90s, Doug worked on Gary Johnson’s first campaign to defeat incumbent New Mexico Governor Bruce King, and managed Governor Johnson’s come-from-behind re-election win. He also served as a deputy political director for Steve Forbes’s 2000 bid for President of the United States. Doug is a board member of the New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools, a life-long member of the National Rifle Association, a member of the American Council of Young Political Leaders, and has served on the Republican Governors Association National Finance Committee and the UWC-USA Alumni Council. A former syndicated columnist, Doug’s articles have appeared in Time Magazine, Financial Times, Far Eastern Economic Review, the Carnegie Council’s Policy Innovations and Japan’s Daily Yomiuri. Doug says, “My UWC experience reinforced my belief in community service, and my respect for and willingness to listen to others and strive to do what is right.”
Vachararutai (Jan) Boontinand ’90, Thailand, began working for Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) in Bangkok in 1996. Jan was responsible for a research project on trafficking in women in the Mekong subregion and worked with organizations and researchers in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Through GAATW, from 1999-2001, Jan was a
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part of the Human Rights Caucus at the UN Crime Convention while the Palermo Protocol was negotiated. Jan also helped to conduct training locally and internationally for NGO workers, law enforcement officers, and other groups to raise awareness about trafficking and human rights violations. From 2002-2008, Jan served as the Country Manager of ActionAid Thailand. She launched the “Action for Change” project which involved young people in Thailand using music, art, film, and journalism to raise public awareness about many social and political issues, including the impact of Free Trade Agreements on local Thai farmers and the exploitation of seagypsies on the southern coast of Thailand in the aftermath of the tsunami in 2004. Jan’s current project is focused on teaching English to children in her community, and involves her entire family, including her two children, now ages nine and five. Her desire to work within her home community and to help those less fortunate than herself is one she wishes to instill in her children. Jan had to put her teaching project on hold when she enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Human Rights and Peace Studies in June 2009, but she has plans for resuming it in July 2010. “When I walk in my neighborhood, I often have some children running to greet me, calling me ‘teacher.’ I definitely feel good that I could finally do something for the community. I can say that the UWC experience had an important role to play. With political tensions and conflict that have polarized Thailand since 2006 and the series of subsequent violence including the riot in May this year, a lot more work will need to be done to create genuine democracy and peace in this country.”
Brian Bava ’91, USA, has been working as the Director of Admission at the College of Idaho since 2008. Brian also currently serves as Interim Dean of Enrollment Management. In the fall of 2006, the College of Idaho was added to the Davis Scholars Program, which has proven to be one of the most significant accomplishments Brian has made at the college. Brian has visited six UWC campuses in addition to UWC-USA and has worked exclusively on the recruitment of UWC students. In the fall of 2009, the College of Idaho had 38 Davis Scholars among a total international student body of
80, representing 40 countries. Brian says that when he arrived at the College of Idaho, there were only eight international students.
Brian and his wife Amy have a two-yearold son, Emerson, and a five-year-old daughter, Parker, who will be starting at an IB school in the fall. Brian says, “I am thankful for the education I received at UWC and know that without that experience I would not be successful in my professional life. It is a joy to return to Montezuma each year and see so many familiar faces—I just hope they will stay around long enough for my own kids to be taught by them!”
Laura Taylor-Kale ’96, USA, joined the US Foreign Service in 2003. From 2004-2006, Laura worked as a consular officer and special assistant to the Ambassador at the US Embassy in New Delhi, India. She served as the political affairs officer at the US Embassy in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire from 2006-2008, where her primary responsibility was to follow the Ivoirian peace process and progress in human rights and combatting trafficking in persons. From 2008 to 2009, Laura served as an economic affairs officer at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan where she focused on transportation, telecommunications, labor, and environmental policy issues. Laura currently serves as an advisor to the US Executive Director of the World Bank. Laura coordinates with US Treasury and State Departments and USAID in developing official US government positions on loans and strategies for the Middle East and Africa, environment and energy policy, and extractive industries development. In this role Laura is able to employ her skills as a diplomat to persuade, and utilize her expertise in economic development and world politics and history. Laura says she first learned about the Foreign Service at UWC-USA from classmates
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whose parents were diplomats. “UWC shaped my worldview and made the world much smaller. I learned that I was part of a much larger global community than the one in which I was raised on Chicago’s south side. I developed my cross-cultural communication skills as well as my knowledge of everyday life for people from different corners of the world. I also developed leadership skills and an appreciation for public service, whether it’s building homes in low income communities or representing your country as a diplomat.”
Lauren (Fletcher) Hucknall ’01, UK, works as an English teacher at Djanogly City Academy, in Nottingham. In March 2010, she took a class of 14 and 15 year olds to Uganda to build a library and exam centre. In the months leading up to the trip, her class raised almost $12,000 to cover travel costs and building supplies. Upon arrival in Uganda, Lauren and her students spent a week at Hope North School in Bweyale, in the Masindi District. The very basic school building was occupied by many of the school’s students, most of whom were orphans as a result of the civil war in Northern
tests there rather than having to travel alone for two hours to reach the nearest town.
Moritz Waldstein-Wartenberg ’01, Austria, left his job at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 2009 to launch a start-up company, Coffee Circle, with two colleagues. Coffee Circle will provide consumers with a new way of drinking coffee by facilitating a process where the coffee is directly sourced from co-operatives in Ethiopia, which will keep the entire supply chain in their control. Coffee will be roasted in Germany and purchased online, and all profits will be shared with the farmers in the form of projects. Moritz hopes that by linking producers and consumers that his business start-up will provide an innovative model for interaction and transparency. They plan to go online in August of this year. In parallel to this project, and alongside his brother, Mortitz started an NGO, Project-E, which launched New Life Community College (NLCC) in Ethiopia, providing business education to orphaned girls in Ethiopia (www.nlccollege.com). Young orphaned women often have no prospects for education past 10th grade, which often means that they are forced to work as servants or prostitutes. NLCC helps to break this cycle by training young Ethiopian women to earn their own living in a professional capacity. Moritz says he found UWC to be “a life changing event. The two years in Montezuma provided me with the insight that you can change something—here and now—you just have to do it.” Nono Louise Elisabeth Harhoff ’02, Denmark,
Uganda. Many of the students there had fled for safety, or were among those children lucky to have escaped from being child soldiers. At Hope North School, Academy students were paired with Hope North students. They worked side-by-side for the week, and students from both countries fetched water, mixed cement, dug foundations, and learned to lay bricks and build scaffolding. Over the course of their work together, Academy students heard many of the harrowing and tragic stories from the child soldiers about their time in the bush. The construction of the library enabled Hope North to keep their school open, and there are hopes that the new library will also serve as an exam centre, which will allow children to take
works as an advisor for the Cambodian Secretariat of the Global Campaign for Education, building staff capacity in advocacy, communication, partnerships, and liaisons, through VSO International. The Global Campaign for Education is a civil society movement that aims to hold governments accountable for their promises to provide “Education for All,” and to make sure that governments act now to deliver the right of every girl, boy, woman, and man to a free quality public education. Global Campaign for Education also runs the 1GOAL Campaign that during FIFA Football/Soccer World Cup 2010 brought together footballers, fans, charities, corporations, and individuals to advocate for education for everyone.
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Nono says she has “always been interested in development and creating a more just world. My time at UWC-USA challenged and shaped me in many ways, but mostly it gave me a sense of hope: despite the enormity of this aim, this was not a naive idea. Of course I do not believe that simply working in development will single-handedly change anything, but I would rather be a part of the fight-and-fail than sit around and accept defeat.”
David Hogue ’03, USA, worked as a fellow of Princeton’s service program in Asia from 2007 to 2009, teaching oral English to high school students in the commercial metropolis of Guangzhou, China. During this time he
also traveled throughout China and Southeast Asia. Since the fall of 2009, David has been enrolled at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China, pursuing a Master’s degree in Classical Chinese literature. David feels that his experience at UWCUSA “has had a deep influence in my personal project of cultural observation and learning. Being around so many active, optimistic, multilingual, and adventurous classmates from all over the world for those two years made the world seem to a high degree accessible, familiar, and readily understandable. The UWC recognition of the practical need for understanding different and potentially conflicting value systems, and its corresponding discipline of imagining how people with different cultural perspectives can coexist, benefit from interaction, and thrive together, have also been, and continue to be, inspirations and sources of guidance.” If you would like to be featured in an upcoming Kaleidoscope issue, or if you’d like to nominate another graduate, please email publications@uwc-usa.org. 19
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