Grads share tales of international efforts
Minerva Fellows relate experiences with poor children
BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter
Most people in the United States don’t have to worry about access to health care and clean water.
In other parts of the world, that is not the case — as eight graduates from Union College’s Class of 2008 found out.
These Minerva Fellows traveled to Uganda, Cambodia, India, Malawi and South Africa to work with children. The goal of the program is “to instill an entrepreneurial approach to social problems, a lasting commitment to the poor in developing countries with an important spillover impact on current students,” according to the college.
Stephen Po-Chedley of Hamburg, N.Y., and Rebecca Broadwin of Concord, Mass., worked in southern Uganda with an organization called Engeye to improve living conditions through education and health care.
Po-Chedley said one of the biggest problems was culture shock when he returned.
“Here, you’re worried that your computer is not working or your Internet,” he said.
Others agreed that their perspective changes once they do this community service work. Robert Flick of Butler, Md., and Jonathan Hill of Rochester worked in Siem Reap, Cambodia, with an organization called The Global Child that builds specialty schools and safe houses.
Flick said one problem was setting goals that were too ambitious.
“You realize you’re one person. Often times, it’s three steps forward and two back,” Flick said.
Flick added that the key thing is to not get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem but use it as fuel.
Hill said initially, there is a problem with learning the cultural norms.
“There’s more of a groove once you learn about the culture. You start to become comfortable in that situation,” he said.
The Minerva Fellows were split on the attitudes of the local residents. Alex Butts of Canton, Mass., and Emily Laing of Jordan, N.Y., worked in Mumbai, India, with the Welfare Society for Destitute Children to help orphans, runaways and children of sex workers and those affected with HIV/AIDS get access to shelter, food and education.
Butts said it almost seemed that people living in the slums of Mumbai were happier than those in the United States. They had smiles on their faces and seemed to be happy.
“They don’t have the rat race mentality that some people here have. I think that affects the way we think,” he said.
David Shulman of Needham, Mass., disagreed and said that life is “brutal” in these places. He worked with Partners in Health on medical care, access to clean water, education, nutrition and shelter in southern Malawi.
Lara Levine of Riverside, Conn., went to Capetown, South Africa, and worked with Journey Hope South Africa to address HIV/AIDS and education issues.
The students also battled illnesses such as dysentery. This exposed the graduates to what the health care system is like for those in lowincome countries.
Emily Laing returned in November because of an unspecified illness.
“I didn’t know what it was. It was taking a long time to get better. The scariest part was, how do a find a doctor that helps me?”
Broadwin said she got a severe case of bronchitis, which she initially thought was tuberculosis. She said the treatment cost the equivalent of $24. Many of the older people live on pensions of about $80 a month.
“A quarter of their pension is being spent on a doctor’s appointment,” she said.
They also experienced cultural differences. Laing said the two men who ran the organization kept her out of the loop because she was a woman. “They wouldn’t tell me things and I didn’t get to eat with them,” she said.
Union College Associate Dean Tom McEvoy said this program started with an idea by economics professor Hal Freed of having seven or eight of the recent graduates spend 11 months helping other countries and then come back to the college for a month to report on their experiences.
Even while they were away, students kept in touch with the campus through blogs and letters to the student newspaper.
Students were selected through an interview process. Seventeen applied last year and eight were selected.
McEvoy said they were looking for people who had a sense of compassion, were good problem-solvers and could be independent.
These students have been serving as guest lecturers for classes and holding a series of public presentations, including one on Monday at the Nott Memorial.
“Hopefully, the result is that everybody gains a sensitivity of what it is like to live a country very different from the U.S.,” Freed said.
