kaleidoscope summer 2011

S U M M E R 2 0 1 1

Kaleid scopeVo l u m e 4 2T H E M A G A Z I N E O F U W C - U S A , T H E A R M A N D H A M M E R U W C O F T H E A M E R I C A N W E S T

TOYS IN THE DESERTuntold stories on the border

THE PRIVILEGE OF LIVING IN GAZAnurturing peace in Palestine

FROM BOAT TO BROTHELhow one alumna came to work with trafficking victims

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がんばれ

p. 12Japanto Disaster in

R E S P O N D I N G

U W C - U S A / W W W . U W C - U S A . O R G2

K A L E I D O S C O P E / S U M M E R 2 0 1 1 1

2 Letter from the President

3 Letters to the Editor

4 Arrivals and Departures: a double interview with Dr. Hannah C. Tyson

6 Should Mondays Be Meatless?

8 Stories from the Frontlines

10 Toys in the Desert

11 Unbreakable Bonds

12 がんばれ: responding to disaster in Japan

16 The Privilege of Living in Gaza

17 Where the World and Self-Conscious Reality Intersect

18 From Boat to Brothel: how one alumna came to work with trafficking victims

20 Alumni Profiles

S U M M E R 2 0 1 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

©Henrik Jenssen ’12


Alumni often struggle to define what happens during their two years at UWC. They easily describe who they were coming into UWC and can describe where they are in their lives now, but their two years here are not easy to articulate. “Transforma-tional” is a word I often hear. The Chair of our Board of Trustees, Tom Dickerson AC ’68, has talked about the magic that is the UWC experience and asks us how we can begin to quantify what happens in this “magic black box.”

I am not sure we have a way to quantify the transformational nature of the UWC experience. But what we do have are stories. We have the stories carried here by incoming students, the stories of students who have been here for one year or two and are trying to capture the magic that is UWC and make it real for all of us, and the stories from alumni who continue to carry their transformative UWC experience into the rest of their lives.

It is these stories that show UWC to be a gateway into finding our best and tru-est selves, the parts of ourselves that go on to find ways to spread the UWC mission across the globe. These stories tap into a larger story that propels us forward in an effort to preserve the magic and transformation that our student and alumni stories convey. We are grateful to you, our readers, for participating in the stories that com-pose UWC-USA.

With warm best wishes from Montezuma,

Lisa A. H. Darling President

TRANSFORMATIONAL

CREDITS

editor in chief

Elizabeth Morse

contributing editor

Emily Withnall MUWCI ’01

designer

Danielle Wollner

contributors

Gabrielle DaCosta ’11

Cassandra Doremus ’12

Hannah Freedman ’12

Ben Gillock

Henrik Jenssen ’12

Aura Kanegis ’92

Cátia Lopes ’04

Pedro Monque Lopez ’12

Mohammad Mudaqiq ’12

Kate Russell

Gareth Smit ’09

Emma Smith ’12

Lena Sutter ’12

Dr. Hannah C. Tyson

Iris van der Heijden ’11

Albert Vasquez

Omar Yaxmehen Bello Chavolla ’11

contact

UWC-USA

PO Box 248

Montezuma, NM 87731

+1 505 454 4227

[email protected]

Kaleidoscope is published biannually

by UWC-USA

to sustain connection within UWC-USA

and its extended community.

On the cover: Paper cranes made by UWC-USA students. Photo credit: Gareth Smit ’09

REFLECTION: Safa Al-Saeedi ‘11, Yemen, on Project Week in Seattle. Safa presented on Yemen’s government policies on terrorism. See page 8 for the story.

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©Emma Smith ’12

©Kate Russell

Kaleid scope


LETTERSTO THE EDITOR

UWC-USA welcomes short letters (maxi-mum length of 300 words) responding to articles or items that have appeared in recent issues of the magazine. Send your remarks to the Editor, Kaleidoscope, UWC-USA, PO Box 248, Monte-zuma, NM 87731, email [email protected], or post comments online at www.uwc-usa.org/read.

BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN[“Grandmother,” by Bereket Zekarias ’11,

Ethiopia, in vol. 42] was beautifully written and very moving. It’s great to see you recogniz-ing the strength of your grandmother in the face of challenges most people cannot imag-ine. Women in general, and African women in particular, are much stronger and more re-silient than many people realize. Thanks for sharing your story, Bereket!

—Amadou Wane ’84submitted online

EL FIN DE LA GUERRA: RESPONSE TO “THE WOUNDS OF WAR,” BY KEVIN MAZARIEGOS MORALES ’11, GUATE-MALA

Lo único que necesita Guatemala es que los países desarrollados presionen al gobierno para evitar la corrupción y fomentar la trans-parencia en el manejo de los recursos, ya que los países han dado recursos a políticos con vínculos con las mafias, y lo único que hace [eso] es fomentar la corrupción y la violencia. Si se apoyan más los proyectos de desarrollo administrados por gente honrada, no por el gobierno, será el principio del fin de la guerra.

—Jaime Mazariegossubmitted online

NO COOKIE-CUTTER PATHS FOR ALUMNIWhile reading the alumni profiles in the

spring issue of Kaleidoscope, I was struck by the profiles written by Natalia Bernal Restrepo and Marie Dixon. We hear so often about two com-mon career paths for UWC alums (NGO work or investment banking), and as a poet and educator, I was delighted to read about alumni working in education and, of all things, clown-ing! There are many ways for us to carry for-ward the lessons and international/intercul-

tural awareness we gained at UWC, and to role model and help others develop greater aware-ness as well—thank you for the reminder that a UWC education can lead to many different and equally important future paths.

—Arianne Zwartjes ’97

While I certainly appreciate the need to profile our alumni who are considered suc-cessful in the traditional sense (high profile, lucrative, etc.), I was very pleased in the lat-est issue to read about alumni who have made success something that is relevant to them and meaningful to them. I especially loved Marie Dixon’s story of finding a path that she is happy to walk, even if it isn’t one that is con-sidered traditionally acceptable. Good work!

—Jeremiah Stevens ’94

MORE ENGAGEMENT, PLEASEI appreciate what appears to be a continual

improvement in Kaleidoscope; however, I con-tinue to find myself hoping for more in-depth reflection about the UWC experience—while students are at UWC, and how UWC has con-tinued to shape their lives. While stories about students’ personal histories or experiences are

interesting, I’d like to see more articles that deal with complex issues and include a variety of perspectives. There should be more late-night common room conversations reflected in these pages, because for me, that was the essence of my UWC education.

—Name Witheld

LIFE-CHANGING, BUT…While I enjoyed the articles written by

alumni in the spring 2011 issue of Kaleido-scope, and while it is interesting to hear in more detail what alumni are doing, I wonder if it might be more engaging to have alumni contributors write about an aspect of their work, rather than about themselves. We all know UWC was life-changing and has in-fluenced our lives and work. I’d like to hear more about some of the challenges in teach-ing, working for the UN, and working in the medical field. Or perhaps alumni can share their perspectives on teaching philosophy, the pros and cons of volunteer programs they’ve had experience with, or the effective-ness of UN policies and projects—to name a few examples. —Name Witheld

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©Hannah Freedman ’12


Cassandra Doremus ’12, USA-NE, has just finished her first year at UWC-USA. She and her teacher, Dr. Hannah C. Tyson, en-gaged in reciprocal interviews for this edition of Kaleidoscope.

HANNAH: What kind of experience has this first year been for you?

CASSANDRA: It’s been incredible and it’s been eye open-ing, and I think more than anything else it’s been humbling for me. I came from a place where I was—and I know this is kind of a stereotypical thing for UWC students to say—where I was used to being the best in basically everything I did academically. Then I came here, and I am dead average,

and it’s very hum-bling. It sounds re-ally clichéd to say “life-changing,” but UWC has been life-changing. I’m a dif-ferent person than I was a year ago.

HANNAH: You’re fast becoming the Chicken Lady in the upcoming year.

Does this have something to do with Nebraska? Does it have something to do with your principles? Or do you just like chickens?

CASSANDRA: It has to do with all three of those things. Sustainable living is definitely something I believe in and strive to practice. And having chickens on campus that are “organic”—they’re not free range, but they’re happy chick-ens who are well taken care of and much-loved—makes me feel better about eating eggs, because I’m a vegetar-ian. Also, I am from Nebraska, and while I don’t have any specific farmer roots or family, just having grown up in the rural Midwest, I was surrounded by farms and ranches and agriculture and chickens. It’s something I’m used to.

HANNAH: In what ways are you finding that the UWC experience lives up to whatever expectations you had and has it fallen short in any ways?

CASSANDRA: The international aspect of the school was something I was really excited about, and that’s something that I’ve loved—being here, surrounded by people from all sorts of different cultures. However, it is kind of America-centered, which is something that I really wasn’t expecting, and it kind of threw me off-guard. There’s so much Ameri-can and Western culture here. The campus is beautiful; that’s something that far surpassed my expectations. There

are so many possibilities for different activities to be involved in here. I’m learning a lot more academically than I was at my public high school back home. The campus is very liberal, which I appreciate, coming from Nebraska. I was also expecting to be humbled here, and I have been—and that’s been great.

As far as something that didn’t live up to my expectations, I was sort of expecting to come here and be constantly surrounded by probing dialogue and by driven, motivated stu-dents who spend 12 hours a day studying. And stu-dents here are focused and driven. But at the same time, everyone here is very human. They have to clean their rooms and they miss home and they com-plain about the food and they dance during dorm-cleaning duty. Everyone’s human, and that was a surprise to me—believe it or not.

HANNAH: What three books would you save from destruction if it came down to that?

CASSANDRA: First of all, I would save a copy of The Complete Works of William Shake-speare, for obvious reasons. Also, I’ve read several books in the last few years that sort of outline the modern human condi-tion. One book that we read this year in English class that I would like to save is In the Name of Identity, by Amin Maalouf, because it talks a lot about people in this era, and I think it’s important to save something that delineates what people are like right now, at this moment in history. And then for myself, I would save my prayer book from the Bahá’í Faith.

HANNAH: Finally, what do you want to be when you grow up?

CASSANDRA: Right now, it seems like I’m standing in this road—the road of my life that’s led me here—and I see adult-hood. It’s coming at me like a semi-truck, and I just am not ready for it. I don’t want it to get here, but I can’t jump out of the road, and I don’t know what I want to do. I just see this future full of corrupt governments, the destruction of the planet, and people who are scared and hurt and in need, and all I want to do is help. I don’t know what I want to do, but I want to help somehow.

I came from a place where I was used to being the best in basically everything I did academically. Then I came here, and I am dead average, and it’s very humbling.

Arrivals and Departures: A DOUBLE INTERVIEW WITH DR. HANNAH C. TYSON

©Hannah Freedman

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WRITE ON! Students and alumni agree:

meeting Hannah’s writing standard is challenging but

well worth the effort!

Dr. Hannah C. Tyson, an English teacher at UWC for 27 years, taught her last UWC-USA class in May. As a first-year student who will sorely miss having her as an instructor next year, Cas-sandra interviewed Hannah to find out a little bit more about the much-loved teacher’s life and plans.

CASSANDRA: What have you learned from your years here at UWC?

HANNAH: First of all, I’ve learned that there seems to be an endless supply of smart, complicated, and thoroughly interesting 17-year-olds in the world. Secondly, my judg-ment about people seems very unreliable; I will take that lesson along with me—even though occasionally I find I’m accurate. Also, and I will miss this greatly, there is

something uniquely interesting about reading literature with seventeen-year-olds. It’s very en-ergizing. It’s very puzzling. It’s hard work sometimes, but it’s well worth it.

CASSANDRA: What thinkers or writers have most influenced you in the last few years?

HANNAH: Some of those seventeen-year-olds have sig-nificantly influenced me. But I really like the German thinker Ulrich Beck’s notion of the “risk society,” because I think it takes on some of the assumptions that we tend to live with and turns them upside down. I also like Jeannie Morefield’s notion of the evolution of culture in society. Right now I’m thinking about Richard Rorty and his es-say “The Fire of Life,” in which he talks about his imminent death from pancreatic cancer.

Essentially he says that he had two regrets: the first is that he wished he had spent more time with his friends and made more friends, and the other, that he had read and memorized more poetry.

CASSANDRA: Do you think you’ve had a significant im-pact on the evolution of the school?

HANNAH: Estimating one’s own significance is a tricky business. But it took about twenty years to get rid of ciga-rette smoking, and I certainly was behind that movement. It probably saved a few talented people from lung cancer, so I think that’s significant. And it took almost as long to convince people that it would be very useful to have alumni come back when the students are here. I certainly put en-ergy behind that, and Tom Oden has turned that into a serious part of the program. A third good thing is the pact

Janet Gerard and I made to have the best and widest world literature library in the world for IB students. Janet has done an amazing job of bringing that to fruition. The last thing is the UWC courses—a combination of classroom learning and activism—and we’ve had some very success-ful experiences with that. We’ve had language with Anne Farrell, we’ve had gender with Melissa Belfry, we’ve had methodologies of activism with Naomi Swinton, but I’m getting a feeling that these courses are going to disap-pear, which I think is rather sad.

CASSANDRA: When you were a kid, did you envision yourself growing up to teach English?

HANNAH: No. I was go-ing to be a lawyer. Much of my family is in law. I got sidetracked out of love for literature. I probably should have done law—would have spared other people a lot of my arguments! But I’ve real-ized recently that the place I feel most myself, most actual-ized, is in a classroom.

CASSANDRA: Who is your favorite writer?

HANNAH: I would say the best contemporary writer and my favorite is Nadine Gordimer. Absolutely no contest. She’s a great writer; she was a great activist for ending apartheid. I think she’s a perfect character for UWC.

CASSANDRA: If you were to write a novel, what would it be about?

HANNAH: Well, I think it’d probably be about the odd, funny, strange culture of boarding schools. It would be a mix of all the schools that I’ve been in, and I think it’d pos-sibly be quite hair-raising, surely a roman á clef, with some very funny and winsome students in it.

CASSANDRA: Why are you leaving UWC?

HANNAH: There are lots of reasons, and I think it’s diffi-cult to know why we do things when we sit down and really think about them. The heart has its reasons, as Pascal said, so we have to take that into account as well. Essentially we do the things we do, and we launch out into the unknown. And, frankly, I probably have more ideas about what I’m going to do than there’ll be time to do them. And one of those things is finding a way to stay more effectively in touch with all the impressive students that I’ve taught.

To hear an interview with Hannah on our Castle Cast—a podcast hosted by Vice President for Academic Affairs Tom Oden—go to www.uwc-usa.org/media.

Read the extended version of this interview online! Go to www.uwc-usa.org/read.

…there is something uniquely interesting

about reading literature with

17-year-olds. It’s very energizing. It’s very

puzzling. It’s hard work sometimes, but it’s

well worth it.

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Veganism, or choosing to abstain from all animal products including dairy, eggs, and meat, has been part of who I am for almost two years, and vegetarianism for over a year before that. Upon my arrival at UWC-USA, I was happy to find many people very accepting and even supportive of my veganism. However, the introduction of “Meatless Mondays” has some students locked in debate: Why do Meatless Mondays matter?

Should Mondays Be Meatless?

By Lena Sutter ’12, USA-MI

Vegetarians make up a little less than a quarter of our school, ac-cording to a poll conducted by a group of students in the first semester, and as a whole they seem to be in favor of Meatless Mondays. For them, it’s a chance to spark discussion about why exactly they choose to be vegetarian or vegan—not to mention they have more choices for food on Mondays, something the omnivores among us always have!

Not everyone is as enthusiastic, though. One of the most prominent arguments against this “forced vegetari-anism” is the “it’s against my culture” po-sition, which isn’t an uncommon phrase here at UWC-USA. While I understand why this argument seems logical, there are a few flaws. First, while eating meat frequently is part of many cultures, you normally find an industry, or lack of in-dustry, that operates in a much different way than corporate America’s factory farming. People raise their own meat or get it locally. Second, culture shock is an everyday thing for most of us, even the US students. Every person comes from a different background, and no one is going to live exactly the way they did back home.

Another argument against Meatless Mondays is: “We should have freedom to eat what we want! The cafeteria should offer something for everyone!” If this is the case, then there should be an option for me to eat solely in the cafeteria and get all the nutrients and calories I need on a weekly basis. Instead, I need to buy extra food and take supplements to stay healthy. While it can be said that this is just a consequence of my choice, being vegan is not a “choice” for me. It’s

a moral obligation. After all, livestock indus-tries—according to studies done by the Euro-pean Union, the US Agency for International Development, the United Nations, and oth-ers—are responsible for 18 percent of CO2

emissions (all vehicles on the planet contrib-ute only 12 percent). They also contribute 65

percent of all human-related nitrous oxide emissions (296 times the global warming potential of CO2 emissions).

So, why do Meatless Mondays matter? For some, it’s trying something new and seeing things from a new point of view: cultural un-derstanding through action instead of words. For everyone, though, it’s a great way to help the environment and save the world one day at a time.

So, why do Meatless Mondays matter? For some, it’s trying something new and seeing things from a new point of view: cultural understanding through action instead of words. For everyone, though, it’s a great way to help the

environment and save the world one day at a time.

FOR

Meatless Mondays became a US movement in 2003 in an effort to create public awareness about healthy eating and to reduce the consump-tion of saturated fat. Previous incarnations of this movement can be traced back to campaigns dur-ing World Wars I and II when Americans were urged to reduce both meat and wheat consump-tion to help with the war effort.

UWC-USA learned about the Meatless Mon-days movement and began discussing ways to par-ticipate. While personal health was a part of that

debate, students were drawn to the movement due to its compatibility with campus efforts to be a more sustainable community and live out the UWC mission more fully.

The implementation of Meatless Mondays in March 2011 generated a fierce debate among students and employees alike. Meatless Mondays were subse-quently scaled back to every other week, but a poll conducted by the student magazine, Literati, showed that the majority of students were in favor of Meat-less Mondays. Tom Oden, Vice President for Academic Affairs, says that as a re-sult of this poll Meatless Mondays will be a weekly feature at UWC-USA for the 2011-12 school-year. He hopes this measure will encourage the whole community to look at other ways we can live together simply, healthily, and sustainably.

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By Omar Yaxmehen Bello Chavolla ’11, Mexico

If the benefits that are claimed to be obtained from Meatless Monday are analyzed, it can be

concluded that other measures can lead to the same savings and even greater ones.

•Skipthemeal,and,inthelongrun,havepotentiallygreaterchancesof getting sick because of malnutrition.

• Consumeeasy-to-make,pre-preparedmealsorramennoodles,whichare not nutritious enough for the needs of an average student and rep-resent greater energy use (since traditional ovens and microwave ovens also use up a lot of energy). Pre-prepared foods also produce pollution in the packing and transporting process, which reduces the potential environmental benefits of not eating meat for a day.

•ConsumeproductsfromtheCampusStore,which,co-incidentally, do include meat, even on Mondays.

Additionally, we still have milk on Meatless Mon-days. The production of milk also leads to large carbon emissions. However, we can’t reduce its consumption because of its importance in the diet of many students. That statement sounds like a contradiction when ana-lyzed from the perspective of meat consumption. If the benefits that are claimed to be obtained from Meatless Mon-days are analyzed, it can be concluded that other measures can lead to the same savings and even greater ones:

•Takeshortershowers.Ifconsuminglessmeatsaveswater,whatsavesmore water is, obviously, using less water.

•Reducecarbonemissions.Let’s turnoffourcomputer forawhile,turn off dorm lights for a short period of time, or reduce the use of microwave ovens. In the long run, it will save way more energy than not consuming meat for a day.

•Usepapermorewisely.Theamountofpaperwasted inUWCisenormous, and its wise use and recycling would also promote sav-ing the rainforest.

•Moderate,butnotstop,theconsumptionofmeat. The benefits of meat are undeniable. It is a great source of Vitamin B12, iron, and long-chain-3 fatty acids (omega 3 acids), and it can’t be denied to students who are still de-veloping. Its consumption, however, can be reduced and that will have a greater impact in the long run. Not consuming meat one

day but consuming loads afterwards does not do much for the planet.

•Have workshops on proper diets besidesmeat-based diets. Many students who are not vegans or vegetarians do not know how to get the nutrients they need from other sources.

All in all, Meatless Mondays have to be reexamined, and other sorts of measures to re-duce the environmental impact of our school should be considered. Reducing the consump-tion of meat is an easy way out and, in my opinion, causes more trouble than it resolves.

AGAINST

DINING DILEMMA: While students debate the consumption of meat, others point to the general waste of food on campus. Caf-eteria staffer Josephine Maestas is often seen wearing a sign that reads “I am silent for all the good fruit that gets thrown away”—a tongue-in-cheek re-minder to remain con-scious of our actions.

Meatless Mondays are meant to reduce the consumption of meat and thus pre-vent some of the environmental impacts that the production of cattle has on our environment. The fact is that meat-eating students who do not like what is served in cafeteria will either:

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©Kate Russell


in Italy. She has known of murders and bombed shops in her hometown and has heard stories from her par-ents about how much worse Mafia brutality was in their youth. She is determined that Mafia violence will end in her generation.

Cheyenne Ward, from Barbados, talked about racism in her country. She mentioned how black people have a deep hatred for the white Barbadian population due to the long history of slavery on the island and how both sides

attack each other physically and emotionally. Black people in Barbados still feel oppressed as the white population still has the wealth and power. She discussed the conflict she has experienced due to being both white and black in Barbadian society and incidents that have occurred in her family because of racial conflicts. Despite this, she stated, the people of Barbados have come a long way and she be-lieves they will definitely go fur-ther to become a stronger, united nation.

Cho Kwan Ha, from Hong Kong, gave a brief introduc-tion to Taiwan and Tibetan is-sues and Chi-nese ideas and reactions to these situations. Safa Al-Saeedi, from Yemen, gave a brief introduc-tion to her coun-try and talked

A group of twelve first-year students from dif-ferent conflict regions traveled to Seattle for Project Week to share stories and experiences about the conflicts happening in their home countries. The short presentations were delivered to more than 1,200 people in churches, schools, and at Microsoft.

After traveling by ferry for almost two hours, we arrived at the small island of dreams called Orcas Island. We ex-plored the wild natural beauty of Orcas Island

and then gave our first presentation in the Episcopal Church Parish Hall. We opened the program by repeating the UWC mission statement in Arabic, Dari, Pashtu, Hebrew, Malay, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, and English.

Palestinians Ahmed Hemeid and Malak Abureehan started their presentation about the conflict between Palestinians and Israe-lis, mentioning US influence in this conflict. They also shared their own stories about how it felt to grow up in the region. Ahmed shared, “Mothers in Palestine are the bravest people, letting their sons and daughters go to school while not knowing whether their children, pieces of their heart, will come back home alive or dead.”

Next Ofir Halperin, from Israel, took her turn. She said immediately that she agreed with Ahmed and Malak, and she too longs for their people to live in peace. She then re-counted the tragedy of family members she had never met because of the Holocaust and the power her remaining relatives feel in find-ing sanctuary in the Jewish State. I glanced at Ahmed’s face as he listened to her. He seemed as moved by her story as she had been by his. Later he said he’d never heard Ofir talk about her family history before.

Adriana Di Graziano, from Sicily, spoke of how upsetting it is to have people ask her about the Mafia in her country. She was sur-prised when she observed that people on Orcas Island keep their houses and cars un-locked, which no one would imagine doing

“Mothers in Palestine are the bravest people, letting their sons and daughters go to school

while not knowing whether their children, pieces of their heart, will come back home alive or dead.” —Ahmed Hemeid ’11

WATER LINES:

Rabin (L) poses with Ofir,

Emma, and Malak. One

of Rabin’s presentation

topics focused on the water

conflict between Malaysia

and Singapore.

Stories from the FrontlinesBy Mohammad Mudaqiq ’12, Afghanistan

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Like the Sun Will Not RiseBy Mohammad Mudaqiq ’12, Afghanistan

I was born and raised as an Afghan.

The way I talk and the way I walk,

I grew up here, with bombs and tear gas exploding around me.

As I grew up, I thought that was how the world was,

Noise from this side and cries of children from the other.

It seems death had no fear in Afghanistan,

It roamed around us day and night

Taking every person that it happened to meet.

When I look back at those years of horror,

My heart is filled with sorrow for my people.

I am 18 now, but the scars of the war are still fresh,

Haunting me day and night.

I am a child who was born in war,

That is what I saw growing up in Afghanistan.

War hasn’t made me bitter in any way,

But made me stronger, to live with caution

Like the sun will not rise the next day.

The beauty of the land has disappeared completely.

All I am left with is the dead bodies of my parents.

The golden land of milk and honey is no longer there.

All that is left is ruins of buildings,

That bring back the memories of war,

The death of my loved ones.

Sure, this war was heavy,

But that can never stop me from moving on.

Time has passed now, and things have changed.

I don’t want to know Afghanistan as the land of misery,

As the land of death and political unrest.

I want to remember it as the land of brave people,

Land of prosperity and beautiful people.

I will not allow life to coat me with darkness and fear.

I will strive for my freedom and independence for the land.

about the beauty of Islam as well as how Al-Qaeda poses an increasing threat.

Before I started my presentation, I went through a brief history of Afghanistan. In 1940, people were calling Kabul “the second Paris,” but unfortunately civil war turned my country from beauty to ashes. But since 2001, when the Taliban regime was removed by a US-led coalition force, the country has changed a lot. My countrymate, Fatima Arabzada, talked about the lack of contact between foreign and Afghan troops and how it is resulting in the killing of civilians. She stated that if foreign troops continue to bombard innocent people in our country, it will motivate civilians to join the Taliban troops.

Rabin Patmanathan, from Malaysia, and Julian Rios, from Colombia, talked about some major problems in their countries, such as affirmative action in Malaysia and how it is a source of “silent hostility” and conflict, and about the drug problem in Colombia and how it is affect-ing the indigenous people.

At the closing of presentation, we prayed for the safety of all human beings and we were given a loving goodbye by the people of Orcas Island.

On behalf of our group I want to thank faculty spon-sors Sharon Seto and Alexis Mamaux for supporting and taking care of us and to give a very big special thanks to Emma Smith’s mom, Lynsey Newman, for organizing this wonderful trip and providing us with this opportunity to share our stories with the people of Washington.

©Mohammad Mudaqiq ’12

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Toys in the DesertBy Iris van der Heijden ’11, Netherlands

For the past two years, students at UWC-USA have been making trips to the US-Mexico border to work with No Mas Muertes, a humanitarian aid organization dedicated to preventing deaths on the border. Among the aid programs students participate in are leaving food and water on mi-grant trails, picking up abandoned belongings, and learning about border policies and issues.

A black garbage bag, a pair of blue gloves, my backpack, enough wa-ter bottles, a lunch for later, and a mission to bring back some dig-nity to the belongings

left behind by the migrants walking this trail, a trail that we are walking because of our own free choice.

I am doing this during my Spring Break, and I want to be here. This is in contrast to those who are forced to walk here, who have no other choice than to put themselves in this dan-gerous situation, and in contrast to those who can’t turn back and get themselves home again.

All this is on my mind while I pick up water bottle after water bottle and backpack after backpack. I realize I can do this like a machine. I realize I can do this without any emotions attached. I can do this any place, any street, or any town. But that is not what I am doing. Every piece of clothing I pick up, every backpack in my black garbage bag, and every shoe that I touch makes me realize more and more the situation here at the border.

I don’t know the story behind each back-pack, but in my mind scenarios pop up, and they terrify me. In one moment I wake from my thinking bubble by a classmate showing me a little school backpack with a big Spider-Man on it. Suddenly this story becomes more

I don’t know the story behind each backpack, but in my mind scenarios pop up, and they terrify me.

personal because my little cousin in the Netherlands loves Spider-Man and has exactly the same backpack. I can only imagine him having to leave behind his favorite schoolbag. He would be a total disaster.

What about the boy who had to leave his backpack be-hind? As a kid, you attach so much value to your bag or your toy. Kids never want to let go of their stuff. I can only imagine the pain that these kids have to go through. Be-sides the pain of the desert, the heat, the suffering, and the pain in their feet, they have to leave behind their most valuable things.

After this, it gets harder and harder to put the things in the black garbage bag. The questions that I am ask-ing myself are, “Am I actual-ly returning dignity to these belongings? Is it really better to have them in a black gar-bage bag than all together in a resting spot?” Putting my-self in the place of a migrant, I would get hope out of the backpacks, shoes, and water bottles I found.

After we are done, the desert looks like a desert again, and I am not sure how I feel about that. I want to leave a sign behind so that people who come across this place will have hope and faith, seeing that other people made it this far, seeing that other people went through the same thing as they are going through.

Our group decides to leave some things behind so that the people who will walk here will have faith and hope.

In picking up these belongings, I realize how horrible this situation is. I have gained a motivation in myself to make sure that this ends as soon as possible. It is heart-breaking to see so many shoes, backpacks, toothbrushes, and toys lying around, knowing that they belong to some-body but not knowing how that person is doing. There are too many unanswered questions in this desert.

Visit www.uwc-usa.org/border for written and audio narratives from other students who have

participated in this border program.

UNTOLD STORY:

The words of one deported

migrant whom students

talked to on their Project

Week: “I would rather die on

the border than back at my

home watching my family

slowly die with me.”

ST

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TS


After going to Agua Prieta, a border town between Mexico and the US, my perception of the people surrounding me changed profoundly, and my role as a UWC stu-

dent became clearer by seeing the effect that ser-vice can have. The changes that occurred in us, a group of 14 students and three adults, who in only one week developed an unbreakable bond, are hard to explain.

Everything started with the preparation, the first stage of our trip and probably the hardest. After celebrating our selection for the Agua Prieta Project Week, it became clear that an unexpected amount of work came along with it. Putting together an international show, costumes and props, activities for the kids in the schools, and fundraising was hard, but our confidence started to build as we saw everybody working with enthusiasm. Espe-cially the Sunday before leaving, when we had to work for about 12 hours, I started to see the rewards of teamwork that made the day not just bearable but very enjoyable.

Finally, after two months of work, it was time to leave. The bus was filled with silent ex-citement. It was a Friday night. We slept under the stars in Leasburg Dam State Park, and, as the shooting stars crossed the sky, our hearts were filled with dreams of making a change in Agua Prieta. The next morning we visited Phil Kennedy from Frontera de Cristo, a binational religious organization that organizes activities between the Presbyterian Churches of Doug-las, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Sonora. Phil led us to the Centro Comunitario Nueva Esperan-za that would be our new home for a few days. After we settled down, the actual work began.

We went to a Catholic Church center, where with the help of our group director Tom Lamberth, we taught First Aid to a group of about 20 people. We met a pair of teenag-ers from Agua Prieta who invited us to their church service. We had an amazing time shar-ing with their religious group; I especially

“If there is something that is not divided by a border, it is culture, and if there is something that can cross any

border, it is the friendship that we find in the human heart.’’

— Alma Socorro, Educator in Agua Prieta, Mexico

liked translating for the non-Spanish speakers who also had a great time being the center of attention. It really was a great day, and we enjoyed the hospitality of our hosts who kept sur-prising us every single moment.

The next day we were shocked by the kind eyes of the peo-ple who watched us perform our international show. CRREDA is the name of the rehabilitation center where we performed, and there we learned a lesson about second chances and the power of will from people who wanted to get rid of their alco-hol or drug addictions.

On Monday, we started working with the kids, and as we performed, their eyes lit up with excitement. Graceful Nepali dances, a waltz, African dances, an Indonesian dance, drums from different conti-nents, violin and gui-tars and more—all of them the reality of in-ternational coopera-tion. Although doing the show was thrill-ing, the tiredness that came after two hours of performance was overwhelming, espe-cially when the kids came as an avalanche trying to get pictures and autographs. The attention was a dou-ble-edged sword, we all agreed, but with an internal satisfac-tion of fulfilling our purpose; after all, we were there to help the kids have a bet-ter understanding of cultures, friend-ship, and celebra-tion of difference. In school after school, we developed tight bonds playing soc-cer, painting faces, conversing, or playing music. Every single thing we did had an impact on them as well as on ourselves.

We also watched students from the schools perform many dances for us. It really was an exchange, and a profound learn-ing experience: going to the border and hearing the stories about the migrants and their trials to pursue better life con-ditions for their families made our hearts shrink. Our time in Agua Prieta, though short, made us understand something that Alma Socorro, the director of one of the schools, said dur-ing our visit: “If there is something that is not divided by a bor-der, it is culture, and if there is something that can cross any border, it is the friendship that we find in the human heart.’’

Unbreakable BondsBy Pedro Monque Lopez ’12, Venezuela

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING:

“I found a way to work with

children: just remember

your childhood, that’s all.”

—Selen Ozturk ’12, Turkey

©B

en G

illoc

k

©Albert Vasquez

ST

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Japanto Disaster inR E S P O N D I N G

がんばれ

By Emily Withnall MUWCI ’01

G©

iSto

ckph

oto.

com

/Ren

é M

ansi

lobal events unfold at an immediate and

personal level at UWC-USA. On the

morning of March 11, 2011, Kyoko Sakai ’12

recalled being in a hotel room, on Project Week

with friends:

We were changing TV channels when we found a ticker telling us about the earthquake in Japan. However, I didn’t know that it was a huge quake because the news program was only telling us about the tension of tsunamis for the US.

After I returned to school, I spent time collecting information and making contact with my friends. Then I found out how horrible this disaster was. I was shocked and blamed myself for not being with my precious people during a hard time. However, friends here in the US encouraged me a lot and gave me mes-sages and hugs, and they were happy to hear that my family was okay. Some of them asked me how they could donate. Those actions pushed me to the next step; I started to think of how I could help Japan.

Jun Yasuda ’11 reported to the school on behalf of the Japanese students several days later: “My friends, my parents, lots of people are working to help. I have been so frustrated by the fact that I am safe in the US. We don’t know if our friends are


The impact on people losing everything they have at this stage of their lives is devastating, and the psychological cost of this has not yet been evaluated. —Ian Bartlett, Parent


fine or not. Please pray for them. がんばれ (Stand up! Be a samurai! Good luck! Go Japan!).”

The rest of the campus learned about events quickly. Japanese students circulated emails on campus and initi-ated instant efforts to organize fundraisers in support of Ja-pan. Donation boxes were placed in nearby Las Vegas, UNI-CEF organized many fundraisers, raising money to send to Red Cross, and sushi and Japanese curry rice bowls were prepared and sold, raising more than $2,000. Another $3,500 was raised through a tea ceremony fundraiser, and it was donated to the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

Meanwhile, we contacted alumni and parents residing in Japan, and they shared where they were on March 11 and some of their thoughts on events as they have continued to unfold. Parent Sumiko Sakai recounted, “I was at home at the time. Everything—books in bookshelves, dishes in cup-boards, a wall-mounted clock, and many other things—fell and broke. There were cracks in the wall, and fragments of wall fell off. The roof tiles of the house opposite fell off, broken, and flew to our house.”

Another parent, Michihiro Kotani, recalled:

14:46 on March 11, 2011. I was on the third floor in an office in Gotanda, Tokyo. It was a large earthquake, but I did not think it was going to be serious. This big rolling earthquake lasted ap-proximately five minutes. When the earthquake was settled, I pulled myself together immediately. [I wanted to know if ] my wife was safe and whether the nuclear power plant was safe. I called my wife several times [and] sent an email from a cell phone and confirmed her safety three hours later. And what I was afraid of at a nuclear power plant began to happen on the Yahoo news.

Although the fickle whirlwind of news reporting has moved on to other global crises, Japan is still struggling to get back on its feet. The Associated Press reports that over 100,000 people were still without shelter two months after the earthquake, and Japan has allocated a four-trillion yen surplus to fund the costs of reconstruction.

Sumiko Sakai reported, “Rice fields are damaged by salt and cannot be used for three years. Radiation also harms the fields, and farmers may have to give up their businesses. Owners of rice shops are worrying about the suspicion of rice farmers’ suicides and trying to do some-thing about it.”

Those of us here at UWC-USA relied on a variety of US media sources for our information as the days pro-gressed after the earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent alarm about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant. Speak-ing from Japan, parent Angela Bartlett noted that “the economist interviewed on CNN was much more focused on stock prices and corporate profits. He hardly seemed aware that jobs or human lives would even be a consider-ation in a discussion such as this.”

As the world watched events unfold at the Fukushima plant, conversations and debates were sparked about nu-clear energy, its safety, its uses, and its future as a power source around the globe. Kyoko Sakai ’12 admits that she is confused about all of it. She wishes “all nuclear power sta-tions would disappear because radiation won’t clear away no matter how we discard its waste. It will be great if we can get enough energy from clean energy, but [the reality] is not so easy. We need to find a way to live with less energy and a new technology for electrical generation.”

Kyoko’s mother, Sumiko, continues to follow informa-tion on the Fukushima plant carefully, wanting precise and accurate information:

I disagree with all kinds of nuclear energy … An acquaintance of mine who is a fire fighter went there to discharge water. I deeply feel that we have made a huge negative legacy when I hear the conditions there and the feelings of his family. We want precise information because we don’t have any committee to regulate nuclear power, like the US Nuclear Regu-latory Commission. Japan has limited human net-works, both public and private, and even The Agen-cy or Nuclear Safety Commission is no different.

I wish all nuclear power stations would disappear because radiation won’t clear away no matter how we discard its waste. It will be great if we can get enough energy from clean energy, but [the reality] is not so easy. We need to find a way to live with less energy and a new technology for electrical generation.

—Kyoko Sakai ’12


Keiko Sugiyama ’96 says her personal challenge “is to overcome fear of the radiation. Since the information is very limited from the government, I am afraid of the increasing possibility of cancer and other disease which might occur after a few years to my family.”

Others present different perspectives. While Japanese government and aid organizations work hard on damage control and reconstruction, David James ’87 is concerned about how Japan is being perceived and the direction the nuclear debate is taking:

Nobody could have anticipated a disaster on this scale—both the incredible earthquake and the 15-metre tsunami were unprecedented. I am no nu-clear expert, and I have to trust the authorities as regards the radiation levels, evacuation areas, etc. However, this is an issue allowing certain overseas media companies to return to “Japan-bashing” (common in the late 1980s), by totally exaggerat-ing the extent of the Fukushima problem. Japan is not glowing green, and our skin is not falling off! I am happy with nuclear energy, as long as the plants are pretty far from most people. We have the technol-ogy, and it produces little CO2.

Parent Angela Bartlett sympathizes with how Japan came to be in this situation, embarking upon a “reasonable risk” due to their depletion of natural resources, but says,

I have never been happy about relying on nuclear energy, as we don’t have any current way of dealing with the waste…We are at this point where we don’t know if the people of Fukushima will ever be able to go home again. How many Fukushimas can the world handle? How many people can be ex-pected to take the risk of losing their homes, their places of business, and their lives so that the rest of us can have power? I have already seen people jump in and say we can’t do without nuclear energy, and maybe that is true, but I certainly hope we will start talking more seriously about alternative renewable power sources.

Concerns from Japan’s residents have been of significance in the renewed global discussion on energy. A report from Reuters two months after the earthquake stated that Prime Minister Naoto Kan would be following Germany’s lead in making renewable energy a key pillar of Japan’s energy policy and that its nuclear policies must be reviewed from scratch.

When asked about what they might share with those of us who are at the mercy of contradicting internet news, An-gela Bartlett says, “This problem isn’t going to go away just because it disappears from the evening news. The people made homeless by the tsunami are still homeless, and it most certainly will take years to rebuild the Tohoku region.” Ian Bartlett concurs, and points out:

The impact on people losing everything they have at this stage of their lives is devastating, and the psychological cost of this has not yet been evalu-ated. There have been reports of increases in suicides and health issues (pneumonia). It is at times like this where a robust social infrastructure is neces-sary to deal with catastrophic social issues on such a large scale. The super simplistic school of thought that people should ‘pull themselves up by their boot straps’ in the face of such adversity is an insult to all rational adults.

In the wake of a disaster from which it will take years to emerge, Japan’s residents encourage UWCers to remain engaged and involved and to visit and volunteer. Keiko Sugiyama ’96 says, “I would appreciate the continuous support created by UWC, since the recovery seems tough and we need long-term support.” David James ’87 agrees: “Japan is totally safe. Come for a holiday, donate some money through the International Red Cross. Come here to teach something, learn something. That’s what I am doing! I love Japan and I am not glowing green or losing my hair!”

Current Japanese students at UWC-USA are grateful for the support they have received, despite the difficulties of being away from family and friends. In the words of Jun Yasuda ’11: “ありがとう. Arigato. Thanks everyone, for praying for people in Japan.”

Share this article with a friend. Go to www.uwc-usa.org/read.

[My personal challenge] is to overcome fear of the radiation. Since the information is very

limited from the government, I am afraid of the increasing possibility of cancer and other disease

which might occur after a few years to my family.

—Keiko Sugiyama ’96


The Privilege of Living in GazaBy Cátia Lopes ’04, Portugal

ALU

MN

I

“MY name is Cátia Lopes, and I am from Portugal.” This is how

I have been introducing myself for the past nine years.

I grew up in a very small town on the north-ern border of Portugal, and I always wanted to study law. My dream was to become a judge. I thought that as a judge I would be able to up-hold fairness, justice, and equality. I was proba-bly right, but life took me in a slightly different direction. During my experience at UWC-USA,

I discovered that I love to travel, to learn about different cultures, but most of all I learned how much I cherish interacting with people. That is why I decided to study international law, as it would allow me to focus on human rights, work with people, and travel the world.

After my university studies in England, I travelled to Bangkok where I worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). I was in charge of inter-viewing asylum seekers and recommending their approval or rejection of refugee status according to the Refugee Convention of 1951. I heard horrible stories about why they fled home and realized that I needed to truly un-derstand what it is like to live within a conflict and humanitarian crisis so that I am better able to help people in these situations. This is why I relocated to Gaza to work for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides protection and assistance for Palestinian refugees.

Before coming to live in the Gaza Strip, I was—as one would expect—a bit nervous. Crossing the border was a hard procedure; liv-ing in an extremely restricted environment for security reasons was frightening; and hearing shooting and explosions on a daily basis was terrifying. However, as soon as I got in the car to make my way to Gaza and met some of my new colleagues for the first time, I re-alized this was the right choice. I chatted to the woman sitting next to me in the car, and she asked me why I had an American accent, so I explained that I studied at UWC-USA for two years. She smiled and told me she was an alumna from the UWC in Singapore. With an-other UWC alumna among my colleagues, I see daily how UWC creates a cadre of people not only dedicated to peace but prepared to do their bit to nurture it.

Living in Gaza is a privilege that not many have, and it has been one of the best experi-ences of my life. Part of my job entails organiz-ing trips for students selected due to their out-standing performance in their human rights classes at UNRWA schools in Gaza. There have been trips to the US, the Netherlands, Norway, and South Africa, and the students have been able to meet distinguished per-sonalities like Ban Ki-moon, Desmond Tutu, and Jimmy Carter. For the majority of these 14-year-olds, this is the first time they have left Gaza. The resemblance of these children with the groups of bright 16-year-olds that go to UWC-USA each year is tremendous! These trips change their lives as much as UWC-USA changed mine. They feel their ears pop due to altitude, they take the train, fly, go on elevators and escalators, go to the cinema, ice skate—all for the first time in their lives. Managing this project is living the UWC dream: uniting Ga-zans and the rest of the world through children who understand the concept of human rights and who work together for peace and a sustain-able future for Palestine.

Share this article with a friend.Go to www.uwc-usa.org/read.

GAZA GIRLS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS:

UNRWA’s human rights

component trains children

in Gaza in non-violence,

communication and

conflict-resolution skills,

and peer mediation.

Managing this project is living the UWC dream: uniting Gazans and the rest of the world through children who understand the concept of human rights and who work together for peace and a sustainable future for Palestine.

©C

atia

Lop

es ’0

4


Where the World and Self-Conscious Reality IntersectBy Aura Kanegis ’92, USA

ALU

MN

I

AS I stared at a blank page wondering why on earth I’d agreed to write

about living UWC after UWC in the week when our second child was due to arrive and important budget votes were playing out in Congress and I’d already over-promised to sort out a crisis for an organization I serve on the board of, I thought, “Well, there it is, isn’t it?”

I’ve lived UWC after UWC by approach-ing my life and career with a passion to be as engaged as possible on as many fronts as possible, with a set of core values and flexible tools that I can apply wherever it seems they’re most needed. I’ve helped to save sacred sites from bulldozers, maneuver an agreement for US withdrawal from Iraq, and build a good funk band—not because I had a tremendous issue-specific expertise, but because I knew how to listen, to empathize, and to look for a legislative opening in the same way I’d look for a “V” to safely navigate rapids or a good polyrhythm. It didn’t hurt that Hannah Ty-son showed up in my head each time I tried to write a boring sentence, and thanks to Ivan Mustain, I couldn’t help but think about global politics in terms of the real people in the room.

For over a decade, I worked as an advo-cate for Native American tribes. As I prepared congressional testimony for tribal leaders, time and again serving as messenger for the preposterous notion that their words must be condensed into a three-minute presenta-tion, I thought often of the cultural patterns of language we’d discussed in Theory of Knowl-edge. Understanding those undercurrents to communication made me a better tour guide through the counterintuitive mysteries of the US political process.

Today I direct the Office of Public Policy and Advocacy for the American Friends Ser-vice Committee, a Quaker organization fo-cused on building a more just and peaceful world. Working to bring an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’ve thought often of experiencing the first Gulf War as a student in Montezuma, gripping hands of classmates whose families were threatened on multiple

sides of the conflict as we watched news cov-erage of the first bombs falling. No doubt the UWC alumni experience of hearing world news as a series of terrifying reports on the potential wellbeing of dear friends has in-formed my work to build human connections be-tween Iraqi parliamentar-ians and members of the US Congress.

UWC lives in my memory as a place where we sought to change the world by brushing our teeth together. In the span of two minutes, a conversation could move seamlessly from Fuji-mori’s economic poli-cies to angsty teen dating drama, and a reasonable word association could be “ethnic cleansing” g “Serbia” g “ramen noodles.” Those disorienting intersections of deeply held concerns for the world with self-conscious, banal reality prepared me well for a career where a meeting at the White House is about US policy on Gaza—and an old friend’s latest break up.

Working to bring an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’ve

thought often of experiencing the first Gulf War as a student in

Montezuma, gripping hands of classmates whose families were threatened on multiple sides of

the conflict as we watched news coverage of the first bombs falling.

A DAY OFF FROM PUBLIC POLICY:

Aura (L) with her family—

partner Lisa and children Kai

and Zola.

©A

ura

Kan

egis

’92


From Boat to Brothel HOW ONE ALUMNA CAME TO WORK WITH TRAFFICKING VICTIMS

By Emily Withnall MUWCI ’01

ALU

MN

I

Yoomie Huynh ’00, USA, has an upbeat and effervescent quality that belies both her challenging history as a refu-gee and immigrant, and her unrelenting dedication to fre-quently distressing service. She relays her personal history calmly from its very beginning, as if it were just an ordi-nary story about growing up in her generation.

Yoomie’s father’s departure was an abrupt one; his plans were kept secret from Yoomie’s mother. While he successfully escaped to the safety of American shores, Yoomie’s mother didn’t hear from him and became over-whelmed with desperation and grief: “My mother tried to escape with me three times by bribing fishermen with two sticks of gold, a stick of gold per person. You’d bribe a fisherman to take you from the shores of Vietnam to the shores of Thailand where there was a US Embassy.”

Each attempted escape was intercepted and landed both mother and daughter in prison. Each time, they were rescued by Yoomie’s grandmother who was, fortunately, wealthy enough to pay the bribe fee. Yoomie says, “My fa-ther finally did sponsor us to come to the USA, but the paperwork took five years.”

Yoomie pauses to reflect on her personal history before launching into a lengthy and impressive account of all her volunteer and development work in the ten years following her graduation from UWC-USA: “I realized there was a trend to my volunteer work. There’s a theme, and it centers on vul-nerable populations, particularly women and children.”

Soon after graduating with a BA from Georgetown University in 2004, Yoomie was offered a job as a paralegal with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, known as one of the best firms for labor and employment law. Yoomie explains:

I was attracted to labor and employment law because my parents worked as assembly line workers in Sioux City, Iowa at two of the largest meat pack-ing plants in the country. I remember, growing-up, my mother was really afraid to take sick leave and vacation time. The one time she took a sick day, her employers accused her of not calling in; they were go-ing to fire her. Fortunately, she had the conversation recorded and had proof of her call. I had thought she was being a bit paranoid, but after that incident, I realized her paranoia was justified.

During her two years of working as a paralegal, Yoomie volunteered in Washington, DC at a free legal clinic where

she assisted low-income and unemployed workers with pending Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) cases and labor claims, filed paper-work on tenant and landlord deputes, and translated documents into Vietnamese. Additionally, from 2006 to 2007, Yoomie volunteered at the Polaris Project’s Nightingale Shelter. The Polaris Project facilitates the reintegration of girls who have been sexually trafficked into US borders or within US borders. Yoomie reflects, “The girls are under 18. They could be placed in juvenile detention for such illegal activi-ties like prostitution, but they are the victims. They need some sort of program to reintegrate them back into society.” As a shelter aide, Yoomie taught the girls livelihood skills such as cooking, sewing, basic computer skills, and resume writing. She notes:

Teenage prostitutes don’t look like what they are portrayed to look like. You’d imagine them in tattered clothing, with an empty look in their eyes, or that they’d be violent and lash out. But it was none of the above. They look like any other 16-year-old teenage girl. It usually was someone that they cared about and trusted—their boyfriend, father, or a relative—who took them away from their home and across state lines. One question that people always ask is, “Why don’t they just run away?” They’re in another state without money, they are young—where are they going to run to?

Despite enjoying the legal profession, Yoomie began to feel compla-cent and felt she wasn’t utilizing her skills or pushing the limits of her potential. She recalls, “The idea of joining the Peace Corps came back time and time again. I thought there had to be a reason the idea kept coming back, so I applied.”

My father was one of the boat people. He left Vietnam in 1980 when I was three months old. My grandmother told him to escape alone: “Once she is born, it’s going to be much more difficult to escape because a child in the night cries. How are you going to escape with a newborn baby?”


ALU

MN

IYoomie was accepted into the Peace Corps and assigned to work at the Asian Child Foundation Sun Child Orphanage in Darkhan, Mongolia from 2007 to 2009. The privately funded orphanage was founded and directed by a local Mongolian woman and partnered with a Japanese Christian organization. Each Mongolian orphan had a Japa-nese host family that would write them letters, send care packages, and provide a fixed financial donation for school tuition, monthly living ex-penses, and clothes. Yoomie was intrigued by the way social support was structured in Mongolia: lacking social services, orphanages were half-filled with “half-orphans,” children from single-parent homes without sufficient resources to support them. Yoomie explains, “The orphanages in Mongolia are more like shelters. They provide housing, food, and basic health care. The children live at the shelter during the week but go home during the weekends and holidays. Full orphans stay at the shelter.”

Although grassroots work in Mongolia was rewarding, it was simultaneously limiting and frustrating. Unable to oversee or fund projects, Yoomie found her voice could only be heard across the street, not across the world:

I wanted to make an impact in their lives, but I also wanted the impact to be long-lasting and sustainable. In order to do that, I had to figure out where the majority of development aid was coming from because whoever held the checkbook held the power to dictate how the funding should be distributed. I wanted to gear my development career on that track, but I wanted to do it from a grassroots perspective. I felt that the current checkbook holders were making development decisions based primarily on policy rooted in theory and not considering historical or field perspectives.

On completion of her Peace Corps service, Yoomie applied to sev-eral high-profile international development and international rela-tions masters programs in Western Europe. Results pending, Yoomie returned to Southeast Asia for nine months to gain additional field experience by volunteering for three anti-sex-trafficking shelters in northern Thailand and Cambodia. At the Children’s Organization of Southeast Asia (COSA) Bann Yuu Suk Shelter in Mae Sai, Thailand, Yoomie implemented a vocational and lifeskills training program for seven sexually exploited and abused hill tribe girls ages 2-14. At the Sao Sary Foundation (SSF) in Kampong Speu, Cambodia, Yoomie or-

ganized and directed child abuse prevention training for 33 shelter and community children aged 15-18 who had been abandoned by their families or forced into labor and exploitation.

Yoomie’s third shelter proved to be the greatest chal-lenge. At the Senhoa Foundation in Siem Reap, Cambo-dia, Yoomie served as Director of Vocational Programs. She joined Senhoa during a critical time when the orga-nization was under scrutiny by the Cambodian govern-ment. On November 10, 2009, Senhoa (then VOICE) was ordered by Cambodian authorities to leave Cambodia within 24 hours or “face detention” on grounds that it was “operating illegally and creating ‘illegal troupes’ to counter Vietnam by providing vocational training to marginalized

trafficked women” (from VOICE press release). VOICE staff were allowed back into Cambodia in February 2010 under the condition that they separate their advocacy work with Vietnam-ese refugees from their anti-sex trafficking work and reenter as a new organization, Senhoa. Senhoa’s operation strategy shift-ed from implementing its own vocational programs to allocat-ing existing programs to other non-profits as partnerships. In this capacity, Yoomie executed and managed pilot partnership programs with local and national anti-sex-trafficking shelters in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

Unfortunately, expulsion wasn’t the only major challenge. The displaced Vietnamese population, not allowed official refugee status, survived on the meager jobs they could find, including brothel work:

One of the girls who had been in our program for a year ran away to the Phnom Penh and joined a brothel. Her family was poor but they didn’t desperately need the money. She was just 17. Her sister, also in our program, previously did brothel work and had told her over and over: “Don’t join a brothel.” But by the time we found her, only 36 hours later, she had already been with eight men. When describing the experience, she spoke with detachment and no remorse.

We couldn’t comprehend what we were doing wrong. I began to realize that these one-size-fits-all reintegration programs—of empowerment, English language training, and vocational skills training—for sex trafficked or sexually exploited victims were not be-ing tailored to fit the culture. I realized it was definitely time for me to go back to school to gain the political, economic, social, and historical foundation to help me view these situations more accurately—otherwise I would just get disillusioned and frustrated.

Yoomie pursued a Master’s of Science in Violence, Con-flict, and Development at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, a one-year program she is currently finishing. Looking back at her time at UWC-USA, she says: “My UWC experience was perfect for this line of work; it taught me to be much more courageous in my ca-reer and in my personal choices. I remember thinking, after graduating, that I can experience somebody else’s experience through their eyes and their story.”

As Yoomie prepares to head to Dushanbe, Tajikistan to work with the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Counter-Trafficking Unit, we hope to remain connect-ed to her ongoing development work so we too can participate in sharing her experience through her eyes and stories.

Share this article with a friend. Go to www.uwc-usa.org/read.

Usually it was someone they cared about, that they trusted—their boyfriend, their father, their step-father, a

relative—who took them away from home, across state lines.

THROUGH THEIR EYES:

In English class in a community outreach program,

Yoomie and her students exchange stories.

©Yo

omie

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Alumni PROFILES

Ben Fishman ’88, USA, earned degrees in art and writing at Parsons School of Design and Eugene Lang College. The art degree led to graphic design work for a computer maga-zine, and freelance work as an illustrator. After an education at Montezuma Castle, Ben now

works as a graphic designer at another castle in the mountains—Mohonk Mountain House, a resort hotel in New Paltz, New York, the town where he lives with his wife, Julia, and chil-dren, Kate and Noah. He donates design and graphic work to a volunteer theatre group and has also designed a logo pro bono for fellow UWC alumnus Mudit Tyagi. You can see sam-ples of Ben’s work at www.artifish.com.

Gerardo Banuet ’89, Mexico, obtained an MA in International Business at Santiago de Compostela, Spain. He went on to work as an

international business developer for Spanish SMEs, and participat-ed in several govern-ment projects to help SMEs of Spain, Chile, Panama, Guatemala, and Mexico to facili-tate exports. Gerardo currently works for

GADI, a company he started in association with Mexican and Spanish firms to develop business and cooperation among SMEs of both regions.

Of his experience at UWC-USA, Gerardo reflects, “I think being at UWC gave me help-ful skills in understanding different ways to see things, and making a ‘clique’ with people from different regions: my partners are from different countries, my wife is from a differ-

ent country, as are my friends. It is very helpful in life to learn more than one point of view, one system, one kind of solution, and there is always much to learn from people with different backgrounds.”

Adam Kleinberger ’92, USA, completed degrees at Brandeis University and the University of Massachusetts, as well as at the Boston Ringling Bros. and Bar-num & Bailey Clown College. The one constant, through all of Adam’s educational pursuits, has been his study and integration of conflict resolution, which he be-gan at UWC-USA.

Adam was recently appointed as the Assistant Ombudsman at Cornell Univer-sity. The Office of the University Ombudsman, open to all members of the Cornell commu-nity, helps to resolve problems or complaints within the university and achieve equitable settlements. Its services are independent of the university administration and are confidential.

Adam says, “It is re-warding for me to use the lessons I learned in the classrooms and day-rooms at UWC in my new position. It occurs to me that since leaving Montezuma I have used them every single day.”

Diego Angemi ’94, Italy, developed a pas-sion for the field of Development Economics since his first Economics course at UWC-USA. He pursued Economics at the University of St. Andrews and at Oxford, where he completed an MSc in Development. This led him to Not-tingham to study for a PhD. In 2002, after being selected for an Overseas Development Institute fellowship, he moved to Kampala where he joined the Poverty Monitoring and

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You know you are at UWC-USA when…

By Gabrielle DaCosta ’11, USA-NY

1. You know the term “World Peace” in five different languages but are still unsure of what it really means.

2. You have questioned your sanity and the sanity of those around you.

3. You live in a dorm of at least 25 people, so you fully understand the meaning of “Too Much Informa-tion.”

4. You’ve come to regard the New Mexico terrain as enchanting and soothing, in spite of that one inci-dent with the cactus…

5. You feel a strange mix of exaspera-tion and community when you realize that you’ve both partici-pated in and overheard the same conversations—IB grades, caf food, college, the Administration—at several different caf tables.

6. No matter what mood you’re in, you feel a rush of perspective when you look up at the stars spreading out into a far-reaching night.

7. You’ve sat through at least a hun-dred Global Issues, countless study halls, and one lecture on cleanli-ness from your Resident Tutor.

8. You have three homes—where you are from, where you are now, and the ABQ airport terminal.

9. You’ve looked around at your co-years in aggravation, annoyance, exasperation, and love—and real-ized that you are a family, for better or worse.

10. You’ve experienced moments when you couldn’t wait to leave and mo-ments when you couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.


Analysis Unit of the Uganda Ministry of Finance as a senior economist. Diego writes, “Since the day of my arrival, Kampala felt like home, and my two-year fellowship rolled into a fabulous six-year experience. During this time, I floated from the Poverty Monitoring and Analysis Unit to the Budget Department, where I oversaw the effective implementation of pro-poor budget reforms.” In 2008 Di-ego and his family moved to Li-longwe, Malawi, where he took on a new challenge as the Aid Effectiveness Advisor for the Malawi Ministry of Finance and the UNDP country office. Diego left his job at the UNDP in May 2010 and is currently a full-time father to his two children.

Of his UWC experience, Diego writes, “It taught me to question, challenge, and actively strive for social justice. Never ashamed of what I be-lieve in, I most certainly feel a greater sense of social responsibility than I ever did before attending UWC-USA.”

Wain Yee ’03, Hong Kong, studied at Car-leton College and Doshisha University, in Kyo-to, Japan. He has since worked in media and cinema studies, the film industry, the indie music industry, and journalism. Wain says, “If I had not come to UWC, I probably would do this kind of work but with a much narrower view of this world.”

Wain currently works as an assistant pro-ducer in RTHK, Radio Television Hong Kong, on a TV program named Immigration Depart-ment 50th Anniversary Special. Working for the most recognized media has been Wain’s dream since high school, and he says this pro-gram provides him with the resources to study the history of Hong Kong.

In reflecting on his time at UWC-USA, Wain says, “It expanded my world to the great-est possible extent. It showed how big the world is. A Chinese ad from CCTV says ‘你的

心有多大，舞台就有多大大,’ which means

‘the bigger your heart, the bigger your stage will be.’ UWC fills my world with its world.”

Wain says being at UWC strengthened his Chinese identity, but he has retained a critical eye, too: “I got freed from the jail-like-Hong Kong, was given the best blue sky without any obstruction in New Mexico, and became a true global citizen. Whenever I travel, I have a real friend to visit. Mostly, I consider myself the luckiest person on Earth. The world has given me so much, and I will do my best to contrib-ute back to the world during my lifetime.”

Sami Jarbawi ’08, Palestine, is currently studying Economics and Judaic Studies at Brown University. He says this course of study is the result of his interest in continu-ing to learn more about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, an issue which he engaged in fully during his two years in Montezuma.

When I arrived at the UWC campus, I was very keen to represent my home country. My main objective was to enlighten the student body about the brutal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands. During my first year, I invested significant effort in organizing events as well as debates on the Palestinian-

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Israeli conflict. My discussions about the conflict, however, rarely involved an Israeli; such dialogue was simply a taboo.

By the end of my second year at UWC, in March of 2008, I participated in the Middle East Peace Project Week in Seattle. The objec-tive of the trip was to have both Palestinian and Israeli students engage in discussions, as well as participate in conflict resolution workshops. While holding conversations with Israeli colleagues was not an easy task, it cer-tainly proved beneficial. The talks allowed me to understand that conflicts tend to involve more than one historical narrative. I then concluded that solutions to such conflicts are rooted in the future and not in the past. In or-der to plan for a better future, dialogue is vital. Sami’s coursework in Judaic Studies has in-

cluded learning Hebrew for the past two years and taking classes that have focused on Is-raeli society from anthropological and literary angles. In the summer of 2010, Sami and the head of the Brown Judaic Studies department constructed a course entitled “The Israeli-Pal-estinian Conflict: Contested Narratives.” This course was taught for the first time at Brown University during the spring semester of 2011.

EMBRACING THE SKY:

Wain Yee ’03 recaptures

the “best blue sky” of New

Mexico from the top of

Hermit’s Peak.

©Wain Yee ’03


UWC makes education a

force to unite people, nations,

and cultures for peace and a

sustainable future.

V O l U M E 4 2

UWC -USAPost Office Box 248Montezuma, NM 87731-0248 USAwww.uwc-usa.org

R E T U R N S E R V I C E R E Q U E S T E D

Kaleid scopeNon-Profit Org. US Postage PaidMontezuma, NMPERMIT ######

©Kate Russell

kaleidoscope summer 2011

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