Elon Periclean Scholars

Transformative Action Summit

By eluther2 | Published October 21, 2013

Overview

This weekend, three members of the Periclean Class of 2016 had the opportunity to attend the Summit for Transformative Action in Raleigh, NC. We spent three days in eye-opening, life-changing workshops, sessions, and lectures, discussing best practices for social entrepreneurship, civic engagement, and collaborative group work. We learned about effective methods for facilitating group collaboration and participated in activities to develop our own personal leadership and confidence. Saturday evening several Pericleans joined us for a networking party to meet some of our new colleagues and enjoy trapeze performances and a participant talent show at Cirque De Vol, also in Raleigh. This was truly a life-changing summit and we are so thankful for having had the opportunity to participate and meet amazing people. We’ve attempted to capture some of the best take-aways from the weekend below–we hope you enjoy!

Take Away Tools

Throughout the weekend, we participated in a variety of icebreakers, team builders, and other activities geared toward improving creativity and group culture. We’ve summarized a few tools below that we’re planning to use with our class and that we hope that you will find useful in your group work in Periclean–and beyond!

-Failure activity

Instructions: Take an hour, walk around outside and see how many times your group can fail! Ask ridiculous questions of complete strangers (without endangering yourself or harassing anyone, of course) and reflect on what you accomplish and what you fail!
Goal: Realize that failure is not necessarily a bad thing. It gives you knowledge and experience, and allows your next attempt to be better.

-Deep connections

Instructions: Find a partner (someone you don’t know well) and ask each other questions like “What is your favorite memory?” and “If you could invite anyone in the world to dinner, who would it be?”
Goal: Create a deeper relationship, which allows for more constructive conversations in the group as well as individually. Once having this conversation with just one person, a person is more likely to have similar conversations with other people.

-Speed dating networking

Instructions: Spend five minutes with someone and tell them your biggest dreams for yourself or your project.
Goal: Get to know others on a deeper level and be inspired by the great ideas and thoughts of the people you speak with.

-Improv exercises

Instructions: Each exercise is different and can be facilitated easily. One example is: Find a partner (someone you don’t know well) and assign each person to be either person A or person B. The first round of the exercise, Person A says either “You are a ____.” or “You have a ______.” Then person B must speak for around 3 minutes creating a story to explain the statement that person A gave person B. Afterwards, the roles switch and each pair does the exercise again, so that each person gets to experience both sides of the exercise.
Goal: To broaden the comfort zones of the people in the group and teach that in group discussions nothing is wrong- Don’t say “no”, say “yes, and…”

-Negative & positive thinking

Both negative thinking and positive thinking are essential tools when planning a project or finding partners. Positive thinking is important to decision making because everyone needs to feel comfortable in the group environment. There needs to be an engaged atmosphere where everyone is comfortable sharing their thoughts and all ideas are accepted. Negative thinking comes into this process once the idea had been shared and the group points out what obstacles will be faced with that idea. Although the word “negative” may have a specific connotation that invokes the thought of something bad, negative thinking does not mean that the idea is disregarded, it simply means every possible problem with the idea is evaluated.

Connections

Perhaps the most valuable part of the conference was having the opportunity to network with an incredible collection of people–from students at other universities to professional social entrepreneurs and program developers. We made a number of contacts with students, entrepreneurs, and professionals who have worked in Honduras in agriculture, fair trade cooperatives, and in a variety of other spheres. We also had the opportunity to connect with Duke University’s Director of Latin American Studies–an absolute wealth of information about the entire region– and an Ugandan social entrepreneur who gave us valuable advice about coping with corrupt governments. Other entrepreneurs provided us with ideas for improving our civic engagement and exciting opportunities for collaboration in the future. We were also excited to bump into a few friendly faces, including the director of Haiti Hub, a partner of the Periclean Class of 2015, and Jennifer DeSimone, a member of the Periclean Class of 2007–the first class to work with Honduras! Jennifer collaborated with Dr. Arcaro to provide us with this incredible opportunity–we are so immeasurably grateful to her! We look forward to nurturing our connection with Jennifer and the many other wonderful individuals we had the good fortune to meet this weekend.

Future Plans

We have started contemplating how we want to use the information we have been given and have started making plans as to how we will implement it in our group and in possible projects. We want to maintain and develop the relationships that we have started to build with others who have similar goals, so that we can learn from their mistakes and successes. We especially want to foster the relationships that we made with people who have connections to Honduras, who can help us find partners and give us insight into what strategies may work and others that have been tested and failed. They can add more perspectives to our projects and will no doubt be invaluable resources as we move into a certain topic or region of the country.

Another idea that we have been forming is to create a civic engagement or social entrepreneurship consortium in the triad area that will bring together these types of people to connect, network, and share ideas and experiences. Directly related to our Periclean group, we are working on finding a class period, and possibly a Pan-periclean event, that we can facilitate and use the themes and exercises from the workshops to illustrate the concepts we discussed at the summit.

-Erin, Nick, and Caley

Speed Dating Networking

TRAPEZE!

Transformative Action

Effective Teaching

Metrics

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Supporting those on the front lines

By Tom Arcaro | Published October 20, 2013

Supporting those on the front lines

Spin the globe in the last decade and disasters pop up like so many ugly weeds: the tsunami in Sri Lanka, the earthquake in Haiti, the famine in the Horn of Africa. Now we are faced with a massive humanitarian crisis in Syria where multitudes of children and innocents -“collateral damage” in a civil war – seek refuge in makeshift camps.

All of these events evoked strong emotion and then an outpouring of financial support. Americans, compelled by a basic sense of common humanity, give a great deal to organizations that care for victims of humanitarian crises. Indeed, various estimates put the dollar figure given by Americans at more than $300 billion per year.

Humanitarian aid workers use our donations to provide frontline care to millions of our world’s most desperate populations and, critically, connect those of us who donate money to those who are suffering in the countless ragged encampments on the borders of disaster zones. Their job is as risky as it is critical.

Estimates are that last year alone, 272 aid workers were victims of violence, including 91 kidnappings, 115 injuries and 66 deaths. These numbers from the Humanitarian Outcomes international consulting group do not include the additional psychological trauma that can lead to depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress syndrome, and, yes, even suicide.

Aid workers put themselves in harm’s way every day – look no further than the seven people from the Red Cross/Red Crescent just kidnapped in Syria – and for that, for being our point of contact and the human expression of our financial and material donations, we owe them our thanks.

Here’s how we should show our respect for the job they do in our name:

First, we must begin by seeking to understand more deeply the complexities of these humanitarian crises. We need to have an insatiable desire to know the world around us, far outside of our comfort zone of the United States. Spend 15 minutes each day reading international news, and be sure to check out foreign news sources. I recommend the BBC or Al-Jazeera, both of which give perspectives you won’t find in the American press.

Second, we need to understand that some giving can be toxic, especially if it is done paternalistically, in a way that is culturally inappropriate, or inefficiently. We must vet on a regular basis any aid organization to which we donate. Some organizations are not much more than well-run scams, doing little to actually make a positive impact as they promise. We should give, but ever mindfully.

Third, by understanding more deeply, we can avoid giving inappropriate or unnecessary material items known in the humanitarian aid world as “stuff we don’t need.” Examples are many and can be found when looking at the history of the response to the earthquake in Haiti where crates of expired medicines sat on the tarmac of the airport for weeks.

Finally, and most importantly, we can support aid workers – and thus help them better serve those caught in the humanitarian crisis – by not remaining neutral in the face of extremism.

The international medical organization Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, withdrew this summer from Somalia when it concluded that its workers could no longer be assured of safety. Unfortunately, the new normal in the humanitarian aid world is that in some locations local political factions or religious fundamentalist groups can basically abuse aid resources for political purposes, manipulate humanitarian space, and even directly target aid workers in violent attacks, more or less with total impunity.

This threat to the sanctity of humanitarian space is made possible by the inaction of those who consider themselves moderates, both here and abroad.

We must be more aggressive in our challenge to extremists – both political and religious – and show an aggressive intolerance toward, well, intolerance.

Our points of contact, the humanitarian aid workers now on the ground in hot spots around the globe, need all of us to be more mindful in our giving, our knowing and our responsibility to help regain the sanctity of the humanitarian space.

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An update on Fall Break travel to West Virginia by the Class of ’14

By Tom Arcaro | Published October 15, 2013

An update on Fall Break travel to West Virginia by the Class of ’14

-by Dana Hedman

Over Fall Break 2013, nine members of our Class, along with Mentor Ken Hassell, traveled to Whitesville, WV to work with our community partner at the Boone-Raleigh Community Center. We built two bookshelves, completing the children’s library started last year. Additionally, we created a white-board wall, covered by a solar system mural, that could serve as a cozy reading corner for community children!

A few members were able to take a flight over various mountaintop removal sites to collect footage for an indiegogo promotional film. A group of our class was able to travel to other locations throughout West Virginia and Virginia to interview individuals about their experiences and efforts within the region.

All members attended the Changing of the Leaves Festival on Kayford Mountain, where we had the opportunity to talk with many individuals involved in environmental justice efforts throughout Appalachia. Having visited Kayford Mountain at the end of our sophomore year, this festival allowed us to return to a space that has stayed with many of us since our first visit.

The trip left our class feeling excited about upcoming events at the community center this fall and looking forward to future ways we can support their efforts.

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a full-circle adventure: elon’s periclean scholars

By Tom Arcaro | Published October 15, 2013

Please go to Natalie’s blog to see the the material below in the original.

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a full-circle adventure: elon’s periclean scholars

October 14, 2013

Last Thursday, I was honored to be the keynote speaker at a Periclean Scholars event at Elon. It was the organization’s annual “Celebrate Periclean” event, attended yearly by current Periclean Scholars, prospective Pericleans, faculty mentors, and a few Periclean alumns. More than anything else I was involved with at Elon, the Periclean Scholars program significantly shaped my undergraduate journey and impacted my life in ways I never imagined it would. Before reading on, I urge you to watch this video, which my 2011 Periclean Scholar class compiled for a graduation event that was held in honor of Elon’s leadership organizations the night before our commencement in May 2011. Watching it again while I wrote my speech (text below) gave me chills, and reminded me why it is I care so deeply about civic engagement, local and global partnerships, and the amazing things that can happen when passion meets commitment.

It’s an honor to be speaking here tonight. Last night, I was at an alumni event called “Evening for Elon” in Washington, D.C., and I spent the majority of the evening talking with fellow Pericleans I hadn’t seen in a while. President Lambert spoke at the event, and in his speech, he talked a lot about identity and family. And I just grinned the whole time, because I knew I was coming to campus tonight to talk about the same things myself, and to share how the Periclean Scholars program helped define my identity, and gave me a few different families. So thank you for having me here.

Dr. Crista at a land waste site outside of Colombo // January 2011

You’ve already heard all the class updates, and I’m sure you’re as impressed and proud as I am of all the things each Periclean class has accomplished lately. But I’d like to take a few minutes to speak a bit more personally. I’m going to talk primarily to the current and prospective Periclean Scholars here tonight. I’d like to share what’s in store for you, or at least what could be in store for you, in terms of your Periclean journey and especially in terms of family. Dr. Arcaro suggested I talk about what it’s like to go from being a starry-eyed Periclean inductee to a post-grad global citizen, but I’m still pretty starry-eyed about it all, so I think I’ll just stick with that.

So, a little about my journey. I’m a 2011 Periclean, and my class focused our efforts on environmental education in Sri Lanka. Like many of the other 2011’s, what I knew about Sri Lanka when I applied to the Periclean program was that it was somewhere near India and had been ravaged by the 2004 tsunami. I had no concept of how much an island the size of West Virginia, halfway around the world, would come to shape my life. There’s no way I could have predicted that our Periclean partners would become like family to me, or that someplace so far away would come to ground me like nothing else has. I had no idea that just like how Elon became my home, in all the ways that word entails, Sri Lanka would become home, too. And that’s exactly what happened.

I first traveled to Sri Lanka with some of my fellow 2011’s during winter term of our senior year, where we spent an incredible month working on the ground with our Periclean partners. I returned to the island later in 2011, after graduation, when another Periclean, Jesse Lee, and I were invited to be the only two Americans at an international conference being sponsored by one of our Periclean partner organizations and the American Center of the U.S. Embassy. After the conference, Jesse and I traveled around Sri Lanka for three months, continuing our class’s work with our partners on the ground.

Training for Trusteeship conference in Kegalle, Sri Lanka // September 2011

And it was during that time that I applied for a Fulbright grant that took me to Sri Lanka once again the following year for another nine months. As a Fulbrighter, I taught English literature at a university outside of Colombo—an incredibly rewarding experience that I wouldn’t have had if not for Periclean.

Which brings me back to my Periclean cohort. Looking back, it was more than fitting for our class to focus our efforts on environmental issues in Sri Lanka. And while a lot of the time we didn’t know exactly what we were doing, things really came together our junior and senior year.

One of the culminating efforts of our class was holding a large-scale environmental summit—which we called “Leaders in Environmental Advocacy Forum,” or LEAF—at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, bringing together environmentalists, policy makers, and students to discuss some of Sri Lanka’s most pressing environmental issues.

LEAF is a great example of something I think the Periclean program does extremely well—helping to emphasize each Scholar’s individual strengths. In every Periclean class, there is a multitude of different majors, skill sets, and passions. I remember having doubts that our class would be able to maintain a focus and come together, considering how different we were; I’m sure some of you current Pericleans have had similar doubts. We had Art majors, Poli Sci majors, Accounting majors, English majors, and so on. But somewhere in the middle of our junior year, as we continued to meet for our weekly Periclean classes, we began to see how our individual passions and skill sets, more than just our majors, were beginning to define our work as Pericleans. And that was empowering.

Chas Smith, for example, a 2011 I talked with at the Elon alumni event last night, was an Econ major who was always strangely interested in water. As a Periclean, he began intensely studying water issues in Sri Lanka, which helped inform our class’ efforts toward environmental education on the island. I’ll never forget sitting in a cold room in a little inn in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka, surrounded by about fifteen fellow Pericleans, listening to Chas go on and on about Sri Lanka’s ancient water systems. He was able to use that knowledge in helping to make a short documentary—called “The Elephant in the Room”—that he and two other Pericleans, Jack Dodson ’12 and Jesse Lee ’11, produced about environmental issues in Sri Lanka. Chas now works on Capitol Hill, but water is still on his mind; he recently applied for a Fulbright fellowship that will (hopefully) take him to Oxford to continue studying water issues.

Chas is just one example of how the issues you’re drawn to study and focus on as a Periclean are often the things that continue to define your path after you’ve left Elon. While the Periclean program emphasizes partnerships with people in other countries, it also encourages personal growth and gives us Scholars the room and resources we need to become the most dedicated and passionate global citizens we can be.

A picture of me in Kathmandu, Nepal, during a week-long Fulbright conference (kinda cool that Fulbright’s using the photo on their website!) I’m wearing my Periclean Scholars shirt and, as you can tell, am pretty excited about the view.

My experience as a Fulbright Fellow was part of that personal growth process that Periclean inspired. And while I was thrilled to be in this very academic role teaching at a university in Sri Lanka, my Fulbright experience was really shaped by the same things my Periclean experience was shaped by: the individuals in Sri Lanka who became my family there. The people who the class of 2011 partnered with, the scientists and environmentalists and change-makers and mothers and fathers, the people who opened their doors to our class and let us be a part of their lives. Those are the relationships this program strives to cultivate. That’s what makes this such a transformative experience.

But just having those relationships isn’t enough. It’s not enough to just reach out to an NGO in Haiti, or have a good conversation with a doctor in Ghana, or knock on a door in Chiapas. It’s about taking those relationships and making things happen, pulling together resources toward a common goal and common good. Periclean taught me how to do that, and it’s something I hope to do for the rest of my life.

Near the end of my Fulbright grant, two Sri Lankans that our class had gotten very close to and partnered with asked me to help them hold an English camp for 150 rural high-school students in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka. Many of these students were the same ones that Jesse and I had taught while we were in Sri Lanka, bringing my Periclean/Fulbright worlds even more full-circle. Working with our Periclean partners (and good friends) Roshan and Chamindha as well as with the U.S. Embassy and my fellow Fulbrighters to organize and hold this camp was a privilege, and I’m so glad I had the chance to help pull together a program that meant a lot to the kids involved.

The English camp was a big success, and it was only possible because of the relationships that my fellow Pericleans had begun, relationships that I and other Pericleans are able to help sustain on very direct levels. And I think it’s these kinds of initiatives that illustrate how Periclean partnerships continue well past your time here at Elon, and how they can have a larger reach and impact than you probably ever imagined.

To wrap up and continue on this theme of relationships and family, I’m humbled to be able to say that three of my most influential Elon mentors are here tonight, and each are an integral part of the Periclean program. Bud Warner, Tom Arcaro, and Crista Arangala—or “Mom,” as the 2011’s like to call her—are more than just my biggest supporters and most inspirational role models; they’re my Elon family.

And they’re examples of the family that you’re going to be part of, or that you’re already a part of. I’m just one of so many Periclean Scholars who are able to say that this program and its people changed my life, and more importantly, helped me make positive changes in other people’s lives. So whether you’re a current Periclean, an aspiring Periclean, a potential Periclean—know that this is what is in store for you. This is the exciting, challenging, rewarding journey that is being a Periclean Scholar.

Thank you.

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Celebrating Periclean Scholars!

By Tom Arcaro | Published October 11, 2013

Celebrating Periclean Scholars!

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Week of 10/7/13 Class Update

By ncianciara | Published October 10, 2013

10/7/13

What a day to be a Periclean! We started off today’s class with announcements from a few of our hardworking committees, specifically the promotions and fund-raising committees, and they were bursting with announcements. The promotions committee led the discussion on the reality of getting a tent for Homecoming weekend, and then followed that up with a conversation on the possibility of bringing the Periclean mission to GST 110 classes. We decided that that was an excellent way to increase awareness of the program, and are investigating it further. The fundraising committee brought the idea of delivering freshly-baked cookies, or other baked goods, to dorms for a small fee. This idea was quickly latched upon, and is also being explored as a great fundraising option. Essentially, it would be very much like candy grams…but hand delivered and home cooked (hopefully they will still be warm by the time they reach whoever bought some!).

The discussion then switched to looking at the effectiveness of large vs. small group discussions. We agreed that while both have pros and cons, both are necessary to a group of our size. The idea of following a parliamentary procedure was also raised, as an attempt to streamline our classes more, but that is still under discussion. That would be a drastic change from the current free-form style that we currently follow.

As we continued our class we brought attention to the fact that we are working with a time frame, and so the search for our project continues. We talked for a bit about the need for facilitating change, instead of merely implementing a project and then leaving it. For example, you could build a community a well, but that would eventually fall into disrepair once you left. The challenge is finding a project that is sustainable for the long term, and one that is sustainable without you having any further input. So that was another day rolling by, and we are all getting excited for the celebrations on Thursday!

-Nicholas Cianciara

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10/9/13

Wednesday’s class began with a presentation from April about the “Vos Que

Haras por Honduras?” movement that our class is thinking about partnering with.

April helped translate the group’s mission, which is to continue motivating

Hondurans to express their solidarity. The group hopes to do this through different

events sponsored by different companies over the next few months that this will

motivate people towards positive spirit and hope. The goal is to change Honduras’

image of a country characterized by violence, drugs, and corruption by getting

citizens involved to make a change. Thus far, the Voz Que Haras Por Honduras?

main causes are education, health, and the environment.

The class proceeded to discuss the potential benefits and concerns of

partnering with Vos Que Haras Por Honduras. As a whole, the class really wants to

work on an issue that we know is important to the people of Honduras, not an issue

that we feel is the most important. Working with Por Honduras will provide us

direct contact with the citizens of Honduras, so we can work together with them

towards their own goals. We also raised the concerns that the movement is only

beginning, so we cannot be sure that it will succeed, possibly limiting our opportunity to make partnerships. Ultimately, took a survey on whether they would

like to partner with Vos Que Haras por Honduras, but no final decisions have been made.

After our class discussion, we broke into groups to discuss potential final

projects. While discussing a final project, the reality that half the semester has

already passed became daunting. Though our class is making positive strides

towards our goal, we still feel that there is so much to learn about Honduras, Cargill,

Vos Que Haras por Honduras, and each other. We look forward to diving back into

work after fall break!

-Jenna Mason

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’15 Class Update 10/8/13

By Susie Masecar | Published October 8, 2013

The Periclean Scholars Class of 2015 had a busy day today!

Lauren Conrad, an ex Peace Corps member and ex Haiti resident, came to talk to us at the beginning of class. Her talk revolved mostly around how Haiti is different from other countries she has worked in, including Niger and India. Her impression was that the infrastructure and service organization of the country was backwards, as she saw women walk ten miles down a mountain to sell meager vegetables every day. A very interesting observation. Mrs. Conrad has had immeasurable experience with large humanitarian organization such as CARE International and may serve as an invaluable resource for our class in the future. We thank her very much for visiting today and for Woody Pelton for bringing us together!

Courtney Dunkerton of Alamance County for Freedom also came to speak for us. The organization is a new coalition that just began this summer. They aim to bring human trafficking organizations together as well as law enforcement and other governmental agencies – basically to fill the gaps in services regarding human trafficking in Alamance County. Species emphases are placed on community education/outreach; networking; research; Compassion in Action; and volunteer opportunities. Ms. Dunkerton has made it clear that the organization would welcome a partnership with us and already offered venues of partnership such as offering response training for the community, bringing in speakers, screening human trafficking documentaries, etc. We also thank her very much for speaking with us – especially at such an early stage of the organization’s development – and Stephanie Carroll for soliciting the visit.

Our other focus for the day was on partner organizations. Our Haitian partner organization is drawing to a close, and after just a bit more communication with our organization of interest, we will be able to reveal our partnership! Local partnerships have been a bit more challenging as the organizations with which we were in communication last semester have seemed to become less responsive. More research and networking efforts will be performed in the immediate future – and Alamance County for Freedom provides and exciting option for the class.

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Periclean Scholars classes: service learning

By Tom Arcaro | Published October 8, 2013

Periclean Scholars classes: academic service learning

When I explain the Periclean Scholars program to colleagues at other colleges and universities I emphasize that it is an academic program with service deeply woven into it. I go on to say that each Class of 33 (+/-) students chooses one or more issues in their assigned nation or region to address during their sophomore year, and then spends the next two years engaged in activities that integrate academic reading, research, and writing with service and outcome-oriented experiential learning activities.

One unique strength of the program is that each Class acts as a multi-year interdisciplinary seminar where students learn to use and to communicate to non-experts the theoretical and methodological tool-sets that they are learning in their majors while at the same time learning about the tool sets from the majors of their Classmates.

The academic courses that are taken as part of the program have been scrutinized and vetted by the University Curriculum Committee and are also up for regular review by outside accreditation entities with which Elon has an affiliation, most notably the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. These courses include COR 225, PER 271, 351,352, 451, and 452 and also COR 445, the winter term travel course that most of the Classes have taken. As academic courses each must include significant reading, research, and writing and, hence, have clear rubrics as to what is expected from the students.

A second strength of the program is that all Periclean Scholars classes operate as seminars, with heavy emphasis on student ownership and leadership in most aspects of the class. The student ownership of the Class has typically included actively participating in the construction of course syllabi, with this role taking on more prominence as the Class progresses from first to second and then to the third year of the program.

By the second and third year of the program the Classes function such that each is broken up into various work groups with various individual goals and benchmarks. In the first semester of Periclean all students read, research and write from common materials most frequently assigned by their Mentor. By the junior and senior year the reading, research and writing done by any individual student may be very different from his/her Classmates and there may be only one or two books and articles that everyone in the Class reads in common. The reading, research and writing done by each student is appropriate to her/his contribution to the Class and may frequently involve dimensions which bridge majors, perspectives and presentational formats.

The unique nature Periclean Scholars, i.e., it is a multi-year cohort based academic service learning program with diverse co-curricular and extracurricular components, creates challenges for establishing and communicating clear, consistent, and fair grading rubrics. Each Class and Mentor must face this challenge creatively and with a firm commitment to the highest academic standards. The expectation must be for each student in every Periclean Class to constantly be learning more about their country (or region) of focus and the issue(s) on which they have chosen to focus. The work for each Class and Mentor at the beginning of the semester is to determine the rubric or rubrics by which this work will be assessed.

With all of the above said, a third -and perhaps most important- strength of the program is that both students and Mentors are involved because they are honoring the fact that they have the high privilege of being Pericleans. The reward is ultimately intrinsic: we do what we do because we have a deep sense of social responsibility to and feel connected with our brothers and sisters around the world. We know in our hearts that to do anything less than our best is to sacrifice the gift of the positions we hold as faculty and students at Elon University and as Periclean Scholars.

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Class of 2016 Update

By isabelsb | Published October 2, 2013

Monday’s class started off with April giving announcements about upcoming projects and events we are attending. Subsequently this turned into students relaying information received from the Steering Committee meetings, such as the senior capstone seminar has been approved for Honduras for GST and Natasha Christensen is being given the service award, which the entire class plans on attending. Then the fundraising committee talked about the Periclean card and it’s possible options for fundraising, along with other ideas. After that we decided that for our elevator speech the class would email one student with quotes we used in our application, and then the best quotes would be written on posters and used in the elevator speech video.

Soon after various students presented on current events going on in Honduras, many of them based around human rights or lack thereof. This perfectly transitioned into the class discussion about the Honduras 2012 Human Rights Report, which the reading of was our homework. We mainly discussed things we were surprised about and the duality of various issues. The last part of the class we used to narrow down our topics of possible projects. A Google doc was created and everyone put down broad themes they would like to work on such as hunger, education, and poverty. Then April looked through the list and tried seeing how many overlaps there were and making a smaller list, which the entire class would then vote on. We still don’t have the narrowed down list yet but soon everyone in the class will vote on 7 or 8 possible projects. Class was very productive and we have made many future goals, which will keep us busy.

In today’s class (Wednesday) we had the opportunity to go to a talk with Peter Levine, the author of We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For. He started off the conversation with the quote, “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has,” and asked the audience what we thought about it.

Some people believed in this idea. If you are passionate and committed enough about an idea, you can change something. One woman mentioned that almost all the time, we are faced with overwhelming problems in the world and our own lives. She said that the only way to get through it and solve these problems is to have hope. The small group of thoughtful and committed citizens need to believe that change is possible and have hope that they can make a difference, and it will be possible.

Other audience members believed that some aspects of the quote don’t actually work. They were saying that for change to be possible, there needs to be more structure to the movement then just that small group of people. One example was Periclean Scholars. In our class, we are one small group of thoughtful and committed citizens, but the way we can achieve change is through the structure of the Periclean program. We need that bigger group to guide us to be able to enact the changes we want.

Levine also talked about three ideas that he believes are necessary when you are facing a problem you care about and have to work within a group. The first one was facts and evidence. These are necessary because to fully grasp a problem the group needs to understand exactly what the problem is. This is the part of the 3-step process our class has been working on recently, learning the most about Honduras to better pick a problem we want to address.

The next idea is value. Levine mentioned that issues start with values because when something is important to someone, they will make it an issue. This idea is important for our class because we need to understand not only what issues we find most important but we also need to understand the values of Hondurans. When we choose what we want to focus on, we need to make sure that issue is of some importance to Hondurans.

The third idea is strategy. This one is the hardest to define because with each project, the strategy changes. Levine did mention that a really good strategy must include how you as a person are connected to the world on a bigger scale. How can you get involved and in what way does the issue connect to you. This third idea will definitely be more helpful to our class once we pick our focus.

After explaining these ideas, Levine asked us to get into groups and talk about what we are doing in our class and different causes that people are passionate about.

One of the ideas that really stood out to me was the idea that to create change we have to have good relationships. If you don’t create relationships with the people you are working with, nobody is going to want to work together to create any sort of change. This is definitely something that relates to our class. We are still getting to know each other and figuring out our strengths and weaknesses. We talked about having different group events outside of class, which will help us create better relationships with each other.

The talk was extremely interesting and beneficial to our class. Some of the ideas and concepts Levine talked about are definitely going to help us pick a topic or issue we want to focus on. I really look forward to finishing his book, which already has given me more insight into his idea of civic responsibility and engagement.

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’15 Class Progress 10/1/13

By Susie Masecar | Published October 1, 2013

Today we filmed for our elevator speech, which we will be releasing at Celebrate next Thursday! (October 10th at 5:30 in Oaks 212)

While we won’t be able to organize a winter term course for 2014, we are hoping to have the travel waiver submitted and accepted by mid-spring to begin organizing trips before a Haiti WT course in 2015.

Next week our Haitian and local partner committees will be presenting potential partners and we will be choosing our partner organizations!

Also next week we will hear from Lauren Conrad, a Haitian woman who Woody Pelton met during a Peace Corps meeting, and a representative from a new human trafficking coalition that is being formed in Alamance County.

Look out for a profit share at LoYo on the evening of October 17th – the same night that the Resurrection Dance Theatre of Haiti is coming to Elon!

Big progress is underway and we’re excited about the coming weeks!

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Elon Periclean Scholars

Transformative Action Summit

Supporting those on the front lines

An update on Fall Break travel to West Virginia by the Class of ’14

An update on Fall Break travel to West Virginia by the Class of ’14

a full-circle adventure: elon’s periclean scholars

Please go to Natalie’s blog to see the the material below in the original.

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a full-circle adventure: elon’s periclean scholars

October 14, 2013

Celebrating Periclean Scholars!

Celebrating Periclean Scholars!

Week of 10/7/13 Class Update

’15 Class Update 10/8/13

Periclean Scholars classes: service learning

Periclean Scholars classes: academic service learning

Class of 2016 Update

’15 Class Progress 10/1/13

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An update on Fall Break travel to West Virginia by the Class of ’14

Please go to Natalie’s blog to see the the material below in the original.

*****************************************************************************

October 14, 2013

Celebrating Periclean Scholars!

Periclean Scholars classes: academic service learning

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