stickers supporting Appalchia
Today, our class welcomed a fantastic guest speaker and Professor of Physical Therapy at Elon, Daryl Lawson
One of our major class goals is to bring awareness about issues in Appalachia onto campus. Our Class planned a week of events, with the hope of facilitating change through education, featuring speakers who graciously traveled from Appalachia.
Check out the schedule of events
Activists Lorelei Scarbro and Bill Price spoke on social and environmental issues in Appalachia
Classmates playing the banjo with Appalachian art in the background
Students gathered for Appalachian music, Appalachian art, and snacks. Special thanks to our musicians and Ken Hassell for his documentary photographs.
Dear Fellow 2010’s and All Pericleans,
It is incredible to read Dr. Frontani’s class update emails and hear about the great things you all are up to. You all continue to amaze and inspire me with all you’re doing! Wishing you huge congratulations on all your accomplishments and only wish we were together to celebrate these milestones.
While I regret how little I’ve been involved in our partnership in the past couple years, you and our Ghanaian partners are never far from my mind. As I’m sure you all feel too – my underlying commitment has not waned. If anything, my desire to be engaged has swelled. I realize that we’re all in the middle of a critical stage in our personal lives – navigating through graduate school, relationships, establishing careers, the list of life changes goes on! But being part of this partnership is a huge part of who I am and I know I will re-engage soon. For me anyway, I have a few things I need to take care of personally before I’ll be able to devote myself to our initiatives again. And so I’ll consider myself a dormant Periclean with plenty of excitement bubbling beneath the surface and ready to explode with activity again soon.
This is more than a hope and a promise; it is my personal pledge – my Periclean Pledge.
I look forward to collaborating with you soon, but for now please forgive me for dropping off the radar. I am working hard so that I’ll have more to bring to the table on our future projects and am excited for that day to come (December 2014 – my graduation date).
Until then, I will try to contribute to this blog and will certainly continue to follow the class and project updates! Wishing you all the best and let me know whether you’re ever in DC. Would love to meet up or even host you at my place – it’s an open invitation!
Cheers,
Kristin S.
PS – I finally got to visit the clinic in January 🙂 My next post will tell you more about that experience!
Georgia’s Restavek Freedom Foundation emailed us back! They wanted to know more about us, what we’re about, and what we can offer. (We should nail this down)
So..we need to nail down our specific goals regarding our impact on Restavek, our partnership, and what specific aspect of Restavek we want to address.
From this side of the water, we can contribute to: advocacy, fundraising, 1-on-1 long distance mentoring/connection, drives (supplies, books).
Our strenghs: passion, drive, man power, brains, University support, diverse interests and talents, audience/wide reach, connections
Goals: sustainable change, outlasts our time at Elon, visit Haiti at some point.
Reminder about the Periclean cards and getting that to Lauren!
Sophia is making good progress with Hearts with Haiti, and Danielle is collaborating and building ideas for a project with Lauren Kearns, the head of the Dance Dept.
Skype session next Tuesday, 12:00pm with the program coordinator of Equitas Group! Possible partnership, if you can make it please think of some questions.
Since next Tuesday will be our last meeting before spring break and thus the last meeting of the quarter, we want to have as much of the class present as possible!! We’ve made great progress this quarter, and we want to do even more in the second half of the semester.
Natasha Christensen, Class of 2007, recently reported in from Afghanistan where she is serving the United States in helping the transition efforts for the US military. She Skyped into my SOC 111 on March 5th when students asked her about her experiences. When asked why she was there in 
Afghanistan instead of back in DC with all of the Starbucks (note: she is an admitted coffee aficionado) she replied that “staying in comfort zones makes you complacent and stupid.” I could not agree more.
In a chat with me just now she embellished further on the “why” question:
“It really is all about putting a face, a name, a story or an experience to an issue for me. Once I do that, once I’ve become a witness. It informs and influences everything I do and what I know to actively pursue a way to help in a substantive way. Elie Weisel said something about everyone becoming a witness, and sharing what they’ve seen – so no one can ever say “they didn’t know” again. (He said that when he visited Elon actually when I was an undergrad in 2004) That’s the point and purpose that resonates with me. I think it’s something a lot of Elon grads feel.”
Those lucky to be on Facebook with Natasha are constantly regaled with her #Stanstories. Pure unadulterated Natasha, all.
This quotation comes from her page:
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” –Anais Nin
Natasha lives life large, no doubt.
Greetings Fellow Pericleans!
As you probably know, I’m working solo this year with the help of my class adviser Dr. Kamela. Along with weekly meetings with Dr. Kamela, I also attend Steering Committee Meetings and work on sustaining my classes’ projects. Here’s a quick update of what’s going on.
Elon Postgraduate Fellowship at CRHP (Jamkhed, India)
We are still accepting applications for our year-long fellowship to CRHP. We have two very strong applicants so far and we look forward to seeing more interest in this fellowship as we solidify our presence on campus. We hope to incorporate this Fellowship into the Elon Commitment and receive an endowment to keep this program going. Annie Huth (Class of 2012) is our first Fellow and is doing an amazing job at CRHP this year!
If you know any seniors looking for a meaningful opportunity to travel and learn about global health, please send them to the Elon Job Network (job ID 3070) for details.
Fundraising
We just finished a week-long fundraiser at Lakeside Dinning Hall. It was India Week last week, and I was able to sell Helping Hands merchandise at a table every day during the lunch rush. Shout out to those WT India Public Health students that helped me run the table! We made more than $300 through selling Helping Hands and donations. My next fundraising project will most likely be a profit share at The Eddy restaurant in Saxapahaw, NC. I’m also looking into creating a Kickstarter fundraiser for our fellowship.
BHA Dream Girls
After being delayed, our monthly events with the Dream Girls from the Burlington Housing Authority are beginning this semester! The girls are coming to Elon on Wednesday, April 10th for the Elon Percussion Ensemble Spring Concert! We are also going to have dinner with them at Lakeside and hang out before the concert.
Holi 2013
The Holi Festival, though small, was a huge success last year. This year, I’m working with the Truitt Center to help plan the festival and hopefully turn this event into a fundraiser or cultural event for our Periclean class. It will be a fun event! I’ll post details as I receive them.
More to come,
Rebekah Hackney
This song was recorded on our Periclean Scholars travel to Opuwo in January 2004, and I made the YouTube video as a tribute. I keep in contact with Ruusa who is not studying to be a lawyer in Windhoek, Namibia.
Katie and Sara P visit Elon!We got to hang out with some other Pericleans and Dr. Arcaro. On Saturday, we went to Pandora’s Pies with five current 2010 members. There are a lot of changes, but we are happy to report that Smitty’s is now on campus. Our on-campus Pericleans are carrying on the
legacy, and we were excited to hear what they are up to! We discussed methods to further strengthen relations between current and alum Pericleans. For example, Sara and Cara are talking about how to connect Elon’s Sierra Club to Sara’s 6th grade science class at Turrentine middle school. We discussed post-grad life as well as happenings around Elon.
Here is a picture for our pan-Periclean event starting left with Will (’13), Sara (’10), Katie (’10), Cara (’14), Emily (’15), David (’16), and Jordan (’14) kneeling. David may look familiar as he is brothers with fellow Periclean, Dan, a 2012 alum.
Also, look forward to our book reviews of Toxic Charity and That the World May Know. Toxic Charity (common reading for the Class of 2013) focuses on faith based charities and its impact on those they seek to help. That the
World May Know is a discourse on the ethics surrounding aid of genocide victims.
Best wishes~
Katie & Sara
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