Elon Periclean Scholars

Georgia Lee’s Photos from Haiti

Haitian Child Haitian children Haitian sunset Nature shot Port au Prince Sunset World

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Class Notes: 2/26

Tom Arcaro sat in on our class today!

Here’s what he had to say: The blog is going to be a crucial way for Pericleans to communicate, both between and within classes. Anyone can be an author of a post if they want to, they just have to be added to the author list. It’s not just for logistical information, we want to put fun updates up to. We can post pictures, videos, hyperlinks, etc. Elements include class notes, class resumes, general updates, etc. Past Pericleans and Periclean partners will also use this website to be updated on what’s going on within the organization. This blog is an addition to our individual class website, however they will probably complement each other; they are not mutually exclusive. Bookmark this page and send it out to any organizations/individuals! This is a great way to network and get people interested in the program.

There’s a twitter feed! #PSelon will automatically show up on the blog.

We can also construct polls, both on the general blog site and the individual class category sites.

Lindner 206: swing by anytime after 4:00 this Wendesday, the 27th, to meet the representative of the University of Monterey, Mexico, Agustin Landa. We would like him to meet as many Pericleans and Periclean mentors as possible! The students that have been inducted into their program want to meet us and speak with us about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. They’re available over Facebook, e-mail, Skype, etc.

Tesla Mellage, an ’08 Periclean scholar, will be speaking at the induction ceremony.

This Thursday, Dr. Arcaro will be speaking at the Numen Lumen College Chapel and how to deal with issues such as modern slavery.

If you’re interested, we may have extra issues of That the world May Know: Bearing witness to Atrocity, by James Dawes. It would be a great read for us as it deals with charity. It may shed new light onto aspects that we have not yet adressed or thought about.

We’re the first class with a beginning balance. Dr. Arcaro needs ammunition to argue that this funding is a good idea for future classes, let show them how this money has helped our project!

(Side Note: There’s a current movement to begin taxing nonprofit organizations [like Elon University] and give tax breaks to corporate businesses. CRAZY. This may kill small nonprofits and eliminate many scholarships that Elon gives out. Stay politically informed and active, people!)

At the end of the day, we’re in this to make the world a better place. It’s a difficult task. The work that each class is doing, even considering how hard it can get, is making material change. We can make a huge change, an important one.

Advice from Arcaro’s Haitian travels: Port-au-Prince is probably not the best place to stay for us, if/when we organize a trip. The representative of a church that’s funding a school that Arcaro talked to wanted “people to walk into the future with.” Not donations or anything like that. No matter what organization we partner with, it needs to have Haitian connections. Making this connection is extremely difficult, however, the communication venues that we have available today will facilitate this process.

One of the things that is different between Periclean and other organization is that we have an extended period of time to develop relationships. We are on real life time, and not a semesterly schedule.

A word to the wise from the ’12s: They were trying to figure out their partner and it got to the point that they were on the phone with an organization in India, and they asked, “What do you have to offer to us?” That got them thinking, what does it mean to be a partner? What do we have to offer? What does our group look like a whole, considering all of our individual interests, majors, etc? What connections and resources do we have? It was a major reflection point.

Thank you, Dr. Arcaro!

 

From Elaina: The Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Act. This was supposed to be reenacted in 2011, but it didn’t pass. It just passed again earlier this February. Tess and Elaina will be going to a conference about this on the Wednesday before spring break.

Laura Wagner: post doc at UNC Chapel Hill. She teaches Creole and is interested in many topics that pertain to our project in Haiti, including public health.

Due to logistical hurdles associated with official Elon websites, we will be setting up our individual class website on WordPress.

Next week: we will be hearing reports from local and and Haitian partner ideas that had initially been planned for today.

Fundraising: we can start now, even before we have a specific project. Possible profit share ideas: Town Table, Pandora’s, Co-op, etc.

Let’s make sure that the people who can’t make it to these meetings stay involved!

Posted in Class of 2015: Haiti, Partners-All Classes | 1 Comment

Elevator Speech Ideas

Restavek Elevator Speech

Periclean Scholars


 


Elevator Speech:
Haiti’s restavec system is technically illegal but is a culturally accepted practice of childhood slavery. Rural families who do not have the means to support their children send their youth to families in urban areas and promise household help in exchange for shelter, food, and hopefully education. What many families are not aware of is the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse children endure when being placed in modern day slavery.

  • Add local partners and broader topic of human trafficking


Prolonged Elevator Speech:

  • When approaching the restavec system, one must be culturally sensitive to Haiti’s people and their long-standing history with slavery.
  • Individuals who hope to improve the restavek issue must look to pair with a Haitian run organization that has integrated ties into the restavek community.
  • Success is unlikely if individuals attempt to team with organizations from outside the country because they remain unaware of the underlying factors that cause modern day slavery.
  • To address a culturally sensitive topic, individuals must be willing to work with people on their level, in their language, and with their educational ability.
  • To improve the restavek issue- we can look to improve education/ provide awareness in rural areas as well as provide rehabilitation techniques for survivors.
  • We must also look towards prevention strategies.
  • How do we approach a topic that is culturally accepted????
  • What do we have to offer? How can we market ourselves? How do we make our availability know to organizations we are interested in partnering with?
  • Insure process is mutually beneficial
  • Accountability, we and our organization need to be transparent


If you have any questions, comments, or visions, contact me! Colby Halligan: challigan3@elon.edu

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Class of 2013 postcard from Chiapas

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Visitor from Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) here soon

UDEM!

I am honored that Elon University is able to host Agustin Landa, VP Development, Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM), Monterrey Mexico this coming Wednesday.
He and I have been working together for nearly 18 months on replicating the Periclean Scholars model at UDEM.  He has been coordinating with me and his Elon counterpart Kurt Moore to explore external funding possibilities to make the replication possible for a select array of institutions.  Face to face meetings with key Elon administrators will help clarify and move forward our efforts.

 

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Busy bees and good music

The Project Pericles program at Elon University has a great team: Dr. Arcaro, Dr. Arangala, and all the Class mentors. I’m lucky I get to work with them as Project Pericles’ Program Assistant! I enjoy my work with Periclean because I get to be creative. I design posters, create youtube videos, and edit the website and the Periclean newsletter. I have a great student team and we enjoy being busy bees and listening to good music. Please don’t hesitate to email me at cparsons@elon.edu if we can help in any way!

Catherine

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Periclean Mentors Lunch

Several of the Periclean Mentors meet for lunch on Friday 2/22.  As usual lots of good ideas were generated, new mentor April Post is especially excited to interview all of the applicants for the Class of 2016.  We are having a visitor from University of Monterey, UDEM, in Mexico on Wednesday.  We also discussed using the blog for all classes to report and the Class of 2016 induction coming up on April 11. There will be two days of events around the topic of Corporate Responsibility (both Environmental and Social), April 10 and 11.

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Welcome to the Periclean Scholars blog!

Welcome!

The Periclean Scholars is about to enter its second decade with the induction of the Class of 2016 this April.  Currently we have 153 alumni and 74 current Pericleans.  Also included in our family are past Mentors, friends of the program, and, perhaps most importantly, a large number of both individual and organizational partners around the world.

As we have grown and evolved over the years, keeping all of the Periclean family connected has been quite a challenge.  Various Pericleans and friends I have talked to recently all agree that we can do a much better job with our “connectivity.”  We communicate through email, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, but we all agree that we can take our level of communication -and hence our effectivness in keeping our partnershups and outreaches more sustainable and vibrant- to a higher level.  Hence, this blog.

The main purpose of this blog will be for it to be a “one stop shopping” place for all things Periclean:

  • Class updates from both current Classes and alumni Classes and individuals
  • Updates and news from partners
  • Steering Committee notes
  • Class resumes
  • News, links, photos and so on that will keep us connected and current with each other
  • Updates from the Director, Associate Director and Mentors

To get information on any specific Class, posts from the Director, etc. click on the appropriate link on the right side of the page under “Categories” and all of the posts will appear in reverse chronological order of posting.

If you are interested in being an author on this blog, contact meCrista Arangala or any of the current Steering Committee members.  I will be monitoring the site to keep it organized, but we do ask all posters to “categorize” their posts appropriately.

busPS

 Keep scrolling down for additional blog posts from Classes, alumni, partners and others.

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Class of 2016: Honduras

Class of 2016

A representative from your Class will be asked to make posts to the Periclean Scholars blog.

You are encouraged to make full use of the capabilities of the blog by adding hyperlinks, photos, and video.

Make sure to check Class of 2016 under Categories before you press Publish.

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Clas of 2014: Appalachia

Class of 2014

A representative from your Class will be asked to make posts to the Periclean Scholars blog.

You are encouraged to make full use of the capabilities of the blog by adding hyperlinks, photos, and video.

Make sure to check Class of 2014 under Categories before you press Publish.

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