This past Thursday, Chace and I continued with the alumni interview series by talking to Todd Ruffner. Class of 2008. He was an awesome alumni to talk to and learn from. Todd had several tips for current Pericleans and the Periclean program overall.
Todd has continued to be civically engaged after graduation from Elon. His career involves working to find unique, sustainable ways to impact various communities in the Middle East. This idea of finding unique and sustainable methods of change comes from his exposure to the Periclean model! He pursued a career that placed importance on making long-term change and building relationships that last, this has a huge overlap with some of the values he learned from the Periclean Scholars Program.
Todd and his Class worked with the Zapatista community in Chiapas, Mexico. They partnered with Schools for Chiapas to paint a beautiful mural in the Zapatista community of Suytic. Todd was part of a small Elon/Periclean Scholar film team that traveled to Chiapas before the rest of the Class traveled in December/January of 2007-08. They were invited by Schools for Chiapas and their travel inspired a documentary “Painting Without Permission” created by Periclean Scholars and Tesla Mellage, ’08. When we asked him about this experience, he said it was amazing to be able to put names and faces to what their Class was working to accomplish. He believed that sharing his experience in Chiapas helped to prepare the rest of the Class for their travel and kept the class engaged in their project. He encourages every Periclean Scholar, who is travelling to their country of focus, to be educated about the political situation before being in-country, this will strengthen the overall experience!
Some things have changed since Todd was in the program at Elon. His Class chose both the country of focus and the issue(s) on which they would focus. Todd supported the change of assigning Classes countries, as well as recycling countries through the program; he saw this as a positive initiative to strengthen the program. When asked if he had any tips for current Periclean Scholars, he said, “don’t get hung up on the little things and make some sacrifices where it’s necessary to focus on how you can make a difference!”
We encourage every class to learn from these interviews with our Alumni! They are an amazing resource that can help strengthen the Periclean experience.
Follow