Annie Huth
Class of 2012
By: Megan Griffin
The other week, I had the privilege of talking to Annie Huth, from the Class of 2012. Annie was the inaugural fellow to participate in a one-year post-graduate position at CRHP.
Annie’s postgraduate plans were directly inspired by Periclean.
“My first year after graduation was spent with CHRP thr
ough our Class’ fellowship program. I had an amazing year, it was the best thing I could have done! Everything I learned from Periclean, and my experiences through the fellowship program have been a huge part in the way I approach my work.”
She now lives in Saxapahaw and is working with Buckner, a local construction company in Graham. She is the Health and Wellness Director.
“I started their wellness program from the ground up, there was nothing formal in place before my position. Now there is support for the construction workers.” In her position, Annie also leads community outreach efforts. Annie mentioned that she was very surprised when she started working at Buckner. She was shocked by how many of the concepts and models that she learned during her fellowship at CRHP could be applied to her position at Buckner.
“Things like hearing about what people need, looking at the environment, building off of people’s strengths have been a huge part in growing the Buckner wellness program organically. The program’s success depends a lot on employee buy in and acknowledgment of diverse cultural groups.”
When asked about whether or not she thinks their Periclean Class had an impact in India, she said that while the class worked together to accomplish a lot, nothing could have matched what they gained from the experience.
The Class of 2012 was able to refund a project in India and bring it back to life. The first time that Annie was in India, she did a month long internship with the adolescent girls program through CRHP. She then went back to India during winter term her senior year to see the progress of the program.
“Being able to enable them to bring that program back to life, and to work simultaneously with girls here in Burlington [at BHA, their local partner] was our Class’ impact.”
She also talked about the Summit that their Class hosted during their senior year. As a fellow in India, after graduation, she was able to see that their partner was still running the summit and wanted to host another conference. Annie helped with the social media and planning of the conference.
As an undergraduate student and a fellow, Annie also did work with Photovoice. Photovoice is a community photography project that enlists community members to tell their stories.
“I did my undergraduate research on a photovoice project at the Burlington Housing Authority and then did a photovoice project my Senior year Winter Term and again as a fellow with a couple of friends from Elon.”
“These projects played a huge role in cementing some key Periclean values for me such as letting people tell their own stories and identify their own strengths and struggles.”
Annie and I also discussed the importance of traveling. Annie finds so much value in traveling anywhere!
“Just travel in general-to a different state, different country is so important. People are not exactly like you-knowing this is a useful tool in understanding our own cultures, biases, etc. Going to India as a class allowed us to look back at how things are in the United States, and we were able to compare and contrast our valuable experience in India with experiences in the US.”
Annie also discussed the value of traveling to the country of focus as a Periclean.
“Being able to directly see the work our partner was doing was life changing for many of us. We were able to go to India to see the realities of young girls, women and farmers in rural India. We saw firsthand how many hardships they face, but also got to see the beauty in what CRHP was doing for the community. There is nothing like seeing that in person and being able to participate in it.”
Periclean, especially by her junior and senior year was her thing at Elon.
“Periclean classes were what I looked forward to!” She said that being involved with such a passionate and visionary group of people was such a rewarding aspect of the program.
Overall, Periclean to a large extent has made her a more informed global citizen. She looks at the world through a slightly different lens which helps her to respond to situations. She feels that she can respond to situations with more compassion and empathy because she is well informed.
Annie said that “understanding people better has been a big take away from Periclean.”
Follow