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Steering Committee 4/25

At the end of the semester, every class should have an updated resume. What did you read? What partnerships did you form? How is your journey going?

In order for these to be useful, we need to critique ourselves. Talk about the blind alleys that your class went down. What went wrong? Give the younger classes something they can learn from. It will help them in their own journey and to avoid their own blind alleys. The resumes should go onto the blog, in the resume section. Also post them in your own class’ section!

We should form a history page for Elon University Periclean Scholars. Perhaps this could happen on a wiki page? It would be editable over time, and each of the classes’ (past, present, and future) could contribute. It could also be a resource for future classes, especially with research about the program that they just got themselves into.

 

We are close to having a winter term course count as an upper level GST!

 

We (Dr. Arcaro, Dr. Arangala with Paul Anderson) are asking for a small grant focusing on writing within the Periclean Scholars. It will start a letter writing program. These letters would go to policy makers that have an impact on each class’ partner country. For example, the US ambassador to Mexico. This program would also address the QEP focus on writing. As the program continues, it could be a resource for future classes and guide them toward which types of letters write and what type of officials are ideal to target.

If you go to your embassy’s Facebook page for your partner country (Mexico, Haiti, etc), it will give you updates on happenings within the country and within the Americans residing in the country.

There has been an idea to hold a pan-Periclean seminar every semester with Kurt Moore to talk about how to get money for your particular class. Other ideas have included a pan-Periclean grant writing workshop, building a certification for all the effort/hours that we have put in. It would be homologous to a minor, however there are curriculum complications that prevent taking it that far. (As we have seen with the upper level GST)

 

Both Dr. Arangala and Dr. Arcaro are going to be abroad next spring. (Dr. Arangala is traveling on a Fulbright scholarship!) Steve Braye will be the temporary director. He will be around in the fall to facilitate the transition.

If you have a faculty member that you think would be a good fit for mentorship, tell Dr. Arcaro/Dr. Arangala! They are always on the lookout.

 

Class Updates:

2013: A lot of graduation and sustainability activities.

They’re hosting a pizza party with the 2016s! The class is also looking for them to try out continuing the workshops already in place.

Baseball game with the women they have been working with, and a bbq beforehand as an end of year celebration.

They are doing about a five minute presentation at the Leaders of the 21st Century on what their class did and why it’s important in the Elon experience. (Two years ago, the Leaders of the 21st Century is a night before graduation celebration that showcases notable students. Recently, the Periclean Scholars have been added into this ceremony. Each program made a video, but this year they’re not.)

On a side note, there has been a tradition of each graduating class wearing a stole at graduation that is made their partner area.

 

2014: The class is applying for grants over the summer.

Yesterday, they set dates for their next trip! The week before classes start.

They’ve been working towards having classing for the PODS and forming what they will address during these classes.

Smaller projects: Garden Bed: a donation letter is currently being edited and then being sent to the regional and local hardware stores.

 

2015: The class is currently working collectively to define their own program, goals, and identity so that they can continue to form mutually beneficial and productive partnerships. They have heard back from many possibilities, but need a cohesive way to move forward and gain momentum. Homework would be a good a way to ensure continued progress; something that can be accomplished outside of the class time and is tangible/measurable.

They hosted an informal dinner with the class of 2016 yesterday on Young Commons to welcome and get to know them.

 

Another side note:

Periclean Foundation: founded by the class of 2012 last spring. Any class’ remaining money must go into this fund at graduation; it doesn’t go into a class alumni fund. Anyone can contribute/donate to this Foundation. Parents, alum, wealthy philanthropists…

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’15 Class Notes 4/16

Instead of class on the 30th, we will be having a group dinner at our generous host’s, Dr. Warner’s, house. No class on SURF day, either!

In class, we continued to work on “Who We Are and What We Can Bring to the Table” document in our google drive, continuing to define our strengths, goals, and identity.

Dr. Warner is going to look into the issue of getting Periclean classes to count for upper-level GSTs

We have an official website now! It’s a work in progress, and we will have a donations page up soon. http://periclean2015.wordpress.com/

Our class in the fall will be much more structured. We will break into defined committees, define our goals for the semester, and then base our final evaluation off of how we met these goals.

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Class Notes 4/2

Freshman Induction: Thursday, April 11th

The induction will take place in the LaRose auditorium of KOBC. Food is served at 5:00PM, hopefully outside, and the induction officially starts at 5:30PM, and will run until about 6:30PM. Dress is business casual, and each member of our class will be assigned a mentee.

Omolayo will be our MC, and Cat and Elaina will be presenting our Words of Wisdom.

All of our class should be there at around 4:30PM, but your help would be very useful at 4:00PM to help set up everything.

We will be cooking food on the Wednesday beforehand, the 11th, starting at 6:30 in the kitchen in McCoy Commons. If you walk into the same Oaks building as Oaks 212, go straight past the printer, it should be right there. Suyapa will be helping us cook Honduran food, and we will have all of the ingredients ready to go!

 

We worked to edit the goals and strengths google doc and create a concise blurb for future partners as well as a tool for our own development. Check the Periclean google drive!

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Steering Committee 3/21

Members of the inaugural Class of Cuidadanos Globales from the University of Monterrey will be visiting with their founding director Professor Hector Gomez de la Paz on April 9th-12th (overlapping the Class of 2016  Induction). We would like to host them with members of the Class, instead of putting them up in a hotel. Perhaps we could find members of current Periclean Classes that has the capacity to provide them a place to sleep and store their belongings. By visiting, we hope to show what it’s like to be an Elon Periclean

 

Funds for Excellence: anyone can apply, students or faculty, for up to $5,000 for programming. Last year, we used it for the week of reflection on human trafficking during the ’15’s Induction, and we have it again for a week of reflection on corporate responsibility. So far, one day is for environmental corporate responsibility. For the induction, Tesla Mellage works for Cargil International, which has a good history in partnering and development as far as sustainable outreach goes for corporations. She is also Honduran and will speak about what it will be like to work in that area.

 

’06’s did a film called, “Testing Positive,” and their screening raising money for Alamance Cares here in Alamance County. It was based on a short story, and told the story of  a student who finds out that she is HIV+.  A second narrative film what produced in 2008 entitled A River’s Reach that focused on students’ transformation from apathy to awareness and eventual global citizenship. We  could use these resources to create another project similar to the ’06’s  and ’08’s films. We could use students in the Theatre program who don’t necessarily get as much screen cover as they would like, and Communications students get to put their skills into a real-world application. There are many venues that Pericleans can reach an audience, and perhaps we should further explore artistic venues. We would be contributing ideas for a screen play. This could be especially pertinent to the Restavek situation, as it’s easier to talk about sensitive topics through a fictional story than directly addressing the current issue. The idea isn’t just for particular classes; it could be a Pan-Periclean project. Toxic Charity may be a good starting point.

 

Class Updates:

’13: The Class is currently doing pods for Global Experience classes this week. The class is also looking into how to make their project sustainable by bringing in more students to work with the Hispanic women. Creating presentations for Elon courses is a great feat as well as a great service, and lays down a great path for future classes.

’14: The Class’s main focus is grant-writing. They have reached out a member of AppVoices and is coming to talk about the topic and the process associated with it. They’re also starting to plan a trip after their graduation. They also revamped some of their committees to focus and move forward on various projects.

’15: The Class is moving forward in planning the Freshmen Induction. They have plans for preparing food, the program, and the flow of the event. They are also in a formative stage in their partnership development, but are making great progress in not only identifying possible projects, but deciding on their own strengths and goals.

 

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Class Notes – 3/19

We are in communication with various local and Haitian organizations, and continuing to develop each of these relationships.

When we come back from break, we will focus on what specifically we plan to get out of and contribute to our partner organizations.

There is a possible event we could hold next fall in collaboration with Triad Ladder of Hope and a documentary entitles Nefarius: Merchant of Souls. We could host the documentary as well as have the woman as a speaker. We could also collect donations, get the event on the cultural calendar, and use GST classes to promote the event. The trailer seemed very eye-opening and compelling.

We MAY be able to find a way to organize a university trip to Haiti before the travel advisory is listed.

A possible idea: putting together something like the ’14’s week of events that pulls together many different aspects of human trafficking. This would fit better in the fall.

Freshmen Induction is Thursday, April 11th, 5:00-6:30pm.

We also have a website on the way, and are investigating the idea of getting an official elon.edu email for our class.

slaveryfootprint.org: an eye-opening estimate of how many slaves support YOU.

We could organize another debate, similar to the presidential debate from last semester, revolving around gun control. The event would be available for both Elon students and the surrounding community. It would encourage Periclean civic engagement, but if we decide to take this project on, we need to recognize that it will require a lot of work and commit to putting forth this effort. Student will apply to participate in the debate, and we would review the applications as a class.

We should plan an event in the second half of the semester to bring everyone back in. Perhaps we could revisit the idea of visiting the Warner household? Grilling on a warm day?

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Class Notes 3/12

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.

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Class Notes: 3/5

Class Updates:

Susie and Colby are meeting with Christa Arangala tomorrow to discuss the Freshmen Induction. Colby met with April Post, the faculty advisor of the 16’s, to discuss ideas about the induction. We will collaborate with her and Christa to come up with a plan. One idea is serving Honduran food for the induction, and we will cook it! Or get it catered. We’re really excited, and they’re going through interviews right now.

Possible ideas with Helon Wright: her parents started the nonprofit Hearts with Haiti, and she started a Dance Theatre. Perhaps we could use them as exposure for our class and project as well as their organization? College Coffee performance? They’re coming in the fall (October), so we could actually have them do an evening performance. Maybe along side Elon organizations too, like the Elon Africa Society, other Dance Companies

We need to get our elevator speech going and ready for the induction. Who can make the video? Bia’s video was awesome, and Jonathan would be great.

 

Haiti contacts:

1) Jonathan, the Program Officer of the Equitas Group. This organization works with Restaveks in Haiti, we are in contact with him and hoping to Skype with him soon! (Susie)

2) Chloe’s contact, Kevin Bales, from Free the Slaves, which is partnered with Fondasyon Limyè Lavi, a Haitian Restavek organization. Aim to break the silence regarding Restaveks. Runs training session for grassroots leaders. Arranges open spaces dialogues in most affected areas. Links with radio stations.

3) Jean Cadet – Awareness, radio (Kerry’s connection) or Restavek Freedom Foundation – Advocacy and provide transitional homes (Georgia).

 

Local partners:

1) NC Coalition Against Human Trafficking: A group of several human trafficking organizations. We could raise awareness and advocacy, get involved in policy advocacy and education. They already have a program with UNC Chapel Hill. (Cat)

2) Break the Chain: Started by Institute Policy Studies after exposure of domestic slaves in DC for government official in ’97. Again, this would be like policy advocacy.

3) Triad Ladder of Hope: Awareness campaigns, presentations, donations of supplies and financial help. They have a victim partnership. For $30/mo, you can completely cover one person. Food, housing, job training, counseling, etc. Possible to build personal relationships with victims?

4) Farm Workers Advocacy Network: Farmers are a vulnerable population that are susceptible to human trafficking. There’s already a program for NC college students: Student Action Workers. There are many opportunities to get involved with both the victims, vulnerable populations, and advocacy.

5) Crossroads: sexual assault response center. This is very local and for children. But it focuses more on abuse as opposed to trafficking

6) NC Stop Human Trafficking: Big coalition that collaborates with other organizations. Kind of like an umbrella organization. They would be a great resource, however partnering with them may be more difficult.

We need to contact these organizations in order for them to even be possibilities! We should focus on local. Break the Chain is national.

Next week, we will have all the information for the induction, ideas for the video, and a shared Google Drive for all of our files (such as resources, possible partners)

 

Possible Areas of Focus:

Orphanage, rehabilitation, prevention, care packages, changing social construction, awareness

US dept of st recommendations for Haiti:

promote a definition of trafficking, education for children and sensitization for parents, partnerships with NGOs, enact legislation

 

Contribute to the Future Events Ideas page!

 

What to expect for Tuesday: Shelby is going to write a template email for the organizations. The template will be posted on the Google Drive. Each contact for each organization needs to fill in the blanks and send the email out to their organization and report back by NEXT TUESDAY:

Free the Slaves: Chloe

Jean Cadet: Kerry

Restavek Freedom Foundation: Georgia

St. Joseph’s: Sophia

 

NC Coalition again Human Trafficking: Cat

Farm Workings Advocacy Network: Cat

Triad Ladder of Hope: Cat

CrossRoads: Rachel

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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!

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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 Notes: 2/12

Class schedule: The class will officially meet every 4:30-5:30 every Tuesday. The purpose of the class will be, hopefully, to keep the entire class up to date on what the different focus groups within the class are doing and other logistical sorts of things, not necessarily to do work. This means that most of our Periclean work will be out of class time, so we decided that it’s unnecessary to make a second meeting time since those who can’t meet on Tuesday will still be so involved in their focus group. We haven’t figured out the specific focus groups yet.

General updates:
-a student wants to come in and talk with us about her research on human trafficking in NC (Jessica Elizando….sp? sorry if I butchered that)
-Dr. Arcaro has possible ideas for us and wants to come in and talk with us
-possible partnership with an Elon student’s (Will Hemminger) family’s private charity in Haiti?

Tasks for the semester:
1. Identify partners both in Haiti and locally (what do they do? what do we have to offer them?)
2. Define work groups/assignments
(fundraising)
3. Create plan for next two years. (visioning, project goal/objectives, who can travel?)
4. 2016’s induction

Focus groups: (subgroups, main chairperson)

FUNDRAISING
Elaina
Chloe
Rachel
Shelby
grant writing
events
accounting

PR
website crew
Elaina
Libby
newsletter
elevator speech
Cat
Georgia
general events/awareness
Omolayo
Nic
Tess
Amy
Libby
Pan-Periclean
Susie
Colby
INDUCTION COMMITTEE
Colby
Susie
Cat
Shelby

For those of you who weren’t in class, we are sending out a google doc to sign up for a group.

Conversational Creole: There is a person interesting in teaching Creole for 30-40 minutes each class. Dr. Warner is working on getting the ball rolling! Implications: class time for logistics will be shrunk, and class time may be extended. But our effort shows a lot about our commitment, and will also be very helpful for if (i mean, when) we go to Haiti. Perhaps we will get networking opportunities from it!

Summarizing last semester’s work to recollect and move forward:
Partners in Haiti: Shelby, Amy, Georgia
Partners in NC: Cat, Elaina, Rachel

A Word to the Wise from Dr. Warner:
-We won’t know the mistakes we’ll make or where we’re headed until we actually get there.
-Simples things can cause major ramifications. Human trafficking is a very serious and very sensitive topic, and we have to be careful about we proceed. People may respond in negative and maybe even dangerous ways.
-This is OUR Periclean class!

No class next Tuesday, but go to the Hunger Summit!

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