“Even when it looks like a lot of standing (or sitting) around talking, aid is difficult and often intensely cerebral work. It is about bridging cultural and communication gaps between people and between communities, and the only way to do that is by investing in time and patience.” (J in Letters Left Unsent)

 

History and overview of the efforts to organize Periclean Scholars alumni
A note from the founding director, Tom Arcaro and with comments by Natasha Christensen, ’07.

One of the most basic premises of the Periclean Scholars program is that Periclean initiatives should be sustainable in the long-term, whenever possible. This includes partnerships made by each Class in terms of continually communicating with, materially supporting and continuing to vet and be vetted by partner organizations and the individual representatives thereof.  Though it would be far from accurate to say that we had any idea what the future of the program held, the Class of 2006 had the vision to put the Periclean Scholars Alumni Association (PSAA) in place, the original by-laws of which were written by David Higham, ’06.

The idea in those early years was that there would be a regular business meeting of the PSAA on campus at Homecoming, and that indeed did happen in the first several years (’06-’08).

A visionary and transformative gift
An important event in the history of the PSAA happened in April of 2007. Dr. Lambert made a connection with Elon parent (’07) and Redwoods Group Founder and CEO Kevin Trapani. After several conversations between myself and Mr. Trapani and his financial officers, it was agreed that supporting the PSAA was our top priority. The thinking at that time –and continuing today- is that a commitment to the PSAA would both (i) ensure the sustainability of partnerships and (ii) give undergraduates a huge challenge to take extraordinarily seriously the process of vetting and connecting with partners.

In the spring of 2007, the Redwoods Group made a $125,000 endowment gift to the program, allowing for roughly $5,000 per year intended to support the partnerships made by each Class. The vision was that as more graduating Classes came on-board, it would be possible, through matching donations from alumni, to continue supporting all partnerships in perpetuity at a moderately robust level (e.g., $1,000 per Class partner/year).

From fall of 2007 on, I began authorizing wire transfers or checks to current and past partners (Catholic AIDS Action, Hope for Honduran Children, Schools for Chiapas, for example) on a yearly basis, more or less evenly distributing the annual funds to partners, as they accumulated. The yearly meetings of the PSAA at Homecoming were not functioning the way that we had intended them to, due to minimal and failed communication beforehand and low turnout during; this is where and when decisions for disbursement were to be made. I take majority responsibility for this failure, though my wont was to make space for alumni ownership. I made a concerted effort to contact key members from each Class before authorizing any fund transfers.

Anita
One special case is Anita Isaacs, who is a two-time Periclean-in-Residence and a major focus within the documentary series produced by the Class of 2006 and the focus of My Name Is Anita, completed in 2009. PSAA funds have supported both the organizations with which she has worked and her personally, in the last several years as we have supported her decision to go back to school and get her degree in social work. The PSAA has supported her tuition, books and some living expenses.   She has written several updates for this blog and continues to do well now, nearly 20 years after being diagnosed HIV positive. All members of the Class of 2006 with which I have talked have enthusiastically endorsed this support to Anita.

 

Periclean Project: travel with alumni back to counties of focus
After discussions with 2009 alumni and their Mentor Steve Braye regarding the follow-up to our 2009 Habitat build in Ndola, we furthered conversations about how to remain connected beyond a yearly grant from the PSAA to HfH-Zambia. During our visit in 2009, we had deep connections with Voster Tembo of Habitat and various village leaders in Kawama and had extensive discussions about how return travel could go beyond the service-tourism of the traditional HfH-International build. In 2011, I conceived of the “Periclean Project” that was intended to bring together Periclean alumni, current Pericleans and Mentors in service-related travel. The idea was to have a “Periclean Project” at least every other year to a country of focus from an alumni Class. Working with Elon Alumni relations, we put the word out to Periclean and non-Periclean alumni with current Pericleans for a second build in the Ndola region (Kawama) of Zambia and again coordinated with Voster Tembo. Our recruitment efforts aimed at alumni fell short, but we were able to amass a great team of current students and returned to Kawama in May/June of 2011. This second visit to the Copper Belt region deepened all partnerships in the region and have now yielded, in part because of the amazing work of Voster Tembo, the creation of the Zambian Development Support Foundation (ZDSF), now beginning its second year of making micro-loans in the region.

Alternative and creative pathways
The Class of 2010 created a unique pathway for alumni engagement and efforts to sustain and enhance the Class partnerships. To a large degree, the Class was successful in branding themselves as the “Ghana Pericleans” and initiating lateral entry from post-2010 classes. This initiative was used to a lesser degree with the Classes of 2011 and 2012 but has now been officially phased out. The Classes of 2010, 2011, and 2012, led by their Mentors, have remained in contact via various social media and have remained very involved in their initiatives. Several recent Mentors have served the function of sending more-or-less regular update and news emails out to alumni from their Classes.

Up until 2010, there has been a Periclean Newsletter produced on a semi-regular basis by several Classes, and these have always been sent out by me (the Director) to all current and alumni Pericleans and, beginning in 2012, to all friends and partners of Periclean Classes (including a self-selected number of parents). The Class of 2011 took this initiative to a higher level and, in 2009, began making sure that the newsletter was published on a much more regular basis. The newsletter served a very important function of keeping the alumni and partner base informed.

Beginning with the Class of 2010, every Class has established a committee, typically in their senior year, with the specific charge to make plans to insure that the partnerships, initiatives and indeed life of the Class are sustained past graduation. To my knowledge, each of those Classes, with varying levels of success, have maintained contact with each other and with their partner over the years past graduation. The Mentors play a key role in this, and it must be pointed out that, led by Dr. Heidi Frontani, all of these Mentors (Drs. Arangala, Kamela, and Nienhaus) have done steady and important work to maintain communication and activity.

One recent note of success is that the Class of 2013 was able to successfully “hand off” the Hogares Sanos (“Healthy Homes”) partnership with Alamance County Hispanic women to the Class of 2016.

A note related to the sustainability of the Class initiatives is that beginning with the Class of 2013, our plan is to have new Classes “recycle” the countries of focus from past Classes, hence, for example, the Class of 2017 is going back to Namibia, the country of focus for the Class of 2006. Other repeat countries include Mexico (’08-’13) and Honduras (’07-’16). In a historic step for the program, Dr. Steven Braye, Mentor, ’09, will lead the Class of 2018 back to Zambia, marking the first two-time Mentor leading a Class back to their country of focus.

A new era: the blog
In fall of 2012, a pan-Periclean blog was created that was (and is) intended to be a “one stop shopping” site for all things Periclean, including regular content from current and alumni Classes. Regular postings began to appear in spring 2013 and in Fall of 2013 I urged all Classes to begin making weekly updates regarding Class activities, and to some extent this happens. The blog has become the functional equivalent to, and now the de facto replacement for, the newsletter. I regularly send out emails to all alumni and friends with the link to the blog and short news items.

Periclean Foundation: conceived in 2005, brought to life in 2012
The Class of 2012 achieved a landmark initiative that had been imagined ever since the Class of 2006: the creation of the Periclean Foundation. Up until this point, the only place for funds to go that were raised by any current or alumni Class was back into official Elon University Periclean Scholars accounts, and then sent by wire (or by check) funds to partner accounts. The Periclean Foundation entity is a stand-alone 501c3 non-profit organization that now has a bank account and a PayPal account attached to it.

David Higham, the new Chair of the Periclean Foundation, reports that there have been at least two alumni that have set up regular monthly donations through Paypal, and our goal for this year (2014) is to have at least 10 individuals making regular gifts through this method.

There have been two important meetings with representatives from University accounting related to alumni giving. In the past, the explicit call was for alumni to make donations to Elon, earmarked for Pericles, with the understanding that these donations would then go out to their partners. We were informed that this system of essentially using an official Elon account as an “in-out” account to make external donations was questionable from an IRS-accounting perspective and that henceforth all donations meant for outside entities must be made to the Periclean Foundation directly. Beginning in 2013, all remaining balances in each Class’ Elon account that is intended to support their partner(s) are transferred to the Periclean Foundation.

Outreach via video
I have worked with alumnae Natasha Christensen over the years on sustainability of alumni activity, particularly in helping to produce two videos, the links to which were sent to all Pericleans. These videos were moderately successful. This one was made live in November 2010 and outlines the history behind the Redwoods gift and the way alumni were able to contribute to the PSAA, and this one, uploaded in October 2011, stars Natasha and was taped in 2011 when she came from Washington, DC to deliver the alumni speech at the Celebrating Periclean Scholars event.

 

Plans and thoughts as we move deeper into our second decade
As of this writing, Program Assistant Catherine Parsons is using the Periclean work-study student to generate a database of all Pericleans and friends of Pericleans, a small step intended to facilitate forward movement, but there is so much more to be done. I believe that with renewed vision, strong leadership from key alumni, and some creative thinking from all Pericleans and friends, the future of the PSAA and of the Periclean Foundation can be of a magnitude more robust than at present.

 

Here are a few questions to consider related to moving forward:

 

It would also ensure a way to “prioritize” efforts. It is easy to get distracted by how much you want to do and not focus as much on what is most needed and/or sustainable in the long run.

 

Auditing?
We have only internal and mostly anecdotal evidence that our outreach is effective. Should we consider connecting with an outside auditing entity charged with examining the impact of our partnerships? This may be a good way forward. As we saw with the class of 2007’s partnerships in Honduras – sometimes the personal relationships we build throughout working on the projects make you think everything you are doing is going towards a just cause but it could fall short. My only question with this would be how much the auditing entity would charge and if this would be something we would want to include in reporting, etc. on a regular basis (annually, etc).

Perhaps set up conferencing so you could host 2 at once – 1 in DC and 1 in NC to maximize participation…

How can we better integrate the current Steering Committee body into the process of moving forward along the lines above?

Mentor compensation?
How can the past Mentors be financially and otherwise compensated for the extra duties they have performed and continue to perform? None, understandably, agreed to be “Mentors for life” and though all are giving extra of themselves, that model –depending on the kind hearts of key faculty – is perhaps not sustainable.

Look at the Young Alumni Association model. I believe maintaining as much hands-on engagement within our partnerships AND the communities we are all living in now is a good way to keep the intent behind Pericles alive and people invested/engaged.

 

From here, where?
Finally, what are the immediate next steps that need to be taken?

 

I know I [Natasha] briefly discussed doing a documentary or photo-book, etc. of the projects with you at one point but I continue to believe it would go a long way to showing how engaged and how far that “global citizenship” has taken scholars (while at Elon and beyond). We all must more aggressively embrace the responsibility of the legacy of program.

 

I call upon all of you who read this document to (1) help me correct any factual errors or errors of omission I may have inadvertently outlined and (2) make this a living document by adding more detail where needed and proposing specific actions that we can make in the coming weeks and months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are we going about things in the right way….?  I think so, but read this…

I began collaborating with J about a year ago after I read one of his books “(Missionary, Mercenary, Mystic, Misfit”) and posted a note about it on Facebook.  Katie Swift (nee Strickland, Class of 2010) messaged me saying she might know the mysterious ‘J’ and, long story short, he and I are collaborating (along with Dr. Youssef Osman) on a screenplay about the lives of humanitarian aid workers and also on some research into aid and development workers around the world.  I was a beta reader for J’s  latest book “Letters I Have Written Never Meaning to Send” and poured through it always for an eye toward assessing and making our Periclean Scholars program better.  Although we do have the Periclean Pledge that I remain proud of, I am on a constant quest to always deepen and improve what we do.  In that spirit, read the below and let me know what you think.  Finally, I strongly recommend that all Pericleans (current and alumni) read J’s books linked above.

Professional

 Some time ago, on the steps of a dusty teamhouse in a foreign country that had just been slammed by a huge disaster, I sat and listened to a young woman with tears in her voice wonder aloud whether it had been a mistake to come. She was educated, articulate, and obviously intelligent. She’d put in a few years at HQ, worked her way up through the programs department supporting a small portfolio of small-ish programs in the field. She’d been to a few places, and while she was not the kind of battle-scarred aid worker that you often meet in responses like that one, neither was she a totally inexperienced first-timer.

I remember very clearly what she said (of disaster response work): “I’ve wanted this for so long… and now I’m here… and it’s just so hard.”

She was right. Aid work is hard. Often in ways you don’t expect. And it’s not for everyone.

* * *

 I understand that many people have a very intense need to believe that they can, without special training or any specific knowledge, without guidance or experience of any kind, go and do aid, do disaster relief, do development. Although few express it in these terms, they basically believe that what qualifies them is simply their desire to “make the world a better place.”

It’s an illogical perspective when you think about it. I mean, there are plenty of analogous real-world examples of situations where desire—even desire coupled with intense passion—counts for very little. Those who want to play professional basketball, learn very soon that while desire and relentless pursuit are naturally part of it, their actual performance on the court is what matters to scouts and recruiters. The music industry is similarly brutally honest about who “has it” and who doesn’t. And the same applies to most any career or professional endeavor. Coffee shops are full of baristas who didn’t quite pass the bar exam, high schools across America are full of P.E. teachers who didn’t make the NFL draft, and the $1.99 bin at Walmart is full of CD by bands who thought they rocked, but as it turns out, didn’t. Any career or life path or vocation requires dedication at some level, requires the possession of specific knowledge, and requires the mastery of certain skills. In the United States, at least, if someone wants to be a junior accountant in an even marginally reputable company, he or she needs to have an accounting degree.

And yet, I am repeatedly amazed at how irate, indignant, self-righteous, and self-victimizing many people become at the suggestion that exactly the same should apply in the humanitarian aid world. Frankly, I am astounded at the amount of pushback on the suggestion that a Masters Degree should be a minimum for aid practitioners. Otherwise logical, intelligent people—people who would probably agree without hesitation that physicians need to have specific education and pass some kind of minimum-standards certification before they are allowed to diagnose and treat even one single patient—seem to think that it’s okay to blithely go off and start an NGO or project in some poor community in a developing country where they then spend the next months or years sort of trial-and-error-ing their way through people’s lives.

Such a perspective, in my view, can really only come from either stunning naïveté or bald arrogance.

Harsh? I don’t think so.

In my experience, the vast majority of the time these people simply do not want to hear that perhaps they should do/have done things differently, or that—very frankly—the world does not need yet another small start-up NGO. Most of the time, the very best case scenario is that after a few years they may eventually come around to learning exactly the same lessons that the so-called establishment has known for decades. Lessons like: you can’t exist without overhead (even if you don’t call it overhead); accountability costs money and requires organizational bandwidth; Or, knowing when to remove your shoes, which parts of your body to cover, or being able to stutter a few phrases in the local language are not at all the same thing as being able to work effectively in the local context.

Aid and development are harder than they look. They need to be done by professionals.

* * *

 I Skype-chatted with the young woman from the teamhouse just the other day. I know that that response was hard on her, but she did stick it out. She’s doing great now. From what I hear, she’s in another country with a high-profile disaster response going on, doing her job confidently and well. Her education and experience matter, and despite a few dark days, she has not lost her passion.

Good for that country. I know for a fact they’ve got at least one good program officer.

 

The Class of 2014 on the move

Read this article for news on the partnership efforts of the Class of 2014.

From their Indiegogo site:

Who we are?

We are the Periclean Scholars Class of 2014, a group of students from Elon University committed to sustainable progress in Central Appalachia, an area dominated by poverty and the divisiveness of coal politics.

Three years ago, we partnered with the Boone-Raleigh Community Center in Whitesville, West Virginia to provide a space for open dialogue and discussion about community issues, youth programming, and the preservation of Appalachian heritage and history.

We have committed to the development of the center’s programs through frequent volunteer trips, fundraising efforts, and tangible initiatives such as the construction of a children’s library, equipped with more than 500 books and other educational resources.

Why we need your help?

Prior to graduation, we hope to help purchase the building and support the sustainbility of the center, whose mission is to promote unity and hope by providing both a common space and shared resources for present and future generations.

Since its opening in late 2009, the Boone-Raleigh Community Center has focused on community development through programs and initiatives designed to bring people together, regardless of political or environmental views. Their work includes the following:

• Weekly community meals
• Community potluck dinners
• Locally grown produce through provision of individual raised-garden beds
• Better Living Workshops
• Christmas Toy Giveaway
• Support for substance abuse
• Space for local entrepreneurs and artisans to sell goods
• Annual Apple Butter Festival
• Annual Kid’s Day
• Holiday parties (Easter, Halloween, Christmas)

Any donation is greatly appreciated and 100% will go directly towards the Boone-Raleigh Community Center, a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit.Thank you for supporting us!

 

 

All Pericleans,

As most of you know I am spending spring semester with my family in Costa Rica.  My role as the faculty leader for the Elon semester program here will allow me the time and distance to take a broad look at our program and come back refreshed and eager to move forward on many levels.

The interim Director while I am in Costa Rica is Steve Braye, Mentor for the Class of 2009 and for the to-be-recruited Class of 2018, and he will work to coordinate the Classes by dropping in (by invitation) to your Class to introduce himself, holding regular Steering Committee meetings, consulting with the Mentors regularly, and generally making sure that the program runs smoothly.

I look forward to seeing regular blog updates by each Class every week as per the pattern we established last fall.  These regular posts by each Class –in addition to the Steering Committee meetings- allow for constant communication between the Classes so that the “younger” Classes can learn from the “older” ones (and, equally as likely, vice versa).  Another main function of these bog posts is to keep all of our Periclean alumni and friends up to date with our ever-changing and active program. A third and very important function of these regular weekly posts is that they serve to chronicle the actions and achievements of the Class thus making the writing (and posting on the blog) of an end of semester Class resume very easy.  Remember to include some photos to these posts to spice them up a bit.

Though I am many miles away from campus I am never far away via email and other communication vehicles, so stay in touch.

Finally, please keep in mind the Periclean ideal, namely that through working as a Class to authentically partner with people and organizations in your focus nation/region you are making an enormous, positive and two-way impact on each other and an impact that makes this world a better place both in the short and in the long term.  And that, my friends, is our calling as Pericleans

All the best for a great semester.

Tom Arcaro

Director

Hi all,

The Pan-Periclean social will be taking place Sunday, January 12th in Moseley where Octagon used to be.  Bring a dish native to your class’s region of focus and let’s see which cuisine is best!  The Moseley kitchen will be available for use from 4-7 pm, but for those not cooking come hang out, enjoy the bounty, and catch up with everyone at 6.  All are welcome; feel free to invite non-Periclean friends. We look forward to seeing you there!

Best,

Libby [Gormley, ’15]