Email from Natalie in Sri Lanka

Hey guys!

Greetings from sunny Sri Lanka! I have a quick story to share. I had wanted to send this to our whole class but I couldn’t find everyone’s emails in one spot, so I chose those of you who I thought would be most interested by this (I’ll keep it short and sweet):
I was in Kandy last weekend walking around the small indoor market/bazaar that some of you might remember and I happened upon a nice batik shop. Walking up to 2011it, I thought of our batik friend CJ who some of us met in January 2011 at his shop in the hills of Kandy. He’s the guy who made our beautiful stoles we wore on graduation! He also made the batik that hangs on Dr. Arcaro’s wall. Anyway, I walked into this shop and there was CJ! He has short hair now, but I recognized him in
an instant. Turns out he has moved his father’s business to this prime store spot in the center of Kandy (his business is doing very well!) He immediately went to a shelf and held up one of our Periclean stoles!! He proudly displays it to customers, and has even been asked to make similar stoles for class groups from Italy and Israel. I immediately put it on and we took a photo together (attached) because I knew I’d have to share this moment with the class. After catching up, CJ also showed me a photo album that has photos of our class at LEAF and even one of Katie and a few others with Leo at graduation, wearing the stoles! (CJ didn’t know that the man in the photo with his batik-donning friends was Elon’s president, and was very pleased when I told him so!)
It was amazing to run into CJ, one of our Periclean partners, and be reminded in such a powerful way of the small ways our class had an impact here and was so impacted in return. CJ is clearly so proud of the art he was able to provide our class, and I know we were all proud to wear those beautiful stoles when we graduated. For me, running into him was a humbling personal moment, as I was reminded that I would not be living in Sri Lanka on this Fulbright if not for Periclean and our great class and the connections we made in this country that resonated so deeply. It’s amazing how small the world this, how interconnected things are, huh?
natalieJPGJust wanted to share that with you guys. I thought a lot about Periclean that afternoon, and about how you all are doing — I hope you are happy and well! If any of you happen to be in this part of the world between now and July, you have a place to stay and a friend to adventure with.
Periclean love,
Natalie
P.S. Feel free to pass this on to other members of our class!

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.

 

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.

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.

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 mush 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  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

If you are interested in being an author on this post, contact me, Crista 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