Elon Periclean Scholars

Update from the Director-Tom Arcaro

Hear from Elon’s Periclean Director Dr. Arcaro about all the initiatives Periclean is undertaking this fall.

Interview and Visit with Amber Camp-Class of 2006

Periclean members Meg Griffin (class of 2016) and Chace Blackburn (class of 2017) had the opportunity to interview Periclean Alumnus Amber Camp King, who graduated in 2006, about her experience with the beginnings of the Periclean program.

Interview with Todd Ruffner-  of 2008
A Periclean Alumnus from the class of 2008, Todd shares with Meg and Chace what it was like to film a documentary in Chiapas, Mexico.

Updates from the Speakers from Each Class

Representatives from the Classes of 2016 (Honduras), 2017 (Namibia) and 2018 (Zambia) share their class’s current undertakings and future goals at the Celebrating Periclean Scholars event held on October 21st.  Though we have no photo proof, Dr. Lambert did stop by for a short visit.

Update on the Periclean Foundation

Periclean Director Dr. Arcaro gives an update on the Periclean Foundation website, which is now up! He urges alumni to take part in a giving challenge in which every alumni is encouraged to donate 10 dollars a month.

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Class of 2018 

Bethany Lake and Samantha Perry were the speakers for the class of 2018. They presented on many topics including the committees the class has created, including: Fundraising, Video production, Steering Committee representatives, Public Relations, Planning induction for the class of 2019, their local partner, Habitat for Humanity, Current events in Zambia, and a Social committee facilitating class bonding and relationship building. As well, they have divided up researcg topics as so: arts and leisure, ecnomy, education, health and public health, environment, hist
ory, religion, political and international relations, and family and gender. They are now looking into issues that affect Zambia and the best initiatives to fix them.

Class of 2017

Olivia Gibson and Klesey Lane spoke on behalf of the Periclean Scholars class of 2017. They began by saying, “though we have had our fair share of setbacks, we are grateful to stand before you and say that our class is making progress. Last year we decided to focus on sustainable agriculture in Namibia and formed a partnership with Ecology Action. This organization educates others on a self-sustainable farming method called grow biointensive farming. This method yields 6 to 8 times more food and reduces water usage to less than a third of conventional farming methods. The method is labor and time efficient and well-suited for Namibia’s climate.” This semester, they are pursuing their contacts in Namibia and are hoping to find organizations that will want to share their newfound knowledge of how to grow biointensively and promote both sustainable farming and Ecology Action’s mission in Namibia. They are excited to expand this network to include Namibia’s Polytechnic University and the Finnish Embassy in Namibia. They have also pushed forward with our fundraising efforts on campus with a car wash, bake sale, and a gofundme page.Through fundraising they have donated both to the Ekamba community garden, which is using sustainable agriculture to help a food insecure community in Namibia and Ecology Action’s African Symposium on grow biointensive farming, which is taking place this November in Kenya.

Class of 2016

This semester, the Class of 2016 faced one of the most challenging experiences thus far, ending one of their partnerships. At the beginning of this semester, their partner Summit in Honduras decided to discontinue their partnership, cutting ties with their class. This taught their class that maintaining partnerships takes purposeful and honest communication, common ground on expectations, and the ability to truly listen and understand where someone else is coming from.They have continued work with their partner Hope for Honduran Children, who works with youth and community development in two different towns in Honduras.

Students from their Periclean Scholars cohort will go to Honduras during this Winter Term. They will be building more genuine, human relationships with the individuals served by Hope for Honduran Children. Other members will stay on campus, where they’ll be working to educate Elon about Honduras, fundraising for their projects, writing deeper reflections on their Periclean years, and collaborating with their locally-based partner, LUPE. Their work with LUPE has involved working on starting ESL classes, finding connections on campus to provide a volunteer base for the classes, and starting to write a grant for the program costs of the classes.

Finally, this semester they have also been continuing their efforts towards planning a business summit titled People, Planet, Profit to promote and educate about sustainable business. Through this conference they not only hope to bridge the gap between the college of arts and sciences and the business school, but to promote the fact that sustainable and ethical practices and profits are not mutually exclusive.

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One of the initiatives for improving the alumni dimension of Periclean Scholars is to communicate with various key alumni of the program. Throughout the year, Chace and I will be contacting alumni and doing phone/Skype interviews asking questions related to the long term impact of being a Periclean Scholar.  Summaries of each interview will be presented on our blog and will be presented in our quarterly e-newsletters. Our first interview was with Amber Camp, who is a member of the Class of 2006.

We had the opportunity for our first interview of the series  to catch up with Periclean alumni, Amber Camp. When we first talked with her, she was in Pittsburgh at a cultural museum, showcasing the profound effect Periclean has had on her. She enlightened us by sharing her views on how she raises her children in accordance with values she learned at Elon. Many of her parental values stem from her experiences at Elon, including being a Periclean Scholar.  She is motivated to raise her children to be globally aware starting at a young age, which was apparent during our conversation. Throughout our conversation, her children were exploring the museum, reading books about other cultures, and trying on traditional clothing from other countries.  These similar values influence how she acts in her position at American Express. She recognizes the importance of relating to people from diverse backgrounds in a professional setting. Her professional operates virtually, and the sentiment of striving for cultural cognizance is a necessity. She has the ability to connect with people all over the United States as well as the world. She attributes her professional success to her global know-how, which she derived from her time in Periclean.

Amber has been a very influential alumni in Periclean.  Through her job with American Express she has taken advantage of their gift matching program since 2007. The American Express Foundation has been matching every single one of Amber’s donations to the Periclean program. She suggested that other alumni look into their own companies to see if they have an established gift matching program.

Amber’s class worked with Namibia. When asked if she still had ties with the country, she spoke of a woman named Matjiua. Matjiua and Amber met in Namibia, through an exchange program which facilitated their friendship. They remain close several years later by sending care packages back and forth, updating each other with videos of their kids; Matjiua was even at Amber’s wedding. This is one example of how Periclean has opened an individual’s eyes to diverse and global friendships.

To view the interview Chace and I did with amber, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoJDYjeUyQQ.

To view Amber’s PSA urging Pericleans to give, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZalpPyjl5YY.

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Note from the director

Welcome to this first edition of The Periclean Scholars e-newsletter.  Our plan is to send these out quarterly in November, February, May and August, serving as way way to inform our entire Periclean community about current Class activities and also about the Periclean Foundation and alumni updates.  Please let us know what you think about this first edition and what we can do to better serve your needs.

A huge thanks to Chase Blackburn, ’18 and Megan Griffin, ’16 for putting this edition together and for doing the interviews with alumni Amber Camp King, ’06 and Todd Ruffner, ’08.  Also a big thanks to Morgan Spoon, Pericles Project Assistant for her critical support.

I have many important and exciting updates:

Travel to countries of focus
A first for the program: all three current Classes are in the planning stages of traveling to their respective countries of focus.

• ‘18’s Under the leadership of Mentor Dr. Steve Braye and accompanied by associate director and Class of 2019 Mentor Dr. Mat Gendle, the ‘18’s are planning a May/June trip to Zambia. I will join this group for a few days at the end of their travel in Ndola and help with some assessment of the impact of the Class of 2009 who visited Zambia with Dr. Braye their senior year.

• ‘17’s Mentor Dr. Carol Smith and I will travel to Namibia this June and the Class is working on a grant proposal that could
  fund some of the Pericleans to join us as we move forward plans for the ‘17’s working trip to Namibia in January of 2017. We hope to meet with partners old and new and to lay the groundwork for sustaining our work there.

• ‘16’s Three members of the Class of 2016 will travel to Honduras for a short visit this coming January and will work to further deepen our partnerships there and to vet the partner they will support beyond graduation. The rest of the Class will remain on campus and work on plans for the People-Planet-Profit conference to be held on campus this spring.  The ‘16’s will all be taking COR 445, a course for senior Pericleans that satisfies their upper level COR requirement.  Mentor Professor April Post is currently working with the Class to flesh out the details of the syllabus.

Pan-Periclean initiatives, current projects and tentative plans
The Steering Committee and the Mentors meet on alternate weeks, and both groups have been working on to deepen the program in many ways.

• The original editors of our Periclean handbook Mapping Our Success, Sam Lubliner, Kelsey Davis and Erin Luther, are working on a more comprehensive second edition of the book. This new edition will be passed out at our April Induction Ceremony to all of the members of the new Class.  Peter Levine of Tufts University, a national expert in the field of engaged learning, has agreed to write a foreword for our book.

• As mentioned above, the Class of 2016 will lead the way this Winter Term in piloting COR 445 “Global Partnerships Through Service.” This course was approved by the University Curriculum Committee last year and marks an important step in further deepening the academic component of our program. This 4 semester hour class is designed so that Pericleans can take the course either on campus or in their country of focus.

• Mat Gendle, ’19, and Professor April Post, ’16 have done important work toward standardizing our syllabi. They have taken care to leave significant room for each Class to create their own pathways while at the same time structuring in consistent academic benchmarks.

• The Mentors agreed in meetings before the semester started that each Periclean year would have an overarching theme, with Sophomore year dedicated to writing letters related to their country of focus to political, social, and organizational leaders, Junior year is focused on grant writing, and Senior year on research and professional presentation. All Classes, of course, can do any of these themes, but there will be an effort to task each Class with emphasizing their year’s theme.

• In light of the above note on theme years I am thrilled to announce that we have partnered yet again with the Redwoods Group Foundation (RGF) and have two members of the Class of 2017 doing a paid internship with RGF vetting proposals. The plan is to have 1-2 members of the Junior Class take advantage of these internships every year.

• This year we have begun to weave the internationally recognized Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) into Periclean syllabi, and the Steering Committee and Mentors are working to revisit our Periclean Pledge and add significant depth to our Pledge items in a way that mimics the CHS.

• This fall our program will initiate an Periclean Scholars Advisory Board. Associate director Dr.  Mat Gendle has outlined the structure and function of the body and a more formal announcement will be made later this fall.  One main function of this body will be to review proposals from current Classes requesting access to pan-Periclean funds.

• Perhaps the most important update is that the Mentors and I are making plans to present to the University Curriculum Committee a proposal to make Periclean Scholars into a minor. The name of the minor is yet to be decided but it likely will be something along the lines of “Global development and partnerships.”  18 credit hours would come from Periclean Scholars classes and there will be a menu of related courses from which to choose (e.g., SOC 370 ”Being and Becoming a Global Citizen”) to bring the minor up to from 22-24 hours.  Details are being discussed currently.

As you can see from the above, our program continues to evolve and deepen, and this is due to the efforts of a hard working Steering Committee, great work-study students, and Mentors who show an extraordinarily high level of dedication.

I have more updates and thoughts to add but I’ll close for now.  Look for additional news items on our blog, in shorter emails, or in the next newsletter.

All the best for a great Thanksgiving Break!

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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.

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Note:  This was sent to all current Pericleans and Mentors the Sunday after the Paris attacks.

Pericleans,

Again the media presents us with an array of profoundly disturbing images, this time from Paris.

How should a Periclean Scholar respond to this?  That there is just one “right” way to react, feel or act is most certainly not the case, but are their wrong ways to respond?

In a word, yes.

Your experience as an Elon student and more particularly as a Periclean Scholar positions you to recognize ‘thin’, glib, hateful, ethnocentric, Islamaphobic and otherwise unproductive responses.  As you communicate f2f, email, Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, and blog your feelings and hear/read those of your friends, acquaintances (etc.) I know that you will all use these tragic recent events as an opportunity to educate, as best you can, those who seek pathways of understanding and/or express any iteration of the “wrong” ways to respond.  We must grow as a human family, and this will best be accomplished with compassion, patience, humility, and, yes, love.

I urge all three Classes to spend some time in class this week talking about Lebanon, Burma, Paris and beyond.

I posted this on our Periclean Scholars at Elon University Facebook page:

Regarding the recent events in Paris…

Most of us generally have little self awareness about our limited range of knowledge about the world and routinely -albeit unconsciously- subscribe to media spun narratives. That it is hard to keep up with world affairs in a way that transcends lazy myopia is increasingly true. But, to quote Edward R. Murrow, “Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.”

On a related note Murrow also pointed out that, “No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all accomplices.” 

In what ways might this be true?

Our task, then, must be to ceaselessly work to know both ourselves and our global brothers and sisters better and then to partner, with the goal of banding together in efforts to eliminate injustices which drive weak and delusioned people to desperate, tragic and inhumane actions.

My best to all of you as you enter this week.

-PLP

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Last night, November 4th, Chace and I had the opportunity to meet Amber Camp (alumnus of the Class of 2006)! She lives locally, which made it very convenient to meet her in person. We were both really excited to meet her because we had already talked to her over the phone about a week earlier. She invited us into her home where we had the pleasure of meeting her children and husband. They had just celebrated her daughter’s second birthday over the weekend, so the house was filled with balloons and other fun decorations. She first told us the story about how she met her husband at Elon and then showed us a picture of the two of them from that time. We discussed how her husband was a huge supporter of her involvement in Periclean, especially when she went to Namibia. Amber then showed us to her home office, where she works for American Express as a Customer Care Professional, leading a team of twelve other employees.

The purpose of our visit was to get an on-camera interview with Amber to accompany our alumni write-up that will be featured in the E-newsletter; we left with so much more! She welcomed any questions we had about her career, family, involvement in Periclean and other Elon programs. She is an inspiring voice for the program and for service in general. Amber’s outlook on life is both positive and energetic and she attributes this to her experiences with Periclean. The trip she took to Namibia was eye opening and helped to shape her career, her relationships with family and friends, and with her continuous generosity to the Periclean Scholars Program. The photos of her experiences in Namibia are incredible and gave some insight into how her experience shaped her life. She flipped through two of her picture books (comprised of her own photos) and explained several of the photos to Chace and me. A few of her photos are below.

We left Amber’s house excited to share our interview with others so Amber’s love for life and impact on the program can be publicized! Chace and I believe that others will benefit from learning about Amber, just as we did. We are both hopeful that we will get to see her again soon.

We encourage everyone to check out our interview with Amber Camp in the next E-newsletter!

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