Marika Austin ‘09
Pisco Sin Fronteras
Pisco, Peru
This winter, Marika will be working with Awaiting Angels, a community based group dedicated to the rebuilding of Pisco and the surrounding area following a devastating earthquake that occurred in 2007. Marika will spend her time building and reconstructing homes, schools, health centers, and sanitation facilities. She will also have the chance to teach English and participate in general outreach through the program. Marika has a wide range of unique service experiences, including collecting field data on Sonoran Mud Turtles in Arizona, volunteering in a children’s home in Osu, Ghana, interning at the Cloud Forest School in Monteverde, Costa Rica, and several camp counseling experiences. “I have never been anywhere that I have not walked away from the experience with some aspect of new perspective on my life and the lives of others.” Marika hopes that her Quaker values of openness, flexibility, simplicity and acceptance will guide her through this journey. “Although I am excited about the concreteness of a building, I am also excited to participate in the process of watching the reconstruction of a house catalyze the reconstruction of a community.” Marika is the type of person who loves to be challenged. “I am fully aware that eight weeks of manual labor will be extremely hard, but I chose the project because it will continue the process of pushing my boundaries and overcoming situations that are far from easy.” Marika understands that she does not know everything about Peruvian culture, but she is ready to use her own skills to assist those in need. “I have always been drawn to the idea of helping with everything I personally can bring to the table with an able body and strong sense of positivity.” Marika is a strong, caring person whose spirit rubs off of everyone around her. “I am ready to bring my hands, head and heart to this project to produce something tangible while also contributing to the spiritual and emotional uplift of the people of Pisco.”
Yacoba Annobil ‘10
La Esperanza Granada
Granada, Nicaragua
Yacoba is excited to visit six pueblos in the outskirts of Granada as a kindergarten teacher’s assistant and primary school tutor. Yacoba was attracted to La Esperanza Granada for their commitment to long-term educational advancement, community development and “giving a hand up, not a handout.” Yacoba is very interested in geography and the roots of colonialism. Her Ghanaian heritage has driven her academic passions. Yacoba was a James O. Freedman presidential scholar for geography and hopes to turn her research on street children in Accra into her senior thesis. Yacoba not only wants to further explore her Ghanaian roots, but also the cultures of other countries. Yacoba believes that by “washing the feet of others, mine too will be washed.” Her determination and ability to adapt to any situation will allow Yacoba to be a role model and truly serve her community. She is able to adapt quickly to new, foreign situations. Yacoba’s goal “is not to study the children that I work with nor the local people that I encounter, but to understand how such circumstances affect real people and lives and how we in the global North can truly help.” Yacoba has a passion for service work and international development. “As someone who truly wants to understand the nuances of development problems,” Yacoba believes she will be able to truly benefit from her Fellowship. Yacoba hopes to take the knowledge she gains home to her friends, the Dartmouth community, and with her on the rest of the travels throughout her life. Her passion for change, interest in global development and deep faith will assist her during her time in Nicaragua.
Katie Ferguson ‘10
Operation ASHA—Medical Intern
New Delhi, India
Katie hopes to further her interests and knowledge in international medicine through ASHA’s medical intern program. The goals of ASHA are to maximize Tuberculosis patients’ accessibility to effective treatment, counseling, and anti-drug-resistance programs. While in New Delhi, Katie will work along side physicians and counselors to help run TB clinics. She will assist in diagnosis, counseling, and direct care of TB patients. Katie is a Presidential for Doctor Talbot who researches TB at DHMC and hopes that her time in India will expand her knowledge. “While courses I’ve taken at Dartmouth have certainly expanded my perspective, challenged my ideas, and way of thinking, the opportunity to travel abroad will allow me to stretch my brain both academically and emotionally.” Katie is a member of the Dartmouth Rockapellas, an all female acapella group that sings about social justice. She also participated in SEAD during her sophomore summer, a tutoring program for under resourced inner-city youth. These experiences have taught Katie the confidence, poise, and leadership skills that will be so vital in her Fellowship experience. Katie hopes this experience will not only broaden her knowledge of international medicine, but also her views on Western culture and herself: “I want to be in an environment that shocks me, that takes a major cultural adjustment, that has different sights, smells, tastes, colors. With these challenges comes the opportunity of expanding my ideas of culture, social norms, and values.” Katie is very excited about the opportunity to do humanitarian work, have direct patient contact, learn about health care and medicine “from the inside,” and work in a developing country. During her Fellowship, Katie will “immerse [herself] in the work, culture, and experience Delhi with the goal of coming home with a renewed perspective on international health, medicine, academics, and, most importantly, a changed appreciation for my personal place in the international community.”
Joseph DeBonis
IVHQ: Orphanage Work in Tanzania
Arusha, Tanzania
Joe is one of our two Fellows traveling to the Faraja Orphanage in the outskirts of Arusha, Tanzania. This New Zealand based NGO aims at immersing their volunteers within Tanzanian culture while giving them the chance to truly make a difference in the children’s lives. Joe’s daily tasks will consist of cooking, cleaning, farm work, and most importantly teaching and caring for the infants and children at the orphanage. Joe is extremely excited about living with a host family and the opportunity for personal growth. He believes that “an experience in a culture even more removed from my own will prove to be an invaluable and irreplaceable experience.” Joe is also a Presidential Scholar Research Assistant within the French department. He has had several abroad experiences, including both the Foreign Study Program and Language Study Abroad in France. At the same time, Joe is anxious to challenge himself and step outside of European culture. “I believe few places or projects would give me the same isolations and perspective to really reassess my values and where I want to go with my life.” As conventional as it would have been to work in the corporate world for a term and get a big pay check, Joe wanted a much more meaningful and educational experience. He knows that his Fellowship will be one of the most meaningful and educational experiences in his life. The Fellowship in Tanzania will give him “some much needed perspective” on life and help guide him in his post collegiate plans. Joe loves working with children and has worked at a pediatric practice at home in New Jersey for the last several years. The lessons that he learned while working there has given him experience in working with children. He hopes that his dedication, level-headedness and honesty will aid him in his work at the orphanage.
Katherine Crowe
IVHQ: Orphanage Work in Tanzania
Arusha, Tanzania
Katherine is also traveling through IVHQ to the Faraja Orphanage in the outskirts of Arusha, Tanzania. Her passion for working with children stems deep within her academic and personal experiences. Katherine is presidential scholar in the psychology department. She is also a research assistant in the education department, focusing on Bosnian sociopolitical issues. Katherine has always dreamed of being a child psychologist because she feels that she is “best at being an active listener and providing comfort and advice.”
Ever since her experiences on the Language Study Abroad in Toulouse, France, Katherine has had an increasing desire to explore and push her own boundaries. In France she learned how to adapt to a foreign culture, deal with a language barrier, and live with a different family. She believes that these lessons and experiences will be very applicable to her time in Tanzania. Katherine is excited about the cultural differences she will face during her Fellowship. “Trying to engage with orphaned children in Tanzania will be a challenge of an entirely different magnitude, yet I think eye-opening and impactful at the same time.” Katherine is a very motivating, passionate and open-minded individual. She understands how important it is to be a “global citizen”, and to immerse oneself in a culture rather than one’s own. “For me, it is about an experience that will challenge my previous conceptions of cultures and people, provide me with entirely new types of working environments and co-workers, and encourage me to continually release myself from the trivial details of a pace of life that is often a battle to maintain.”
Cory Kendrick
Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa
Pokuase, Ghana
Cory is excited to spend her Fellowship in Pokuase, Ghana working for Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa. Cory will be teaching English, writing and reading to primary and secondary students at a community school in Pokuase. She will also assist with extracurricular activities and tutoring after school. In high school, Cory was part of the Liberals Club, a group spreading awareness about the genocide taking place in Darfur, Sudan. At one point her family did a 6 week exchange program in Bex, Switzerland, swapping houses with another family. However, being from a small town in Maine limited Cory’s expose to diversity. Once at Dartmouth, Cory immediate began to sense a change in her perceptions and interests. She was able to find “something deeper within me and settled more comfortably around it.” Cory took part in the Diversity Peer Program. She started volunteering with America Reads, a literacy tutoring program in the Upper Valley. Cory also went on the Spanish Language Study Abroad in Barcelona. Cory is striving to “challenge the boundaries of the world that I’ve lived in for too long” and have a new, “jarring” experience. Cory is also a presidential scholar and major in Cognitive Sciences. She is intrigued by how different learning is in each culture and how “every person really has a unique world they bring to the classroom, and how the teacher incorporates these myriad perspectives to make the class successful.” Cory is very conscious about her place in a given situation. Initially, the idea of volunteering in Ghana to teach English seemed “paternalistic and condescending, if not naïve.” However, with the right mindset, Cory “hopes to gain a new appreciation for all walks of life.” Cory realizes that she is a white, middle class, privileged college student, and wants “to know what it feels like to be the only person in the room of my skin color, what it’s like to be treated differently because of my appearance.” Cory is a very honest and determined person, seeking a challenge. She believes that the success of her Fellowship will be seen in the children she teaches, because “we are all humans, after all, with something to share with each other.” 
Ben Paly
Desarrollo Sostenible en Accion
Cusco, Peru
Ben will be spending his time volunteering for DESEA Peru, a organization committed to supporting the “construction of biosand water filters to help overcome the widespread health problems produced by contaminated drinking water.” During his time in Cusco, Ben will be constructing and installing water filters in the local community. The families selected to receive filters will be trained and assist in the construction process. Ben hopes this will bring together the locals in the region educate them in the importance of sanitation and water purity. Ben’s interest in Peru stems from his family background; he previously visited family in Lima, Peru and fell in love with the country. Ben is an environmental studies major. He has a great interest in understand the interaction between people and the environment. This past summer, Ben worked as an intern of the environmental studies department at the Second College Grant. His work focused on forest management practices and carbon storage means. Ben also is a volunteer for Outdoor Leadership Experience program, which takes students from Mascoma Middle School on outdoor adventures once a week. Ben has taken a greater interest in international environmental issues as of late. “Over the last few years one of the biggest changes in my life has been the change in my perspective on daily affairs to a much more global level.” Ben hopes that his Spanish speaking abilities, construction skills, and problem solving techniques will aid him during his time in Peru. Ben hopes that by stepping outside of his comfort zone, he will not only learn more about himself, but better understand his academic and career interests. “With a greater appreciation for what it is like to live in a world where water isn’t safe to drink and sanitation is either poor or non existent, I will be much more grounded in my studies and driven to learn all that I can.”
