Student Dorothy Sewe featured in article, ‘Experts get down to business at 2009 Humanitarian Action Summit’ (Harvard News Office)

Experts get down to business at 2009 Humanitarian Action Summit

By Corydon Ireland
Harvard News Office

In December 2000, Dorothy Sewe and her family — fleeing tribal violence in Kenya — escaped across the border into Tanzania. In the first few days, all 17 huddled under plastic bags in the pouring rain. They camped outside the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, begging for help.

The family, including Sewe’s mother and the seven children of her slain sister, moved to a succession of refugee camps. With four blankets among them, the family slept under one of the tarps they were given. The other they sold for food.

Food was scarce, typhoid and malaria raged, and water for cooking came from a ditch that smelled of sewage. A year later, with safe passage to the United States, Sewe said she left the last camp “with a broken heart.”

Last week, she was the only ex-refugee among 150 aid experts, fieldworkers, and disaster-relief scholars who gathered at Harvard for an annual conference.

Farm Manager Steve Hed, PIM 61: A Personal Note on the SIT Farm

Steve was asked to write some thoughts on how he came to work on the SIT Farm Project,and his experiences with it thus far. His submission is below:

SIT Farm, June 2009

I was hired in mid-March as Farm Manager for the new Sustainability Farm on World Learning’s campus. It was in no small sense a dream come true for me, and remains so despite significant uncertainty around funding. I’ve been searching for this type of thing for the past 20 years, especially since my 2002 Practicum at UVM Extension’s Youth Horticulture Project. The reasons for my excitement are many; I’ll touch on several.

Theory to Practice: Two SIT Graduate Institute Students Put Their Education to Work with World Learning’s Development Program in Northern Uganda

by Megan McBride, SIT Graduate Student/World Learning Americorps VISTA

Those who attend SIT Graduate Institute attest to its strength in field-based learning.  Current graduate students Demba Diallo and Rachel Unkovic had the opportunity to apply this learning when they completed their practicum in Northern Uganda with the International Development section of World Learning.

Rachel and Diallo spent three month working in the Kitgum district of northern Uganda on the Kacel Watwero project, which seeks to assist vulnerable children through youth leadership training. 

US-based students: Good News for Student Loan Borrowers!

It is never too early to start thinking about paying student loans.  Some good news on the repayment front is that there are two new options that will help many students repay their loans:

The first is the Income Based Repayment (IBR) plan (available beginning July 1, 2009). 

Alumna Laura Beth Barnes Offers Advice on Professional Networking via LinkedIn

Written by Megan McBride, SIT Graduate Student/World Learning Americorps VISTA

Laura Beth Barnes, alum of SIT Graduate Institute’s   Program in Intercultural Leadership and Management, quips that she first logged on to LinkedIn as a way to avoid working on her capstone, the final project SIT Graduate students complete before finishing the program.  Her results, however, are not a joke: within ten days of creating an account, she received calls from head hunters offering her jobs in her field of sustainability and corporate responsibility.  Now, Laura is honored that the same people whom she regarded as pioneers in her field while she studied at SIT Graduate Institute view her as their peer and contact her with questions.     

SIT Graduate Institute Campus Community Farm Works to Create a Sustainable Food Source

The SIT Brattleboro campus now has an active community farm, thanks to the hard work of SIT Graduate Institute students, alumni and staff from the Brattleboro-campus Environmental Working Group. The 2 acres farm, donated by World Learning, is being tilled and planted by the Farm Manager Steve Hed (an SIT Graduate alum) with the support of the World Learning/SIT facilities crew. The project is a partnership with Post Oil Solutions, a Brattleboro-based organization. 

Faculty Member Janaki Natarajan Tschannerl: Living and Learning at Bapagrama (Article from KST)

At SIT Graduate Institute, our faculty are practitioners as well as facilitators of the learning process.  In addition to their teaching responsibilities, faculty members practice what they teach, in positions such as consultants to international NGOs, advocates for social change within our local community and beyond, developing peace-building camps and facilitating conflict-resolution workshops.  Faculty of the PIM program are not only instructors on topics relevant to our student body, but are practitioners who are able to continuously learn from their fieldwork and apply it to their classes.

One such faculty member is Dr. Janaki Natarajan, who teaches both at SIT Graduate Institute and at a local undergraduate institution, Keene State.   For many years, Janaki has been instrumental at linking her students with Bapagrama, a Ghandian school in Bangalore, India which is focused on the education of Dalit children.  We are pleased to share with you an article on her work which was originally published in ‘Keene State Today’.

Living and Learning at Bapagrama

Last summer, Dr. Baker, professor of psychology [at Keene State], visited a school in India that was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and is kept alive by the dedication of Dr. Janaki Natarajan Tschannerl. At Bapagrama, no one is an outcast, and everyone learns – especially the teachers.

by Linda Baker
photos by Linda Baker and Steve Clark

Janaki with Kat Harris

For years I have known about Bapagrama, the school that Dr. Janaki Natarajan Tschannerl runs in Bangalore, India. I know KSC students and faculty members who have been there, and I have fantasized about going myself.

Last summer I finally went.

On June 21, my colleague Steve Clark and I landed in Bangalore and were greeted by Raja, a member of the Bapagrama community, who drove us to the school grounds. We shared the road with cars, trucks, motor scooters, auto-rickshaws, pedestrians, and cows. The traffic was so dense and fast moving that I couldn’t detect any lanes. As I gazed out the car windows, I couldn’t take my eyes off the women’s colorful saris. It took us almost an hour to arrive at Bapagrama, where we were greeted by Janaki’s welcoming arms.

Article on Alumna Lindsey Bloom, ‘Southeast harvester is rising star in Alaska fisheries’

Southeast harvester is rising star in Alaska fisheries

By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Friday, March 13, 2009

Editor’s note: “Working Women” is a series that features a few of today’s women who have forged their way into jobs that are traditionally known as male-dominated occupations.

Fishing vessel Erika Leigh Capt. Lindsey Bloom sits among her crew after a successful day of fishing. Bloom is one of only a few known female captains that fish the rough waters of Bristol Bay. Photo Courtesy of Lindsey Bloom

It’s still a man’s world out there in the raucous Bristol Bay salmon fishery. But among the roughly 1,800 vessels jockeying for position, Southeast Alaska Capt. Lindsey Bloom holds her own aboard the 32-foot drift boat Erika Leigh.

Article on SIT Graduation, ‘The art of unlearning’

Graduates let out a laugh during the School For International Training commencement ceremony, Saturday, in Brattleboro. Kimberly Hatch/Reformer

The art of unlearning
By HOWARD WEISS-TISMAN, Reformer Staff

Monday, June 1
BRATTLEBORO — Former School For International Training professor Diane Larsen-Freeman told the 2009 graduates that they needed to master the art of unlearning as they went out into the world with their degrees.

Student Laara Manler in Paraguay – RPP: Year one (Master’s International)

Today is a rainy and cold day in Paraguay and like most rainy days, life has virtually stopped.  Most of the students have not come to school today, so my classes have been canceled.  I am in the practicum phase of my SLM degree and am working as a Municipal Services Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay through the Master’s International program.  One year ago today, I was on a plane on my way here.  About 13 months ago, I was still finishing my papers and was appreciating the end of a long winter in Vermont.

I already had an inkling of what Peace Corps life might be like, having served already as a volunteer in Burkina Faso.  This time though, I would have the added responsibility of completing the work for my capstone – and I realized that in my 30’s, the experience would be much different from what it had been in my 20’s.  I had a tremendous advantage this time however – the education I received at SIT.