Class of 1954

I was introduced to the DPCS internship fairly late in my Dartmouth Career, but it turned out to be just the right time for me. It was during the winter term of my junior year that I first attended an information session for the Tucker Fellowship and DPCS internship opportunities. Hearing about the experiences of other students really hooked me and I began searching for volunteer opportunities soon after the meeting.

I kept an open mind while searching for organizations and the only real requirement I had was that I wanted to be involved with health care in some capacity. Thus it was my interest in medicine that helped me to focus my search. In relationship to my long-term goal of a profession in medicine, I decided to participate in a DPCS internship in order expand my understanding of other aspects of health care such as the field of public health.

In the past I had participated in several research projects/internships and I knew I could have found a similar opportunity this past summer if I had wanted. However, I was really looking for something new that would require me to step outside of my comfort zone. Conducting research had been interesting, but every time I reflected up on my experience at a lab or working with clinical records I realized that I found research isolating at times. I admire those who are passionate about their research, but I have discovered that I am much more drawn to opportunities that allow for collaboration and discussion with other people. Perhaps my perspective on research is such because I have not found a project that has really engaged me and I have often been doing bench work because of my lack of experience. I would like to eventually engage in other research projects and I do understand that there is a lot of space for collaboration and communication in this field. However, at this moment in my life I am attracted to other types of activities. Therefore I am so thankful that I decided to pursue a DPCS internship this summer where I could take advantage of opportunities to share ideas and work with others.

HOW I FOUND MY INTERNSHIP:

During the DPCS application process I searched several databases and sites for organizations that I wanted to work with. The Hip Hop Public Health Education Center was one of the first groups that caught my attention. I saw a posting on Idealist.org and proceeded from there. Although the posting on Idealist was looking for a full-time research assistant, I decided to call and inquire about volunteer opportunities because the organization seemed so interesting. From what I gathered from the center’s website, this public health education center used Hip Hop to share various health messages with children and their families in New York City. In particular they focused on educating people about stroke and about obesity prevention. On the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center’s site there were original songs that I could listen to as well as a documentary on the Hip Hop Stroke program that gave me a better sense of the type of work done at the center. The creativity behind the design of this organization immediately engaged me. Furthermore, the responsiveness of the staff, in particular the woman who became my supervisor, was very encouraging. In the past I had worked in environments where I felt that nobody had time to help me and I ended up feeling like a burden. With my interactions with the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center, starting from my first phone call, I felt welcomed and appreciated.

After some discussion with the staff and a visit to the center in New York City I felt comfortable enough to finalize my decision to work with the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center. I knew that my internship would be a learning experience for both me and the staff, since they had never worked with a full-time volunteer before, but I was not worried because I felt I was in good hands.

WHAT I DID:

At the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center I provided assistance with running the outreach programs. I enjoyed the variety of work that I did and I felt that my internship gave me invaluable insight into how to run an organization, in particular an innovative public health education center. I will outline below the different projects on which I worked while at the Hip Hop Center.

Apollo Theater Showcase:

The first project that I was involved with was a showcase of the Hip Hop HEALS (Healthy Eating and Living in Schools) program at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. I had heard about the world-famous theater and was very excited to be able to work there, even if it was for a day. During the first week and a half of my internship I was not able to participate in much direct service because there was so much to be done for the showcase. I helped to organize and assemble materials for the show and visited some schools to distribute tickets. Although I was frustrated about the lack of direct service during this period, I felt that it was a good introduction to the Hip Hop Center and New York City. I was able to meet and work with all the team members at the center and was asked to travel to different parts of the city when I visited schools and ran errands.

The showcase, which occurred on June 9th, was very successful. There were almost 500 students in attendance in addition to sponsors and other interested parties. This event demonstrated to me the importance of properly displaying one’s work. I learned that the Hip Hop Center, like many public health organizations, relied on funding sources such as donations and grants. Therefore it is important to be organized and innovative when explaining your work in order to catch people’s attention.

The on-stage presentation at the Apollo Theater, which was the result of many months of hard work by the Hip Hop Center team, was high energy and engaging. The students in attendance were responsive to the messages about healthy eating and active living that we discussed, and that was powerful to witness. A few well-known Hip Hop artists such as Doug E. Fresh were involved in the program and their presence definitely helped to increase the legitimacy of the message for the young students and even adults in the audience. Celebrities, whether they like it or not, are role models and it is wonderful when they can align themselves with a cause that is working for positive change.

Contacting and visiting schools/camps:

After the Apollo showcase, work at the Hip Hop Center returned more-or-less back to normal. I spent much of my time calling and e-mailing local camps in order to describe the free educational programs that the Hip Hop Center provided. I did get some responses, but I was surprised by the lack of response from some schools and camps. I thought that a free program would be difficult to pass up, but I also realized that there may have been issues with the internal organization of camp that prevented me from getting in touch with the right person. In addition, many camps may have been overbooked with activities by the time I contacted with them.

For the camps that we did visit, many of the counselors told us that they were very appreciative and enjoyed the high energy of the program. Being on the presentation side of the program, I felt that it was difficult for me to gauge the interest of the audience at times. Hearing that the students really enjoyed it meant a lot and showed me that public health does not have to be boring. Although there were some roadblocks, I really enjoyed being involved in the whole process of scheduling and then visiting a site (school or camp).

Training/Presenting at Camps:

Presenting at the camps was one of my favorite aspects of my internships. About halfway through my internship I began to get trained to deliver Hip Hop Stroke which was a program that focused on awareness of the symptoms of stroke and how to prevent a stroke. This was the first program that the Hip Hop Public Center had developed and from it the Hip Hop HEALS (Healthy Eating and Living in Schools) program was created. Actually presenting at the camps was a very powerful experience. Having a group of students engaged in your presentation was a wonderful feeling and I certainly want to participate in more educational work. I could not have been successful in this endeavor without my co-leader, Pete.Colon, who was a rapper with incredible stage presence. We worked well together and this helped us to connect with the students we worked with.

Mural Arts Project:

In addition to contacting and presenting at camps, I was asked to coordinate a mural arts project in Harlem to get the Hip Hop Center’s name out into the community. While I was very excited about this project, I quickly learned that finding wall space to paint on is fairly difficult in New York City. We wanted to paint on an undecorated wall in one of the public parks, but I was told that this was virtually impossible to do by New York City Parks. I did not pursue this project much further because other tasks came up, but I now know that there are other ways I could have accomplished this goal. For example, I could have done a walking tour of the city to find a privately owned wall on which we could paint. I will keep this in mind for next time.

Walk it Out!

In addition to working with children in schools and camps, the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center has developed the Walk-It-Out! program. This initiative is directed by Monique Hedmann and focuses on encouraging seniors to be active. Monique had built the program from the ground up. She developed several walking clubs for seniors in the Harlem area and arranged for tai chi classes as well as dance classes for them by collaborating with local physicians and the Alvin Ailey dance company. Monique was very welcoming and allowed me to accompany her on the walks and the workshops. I really enjoyed participating in these activities especially because the seniors were excited about staying active and were always wonderful to speak with. From this initiative I realized that group activities can be great motivators for people. The elderly really liked wearing the Walk-It-Out t-shirts and walking around in a group. Allowing people to feel like they are a member of a group or team gives them more incentive to participate.

I really enjoy working with the elderly and I was reminded of this through these activities. I had volunteered at nursing home in high school, but since coming to college have not had much interaction with senior citizens except with my grandmother who lives with me. I was thankful for the opportunity to work with Monique and gain insight into health care and how it affected the elderly. She is interested in becoming a geriatrician and brought my attention to the fact that the population in the United States is aging quickly and that there will more need for services for the elderly. My interest in working with the elderly suggests that I may be working alongside her in the future.

Stroke Support Group:

While I was at the Hip Hop Center I was able to sit in on two stroke support groups at Harlem Hospital. The Hip Hop Center is located on the neurology floor of the hospital because the founder, Dr. Olajide Williams, is a practicing neurologist there. Therefore, the activities of the Hip Hop Center were closely tied with the work done at Harlem Hospital. The stroke support group was run by my supervisor, Alexandra DeSorbo, and occurred bi-weekly. I had never attended any type of support group before and I was impressed by the candidness and kindness of each of the members. There was a wide range of people in attendance at these meetings. Some were almost completely recovered while others were in-patients at the hospital who had recently had strokes. I thought that it was especially powerful for the recent stroke victims to hear from those that were far along on the road to recovery. From the conversations in the support group I learned that a stroke can be very debilitating and demoralizing. Many of the members of the support group discussed their anger and frustration with feeling helpless after having a stroke. They always encouraged the patients who were still in wheelchairs to do their exercises and remain positive because things will get better.

The Hip Hop Team:

One of the best parts of my experience was the people I worked with. Each member of the Hip Hop Center’s team contributed to making my experience memorable. I became friends with them and this was the first time I felt in sync with the team of people I worked with. After having such an experience, I understand how important it is to have good communication and group dynamics in order to be successful. Now I would like to discuss the members of the team that had the greatest impact on me.

Alexandra DeSorbo: Alex was my supervisor. She is not much older than me (she graduated from college in 2007), but she is very accomplished and organized which gave me the impression that she had many years of experience in the work force. She is extremely dedicated to her work and would come in early as well as stay late. In addition, Alex was so supportive and really receptive to my ideas. For example, when I suggested a better way to design the Hip Hop Stroke presentation, she allowed me the freedom to do so and complimented me on the changes I made. I felt very comfortable speaking to Alex about any concerns I had and she always tried her best to help me make my experience better.

Dr. Olajide Williams: Dr. Williams is a wonderful role model for me and all aspiring physicians. He has excellent bedside manner and is very knowledgeable about his field. He is also innovative, unlike any other physician I have met, because of his role in creating the Hip Hop Center. Dr. Williams is one of the first doctors that I have worked with that has made himself so accessible to his staff. I truly appreciate that he is so down-to-earth and that he loves Hip Hop.

Monique Hedmann: Monique was like a big sister to me. She was always willing to give me advice and wanted to get to know me. The fact that she is also an aspiring physician drew us together as well. She worked so hard with the Walk-It-Out! Initiative and I was grateful to her for allowing me to take charge of certain elements, such as leading a walking club. Monique is so bright, supportive, and personable, and I am looking forward to hearing about her future plans.

Easy AD: AD is a member of one of the first Hip Hop groups ever, the Cold Crush Brothers. At the Hip Hop Center he is one of the educators who presents the health presentations to children in schools and camps. Although he is well-known in the Hip Hop community, he is incredibly humble. He is a role model for me because he takes very good care of his health and is extremely perceptive. While it is not related to my volunteer work, I especially respected him because he chooses not to drink alcohol. Before meeting AD, I was not very confident about my decision not to drink. When I mentioned this to him he explained his reasoning for abstaining saying that nobody should do anything that they did not feel good about doing. He knew that some people may not like him for the choices he makes, but that it does not matter as long as he is comfortable with his decisions. Although I knew this before talking to him, it helped to hear it from him. From now on, I will not feel out-of-place when I choose not to drink thanks to AD.

Pete.Colon: Pete was my co-partner in presenting the Hip Hop Stroke Program. He is a rapper and really understood stage presence, which I knew nothing about. By working with him I became a better presenter. Pete became one of my good friends and shared a great deal about his life, which has not been easy. He has been making amends and it seems like he has made a lot of progress thus far, but I also see that it is difficult for him to completely escape from his past. Despite some of his setbacks, Pete has shown me how much motivation and self-worth can change a person’s life.

Rounds at Harlem Hospital: Before starting my internship I had asked Alex (my supervisor) if it would be possible for me to shadow physicians while I volunteered at the Hip Hop Center. She said yes and during my internship I rounded with three neurologists along with many of their students (residents, medical students) at Harlem Hospital.

My experience was very informative not only in terms of learning the science behind neurology, but also in learning proper bedside manner. By shadowing three different neurologists (Dr. Williams, Dr. Noble, and Dr. Brust) I observed three different styles of doctoring. Each physician had their own way of greeting and examining a patient, but all were effective at providing care.

MY MENTOR:

My DPCS mentor was Dr. Edward Nunes ’77. He is a psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute which is affiliated with Columbia University Medical Center. During my DPCS internship I met with him several times and felt that I gained a wider perspective on the practice of medicine through my interactions with him.

The first time I met with Dr. Nunes we chatted in his office about his work, my internship, and Dartmouth. I learned that he was very interested in conducting psychiatric research and therefore spent the majority of his time collecting and analyzing data. This was a very different career focus from what I had seen with other physicians who spent most of their time seeing patients. Meeting with Dr. Nunes and shadowing in his research clinic opened my eyes to yet another form of doctoring.

MY PLANS and a little about Hip Hop: I discovered that public health can be a lot of fun. The Hip Hop Center collaborated with cartoonists, musicians, athletes, graphic artists, and video-game designers. This sharing of knowledge created a rich environment to work in that always provided learning opportunities. Because of my work at the Hip Hop Center I have decided to pursue and Masters in Public Health (MPH). Before this internship, I had no idea what an MPH was and what kind of work was possible with the degree. The Hip Hop Public Health Education Center showed me that there is no limit to creativity. Earlier, public health was not even on my radar, now I believe that I must stay involved in public health initiatives while I am practicing medicine.

Working at the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center also taught me a lot about Hip Hop culture, which I really did not understand before. I had thought that it was just a genre of music, but AD and the other educators explained to me that it was actually a culture that was made up of music, dance, art, and dress. Since then I have tried to educate myself about Hip Hop by listening to some of the original music, watching films about the culture such as Wild Style, and reading about the careers of those who started it all. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to expand my horizons in this way and to see how two seemingly disparate fields such as public health and Hip Hop could make a perfect partnership.

THE WORKING POOR:

The Working Poor was an excellent reading selection to assign for the DPSC internship. I felt that it informed me on several different levels about the barriers that many Americans face to achieving financial stability. The problem does not lie within one system such as education, healthcare, or welfare, instead it is a whole range of problems across several disciplines that need to be fixed.

I think the first step to addressing poverty is to understand the complexity of it. Reading this book is one way to do this, but I think it is also important to go out and speak with the people who are struggling with poverty. This summer I met several people that reminded me of the anecdotes that David Shipler shares. In particular I remember the story of one woman who was volunteering with the Hip Hop Center. It was the middle of the summer and she recently had the electricity shut-off in her apartment. The reason was because she was unable to pay her bill. She could not pay her bill because her employer did not issue the checks on time because they were disorganized and unable to stay solvent. Luckily she did have another job and her mother lived around the corner from her with a fully functional apartment, but I can only imagine what would happen to the people who did not have such favorable circumstances. The basic understanding that I have gained about poverty in the United States has changed the way that I approach social problems. I am now convinced that only a multi-faceted approach, which requires extensive collaboration, will successfully make strides toward eliminating poverty. In addition, I understand that by being in a position to learn about issues such as poverty we have a responsibility to make a change. My DPCS internship has provided me with the foundation to start effecting change, especially with regards to health care, and I hope that this is just the beginning of many more opportunities to learn about and give back to the society that I live in.

In closing, I would like to thank all those that made this internship possible: the staff at the Tucker Foundation, the class of 1954, my family, the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center, and all the senior citizens and campers that I met this summer.

Samuel McIntire ‘11

8/22/2010

The Rockefeller Center Internship Report

From June to August 2010, I was employed as an intern in the Office of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). My internship experience was made possible by a generous grant from the Rockefeller Center of Dartmouth College, a public policy organization dedicated to providing students with an “interdisciplinary perspective on policy-related topics.” The Rockefeller Center paid for my travel, rent, and living expenses, giving me the financial support I needed to experience an opportunity that otherwise would have been impossible for me to fund.

As an intern in the Office of Latin American and Caribbean affairs, I had many responsibilities, including:

. Researching and assessing counternarcotics and border control policy;

. Synthesizing a report on enhancing Department engagement with academia and the private sector and presenting my conclusions to senior leadership;

. Briefing high-level officials on topics including aviation security, Temporary Protected Status, Coast Guard operations, global health issues, and counterterrorism;

. Writing a speech on the challenges of multinational engagement for the Assistant Secretary of International Affairs;

. Meeting with foreign embassy staff, including ambassadors, to outline and discuss DHS-related issues in their host country;

. Compiling daily multi-source press reports;

. Contributing to the DHS regional engagement strategies for South America and the Caribbean; and

. Researching DHS global health priorities in Latin America and creating a criteria matrix for engagement prioritization.

Work in the Department was generally very fast-paced; on any given day, I might be in the process of completing four separate projects and have several meetings scheduled to brief regional directors and obtain information to further my research.

The most positive aspect of my internship experience was the fact that as an intern, I was treated as a responsible, full-time employee by my director and the rest of the Department. The vast majority of my time was not spent making photocopies or collating papers, but rather engaging in substantive, challenging work that actually had an impact on Department policy. For example, one week the Assistant Secretary of International Affairs (a high-level, senior executive) asked me to write a speech for her on the challenges of multinational engagement. The chance for an intern to talk to an Assistant Secretary – much less write a speech for her – would be unheard of in many other branches of the government. But because DHS is so small, there is tremendous upward mobility and opportunity to make direct contact with high-level officers, even for employees coming in at the entry level.

Of course, these positive aspects of my experience didn’t come without challenges. Because I was treated as a responsible employee, the work that I received required hard work and dedication to complete satisfactorily. Often, the directors of my department relied on my work as background information for meetings with high-level foreign embassy officials. As a result, I felt that every assignment I received had to be completed to the best of my ability and in a timely manner. With four to five projects on my plate at once, this wasn’t always easy. But for the most part, I felt that I was satisfied with the products I produced – as were my superiors.

Overall, the internship experience reinforced my future career plans. I always knew that I wanted to pursue a career in public service – in particular, policy development and analysis – and having a chance to get first-hand experience in the field only bolstered my convictions. I also feel that my time at DHS improved my professional skills – in particular, business writing and communication. Staff at DHS worked with me closely to edit my reports and briefings, showing me how eliminating excess language can simplify a document, make it easier to read, and communicate information more efficiently. I will definitely use these new writing skills in my remaining academic career at Dartmouth.

Working at the Department of Homeland Security was an incredible experience. I’d like to sincerely thank the Rockefeller Center and The Class of 1954, who sponsored me, for all their help and support throughout the process. Without funding, there is no way I would have been able to have such an amazing experience in Washington this summer. My internship has built an incredible foundation in public policy for me, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity.

Mbumbijazo Katjivena

Dartmouth College ‘12

Tucker Fellowship

Social Entrepreneurship Project at

Eldorado Secondary School, Windhoek Namibia:

19 June 2010 – 19 September 2010

For over three years before my Tucker Fellowship this summer, I had not stepped foot in the city of Windhoek, Namibia – a place I once called home without a second‟s thought. In those three years since the age of seventeen, I finished high school in New Mexico before completing two years of college at Dartmouth. Although I had learned and grown more than I had ever imagined from my experiences away from Namibia, I also felt like a tree in a windy desert – its foundations mostly eroded right underneath it. Consequently, going back to Namibia to do my Tucker Fellowship meant more than just systematically completing the project for which I had applied for funding, instead it also meant coming full circle and reconnecting with all that was part of my moral, religious, cultural and social foundations. It meant reconnecting with my own history and that of my people in order to have a clearer picture of what I hope my future to be; re-evaluating my own strengths and weaknesses; and rejuvenating myself after three exhausting years away. In a nutshell, my Tucker Fellowship allowed me to marry all that I had learned abroad with all that comprise my foundation in the context of a society whose destiny is so intimately tied with mine.

In the last year before going back to Namibia this past summer, I suffered from homesickness that ignited a lot of interest in the existentialist philosophy. I questioned the culture and rules of the American society I had matured in and compared it to the culture and rules of the Namibian society I had grown up in, I considered what it means to live a fulfilling life, what righteousness truly meant and whether it all mattered in the grand scheme of affairs. As a result, I was able to connect with author Dr. Chi Huang from the introduction of his book, “When Invisible Children Sing” – our Tucker Fellowship summer reading. Like Dr. Chi, I also questioned “[why] I was alive when so many others die from cancer, HIV, TB, was and famine"Why [I had] two caring parents rather than abusive parents who beat me every night? Was it luck? Fate?”1 Such questions defined a very private but important part of my childhood, and have impacted my life ever since – much like they changed influenced Dr. Chi as well. It is hours spent as a child thinking about those essential questions that made me convert from Christianity (a religion I grew up with from birth) at fourteen years old to Oupwe, the native religion of the Ovaherero. I felt then that converting to Oupwe would spiritually connect me to my ancestors and make me content, but that was not the case. Instead, I continued to question my spirituality and right before my Tucker Fellowship I finished reading the Bhagavad Gita (sacred Hindu scripture) and watched several documentaries on the history of Buddhism.

Huang, C. (2006). When invisible children sing. United States of America: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Therefore, I went into my Tucker Fellowship hoping to make sense of all that I had read and seen with respect to spirituality, something that I have been struggling with virtually my whole life. The conclusion I have reached thus far as a result of thinking about When Invisible Children Sing and my own service through the fellowship was completely new to me. Reading and mostly relating to Dr. Chi‟s spiritual journey, and appreciating his doubts and persistent questioning of Christianity throughout the book helped me realize that I can never truly know or be content with any answers to the fundamental questions of spirituality such as whether there is a God(s) or not, or why our very existence comprises so many “coincidences.” Consequently, Dr. Chi‟s desire to live godly life through service opened my eyes to a new way of looking at my fellowship service at Eldorado Secondary School. It was only after about three months into the fellowship that I realized how much the essentials of life were encompassed in service. At that point, I had been frustrated, stressed and tired, but I had felt honored by the respect the teachers and learners had given me, I had been rewarded by the success of my learners in organizing and completing two major fundraisers and I had been greatly and sincerely humbled by a simple “thank you” by a learner after I had given a motivational speech to the entire school. These experiences defined the meaning of life for me, and I realized that it is not worthwhile to over-think human existence while opportunities to touch others‟ lives pass by. Just like Dr. Chi‟s childhood and adult experiences shaped the rest of his life, my Tucker Fellowship experience will have a vast influence on the rest of my life in the same way that my prior experiences influenced and inspired the idea behind my Tucker Fellowship.

Social Entrepreneurship Project

Fig.1: Me teaching the learners

Growing up in a single-parent household with three brothers, a sister and an uneducated mother taught me a lot of things such as resilience and an appreciation for strong family values and ties, but it also exposed me to something very important and practical. I learned early on that where there is a will there literally is a way: with no formal schooling at all, my mother was able to will several small business ventures into existence in order to buy our daily bread that we ate at breakfast and took to school to eat there. To this day, my mother still operates her small businesses from home, and her heartwarming smile when I told her that she was the inspiration behind the idea for my Tucker Fellowship will forever be a treasured memory.

My thinking was pretty straightforward and almost too naïve: if my mother could open and operate small businesses to put her children through school and to both literally and figuratively feed them, why couldn‟t the many (50% of all grade 10 national examination candidates) grade ten learners who are kicked out of the formal Namibian education system when they fail the national end-of-year exam do the same instead of enter a world of unemployment (now up to 51% nationally), alcohol abuse, premature engagement in sex and crime? Not realizing that character and courage were just as important as formal education in founding businesses, I thought all I had to do was teach a group of learners entrepreneurship and go through the process of starting a business to benefit their school with them, and everything else would fall into place. The reality of events proved to be much more challenging, but it certainly taught me a lot.

From the very beginning, I realized that I had to be really focused and sensitive to the specific needs of the learners that I had selected with the “Life-skills” teacher to be a part of the program. Although it was wonderful to have selected a very diverse group in terms of ethnicities represented at Eldorado Secondary School, academic performance, and academic interest, it also presented a couple of problems such as attendance and dominance of class discussions by the more academically gifted learners. Nonetheless, all the learners had studied Business Management/Entrepreneurship and Accounting for at least three years, since those two subjects are part of the Namibian high school syllabus from grade eight through ten. As a result, I had to be observant to the learners‟ understanding of the content of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) textbooks from the USA we were using. I had to develop a flexible teaching plan, so that I could speed up through some parts of the book and slow down through others, as well as to take some time off from teaching in order to talk to the learners about how this program could be useful for their futures. I noted these observations in my diary on the third of July:

“With regard to teaching, I had to be really on top of my game: Monday was great, Tuesday not so great so on Wednesday I didn‟t teach but rather had the class share with each other their dreams and how the program could reinforce those dreams. I had some positive responses, which made me confident that my damage-control more [or less] worked.”

In order to maintain full control of the pace of teaching, and to make sure that my teaching was both comprehensible and relevant, I adopted a general lesson planning system covering each week and a more detailed lesson planning system that covered daily lessons. Consequently I developed some very useful planning and preparation skills, which were crucial in many different aspects of the Fellowship.

Speech and Fundraisers

Fig. 1: Grade 9G, Eldorado Entrepreneurship and Fun Day Champions

Early on in the Fellowship, Mr. Hendricks (school Principal) asked me to give a motivational speech to all the learners at Eldorado Secondary School, since I was in a very special position of having been in their shoes and attained some level of success in winning a scholarship first to complete high school in New Mexico and then to study at Dartmouth. I meticulously planned the speech and prepared a Powerpoint presentation to aid me. The speech was about what I termed the audacity of dreaming – the will to dream big regardless of the economic or social circumstances a lot of the learners found themselves in – and the entrepreneurial spirit, which I used to denote the ability to proactively pursue one‟s dreams instead of just dreaming them up. After the presentation to the entire school, a couple of teachers commended me on a job well done, but the most touching responses were from two different learners. One of the learners (a grade ten boy), came up to me and told me that he was truly touched by my message and that he would always remember it in his pursuit of the Namibian presidency. I was both taken aback, but also incredibly happy that a meager half an hour presentation may have such powerful repercussions for this learner‟s future and potentially my entire country’s destiny. Just as this learner was exiting the school hall, another boy followed him singing the chorus to Kevin Rudolph‟s hit song “I made it,” with the following lyrics:

“I look up to the sky and now the world is mine I've known it all my life I made it, I made it! I used to dream about, the life I'm living now I know that there's no doubt I made it, I made it!”

Although it was subtler than the first learner‟s response, I realized that the second boy had taken the message and internalized it in his own way and it was very satisfying to know that all the work I had put into the presentation yielded such results. I was glad some seeds were planted in some of the learners, and also that I had been presented the opportunity to reach out to over one thousand learners at the school and to develop some valuable experience and skills in terms of public speaking.

Another important lesson I learned was with regard to my leadership style, which was greatly tested during the fellowship. In addition to teaching the learners entrepreneurship, I also planned two big fundraisers with the learners involved in the program. The fundraisers were meant to give the learners practice in terms of business planning and organization with the aim of generating profits, and also to increase the funds to be used as start-up capital for the business they intended to start up for the school. The first fundraiser was a car wash venture in which the learners managed to procure the services of the Mr. & Ms Eldorado beauty pageant top ten finalists. In addition to using the finalists to draw customers, the learners showed great business sense when they decided to sell tickets to the car wash so they knew before-hand how many supplies they needed – that way they would keep their expenditures to a minimum and increase the likelihood of profiting from the venture. Furthermore, they made it mandatory for the teachers at the school to buy tickets so as to ensure a minimum number of customers, and as a further attraction they also sold barbecued meat and brötchens (rolls) as lunch. Since I wanted to the learners to be responsible for the entire fundraisers, I let them organize themselves into financial officers, logistics officers, car officers, etc with me supervising everything. Traditional to my leadership style, I was really flexible and forgiving with the learners, in the hope that they would begin to trust me and feel free to be really creative and as efficient as possible. Although the car wash proved successful and the learners made some profit on their starting amount of N$ 7000 (US$ 939.60), the second fundraiser proved such a leadership style to be slightly ineffective.

The second fundraiser was the Eldorado Social Entrepreneurship and Fun Day, which involved having several booths where the learners involved in the program sold some goods and services to other learners in addition to learners paying to participate in a tri-sports (soccer, netball and volleyball) competition among class groups. Some of the booths sold food, while others sold a music request service and photography, to name a few. My nonchalant leadership approach proved problematic from the beginning. We soon realized that supplies were grossly under-estimated, so I had to step up and use my brother‟s car to go and buy more supplies. Additionally, the soccer games weren‟t being run effectively, so I had to step up in that regard and make the teams hurry a little more when starting games so that we could finish on time. By that time, I decided that it would be much more productive if I were a little harder on the learners by reminding them of my authority and making it very clear what was expected of them. My tone became more authoritative and I was sterner with them, and soon things started improving. However, we were still unable to finish everything on time, and when the school‟s soccer team wanted to use the field to play a match against another school we were supposed to stop the soccer matches being played. The learners whose classes were still not eliminated approached me and demanded that they have their money given back to them, even though one class had won both the volleyball and netball tournaments and were therefore going to get the trophy.

I became quickly frustrated and angry as a mob of about fifty learners shouted at me demanding their money if they could not continue and finish their matches. The learners appalled me, since the money was eventually being used to start up a business that would help the school provide them with a better education. Why were they so ungrateful for all that the learners in the program and I were doing. It all made sense after understanding the following passage from When Invisible Children Sing: “The kids won‟t listen to you this month. They might listen to you in seven months. They don‟t want your charity – actually, they don‟t mind taking your money. But they want you to be a part of their lives. They won‟t listen to you until they know you care for them. They won‟t assume you are there out of the goodness of your heart; they think you‟re out to get something. Everything comes with a price. You have to prove it‟s free, always free, that you will always be there for them, even if for no reason.”2 P.64 2 Huang, C. (2006). When invisible children sing. United States of America: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

I realized that the learners may not have had the same understanding of the program that I was doing at Eldorado, especially since these ones were not directly part of the program. In order to try and make them understand, I had to be patient and calm with the hope that I could get through to their minds and hearts. When they remained adamant about with their requests, I decided to be strict and stern in meeting their demands. I kindly asked the school’s soccer coach to allow us to finish the games. When he allowed us to do so, I took a Machiavellian leadership approach and found that to make things run smoothly. The learners who were involved in the program were almost surprised by my sudden swiftness and sternness in dealing with the situation, but I am glad they saw that side of me. We eventually managed to finish the games, and although we did make a profit there was still a lot that I was disappointed with. I made sure to debrief with the learners in the program the next Monday, so that we all understood what we did right and what we did wrong, as well as our individual strengths and weaknesses.

The Entrepreneurship and Fun Day taught me a lot about myself, not only with regard to my leadership style but also with regard to my adaptability and damage-control abilities. I would need these two qualities one last time during my fellowship. Upon completion of the entrepreneurship syllabus, I divided the learners into four groups. Each group was supposed to do market research in order to understand the needs in their community that can be satisfied by a business, industrial research in order to identify competition, etc. before writing up a business plan accordingly. We had to however postpone the completion of the business plans because the learners had their end-of-trimester examinations. Around this time my tutoring sessions became more intensive, with more of the learners coming in for help and staying longer too. Since the learners were not giving me earlier notification of what they needed help on, I had to be versatile in my tutoring. Furthermore, I had to adapt very quickly to moving between learners and academic concepts. Although the learners assured me that they understood the concepts as I was explaining to them, their examination results were not really up to par. Nonetheless, I quickly realized that although I could possibly have done a bit more in helping them by perhaps encouraging them to come earlier to tutoring sessions, most of them had not done their part either.

After the examinations, school closed for three weeks before resuming in early September. As soon as school resumed, we hit the ground running and completed the business plans. Two of the groups wanted to open up an Internet café using the school‟s computers so they joined together, and one of the groups was unsuccessful in writing up a business plan for a driving school. The last group was really productive and managed to complete two business plans, one for a Tuck Shop (shop at the school selling warm food and snacks during lunch break) and another for a transportation business using the school‟s minibus. I was really happy with the market research that the learners had conducted and with what they found, and I am happier to declare that there was enough capital to fund all three businesses. Additionally, the businesses will be completely student-run using models that each of the groups described in their business plans, and the teachers were all really enthusiastic about the businesses as they recognized the power they have to improve the school‟s educational standards. For example, the learners estimated that they would altogether generate about N$ 120 000 (US$ 16 107) per annum. Unfortunately, time ran out before I could see the opening of the businesses, but I will serve as an advisor to all the businesses and will therefore be in close contact with the learners and the teachers.

Special Relationships

I can confidently conclude that I have developed special relationships with all my learners, the teachers, the principal and the school in general. There was a mutual respect between the teachers and I, which prompted them to invite me to be a judge at the Mr. & Ms. Eldorado beauty pageant (for which I was tremendously honored to be a part of) and to be a special guest at the annual farewell dinner and gala for matriculating grade twelve learners. Since I had missed my own farewell due to my scholarship, the farewell was a truly special night for me and solidified my relationship with the school.

Nonetheless, there were two learners in my entrepreneurship class with whom I developed really special relationships with. The first is Agenda Nawa, a grade eleven female learner who lives under very difficult circumstances at home. She lives about eight or ten miles away from the school, and because her mother recently became terminally ill she has had to walk to school. Furthermore, she does so many chores at home and barely has time for her school work, but despite all these challenges she is one of the better performing learners in her grade academically. More importantly however, she is literally the most cheerful and caring people I have ever met, two traits that made me appreciate the importance of optimism and sheer will for life. Agenda has truly inspired me, and I have kept all her funny text messages and farewell letter that she wrote me.

The second learner with whom I developed a special relationship was Tangi Olavi, a grade eleven boy who dreams of becoming an engineer. In Tangi I was reminded of my time at Eldorado, the determination to be the best academically, the hard-working mentality and the persistence in sticking to one‟s goals. I would always be honored by Tangi‟s compliments about how I was an inspiration to him – I only hope he took to heart the only time I told him how much he had inspired me and rekindled my passion for school. It is because of both Tangi and Agenda that I now feel more confident in pursuing my goals for the distant future.

Future goals and my time back at Dartmouth

My father has always told me that my studying in the United States is reminiscent of a hunter who has gone out into the wilderness looking for game to kill so that he can feed his family who are waiting at the homestead. That hunter never comes home until he has killed something that will sustain his family. My time in Namibia for the fellowship confirmed my father‟s assertion: I now feel more strongly than ever that I want to return to Namibia and contribute to the development of my country, but only after I am done with my professional training in the USA. I have reached that decision due to the interactions I have had with not only my learners, but also my friends and family; and also due to the realization that I am my most productive when I am at home. Consider this diary entry on June 21st:

“There is no doubting the effect being back at home has already had on me: I feel more relaxed, despite Mama and Tjizoo‟s (younger brother) constant arguing; more focused as memories flood into my mind everytime I see something that‟s been here throughout my entire childhood. I am really at peace, in that I don‟t feel as though there is something at the back of my mind that I need to be worrying about.”

The miracle of being home has had a rejuvenate effect on me, and although my first week back at Dartmouth has been characterized by slight sadness I know that I am more than ready to tackle the challenge of academics again.

In that regard, I hope to pursue a Master‟s Degree in mechanical engineering, and later an MBA. The reason I want to combine business and engineering is to be able to contribute to the industrialization of my country, but to do that with an emphasis on business growth in the country as well. In line with the fellowship, I hope that I will be able to contribute heavily to social entrepreneurship in Namibia especially since it is my mother‟s entrepreneurial spirit that has allowed me to come this far. In the meantime, I hope to attain my Bachelor‟s degree with a great GPA because I realize that a good GPA will make my pursuit for further education much easier. In the process of doing so, I would also love to apply to the Davis Projects for Peace Grant so that I can replicate the program at Eldorado at other Windhoek high schools that would benefit the same way as Eldorado Secondary School. Should I be granted the Davis grant, I am sure that I would have as great of a time as I did on my Tucker Fellowship, but it remains very difficult for me to imagine another experience being as special as this. .

David Johnson ‘11

The Dickey Center

3/30/10

My Uganda Experience

The first day of work at Baitambogwe Savings and Credit Co-Operative (SACCO), I was pleasantly surprised to find an office with the basic amenities one would expect of a rural credit union. The three roomed establishment had a wall-to-wall counter with a glass façade, several ledgers documenting their financial activity, electricity, and even a functioning computer (albeit with no internet access). Posted on the wall were transaction regulations, personal financial management tips, and an outline of the firm’s corporate structure, including a nine-member board of trustees, supervisory, auditing, and loan committees, and a full time management staff. I then sat down with the SACCO’s manager, reviewed their business plan and 2009 annual report, and we collaboratively outlined ambitious objectives for my internship. We decided that my chief undertakings would be developing an Investment Policy Statement for the SACCO to facilitate their entry into the realm of investing their excess capital, writing grant solicitations in an effort to raise funds towards purchasing a tractor, and spearheading a marketing campaign to increase the SACCO’s visibility and market share.

However, before I could execute any of these things at a high level, I needed to know the organization inside and out. I decided an audit of the SACCO’s recent financial history would be an appropriate undertaking, and a relatively quick one at that, given that they had a functioning computer which I presumed contained the relevant data. But alas, here came my first challenge: this presumption was woefully incorrect. While the computer was functional, they had put literally no helpful information on it. All of their financial activity was documented in handwritten ledgers which had yet to be computerized. Reviewing these handwritten ledgers and analyzing the data within them would be cumbersome to the point of being counter-productive. This was a roadblock, but not one that I thought to be insurmountable. It merely created an additional task: convert their handwritten ledgers into Excel spreadsheets, which would streamline the process of compiling daily, monthly, and annual aggregate figures, and enable the expeditious analysis of these figures.

On the third day, excited by the opportunity to provide them with real value so early on in the internship, I showed up early for work, only to find no one there (management would eventually mosey in forty-five minutes after we were supposed to have opened). Once inside the office, I gathered their loan repayment tables for the previous three months, and began feverishly inputting data into a spreadsheet. Around 12:30 PM, pleased with my progress, I went and bought a hearty lunch for the equivalent of forty cents. Twenty minutes later, full of goat meat and invigorated to return to the task at hand, I came back to the office, only to find that the power was out – the first, of what would turn out to be many, of my Ugandan blackout experiences. Quite the disappointment, but the manager assured me that these things usually only last a few minutes.

Though frustrated by the inconvenience – and my idiocy in forgetting to save my work – I was determined to maintain productivity. I took this as an opportunity to examine individual client ledgers, and in doing so deepen my understanding of the SACCO and its constituents. Furthermore, it would enable me to cross-reference the two databases (monthly loan repayment tables and individual client ledgers) to ensure accounting consistency. It was here that I came across what would prove to be the most formidable challenge I would face during my internship: the only consistent thread across accounting databases was egregious inconsistency. Rectifying this, and ensuring that numbers were accurate, would mean pouring over every receipt, for every single daily transaction, and re-recording them onto the appropriate ledgers – a task that would take the entirety of my eight-week stay. I remember it being 4:05 PM – three and a half hours into what was supposed to be a blackout of ‘a few minutes’ – and for the first time, I felt that pervasive feeling of helplessness that I think every volunteer in Africa inevitably feels at some point.

I tell that story because it accurately encapsulates my experience in Uganda, both in and out of my internship. I would identify a need, formulate an action plan to address it, begin executing the plan, only to find an issue imbedded within the original need. I’d then formulate a plan to address this new need, find another imbedded issue, and so on, until I could find a firm foundation upon which I could begin building. Beating down this pervading feeling of futility to truly make a difference and accomplish anything substantial was a full time job on its own. But the journey to the bottom of the rabbit hole that was Baitambogwe SACCO taught me more than I ever could have learned from a classroom in New Hampshire about rural African microfinance, and how easy it is to become completely unsustainable as an organization without anyone taking notice. The journey to the bottom also made the progress we were able to make back towards the proverbial surface of sustainability that much more gratifying.

After discovering the degree to which numbers varied across databases, still a brazen, maverick westerner bent on precision, I saw no alternative to taking the issue head on and undertaking the laborious task of looking at all of the SACCO’s transactions and rectifying all the databases. So I began doing so for the months of December 2009 and January 2010. Along the way I made several discoveries. Most alarmingly, I found that the SACCO made a regular practice of issuing so called “special loans”, which were undocumented other than the loan applications themselves. The rabbit hole gets deeper when corruption is thrown into the mix, as some of these loans have been to members of the board of trustees at favorable interest rates – in fact, the chairman of the board is currently five months in default on a zero-interest loan of 3 million Ugandan Shillings (4% of the total outstanding portfolio). I also discovered that the loan recovery rate of 81% for the month of December 2009 which the manager reported to the Microfinance Support Centre (Uganda’s microfinance supervisory and financing body) was in fact well above the 49% which they actually recovered. The implications of this discrepancy were vast, as it would be the difference between the SACCO receiving another round of financing in the coming months, and possibly having the management of the SACCO removed.

When it became apparent that Baitambogwe was not immune to the corruption that plagues Uganda – and the majority of Africa for that matter – I was left with two options: 1. I could stop working with Baitambogwe, go to the Microfinance Support Centre, and inform them of all that was going on. 2. Continue working with Baitambogwe to mitigate the corruption within the firm and spearhead the work of getting them back on track to being sustainable and morally upright. I decided upon a hybrid of the two; I would continue working with Baitambogwe, and at the end of my work, I would provide MSC with an honest assessment of the status, progress and prospects of the SACCO.

So what was I able to accomplish in the end? The most rudimentary, yet I think most important, thing I was able to accomplish was making the management staff aware of exactly how bad their position was, and of the consequences of continuing to turn a blind eye towards it. They would already be insolvent in the event of a financial crisis begetting a run on deposits, and at the rate at which the SACCO has been disbursing loans and bleeding cash, without a financial crisis they will be insolvent in six months. I showed him that inconsistent accounting and the practice of disbursing “special loans” was exacerbating the problem, as it disabled them from accurately assessing their financial position; the manager vowed to increase the amount of care given to accounting and to cease the practice of giving special loans.

To aid in the effort of increasing the quality of accounting, I began the process of putting individual client ledgers and monthly repayment tables into Excel spreadsheets. I initially set out attempting to achieve this end all on my own, but about halfway through the individual client ledgers, I realized that it wasn’t an efficient use of my time, nor would it be sustainable after I left. So I stopped doing them myself, and taught the management staff the basic functions of Excel and its practical applications such that they could continue the process at their own discretion.

All the while, I was rectifying inaccurate figures across databases and making use of the skills I have acquired from my economics classes to analyze the SACCO’s true position. The culmination of the eight weeks of analysis was a meeting with the board of trustees wherein I presented a number of suggestions for addressing the issues that were evident from their actual cash flows – i.e. bringing the female-male loan ratio to 4:1 being that female repayment rates have been substantially higher than that of men, incentivizing saving through instating term deposits, collecting loan payments on a bi-weekly basis rather than monthly. I also confronted the chairman of the board about his loan delinquency and encouraged other members of the board to hold him accountable. I was very encouraged by the trustees’ receptiveness to new ideas, and in writing my 15 page report for MSC, which presented a comprehensive view of the firm, I incorporated my overall positive feeling about the direction the SACCO was headed in after that meeting, in spite of my negative feeling about their history.

What I think proved to bolster my effectiveness the most in the end, was setting aside my initial expectations and grandiose aspirations, in favor of working towards realistic goals which would provide sustainable, growing value after my internship. This meant getting away from being the know-it-all that worked feverishly in isolation that I was in the beginning, to become a team player that worked in conjunction with the managers, albeit at a necessarily slower pace, to provide them with a skill set that they can employ in my absence. While it was important for me to do this, it was equally important that that not be all I did. While I left the office at closing every day, I did my number crunching after work and on weekends on my laptop in coffee shops (they have unbelievable coffee in Uganda), and thus worked an average total of roughly twelve hours per day. Although my stay was only eight weeks, I was able to pack in twelve weeks’ worth of work in that time.

Something that I found very discouraging early on was that the predominant credit model for Ugandan microfinance organizations doesn’t reflect any sort of endeavor to alleviate poverty. Among other flaws, there is entirely too much focus on moral hazard and collateral, and not nearly enough focus on viable business ideas and diligent planning. The effect of this is that the poorest of the poor, who arguably need credit the most, still find themselves without access to formal markets. Additionally, people under thirty years of age, regardless of their true creditworthiness, have almost no access to credit because they generally don’t have much collateral to offer, and are viewed as amoral relative to their elder counterparts. Thus, you have a substantial, functional bloc of the Ugandan economy with no means of starting their own businesses until they become middle aged and have managed to scrap together some sort of collateral. I could write a whole dissertation on this matter alone, but I’ll sum up my sentiments on it with saying that I didn’t, and still don’t, buy into this model, from either an ideological or practical perspective.

But having a belief is convenient for anyone and functional for no one; the only way I saw that I could create some sort of transferable value was to do something to substantiate my belief. So in addition to my work with Baitambogwe, I started a side project that began as working with young entrepreneurs on cultivating their ideas and formulating structured business plans, and led into my supplying them with micro-capital investments (worth $20-$40) to advance on their ideas. In building relationships with my clients, making sure that they had adequately considered all angles of their business prior to receiving capital investment, and structuring repayment in a fashion that was both realistic and enabling of growth, I was able to mitigate both moral hazard and the risk of default due to the failure of their business. While the project was too small in scale and short in duration to be able to make sweeping statements about the idea’s general propensity for success, the success that we were able to have (we being myself and my clients) puts forth a counter-narrative to the notion that it cannot work. I have a Ugandan partner with whom I am working to continue the project and increase its scale and I hope to one day be able to devote myself fully to this endeavor, as I truly believe that our model is a viable means of both educating youth and alleviating poverty in a non-charitable fashion.

So all told, my experience in Uganda was everything I hoped it would be and more, despite the continual flow of challenges which I was confronted with. It offered me a sobering view of the gross inequity that the enduring cycle of corruption which plagues many African countries begets, and the relative impotence of the masses to do anything about it. I came to realize that my previous aspirations of going directly into the work of alleviating poverty after graduation were overly idealistic and would enable me only to affect change on a small scale. The microfinance status quo as it stands is ineffective; in order for me to have the autonomy to develop and prove the practicability of a new, more effective model I need to be well capitalized and sophisticated in my approach. Without this experience, I may well have gone down a post-graduation idealistic path that would lead to years of ineffectiveness and frustration. I want to thank you Dickey Center for International Understanding for providing me with the opportunity to gain this valuable perspective early in my development, as I can now optimally position myself for long term success.