Marisa Edmonds '08:

"Meen Erhabe? Ind Erhabe?"
"Who's the terrorist? I'm the terrorist?"

"I took up the chant, sung by Palestinian activist rap group DAM, in the streets of Copenhagen this summer, while dressed in hijab and walking arm in arm with an Israeli and Romanian, among others, staging a happening in an attempt to scramble people's preconceived notions of fear in today's world.  Thanks to a generous grant from the Haney Fellowship program, I was afforded the opportunity to attend the Independent School Study Abroad Consortium's Peace in the Modern World: International Conflict Resolution.  Held on the campus of the International People's College in Helsingør, Denmark, it was run in conjunction with Crossing Borders, a program aimed at establishing ties between youth of different, often conflicting, backgrounds.

"Young people aged 16-26 from more than a dozen countries around the globe, including everywhere from Iran to Eritrea, Hungary to Vietnam, came together for a forum on peace in today's world.  Their stories, regarding the horrors they faced daily, touched and continue to haunt me.  We discussed current conflicts, their roots and ramifications, as well as studying past conflicts whose effects are visible to this day.  We broached sensitive issues, most notably those affecting the Israelis and Palestinians present, many of whom were encountering the other in a non-hostile environment for the first time in their lives.  Not only did we attempt to work through many of the issues plaguing today's world, we met with several agencies at the forefront of peace work in Scandinavia, such as Norway's PRIO, the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Sweden's Jan Osberg, and the Nobel Peace Institute (who, interestingly enough, had an exhibit on global warming... highlighting ulterior motives, another of the problems discussed in forum:  is true neutrality impossible?)

"The Scandinavian location was chosen for its prominence in worldwide peace-keeping efforts, but there was an added advantage:  the sun set for only a few hours each night, as if to indicate acceptance of our desire to fit as much as possible into what little time we had.  Even with these longer days, there were many nights when, deep in conversation, only the rising sun would indicate time to rush off for an hour of sleep and shower before breakfast, where one was guaranteed a lesson in Persian, Chinese or German, or a discussion of the Indo-Pakistani conflict over the Kashmir, along with their muesli.

"The time we spent together was simultaneously the most trying and most rewarding of my life thus far, immutably changing me and galvanizing my will to action."

Katie Hughes '08:

"In June, I traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, for my Haney Fellowship at the Rollins School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control.  My experience meeting with researchers, doctors, travel clinic nurses, professors, medicals students and government officials gave me insight on many different fields of public health and the varied careers within these fields.  I was inspired by the passion and determination of these people within their respective fields and I gained perspective of the scale of the global health issues they work on, especially among the world's most impoverished nations.

"My Haney Fellowship experience gave me the opportunity to gain a greater appreciation of the severity of conditions that confront people in their daily lives.  The solutions to some of these problems are not complex.  It is a matter of resources and conviction that world health can be improved through a combination of government funding, research commitment and private funding to overcome these conditions." 

Emily Pederson '08:

"This summer I stayed in Cusco, Peru, for the month of July, volunteering with United Planet, traveling around the country and taking photographs.  The Haney Fellowship let me see somewhere completely different, and try to put that difference on film. 

"A Cuscan family hosted me and I was immersed in the Spanish language.  I did the most important work I've ever done at an orphanage called El Hogar Libertad.  The experience showed me how to find what's real in a culture consumed by tourism, how much power a camera has, and the exhilaration of traveling."

Kevin Walsh '08:

"For my Haney Fellowship, I was lucky enough to participate in three summer workshops at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass.  Berklee is the pinnacle for music performance and music education in the world.  

"During my time at the College I explored business in music, production and recording, and guitar musicianship.  Music business covered marketing techniques in a digital environment, copywrite law, record deals, and royalties.  During my production work shop, I witnessed a live techno concert.  The performers used Nintendo "wiimotes" to control digital instruments that they had designed.  Lastly, while studying guitar with professional performers, I was given the chance to meet Robert Godin of Godin Guitars (a high-end acoustic guitar manufacturer) to discuss some of the science behind building such quality instruments.  Because of the guitar's place in popular culture, many people forget that it is an instrument that requires as much attention to detail as any other, from the french horn to the viola.

"The three workshops furthered my knowledge and passion for the musical art.  My Haney Fellowship experience continues to pay off in a practical manner everyday for me both as a student in my Sixth Form independent study of music and as a performer in the professional world."

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