Davidson Summer Stories

Angelina Darrisaw '09 (r) isn't a host for ESPN's Sports Center program yet, but she and fellow summer interns are on the set and learning how the media giant collects and reports news from around the sports world.

by Angelina Darrisaw '09

by Iain Addleton '12

As an incoming freshman, Iain Addleton was of two minds about summer. On the one hand, he was eager for the time to pass quickly so he could begin attending classes at his dream college. However, he also had a thoroughly exciting summer lined up, including a trip to South East Asia, where he reconnected with old friends. (He's the one standing tall in the background wearing his red Sweet 16 Davidson t-shirt!)

by Michelle Jester '09

I have had a wild ride of ups and downs in China since I arrived in Shanghai on June 1. Thanks to a grant from the Dean Rusk International Studies program, I'm spending my summer in China to work on my thesis. I spent the first week getting settled, exploring my surroundings, and beginning my thesis research and fieldwork. It feels good to use Chinese on a daily basis again!

Kimberly Larkin '11 is keeping a blog of her six weeks study in Ireland of the role that modern Irish literature has played in the peace process within Northern Ireland. As part of her Abernethy Grant-financed research, she has attended the Dublin Writers Festival, viewed films and plays pertaining to the conflict and its aftermath, met with authors, and read novels, plays, and poetry pertaining to life in Ulster after the 1998 Good Friday peace accords. She has also worked with professors, community workers, and local clergy throughout the country to gain a holistic perspective on the steps Irish society is taking to heal the wounds of the past and erase sectarian division for the future. Click on the link above to join her exploration!

by Rachel Hope '09

Greetings from the University of Chicago where I'm doing thesis (Religion and Literature) research at the Regenstein Library with my Abernethy grant. This library is so big that it puts E.H. Little to shame. But being the nerd that I am, it's really exciting to go exploring in the stacks.

by Upasana Khatri '09

I'm home now in Silver Spring, Md., enjoying the sights and sounds of D.C. and taking advantage of the University of Maryland's enormous library. With the help of a grant from the Dean Rusk International Studies Program, I've begun research both for my thesis and to gain a better idea of what I will be encountering in Amazonian Brazil this upcoming semester.

(l-r chowing down on taco night in "B" are Karen Kirk '11, Marybeth Campeau '11, Jessica Malordy '11 and Rosy Harvey '11.)

by Jessica Malordy '11

My journey after school let out was not very far--I packed up my belongings and lugged them down the hill to the senior apartments. Instead of going home to New York, I am staying here on campus, working in the music library for the summer.

I may not be traveling the globe, but the summer has nonetheless been an eye-opener. Summertime Davidson is a whole new place; from the construction to sports campers, not to mention the absence of students draped over the lawns. It took some time to get used to. However, now that I've adjusted to the relative emptiness, I am loving these months on Davidson soil.

by Justin Eusebio '09

I am emailing from the University of the Philippines Diliman (UP), locally considered the "Harvard of the Philippines," where I'm doing fieldwork (thanks to a grant from Dean Rusk) on Filipino perceptions and health seeking behavior regarding tuberculosis in surrounding urban communities. In the first few weeks, I've met and interviewed a number of government health officials and TB program coordinators. Sometimes it has been a real bureaucratic struggle, as I'm bounced from one office to another and then within an office a few more times. On the bright side, it should be smooth sailing from here, because I have scheduled all my focus group discussions for the remainder of the summer.

Sarah Moore (left, representing her Davidson pride) and a friend out and about in Seoul, South Korea.

by Sarah Moore '10

I am currently in Seoul, South Korea attending Yonsei University on a grant from the Dean Rusk International Studies Program. At Yonsei, I am taking Korean language and a North Korean society and politics course taught by the executive director of the US committee for human rights in North Korea. Through my professor, I have had the opportunity to attend conferences discussing the future of the Six-Party Talks on North Korean's declaration of its nuclear programs. I have also started to get involved with LINK (Liberty in North Korea). LINK is a human rights NGO focused on educating the world about the tragedies in North Korea and protecting North Korean refugees. Last week, I participated in a mock funeral demonstration for the children in North Korea in one of the most crowded shopping districts in Seoul. Later this month, I hope to teach English to North Korean refugees at LINK's Seoul office.

by David Orsbon '09

My name is David Orsbon, and I'm in the class of 2009, so this is my last summer as a Davidson student before pursuing Law School. In April of this year I found an secured an internship with an interesting group called Mecklenburg Sentencing Services, or MSS, which works with the Mecklenburg County Courts to provide alternative sentencing methods for an offender. The purpose of MSS is twofold: 1) help the individual break out of their criminal lifestyle and behavior patterns by providing them with a sentencing plan that outlines the resources that will best help the individual; and 2) to prevent the individual from serving an unnecessary amount of time in the Meck. Co. Jail or State Prison, which saves Meck. County and the state of North Carolina tens of thousands of dollars.

(A few of the boys from the orphanage dressed in their school uniforms.)

by Utsha Khatri '09

Namaste! My name is Utsha Khatri. I am a rising senior. I am spending my summer in Nepal. My parents moved from Nepal to the US a long time ago. Though I was born and raised in the US for most of my life, I have also considered Nepal my second home. I lived in Nepal for a few years as a young child. I also spent a couple summers in Nepal with my mother and younger sister during grade school. This summer, I am returning after 8 years.

Katy (left) and her cousin, Kea McKibben.

by Katy Sims

My name is Katy Sims, and I'm writing to you from the 6th floor of the UNC-CH hospital. For those of you unfamiliar with the place, 6-East is the cancer floor. For the past nine months, I've been receiving treatment for bone cancer.

Laura Fontaine '09 (far left) and her theatre class of 7th and 8th grade students.

by Laura Fontaine '09

We are the young people who make a difference." Every morning at Breakthrough Atlanta (BTA) begins with all 30 teachers and 120 students on the plaza affirming our commitment to becoming our best selves and striving to make a difference.

by Kyle W. Konrad '09

With the help of a Dean Rusk grant, an auxiliary Bonner Fund, and a gamble as to whether or not one of Bush's stimulus packages would wind up on my door step, I traveled to South America to study the way student movements affected democracy by use of riots, petitions, strikes, and general chaos. I arrived in Bolivia the end of May to begin meeting with the source of my Bolivia research, Ramiro Orias, whose association with La Red Participación y Justicia and other NGO's, has opened more doors to my life than I could have ever begun to imagine.

by Katie Morris '10

I am writing from Nyahuka, a small town in Bundibugyo district, Uganda (the Westernmost area, fairly isolated from the rest of Uganda due to the Rwenzori mountians). I have spent the past 8 weeks here on a community service grant teaching HIV/AIDS prevention in local primary schools and trying to learn to relate to a culture so completely different from anything I know.

by Emily Powell '09 (in front, in the green shirt, with co-workers)

This has been a crazy, unpredictable, and wonderful summer. When I visited my home in central Indiana the weekend before final exams in May, my summer plans still were unformed. However, within ten days, I had discovered, applied for and accepted a paid internship at a start-up automotive company in Anderson, Indiana. My job: to keep environmental sustainability in the forefront of my co-workers' minds, even as they travel the world to build their company.

by Brian Aoyama '09

Greetings from China! I'm writing from Fudan University in Shanghai, where thanks to the aid of Dean Rusk, Abernethy, and Belk summer grants, I've spent the last seven weeks researching civil society, public discourse, and debate in contemporary China.