http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/ en Copyright 2009 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:54:51 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss by Becky Whitten '11 I returned yesterday from a week at Lake Champion, a Young Life camp in New York where I was volunteering with the support of Davidson's Staley Grant as a child caregiver during a week of camp for teenage mothers. The camp was part of YoungLives, a Christian ministry to pregnant and parenting teen girls. My camp was the largest in YoungLives history with about 200 moms, their YoungLives mentors from home, over 100 childcare workers, and 170 babies! In Young Life you often hear people talk about organized chaos, but seeing camp function with 170 babies took "organized" chaos to a whole new level. We laughed during the week about the verse in 2 Corinthians that says, "If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God." ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/08/_by_becky_whitten_11.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/08/_by_becky_whitten_11.html Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:54:51 -0500 by Alex Su '11 Despite the fact that I had visited China in a foreign language exchange trip two years ago, I never got used to the long plane ride. After many in-flight movies, two breakfasts, a lunch, and 24 hours later, "Ni hao" (meaning "hello") was the first word I heard once I reached Taiwan this summer. I knew that word ever since I was little. For the first time however, I could say it to everyone I met. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/08/ni_hao_taiwan.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/08/ni_hao_taiwan.html Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:22:18 -0500 Haas (center in black shirt) and fellow interns get a bird's eye view of Washington from the peak of the Capitol dome while accompanying Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (in front and to Haas's right, wearing white) by Lyndsey Haas '12 I decided to kick off my post-high school life by working as an intern in the U.S. Capitol for one of my (Alaska's) senators. In the office, I helped to write the "senator's opinion statement" on a portion of her web page, gave tours of the capitol to visiting Alaskans, and ran errands around capitol hill (i.e. got lost in the maze of tunnels and corridors that compose "The Hill").]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/08/travel_experiences_in_our_nati.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/08/travel_experiences_in_our_nati.html Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:14:47 -0500 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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/research_in_china_requires_cre.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/research_in_china_requires_cre.html Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:57:00 -0500 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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/a_summer_of_learning_in_busine.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/a_summer_of_learning_in_busine.html Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:17:02 -0500 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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/ollaiyo_good_morning_in_lubwis.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/ollaiyo_good_morning_in_lubwis.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:40:02 -0500 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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/excuse_me_did_you_say_60_hours.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/excuse_me_did_you_say_60_hours.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:46:01 -0500 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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/we_are_breakthrough_atlanta.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/we_are_breakthrough_atlanta.html Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:01:53 -0500 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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/_katy_and_by_katy.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/_katy_and_by_katy.html Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:28:13 -0500 (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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/post_1.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/post_1.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:08:06 -0500 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.]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/by_david_orsbon_09_my.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/by_david_orsbon_09_my.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:02:46 -0500 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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/post.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/post.html Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:41:40 -0500 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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/encountering_philippino_percep.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/encountering_philippino_percep.html Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:08:48 -0500 (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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/seeing_campus_in_a_new_summer_1.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/seeing_campus_in_a_new_summer_1.html Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:49:54 -0500 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. ]]> http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/preparing_for_a_semester_in_th.html http://blogs.davidson.edu/summerstories/2008/07/preparing_for_a_semester_in_th.html Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:35:11 -0500