Our unofficial correspondent e-mailed in from Bosnia-Herzegovina to talk about the heat, the people and the coffee. "The to-go menu has not been developed quite yet," wrote recent grad Lauren Hayden '07. "What is the rush for anyway?" Living and working in Zenica, the fourth-largest city in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hayden has immersed herself in a different country and a different lifestyle, one where the remains of war are starkly visible, where hospitality and food are paramount and tightly linked, and where there is always time for coffee.
Hamilton has a long tradition of community service activity but not everyone continues to volunteer after graduation. During her time at the College, Hayden spent several years doing volunteer work at the Utica refugee center tutoring Bosnian refugees as part of Project SHINE and was subsequently granted funding to work with the Bosnian NGO CREATIVUS for the summer.
CREATIVUS is the brainchild of Larisa Kasumagic, a Bosnian woman who came to Cornell for her master's degree after finishing her undergraduate work at the University of Sarajevo. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2005 to create opportunities for Bosnian youth, of which CREATIVUS is the result. The NGO runs out of Kasumagic's home city of Zenica, although they hope to expand into Sarajevo this fall with a "playroom" daycare, and is operated by Kasumagic herself; her sister Lejla, a recent graduate from the University of Sarajevo with a degree in preschool education; and Marijana Bakovi, a local principal and psychologist.
Hayden joins CREATIVUS as a Diversity and Social Justice Project (DSJP) Service Associate. This is a Hamilton program committed to social justice with a focus on issues of diversity and designed to support students who wish to make the connections between their own disciplinary or interdisciplinary work and the mission of the DSJP. It promotes the rigorous interdisciplinary intellectual activity necessary for social justice movements and characteristic of a liberal arts education. Hayden is one of three students who received the grant and is funded for 10 weeks of work in Bosnia with CREATIVUS.
She volunteers at the NGO as a teacher for the summer's English workshop, and helps plan for future projects and funding. This is the second of the NGO's projects: last summer featured a workshop focused on theatre and nonviolent communication which functioned as a component of a project titled "Growing up in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Facing History and Ourselves." This project was funded partially by the U.S. Government and a Boston organization which Kasumagic was involved in called "Facing History and Ourselves." Both workshops (last year's and this year's) are pilot projects conducted in English.
Hayden is thrilled to be involved with the group's work. She teaches two hours a day to a group of around five students, encouraging them to improve their fluency in spoken English. They have done projects which deal with their family, maps of the area, and self-representation collages. But with such a small class, formality isn't always necessary. "They need this workshop to practice and gain confidence in their English because there aren't many local opportunities to do so," Hayden explained. And there is no problem in extending the lesson; "we frequently go out for coffee after class to have more conversations," she added.
Hayden is already an experienced traveler, having visited Europe and Central America. She has also spent four months in Samoa through a program with the School of International Training. Still, she said, this is a very different experience. Although Americans are currently not very popular abroad, Hayden said, "I have been met with great kindness, great food, and great intrigue by the people here."
Living and working abroad is always a profound experience. For Hayden, the most obvious sign of what is different and, at times astonishing, is the way religion and ethnicity are treated in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a country with a history of religious conflict. Of her host family, she said, "Their support for change and total human acceptance seems unique yet worries some neighbors and many of the older people caught up in ethnic divides defined by the war." While working with her students from several different religious backgrounds, Hayden found that a definition of self which should, paradoxically, be easier because of the religious lines, is less evident. She told the story of one student who explained that she had trouble talking about herself because she was used to describing others or facts. "Maybe the U.S. is a bit too egocentric, but these girls have never even considered thinking about what makes them who they are," Hayden pondered.
Bosnia-Herzegovina is 12 years out of war and it shows. Hayden described a landscape of old steel factories and war scars, of students whose family trees inevitably include relatives who had died or fled the country during the war. After watching the anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre (July 11, 1995), Hayden wrote home, "It is estimated that up to 8,000 Muslim men died here within two days. Maybe I was busy celebrating my 10th birthday, but how did I miss this genocide?"
Hayden worked with CREATIVUS for their four-week English workshop, then moved over to Sezam, another local NGO. During August and September, Hayden will work with Kasumagic and attend lectures at the World Council of Comparative Education Societies conference, meeting in Sarajevo. She will return to the U.S. in the fall and hopes to work with a refugee center in her native Vermont. Hayden will be on campus in late September to give a presentation to the Hamilton community about her summer work.
Hayden has enjoyed her summer and is interested in making it an annual opportunity for a Hamilton student with volunteer experience and interest in other cultures. "I think there is much to learn through travel and teaching English in another country, not to mention the benefits of the homestay experience," she said. "Hamilton needs more programs beyond the small boundaries of the campus. Isn't college supposed to prepare us for what lies outside of the Hill?"
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
Hamilton has a long tradition of community service activity but not everyone continues to volunteer after graduation. During her time at the College, Hayden spent several years doing volunteer work at the Utica refugee center tutoring Bosnian refugees as part of Project SHINE and was subsequently granted funding to work with the Bosnian NGO CREATIVUS for the summer.
CREATIVUS is the brainchild of Larisa Kasumagic, a Bosnian woman who came to Cornell for her master's degree after finishing her undergraduate work at the University of Sarajevo. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2005 to create opportunities for Bosnian youth, of which CREATIVUS is the result. The NGO runs out of Kasumagic's home city of Zenica, although they hope to expand into Sarajevo this fall with a "playroom" daycare, and is operated by Kasumagic herself; her sister Lejla, a recent graduate from the University of Sarajevo with a degree in preschool education; and Marijana Bakovi, a local principal and psychologist.
Hayden joins CREATIVUS as a Diversity and Social Justice Project (DSJP) Service Associate. This is a Hamilton program committed to social justice with a focus on issues of diversity and designed to support students who wish to make the connections between their own disciplinary or interdisciplinary work and the mission of the DSJP. It promotes the rigorous interdisciplinary intellectual activity necessary for social justice movements and characteristic of a liberal arts education. Hayden is one of three students who received the grant and is funded for 10 weeks of work in Bosnia with CREATIVUS.
She volunteers at the NGO as a teacher for the summer's English workshop, and helps plan for future projects and funding. This is the second of the NGO's projects: last summer featured a workshop focused on theatre and nonviolent communication which functioned as a component of a project titled "Growing up in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Facing History and Ourselves." This project was funded partially by the U.S. Government and a Boston organization which Kasumagic was involved in called "Facing History and Ourselves." Both workshops (last year's and this year's) are pilot projects conducted in English.
Hayden is thrilled to be involved with the group's work. She teaches two hours a day to a group of around five students, encouraging them to improve their fluency in spoken English. They have done projects which deal with their family, maps of the area, and self-representation collages. But with such a small class, formality isn't always necessary. "They need this workshop to practice and gain confidence in their English because there aren't many local opportunities to do so," Hayden explained. And there is no problem in extending the lesson; "we frequently go out for coffee after class to have more conversations," she added.
Hayden is already an experienced traveler, having visited Europe and Central America. She has also spent four months in Samoa through a program with the School of International Training. Still, she said, this is a very different experience. Although Americans are currently not very popular abroad, Hayden said, "I have been met with great kindness, great food, and great intrigue by the people here."
Living and working abroad is always a profound experience. For Hayden, the most obvious sign of what is different and, at times astonishing, is the way religion and ethnicity are treated in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a country with a history of religious conflict. Of her host family, she said, "Their support for change and total human acceptance seems unique yet worries some neighbors and many of the older people caught up in ethnic divides defined by the war." While working with her students from several different religious backgrounds, Hayden found that a definition of self which should, paradoxically, be easier because of the religious lines, is less evident. She told the story of one student who explained that she had trouble talking about herself because she was used to describing others or facts. "Maybe the U.S. is a bit too egocentric, but these girls have never even considered thinking about what makes them who they are," Hayden pondered.
Bosnia-Herzegovina is 12 years out of war and it shows. Hayden described a landscape of old steel factories and war scars, of students whose family trees inevitably include relatives who had died or fled the country during the war. After watching the anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre (July 11, 1995), Hayden wrote home, "It is estimated that up to 8,000 Muslim men died here within two days. Maybe I was busy celebrating my 10th birthday, but how did I miss this genocide?"
Hayden worked with CREATIVUS for their four-week English workshop, then moved over to Sezam, another local NGO. During August and September, Hayden will work with Kasumagic and attend lectures at the World Council of Comparative Education Societies conference, meeting in Sarajevo. She will return to the U.S. in the fall and hopes to work with a refugee center in her native Vermont. Hayden will be on campus in late September to give a presentation to the Hamilton community about her summer work.
Hayden has enjoyed her summer and is interested in making it an annual opportunity for a Hamilton student with volunteer experience and interest in other cultures. "I think there is much to learn through travel and teaching English in another country, not to mention the benefits of the homestay experience," she said. "Hamilton needs more programs beyond the small boundaries of the campus. Isn't college supposed to prepare us for what lies outside of the Hill?"
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
