Joan Bosco spent the summer in a Pathology Lab at SUNY Stony Brook, where she researched the Sm group of proteins, the autoantigen targeted by the body of Lupus patients. She also volunteered at Good Shepherd Hospice, comforting patients, talking to their families, and she volunteered at a bereavement camp for children who recently lost a parent or close relative. Her summer’s experience helped to refocus Joan’s career goal from medical research to direct patient care.

Lorena Estrella worked as an intern/volunteer in Nagarote, Nicaragua for the Nagarote-Norwalk Sister City project. She collaborated on reading/writing initiatives, mentoring and helping students develop writing skills that promoted self-esteem and confidence. She created a Spanish language brochure for the organization and helped implement a reforestation project. She also held informal English classes and established an all girls reading club – an important accomplishment in a society that tends to marginalize females.

Nadeem Modan worked as an ‘intern’ with Indo American Volunteer Networks, a group he co-founded. He expanded his organization and broadened its contacts in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. His networking reach included the directors of Ahmedabad’s two largest NGOs. Also, as an intern with Society for the Promotion of Rationality, Nadeem worked on a sociological research project focused on the Muslim religious leadership in the Ahmedabad area: Who are they? What are their educational and socioeconomic backgrounds? What are their opinions on practical, relevant subjects? Nadeem completed an independent 90 page report on the subject, having learned about the intricacies of doing sociological research, as well as the practice of networking and building an organization.

Arielle Berrick completed a Permaculture Certification at the Aprovecho Education Center.  Her studies included Organic Gardening, Forestry, Permaculture, Bamboo Appropriate Technology (including: Solar Hot Water, Energy-Efficient Stoves, Solar Houses, Food Dehydration, Solar Cooking, Composting Toilets, Bio Diesel). Her hands-on projects -- solar food dehydrator, bike-powered washing machine, and bio fuel workshop -- equipped her with on-the-ground skills in agriculture, technology, design and forestry. Arielle gained a new a perspective on global food shortages in developing nations and the relationship of sustainable lifestyles to resource conservation. She wants to return to Haiti to encourage building energy-efficient, wood-burning stoves out of local clay, and to teach classes in English, Informatics, and Forest Restoration.

And of course, each intern had the same, familiar report of what their summers would have been like without our help: instead of adding momentum to their highly motivated and socially driven career directions, they would have held minimum wage, burger flipping types of jobs. Joan Bosco would literally have returned to her job dispensing that stuff onto popcorn at her local movie theater.

Please check the EQV web site [http://www.wesleyan.edu/alumni/eqv/] soon for pics of our get-together (See above). It was a small group, and I hope we see more of you there next time. More details will be on the way about these interns, and about how we, the small group of EQV alumni, can continue to have an outsized impact on the social leaders of the future.

 Paul Littell ‘67