December 2008 

by Dara McCoy ife-changing opportunities available to Austin College students help them not only to discover that the world is bigger than themselves but also to develop their hearts as well as their minds to become true servant leaders. The College’s new Global Outreach “GO” Fellowship Program provided just such an opportunity to 10 students during summer 2008. The inaugural class of Global Outreach Fellows spanned the globe, travelling to Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, and Russia to serve in orphanages, provide medical care, teach, assist with physical therapy, and give of themselves to the world around them. “There is an Urdu saying, ‘Umeed pur duniya kaeem hai,’ which translates ‘The world rotates on the axis of hope.’ I hope for a brighter future for all nations whose young generation is in grave need of guidance,” said Asra Ahmed ’09, a psychology major, who founded a public health care intervention for young girls in the slums of Lahore, Pakistan, as a GO Fellow. “I wholeheartedly believe that this small intervention of mine will lead to big changes.” Students like Asra, who want to take action to improve the lives of others in the world, motivated Todd Williams ’82, Austin College trustee, and his wife, Abby, to fund the program. “There are few things more inspiring than young students who want to change the world and have both the energy and sincere conviction that they can,” said Williams.

• GO Video

• Reflection Papers of Select GO Fellows

Asra Ahmed ’09
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Bedford, Texas
2008 Outreach: Lahore, Pakistan
Countries Visited During College: Pakistan

In summer 2006, Asra Ahmed took a month-long vacation to visit relatives in Lahore, Pakistan. One night she awoke to the sounds of weeping from an 11-year-old servant girl hiding under Asra’s bed. The girl’s mother had begged Asra’s aunt to take the child as a servant to prevent the girl’s father from prostituting her to finance his heroine addiction. It was this heartrending memory that inspired Asra to start a public health care intervention project for young girls in the slums of Lahore during her GO Fellowship opportunity. Asra spent her time recruiting volunteers, selecting a sample population, and studying specific health problems in order to provide the most effective health care.

Holly Boerner ’09
Majors: Sociology and Psychology
Hometown: Boerne, Texas
Outreach: Debre Zeyit, Ethiopia
Countries Visited During College: Ethiopia (3 times) & Italy

Holly Boerner’s GO Fellowship, spent serving through Blessing the Children International at an orphanage, was her third trip to Ethiopia as an Austin College student. The trip and its impact on her life cannot be better described by anyone than Holly. See the online magazine’s WEBXTRA for Holly’s reflection on her month-long stay serving the children of Debre Zeyit.
 

Cara Barnes ’09
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: Bryan, Texas
2008 Outreach: Debre Zeyit, Ethiopia
Countries Visited During College: Cambodia, Ethiopia, Laos, Vietnam

During a 2008 JanTerm internship in Kamashi, Ethiopia, Cara Barnes fell in love. She couldn’t help but want to use her GO Fellowship to once again serve orphans who “stole my heart and taught me so many things” in January, she said. This summer, Cara worked at the Adana Children’s Center in Debre Zeyit, Ethiopia, through Blessing the

Children International (BCI) to assist in a new project that aims to provide a school, orphanage, and foster care for the community. Though Ethiopian bureaucracy slowed progress to a near standstill during Cara’s visit, she did teach English classes to hundreds of poverty-stricken children and helped provide care and love for one 8-year-old girl removed from an abusive family. “This experience solidified my desire to work with children in poverty-stricken areas, which means I do not think I will ever finish this work,” Cara said. “I have left a part of myself in Ethiopia, a part that can be found and feel fulfilled only through continuing to try to break the cycle of poverty that pervades my friends’ lives.”

Anne Engelhart ’10
Major: French and Art
Hometown: Southlake, Texas
2008 Outreach: New Akrade, Ghana
Countries Visited During College: Ghana and India

When Anne Engelhart traveled to India during a 2008 JanTerm course studying medicine and the environment, she became aware of the poverty in that nation as well. She was determined to take direct action about world poverty by spending her 2008 summer GO Fellowship in Ghana, volunteering for a clinic providing medical care to malaria patients and pregnant women. “In the whole scheme of things what I did would just be a drop in the bucket, but I can say with all honesty that being able to contribute — even if only a little — has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” Anne said. The volunteer nurses who worked with Anne at the clinic gave her inspiration for her planned career. “Watching how they are with their patients shows me the kind of doctor that I want to be — inquisitive and gentle, and absolutely unyielding in my dedication to serve,” she said.

Rebeca Kim ’10
Major: Environmental Studies
Hometown: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Outreach: New Akrade, Ghana
Countries Visited During College: Ghana

Rebeca Kim worked through Global Volunteers to serve in New Akrade during her GO Fellowship. She came away with a deep appreciation for the opportunity to serve others and the conviction that her work did not end this summer. Rebeca was especially touched by the time she spent teaching and encouraging students at the New Akrade Presbyterian Junior High School. “This was a truly humbling and precious experience,” Rebeca said. “Nothing is stopping me from bringing what I learned as a Global Volunteer into the United States and into Grayson County. Until I have peace in my heart that my job is complete, my mission is not yet finished.”

Stephanie Mathew ’09
Major: Sociology
Hometown: Carrollton, Texas
Outreach: Ayacucho, Peru
Countries Visited During College: Bolivia, Italy, Peru

Stephanie Mathew spent her GO Fellowship volunteering at a medical clinic, visiting imprisoned women, talking to nursing home residents, and playing with orphanage children in Ayacucho, Peru. She also served in a mental health facility, a rare service in Peru. All these experiences were especially impactful to Stephanie, who plans to pursue a medical degree and become a full-time medical missionary. “I think what I’ve learned through this experience, as I think many of my other colleagues have, is that even though we set out to help others and to be of assistance in these communities in different ways, what we received in return was far greater than anything we able to accomplish for these communities,” she said. “I know that my life and my world view have been forever changed, and I hope that in some small way the contribution of my time, helping hands, and knowledge made a difference.” 

Ashley Overturf ’11
Major:

Ashley Overturf, a sophomore at Austin College, was the youngest of the GO Fellows, but fewer years certainly doesn’t mean less zeal for serving others. Ashley worked with HELPS International as a part of an 84-person medical team that provided medical, dental, and eye care; ran a pharmacy; and built stoves for the residents of Uspantan, Guatemala. The team served about 1,600 patients, and Ashley witnessed life-changing moments: the birth of a baby, the death of another, and the quality of life that improved patient by patient from the administration of simple (by United States standards) medical procedures and medicines. “Guatemala gave me the chance to see poverty in a way that I have never experienced,” Ashley said. “I have never seen the effects of a lifetime of neglected health issues and the ways in which the people just learn to deal with the pain because they know nothing else.” It was just such horror that Ashley and her medical mission team alleviated, and the experience has inspired Ashley to pursue a career in medicine in hopes to continue to see pain disappear from her patients’ eyes.

John Mark Purcell ’10
Major: International Relations
Hometown: St. Petersburg, Russia
Outreach: St. Petersburg, Russia
Countries Visited During College: France and Russia

John Mark Purcell spent summer 2008 at home, but he wasn’t lounging about his house and enjoying family cooking. John Mark utilized his GO Fellowship to work at The Harbor, a program designed to help Russian orphanage graduates lead successful lives and avoid the pitfalls of drugs, alcohol, and prostitution. John Mark also spent his time teaching English at a foster home program and volunteering at a Christian camp for disabled children. John Mark discovered the different areas stretched and sometimes tested the service and leadership skills Austin College teaches, but found success in working through the challenges he encountered. “The dedication that the Austin College community has to involvement in service, not as an exception, but as the norm, has helped me reprioritize my life and goals,” he said.

Ben Walker ’09
Majors: Religion/Philosophy and Cultural Studies
Hometown: The Woodlands, Texas
Outreach: Cusco, Peru
Countries Visited During College: Canada, Mexico, and Peru

On his left wrist, Ben Walker wears a multi-colored bracelet woven from alpaca wool by a young Peruvian girl to remind him of his time tutoring and playing with children at Comedor Materno Infantil (Mother and Child House). The orphanage, run by a non-profit organization called Remar, became a place where Ben learned some tremendous life lessons during his GO Fellowship experience. Ben developed a new-found appreciation for his own life and opportunities from the sincere gratitude he witnessed for seemingly trivial occurrences: the gift of a new pencil that renewed a young teenager’s zeal for learning arithmetic, new shoes that produced a “better-than-Christmas” excitement on children’s faces, and a taxi ride that created wonderment in the eyes of a few orphans. It was contagious. “I will never forget running around with the kids on our makeshift soccer pitch with cows, chickens, and free-roaming dogs around and sometimes between us,” said Ben, who managed to buy “a real fútbol” and take the children outside the house for a game one day. “My time in Peru and my experiences with my children at the shelter gave me a new perspective from which to view the world,” he said. “I saw the pain and hurt caused by poverty and illness, but I also found kindness, acceptance, and love in the same places.”

Like most of the GO Fellows, Monica Martinez, Austin College student body president, was overwhelmed by the disparity in living conditions between most of the people she knows in the United States and the people she served in Nigeria. Like most, she questioned how this could be. After serving a few weeks at the Rafiki Foundation orphanage, Monica built relationships with bright, young children like Barnabus, whose entire village, including his parents, was slaughtered by a nomadic tribe. Monica didn’t find the answers to the harsh realities of life and doubts anyone ever will, but she found something more powerful than answers. She discovered a commodity that nearly all the GO Fellows both gave and received during their service efforts. “I found hope,” Monica said.

The Global Outreach Fellowship program was created in 2007 to cultivate the next generation of local, national, and global leaders by promoting innovative experiential servant leadership opportunities around the world. Students selected receive a fellowship (up to $3,000 depending on the project) that will support their participation in a project or internship fostering engagement with community development issues while providing a meaningful appreciation of both the possibility and the obstacles in leading effective chance in these areas. Fellowships are specifically meant to support servant leadership opportunities and are not meant to support “for profit” internships or opportunities.

Established through a grant from the Todd and Abby Williams Family Foundation of Dallas, the program is designed to support 250 students over the next two decades in efforts to gain experience while helping to bring change to the human condition within the world community. The selection process will begin soon for 10-15 Global Outreach Fellows for 2009. Applications must be completed by March 2 and will then be evaluated by the Global Outreach Steering Committee. 

December 2008  

Feedback?

Committee Members:

Peter DeLisle
Crane Chair of Leadership Studies and director of the
Austin College Posey Leadership Institute

Julie Hempel
Associate professor of Spanish

Viki Reeder ’84
Internship coordinator and assistant director of Career Services

John Williams ’84
College chaplain and director of Church Relations

Todd Williams ’82
Partner and managing director of Goldman Sachs & Co.

Abby Williams
Chair of Williams Preparatory School of Dallas

Holly Boerner ’09
2008 Global Outreach Fellow

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