Every summer Whitman Direct Action (WDA) travels to Guatemala to research economic development and humanitarian aid, but this tradition may soon come to an end. Ambivalence from members of the ASWC Finance Committee left WDA questioning whether they can count on any support and wondering how to fund this year’s trip to Guatemala without it.
Descending to Guatemala’s Pacific coast feels like stepping slowly into a sauna. As the air heats up and becomes heavy with moisture, the land flattens and the crops grow tall until the only perspective available is directly down the road you travel. Our bus, spewing diesel exhaust and splashing through puddles, turns onto a dirt road.
For the first time this year the ASWC budget request forms required club leaders to itemize lists of their expenses for each event they put on.
Senior Finance Chair Fritz Siegert worked on restructuring the club budget request form to address several areas of the previous form, which he found problematic.
This summer, three Whitman students will travel to Thailand to work on a women’s health project. As members of GlobeMed, they have partnered with a group called the Burmese Women’s Union, which strives to empower Burmese refugees living in Thailand.
Chance to travel to Guatemala for a summer reminds these Whittes of the incredible opportunities afforded to all students to advance their professional interests and passions.
Two Whitman alumni, Curt Bowen and Joseph Bornstein, graduated Whitman in 2008, and in three short years built from the ground up a successful non-profit organization based in Guatemala called Semilla Nueva.
Luz Rivera, lead organizer of the Consejo Nacional Urbano Campesino, and her translator and colleague, Stuart Schussler, are traveling to schools in the Northwest giving their lecture entitled, “Sowing Struggle: Urban and rural social movements in Tlaxcala, Mexico."
This summer, Whitman Direct Action (WDA) sent five students to Willywood, Guatemala to assess problems and needs in the community in hopes of returning to the same community next summer.
Profiles of student presentations at Whitman's annual Undergraduate Conference — everything from sugar-powered batteries to the similarities between love and wine.
