Young Alum Forms Global Connections Through Service

When Sarah Scott `04 set off for a three-month service adventure in Tanzania last fall, inspiring Hawken students to make a difference in the lives of children on the other side of the world was not part of her plan. But that is exactly what happened. In Tanzania, Sarah volunteered at an orphanage called Rift Valley Children`s Village tutoring first graders and teaching a class of eleven 17 and 18 year olds a course called English, Computer, and Confidence. Unable to overlook an opportunity for learning from both sides of the globe (across the globe), Sarah partnered with her father Peter Scott of Hawken`s English Department to launch an email pen-pal program between Hawken students who are active in Alpha Company (a service organization on campus that has raised thousands of dollars and established friendships with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan) and students at the Children`s Village. The goal was two-fold and mutually beneficial: the Tanzanian students strengthened their computer and English skills (thereby becoming more confident), and the Hawken students gained a global awareness and connectedness and motivation to act. Realizing that the cost of internet connections in Tanzania threatened to end this correspondence, a group of about 8 Hawken students organized and ran a floor hockey tournament that raised over $400, enabling the Tanzanian students to remain "connected." Upon her return from Tanzania, Sarah came to Hawken to speak directly with the students about her experiences in Tanzania. She was joined by her brother Michael `08 who shared his experiences from a service trip he participated in last summer, which included volunteering at an under-funded orphanage in Zambia. This inspired the Hawken students to continue their fundraising efforts to help yet another orphanage, a "baby house" for infants orphaned by HIV deaths. Plans for the future include the possibility of sponsoring an orphan for a year as Sarah Scott is doing presently.