James E. Caswell Undergraduate Leadership Fellows Program

The Sustainable Hope Project: How It All Began

Jordan Ackerman — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:28:54 +0000

I never anticipated that a mission trip to Haiti in March of 2011 would be the catalyst of God using my passions, education, and faith to lead to develop The Sustainable Hope Project. Now here I am, almost two years later, finding myself responsible for raising over $25,000 for recycling center that will hopefully be placed at Mission of Hope, serving their ministry as well as the community of Titanyen. If you’re currently thinking, “Haiti needs a lot of things before it needs a recycling center,” just keep reading. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 80 percent of the population living below the poverty line, and 40 percent unemployed. Governmental corruption, overpopulation, natural disasters, and land degradation have all contributed to the country’s current state. Honestly, my heart was not broken for these people until I witnessed their disparity first hand. God used my trip to Haiti to open my eyes to the daily suffering these people endured. God used that trip to show me that with His help, that I could make those people’s lives a little bit better.

Here at SMU I am involved with ONE28, a non-denominational Christian ministry. As a freshman, I received the opportunity to go on a discipleship trip to Mission of Hope in Titanyen, Haiti for Spring Break. After being accepted onto the team of 30 college students, there were several concerns that arose before our departure. The trip would take place only one year after the earth quake. Four months before we were scheduled to go, violence and rioting escalated in Port au Prince, putting a halt to all air transportation in and out of Haiti for an entire week. Cholera had spread throughout the county, taking thousands of lives due to the poor sanitation. The international news focused on the political turmoil caused by the Presidential elections that would be taking place the exact week we planned to be in Haiti. So let’s just say my parents were not thrilled that their eldest daughter wanted to spend her spring break in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Despite my family’s fears and frightening pictures the international news painted, the ONE28 staff kept us informed and continually encouraged the team. I knew going to Haiti was a leap of faith, but I wanted to go and see what God had in store.

Spending Spring Break in Haiti turned out to be the best week of my life. Every morning we awoke to the roosters at Mission of Hope crowing outside our cabin door. Our days were packed with serving the Titanyen community, hosting Vacation Bible School in the villages, and sharing the gospel. I had never experienced Christ-centered community like I did that week. Every single student on the disciplship team was focused on serving one another, Mission of Hope, and the Haitian people. The Lord opened up my eyes to the joy and faith experienced by people who relied on Him for lieterally every life sustaining provision. This was also the first time in my life that I witnessed extreme poverty, and people’s struggle to meet their basic needs of food, clean water, and health care.

After arriving in Port au Prince, we chaotically located our luggage and boarded an old yellow school bus that would take us out of the city to Mission of Hope. Eagerly watching out the bus window as we drove out of the city was the first time I witnessed extreme poverty. To say that the experience was surreal would not even capture it. Thousands of blue plastic tents lined fields and hillsides. Families had lived in these emergency relief shelters since the earthquake had happened over a year before. And then there was the trash… trash was EVERYWHERE. Ravines larger than football stadiums overflowed with garbage, plastic waste filled canals and cluttered the perimeters of communities. As the bus continued navigating the rough dirt road, I wondered how I had been so oblivious to this world of extreme poverty.

On an afternoon later in the week, the ONE28 team was asked to walk around Mission of Hope’s campus, picking up whatevertrash we found. We collected mostly plastic bottles and wrappers, stuffing them into large garbage bags as we walked. By the end of the afternoon we had made our way to the front of Mission of Hope’s property, next to their school. A few Haitian Mission of Hope workers collected our garbage bags from us, but then did something that absolutely shocked me. The maintenance workers tore open the tens of bags we had just collected, dumping all of the garbage into large heaps on the ground, and lit them on fire. Only hundreds of feet away from the classrooms and schoolyard occupied by hundreds of children, giant piles of garbage were being burned. Health hazards and environmental facts began racing through my mind. What in the world were they doing?! Didn’t they know that they were releasing cancerous particulates into the air, which would not only be inhaled by the school children, but travel for miles, contaminating local livestock and even the ground? I knew the men were simply doing their job, but this method of waste management could be significantly improved to protect the health of Mission of Hope.

As we walked up the winding gravel road towards the dining porch, I continued analyzine how Mission of Hope could treat their waste differently. I wondered if there were any recycling centers in Haiti. If only Mission of Hope and the surrounding community of Titanyen had a recycling center, not only would they have a healthy means of disposing of their trash, but they could even get paid for it! Being a petroleum-based product, plastic had monetary value and could easily be recycled into new products. I fantasized about how a recycling industry in Haiti could improve their health, create jobs, stimulate the economy, and clean their communities. If only there was an American organization that would come invest in recycling centers… If only I was an environmental engineer, or a wealthy business owner, maybe then I would be able to help.

It was not until 7 months later that I investigated the idea of recycling in Haiti. As I sat in class my Environmental Public Policy professor explained to the class that we would have to research and write our own environmental public policy, Haiti immediately came to my mind. I laughed to myself, knowing that this was the Lord’s way of spurring me on to investigate the waste management issues I witnessed so many months before. Completing that research assignment showed me how much bigger the waste management problem was in Haiti than I realized. Because there is no government-run trash collection service, Haitians are left with three options: live in their trash, burn their trash, or dump their trash into canals, rivers, and the ocean. Unfortunately, none of these are safe, healthy, or environmentally-beneficial options. The accumulation of plastic waste in canals and rivers has led to stagnant bodies of water that provide ideal breeding grounds for waterborne illnesses. The gridlocks of plastic also cause flooding to occur more quickly when storms hit the island, spreading the disease-infested waters, and further degrading their dirt roadways.

Through this research process I also made the amazing discovery that there were non profit organizations with recycling programs in Haiti! The best established and most successful recycling program I came across was Ramase Lajan. Ramase Lajan, which means “picking up money” in French Creole, partners with a larger recycling center in Port au Prince, and at the time had over 10 recycling centers already in place. Each Ramase Lajan Center provided over 100 jobs that allow individuals to make enough to be considered a middle class income Haitian Haitian standards. I could not believe it! This is exactly what Titanyen needed! Only one problem… a center costed over $25,000 to install. Once again I thought to myself: If only I were a wealthy business woman…

My initial excitement and passion slowly faded, dampened by the high cost of building a center as well as the unenthusiastic responses I received from peers I shared my ideas with. What reignited my hope for bringing a recycling center to Mission of Hope was an email I received early in the Spring 2012 semester. There was a new leadershhip opportunity on campus awarding selected students with grants for their research and service projects. The James E. Caswell Leadership Fellows Program was an endowment fund created in memory of Dr. Caswell, a beloved SMU administrator and professor whose life was dedicated to loving the Lord, mentoring students, and making a positive impact on the world. As I read the short biography on Dr. Caswell, I wished that I could have met him, I wished that he was still at SMU to encourage me and point me in the right direction. While I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I knew I had to at least apply for the Caswell Fellowship and see if the Lord provided a way for me to help his suffering people in Titanyen, Haiti.

After months of emailing and meeting with professors, racking their brains for any ideas or advice they had to offer, I finally had a rough idea of the project I would propose to the Caswell Leadership Program. I knew I wanted to help place a recycling center at Mission of Hope, but I still lacked a solid plan to raise the money needed to start a Ramase Lajan center. My project proposal was far from perfect, but I prayed that if it was the Lord’s will for me to coordinate this project, that He would continue to provide me with mentors & opportunities to make the project happen. God made His answer clear in May, when I was chosen to be one of the two Caswell Leadership Fellows! I could not believe that the Lord was choosing me of all people to complete this project.

While I have felt insufficient throughout every step of this process, the Lord continues to provide me with opportunities for growth and remind me that it is His strength and provision that are glorified in my weaknesses. The Lord has also blessed me with wise mentors to guide me through this process. I may not be an environmental engineer, a business professional, or a lawyer, but God can still accomplish His plans through me. God does not call the equipped, He equips the called. While people tend to praise my initiative and work for this project, I must quickly clarify that this was not my plan! I have simply pursued opportunities the Lord has laid before me with the resources, education, and network of people He has blessed me with.

If you have any questions, ideas, or words of encouragement, I would love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at jackerman@smu.edu.

Fall Semester Hi-Lights

Jordan Ackerman — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:00:02 +0000

This semester was truly a whirlwind! It’s unbelievable the amount of opportunities the Lord has presented me with, but I am so grateful for every one of them.

Throughout every week of this process, the Lord has continued to teach me in ways I’ve never imagined. When I feel like my efforts are fruitless or inadequate, He reminds me that His strength is sufficient for my weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Over the past several months the Lord has revealed the detriment of my perfectionism. I’ve realized how my unreasonably high standards for myself are not fostering excellence, but are paralyzing me before I even act. To combat my perfectionism I now remind myself of two truths every day: 1. My focus should be on serving Christ, not men (Galatians 1:10) and 2. The Lord does not require perfection, He requires faithfulness.

I want to thank everyone who has provided me with amazing encouragement throughout the past several months. It is revitalizing to see other’s excitement for what the Lord is doing through this project and my opportunity as a Caswell Fellow.

Here are some hi-lights of the past several months:

September

“You can’t sprint a marathon”

Dr. Dixon confirmed to be my mentor for my project! Dr. Dixon is an amazing Communciations professor, as well as an active organizational consultant. The experience and wisdom she has in the areas of non profit work and fundraising are invaluable to the development of The Sustainable Hope Project.

One of the many advantages of working with Dr. Dixon is her willingess to ask the tough questions. She quickly guided me to start evaluating the long term sustainability of a recycling collection center by seeking perspectives from a variety of organizations in Titanyen. Analyzing multiple organization’s perspectives would help me piece together the most accurate picture of the the current needs and desires of the Haitian people. As a natural problem solver and achiever, I had only thought about what I saw as the best solutions up to that point in the project. Implementing a recycling collection center in Titanyen would alleviate several problems I witnessed there, it was as simple as that. Thankfully, Dr. Dixon opened my eyes to the importance of the Titanyen community’s desires. Regardless of my passion and good intentions, no program will thrive long term unless there is a community behind it. So the investigating began!

With a seemingly insurmountable amount of research before me, Dr. Dixon helped me step back a examine the big picture, breaking down my research process into several steps. I could help but laugh at myself when Dr. Dixon told me, “You’re trying to sprint a marathon. If you keep up at this rate, you’ll die by mile three. You can’t sprint a marathon.” Note to self: This is a race of endurance and excellence, not speed.

October

Interviews, Timelines, & Presentations

October was filled with lots of e-mails, phone calls, and presentations. I was able to speak with Jeff Pelletier, Program Director of Ramase Lajan, and get my questions about the logistics and sustainability of the recycling program answered. Jeff also informed me that he planned on visting Mission of Hope’s campus to evaluate their land – very exciting news! Twice this month I was able to present on The Sustainable Hope Project. I presented first to the Caswell Endowment steering committee, which gave me an opportunity to meet the passionate supporters and developers of Caswell Fellowship. This energetic group gave me great feedback and ideas to ponder as I moved forward in the project. I also received the opportunity to present The Sustainable Hope Project at the Caswell Endowment baquet over Homecoming weekend. This provided another environment to be encouraged by Dr. Caswell’s closest friends and receive feedback. Another exciting step that took place in December was Dr. Dixon creating a timeline to guide the progress of this project, and help me define my short-term objectives to have finished by May 2013. Up until that point Dr. Dixon had only revealed to me a week’s worth of work at a time, to prevent me from getting ahead of myself. Here is my track for the rest of the Fellowship!

October – November:

Contextual Analysis & background research
Reputational Analysis of organizations in Titanyen

December:

Needs Analysis Report

January

Begin taking Dr. Dixon’s Donor & Philanthropy NGO Communication course
Audience Analysis

January – February

Message Development & Channel Assessment

February – March

Financial Assessment

March – April

Campaign Development & Profiles

Completed by May 1st: Developed Philanthropy & Donor Communication Plan (aka a fundraising campaign & all of the accompanying details)

November

Celebrating the Process

I continued to pursue organizations to get questions about the events, needs, and desires of Titanyen answered. I focused much of my efforts on reaching out to Samaritan’s Purse and World Vision, two international non profit organizations that have an active presence in Titanyen. Sandy storms halted communication for a bit, but I finally heard back from Global Outreach Mission: Haiti, an organization I had been pursuing for over 3 months! GOM gave me the names of other organizations active in Titanyen and gave me more insight into the current issues in Titanyen. Judy Heady, one of the founders of GOM, voiced that the greatest needs in Titanyen are waste management, water, food, and housing. Although this community struggles to obtain basic living necessities, Judy said that the community’s dream is to bring electricity to their town.

This month I was more than encouraged by my mentor and friend Dominique, who I got to know while interning for the Ugandan American Partnership Organization this past summer. Dominique helped me see that the Lord is not using this project solely to serve the people in Titanyen. Will a recycling collection center improve the lives of hundreds? Yes, but this project is also a HUGE ministry opportunity here in the United States, and growth opportunity for me personally. Although I had viewed The Sustainable Hope Project as an opportunity to share my faith with others, I was viewing it more as a task on my checklist. There was a sense of urgency – the faster I raised the money, the sooner the recycling center could be installed, and the sooner it could bless the struggling community of Titanyen. I was failing to focus on how this Fellowship was meant to be an opportunity for my growth as a leader. Dominique asked me what I hoped to get out of this project. What did I hope to learn and how did I hope to grow as a leader? Dominique emphasized the amazing opportunities held in the process of this project. I had become so focused on getting the recycling center in Titanyen that I lost sight of the skills the process was teaching me. While thoroughly researching and developing a fundraising campaign may stretch out the timeline before this project’s completion, the skills I’m learning are equipping me for future non profit endeavors and refining my leadership skills.

Finals Words

These are the milestones of what has taken place this semester! If you have any suggestions, ideas, or words of encouragement, please contact me! I would love to hear from you! Please continue to pray for the country of Haiti, community of Titanyen, and The Sustainable Hope Project.

Feedback Fun

Zahra Khan — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 01:47:35 +0000

With midterms in full swing and Fall Break coming up, I’m setting up times for focus groups. Two different sessions with freshmen–one with those who were genuinely interested in the web forum, and one with randomly selected freshmen–and two session with professors–one with D&D English professors, and one with those who participated in the blog. If you’re reading this and have been following the project up to now, please contact me at zahrak@smu.edu and join one of the focus groups. The only requirement is that you must have heard or seen something having to do with Think Out Loud this year.
Once I get some good feedback, I hope to make different experiments based on challenges the project faced. I’ll do this by first laying out the challenges, then creating tests where every variable but one is different. My first one is going to be a change of book.
While I enjoyed The Big Short, I can’t say I thought it was a particularly fascinating book with a lot of different POVs to be explored. My plan is to work with the SMU Library Book group to find a book (possibly associated to a movie out right now) that they are discussing and English classes will be discussing next semester. I hope to have this next book choice well publicized by right before Winter Break, so that students have plenty of free time to log on and start chatting about it! Let’s hope things work out.
As Bill Nye used to say, “Science rules!”

Product Marketing in action, Professors begin posting

Zahra Khan — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 07:04:42 +0000

I am so happy to have great mentors in this project. I can not tell you enough how much of a lifesaver good mentors have been to me. For example, Professor Nancy Park and I meet regularly to discuss project proceedings and deadlines. We’ve covered every issue from plagiarism to focus group timings and she’s been very helpful with presenting opportunities to me for spreading the word.
I also have great people working with me on this project who don’t happen to be mentors. Faculty, staff, and students are all doing their best to help make this project a success through contributions like posting the link on their department page, getting their Point of View up ahead of time, or promoting the project at their student events. It’s been a true blessing to have such great support.

On that note, Wellness professor Brian Fennig and Assistant Registrar Stephen Forrest have posted their views on The Big Short onto the wiki site! Please join us in the conversation, we would love to hear from you.

Also, our promotional water bottle coozies have arrived! With a choice of blue or red, students will have their pick on Saturday Aug 18th at ‘Night at the Club’ and while taking their Class of 2016 photo on the 19th! I am so excited to make this a part of a great SMU tradition.

Toodles for now,

Zahra

The Sustainable Hope Project Initiative

Jordan Ackerman — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 05:12:33 +0000

I never anticipated that a mission trip to Haiti in March of 2011 would be the catalyst of God using my passions, education, and faith to develop The Sustainable Hope Project. It has amazed me to see how clearly God has directed my path; although I feel ill-equipped, the Lord has provided for me to pursue this project every step of the way. A need I identified in Haiti was later investigated for a research paper in an environmental public policy course, giving me a starting point for this project. My ideas were then molded and refined by wise professors, proposed to the Caswell Leadership Fellows board, and are now an organized effort to help the people of Titanyen, Haiti. My hope is to provide sustainable waste management for Mission of Hope and the community of Titanyen by sponsoring a recycling collection center to be placed in Titanyen.

Why recycling? Because in Haiti, there aren’t garbage collectors who come to people’s homes to pick up their trash. People are considered blessed if they even have a home, considering 80% of people live below the poverty line and 40% are unemployed. The majority of municipal waste is burned or dumped in the ocean, if dealt with at all. Trash fills villages, hillsides, entire valleys, and canals. Waterways clogged with trash cannot flow properly, providing breeding grounds for bacteria and disease, and causing flooding when storms occur. People who chose to burn their trash are continually filling the air with cancerous particulates, ultimately hurting their health, and decreasing the health of local livestock.

While in Haiti, I noticed the majority of the trash that littered the land and canals was plastic products. Plastic which could be recycled into new products. Little did the people of Haiti know that one of their many burdens could in fact generate income! Non profit organizations, such as Ramase Lajan, have developed businesses models which provide plastic and metal waste management, thousands of jobs, and hope for communities that recycling centers are placed in.

It’s my goal to provide the people of Titanyen & Mission of Hope with sustainable waste management which will benefit their environment, health, and economy. I plan on partnering with Ramase Lajan to place a center in Titanyen. This a daunting task requires me to secure land for the center, raise $25,000 in funds, and find people in Haiti to permanently oversee the center. Although I am dedicated to this project until the funds are raised and the center is installed, I must set goals which can be completed by the end of my Caswell Fellowship program. Because I am not sure if fundraising will be complete by May 2013, I also hope to develop a curriculum for Mission of Hope teachers to educate their students about the importance of recycling and sustainable waste management.

I ask for your prayers, that God provides me with a mentor for my Caswell Program and provides the funds for this project to be completed with His timing. I cannot wait to see God’s glory displayed through this venture!

Things are really starting to move!

Zahra Khan — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:45:02 +0000

We now have a site! wiki.smu.edu/display/Thinkoutloud is up and running for all who have an SMU login to see.

It’s been less than a week since I started contacting faculty and staff about my project. So far, I have received positive responses from almost 43% of my list of names! That means that 23 members of the faculty/staff are willing to discuss The Big Short from the POV of their field of work. I am so grateful. Now that I have a base contact list, I am going to move from Phase One: Cold Calling to Phase Two: Getting posts up on the site. My guess is that we’ve got a few weeks before students really start to explore the Common Reading website and any extra materials on the book. In that time, there’s a lot of PR to be done and we need to fill the site with some substance. I’m looking into every professor’s field of study and every staff member’s interests. We’ve got some pretty cool perspectives out there that should be understood!

For those who have volunteered to participate, the task is simple and not very time-consuming. The first step is to write up your POV and post it on the wiki page. Once that’s done, feel free to visit and explore what others have posted, but you needn’t do anything until a student spearheads a discussion. Once a conversation is initiated, your only job is to discuss! Your level of involvement is up to you!

On other fronts, please check out the project’s Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/SMUThinkoutloud/
and its Twitter page here: https://twitter.com/SMUThinkOutLoud

I can’t wait to see the website’s activity sky rocket upwards!

Time Is Running Out

Zahra Khan — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:13:16 +0000

One thing that I have learned from this experience is how early everything needs to be done. I have set deadlines for myself for everything–sending out e-mails to professors, flyer completion, coozie orders, etc.–but not everything goes according to plan. My latest worry is getting the web forum up and running in time for the beginning of the year Common Reading discussion on August 19th. The beginning of the school year is crunch time for everyone on campus and everyone looks to be setting the same deadlines for the web staff. Troy Behrens and I are meeting with them on Wednesday; I’m racking my brain for any information that could be helpful for them. I want to be 100% ready for any questions or details they ask me for so that this site can go live as soon as possible. If the staff’s work-load is as packed as they say, then I want to be able to do everything I can to make our combined efforts as fruitful, polished, and stress-free as possible.

Think Out Loud: A Common Reading Initiative

Zahra Khan — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:38:28 +0000

My idea is a simple one. Empower a student to become a leader by allowing him to express his opinions in a friendly and educational environment. It all begins with a dialogue between a student and a professor. Uninhibited by any kind of bias towards one another or the eyes of a scrupulous audience of outsiders, like in a classroom, the two can work together to bring the student confidence in his opinion. By having a conversation with a professor, they can use the web forum as a sound board for their ideas, to develop them in more depth, and to forsee possible counter arguments. In addition, having the opportunity to talk to a wide variety of professors bribs greater breadth of perspectives.

My hopes are that, once students are comfortable with their opinions, they will have gained the confidence to voice them in class. A classroom full of confident students leads to a dynamic classroom discussion with a higher level of intellectual fervor.

All of this by creating a simple web forum. But for a successful outcome, both students and professors need to take the time to “Think Out Loud: a common reading initiative”.