Page 7 - Priorities #21 2003-January

Student View
BPy Zuzka Fedorkova
aying attention to international affairs and the world’s suffering always seemed natural to me. But I never realized until this past year
how little I actually knew about the “dark side” of thisworld. Icertainlyhadnoplantohelp.ButnowI do—the World Refugee Academy.
I guess I can thank the British Broadcasting Corporation for opening my eyes. I spent the past year studying at the Stanford Overseas Center in Berlin. When I arrived there in January 2002, I did not speak German, and the weather was awful. I was pretty much trapped at the Stanford Center. The only television channel available was the BBC, and we all spent way too much time watching it.
Soon, I realized something interesting—I was getting very frustrated and depressed about world affairs. Everything that happened in the world seemed to be connected with death, war, or hunger. Every day I saw pictures of hungry/freezing/ ’earthquaked’/beaten children and women in Afghanistan and other countries.
In that rather depressing environment (later, I learned to love Berlin, but this was at the beginning), I started to wonder more and more about what happens to all the people in the news and also to all those who do not even make it into the headlines but suffer nonetheless.
One of my closest friends, Kujtesa Bejtulahu, a Stanford student as well, comes from Kosovo and nearly was a refugee herself. Her experiences of the war are recorded in the “E-mails from Kosovo” aired on many American TV and radio stations. Our interest in the “world’s problems” brought us together as freshmen at Stanford. Tesa had talked then about the need for an institution that would educate young refugees in leadership skills. It should give them leadership tools and encourage them to return to their communities, she believed. In Germany, this idea began to take a more concrete form. Last August, after a lot of talking and planning, we started a project called the World Refugee Academy.
Our ultimate aim is an ambitious one—to establish an institution, supported by international bodies such as the United Nations or the European Union, that would teach skills of responsible leadership to a small number of selected young, talented refugees. Specifically, these would be skills such as critical thinking, public speaking, negotiation, organization and management, and develpoing a global perspective on international affairs. We are not aware of any aid programs that fill this need.
We are excited to be moving forward with small steps. We already have a team of committed young people of various backgrounds at Stanford. We have support from a number of Stanford professors. Dr. John Bravman, the Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Education at Stanford, and Dr. Byers from the Stanford department for Management Science and Engineering are on our Board of Advisors, as is Benny Otim from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. We have moral endorsement from influential and experienced people such as Warren Christopher, the former Secretary of State, and Congressman Tom Lantos.
This summer, we hope to begin with a pilot project in either Botswana or Kenya, with the help of UNHCR. Ten to 12 Stanford area youths will work with young potential African leaders in identifying an important local project and accomplishing it, using strictly the resources in the camp. The project isn’t the point so much as learning—on both sides. Hopefully, the African youths will learn leadership. On our side, we will gain hands-on knowledge that will be invaluable in attaining our ultimate goal—the World Refugee Academy.
Dan Riveong, my classmate at the Priory,
designed our website—go to www. worldrefugeeacademy.org.
Zuzka Fedorkova is a member of the Class of 2000. She spent her senior year at the Priory through the auspices of the Slovak Republic student abroad program. She was awarded a four-year scholarship to Stanford University and is now in her junior year. During her year in Berlin she was an intern with a European Union research foundation and spent part of her summer in a Slovak gypsy settlement.
Students Have a Plan To Change The Lives of Young Refugees
Zuzka was one of three students representing her country (Slovak Republic) at a youth conference . It was sponsored by the European Union and held in the seat of the European Parliament in Brussels.
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