Interest in Class of '69 program explodes, as donations take off

Following its historic launch this year, the Princeton in Africa program has taken off with soaring student interest and unsolicited alumni donations. The program — which was started by George Hritz '69 and other alumni from the Class of 1969 community service project — was formed to provide fellowships and internships to graduating seniors and undergraduates.

"Almost overnight people have responded," said Frank Strasburger '67, who is president of the project. "Interest is exploding on all sides with students eager to become interns and fellows, and alumni helping us to develop the positions."

The program already has begun to accommodate the widespread interest. Coordinators recently announced that they will send four of this year's graduates to Africa for paid, year-long fellowships sponsored by the International Rescue Committee — a nongovernmental organization that sponsors resettlement, emergency and health programs overseas.

Seniors Steven Feldstein, Erin Ferenchick, Hayley Hawes and Brian White will aid in humanitarian relief projects through the IRC.

"There's a need to get Princetonians out in the field," said Hritz, who added that the IRC was so pleased with summer interns funded by the Class of 1969 that it decided to form new jobs for future interns and fellows.

"The students created a market for full-year positions," he said. "The IRC is willing to pay for them."

As for the students ready to pack their bags and board planes to Africa, exploring a foreign land and giving back to those in need is just as important as earning money for their services.

"I've always had a passion for Africa," said Hawes, who went to Ghana last summer to help at a maternal and child welfare clinic and who is now writing her senior thesis on Africa. Hawes — who will be traveling to Kampala, the capital of Uganda — said her role will be to visit refugee sites and to meet with NGO and UN representatives. She will then write grant proposals for the continuation of programs to aid refugees there.

Feldstein, whose fellowship is based in Rwanda, said he will also be writing donor reports and doing field work to aid refugees. A politics major who participated in the Princeton in Asia program in Hong Kong, Feldstein said the fellowship closely mirrors his senior thesis topic.

"From an academic standpoint, I've always had an interest in the area," he said. "I'm excited about being able to make a tangible difference in the refugees' lives."

White, who will be working in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said he shares Feldstein's excitement in being able to put his Princeton education to use to aid refugees, some of whom are educated professionals themselves. "This is an amazing opportunity for someone my age to get involved in humanitarian assistance," White said.

He added that a service trip he took to Ecuador and a summer job with Amnesty International sparked his interest in international relief work, but that many organizations require applicants to have advanced degrees and to have done extensive field work. "Getting a first job is the hardest because [the organizations] want overseas experience," he said. "This is it."

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Ferenchick also said she sees herself in a career that will help others and believes her time in Somaliland will aid in this goal. "The fellowship will allow me to see the link between health and human rights and how these two ideas work together in practice and not just in rhetoric," she said.

A pre-med, anthropology major, she spent time with Operation Smile — an organization that aids children with facial deformities — while in Kenya during her senior year in high school and went back two years later to do her junior independent work.

It is this sort of continuity that the Princeton in Africa program hopes to encourage.

"[The goal behind the program] is to form a constituency of people who will develop a lifelong interest in reaching out to a continent so drastically under-served," said Strasburger. "It's a statement of the Princeton community that there is so much interest and eagerness to help Africa."