Pamplin Society of Fellows

Exploring Tughlaqabad with Sunil

“How was India?” my friends and classmates ask as they pass me in the hallways of Howard. After hearing that same question five times in row, I have developed a standard response: “It was chaotic, it was frustrating, it was hard, but–so far–it is the best thing I have done in my life.”

This fall semester, I spent three and half months traveling and studying abroad in India with twenty-four of my classmates. While we were there, we learned about Indian history and culture as well as the country’s modern-day social and environmental issues through field trips, lectures and independent projects. We lived in about five of India’s major metropolises and several other small and rural villages; however, the bulk of the program was centered in Delhi and Varanasi. The contrast between the culture and infrastructure between these two cities is quite astonishing, as one is a developing economic and political capital while the other is a handicraft center and key pilgrimage site for Hindus. We were able to explore the unique features of both places with help from University of London professor, Sunil Kumar and his sister Nita Kumar of the Nirman School. Sunil and Nita provided with us endless opportunities to look at the various cultures and subcultures of these two cities, such as the Sufi community in Delhi and the the silk weavers district in Varanasi.

I consider my month in Varanasi the most rewarding experience of the India program because it was where I did my home stay and independent research. In Varanasi, I spent a week living in a neighborhood called Kabir Choura with Mr. Kanhaiya Lal Mishra, his wife Mala, sons Aman and Dirage and daughter Chinkee. The Mishras are a family of musicians and dancers; Kanhaiya is a professor of music at Benaras Hindu University while his oldest son is a professional tabla player. The Mishras are also devout Hindus; therefore, I was not only able to experience Diwali (the festival of lights) in a major Hindu pilgrimage center but also through traditional Hindu activities and customs.

Saree wearing workshop for Diwali

Like most other Hindus in Varanasi, my host family adores Mother Ganga: the holy river that flows along the edge of the city. According to Hindu mythology, Gangaji was formed from the hair of Lord Shiva and can remove sins, dispense life and provide salvation for the deceased. However, Gangaji also suffers from a vast amount of pollution due to point source and non-point source human activities. Due to my interest in waste management and religion, I decided to do my independent research in Varanasi on the connections between Hindu ideas on the human-nature relationship and actual observed environmental practices towards the Ganga River. For three weeks, I surveyed Hindu residents about their feelings towards Gangaji and then talked to professors and researchers about the objective facts on Ganga pollution. My main contact was with the Sankat Mochan Foundation, an organization founded by Varanasi’s high priest and former civil engineer, Professor Veer Bhadra Mishra that combines science and faith to raise awareness of pollution in the Ganga River. During my time spent with Professor Mishra–more commonly known as Mahantji–and his colleague R.K. Mishra, I learned about a great deal about Hindu philosophy and the difficulties that they faced in motivating local residents to protect Gangaji. Some of my most memorable moments from the trip were spent at Tulsi ghat with Mahantji in his room overlooking the Ganga River.

At the banks of the Ganga River

Making an earthen bund at Young India Project

Aside from Varanasi, another noteworthy part of the program was when we stayed with the Young India Project in Penukonda. YIP is an organization started by Mr. Narinder Bedi that aims to educate rural workers about their rights to work. For about a week, we lived on Mr. Bedi’s farm, learned about India’s National Employment Guarantee Act, talked to city officials and union workers and even spent a whole day doing manual labor to earn barely fifty cents each. The entire experience was humbling and eyeopening; a week that will forever remain in my everyday thoughts.

Three and a half months ago, I did not expect that the people I met and the places I saw in India would make such a large imprint in my life. Now, as a I re-enter my fast-paced and quiet lifestyle in Portland, I am constantly reminded of India, and most of all, how fortunate I am to have the opportunities that I do here at Lewis & Clark.

-Emily Nguyen ‘11

We are pleased to welcome to our Society the 2009 inductees Laura Bogar, Katherine Erlich, Zach Holz, Warren Kluber, Diane Murray, Nicole Myoraku, and Analise Rodenberg.

Want to learn a bit about our new fellows? Visit this press release for a slideshow!

This past Sunday, I, along with my fellow Fellows Nikki Myoraku (’12) and Warren Kluber (’12), volunteered with the Albertina Kerr Center, a non-profit group dedicated to helping children and adults with developmental disabilities. The Center helps to integrate people with developmental disabilities into their communities, both vocationally and recreationally. This is a cause that is especially close to my heart because I have grown up with two brothers with developmental disabilities, and I have seen how they and other people with developmental disabilities are often isolated from their communities, so it is pretty amazing to see an organization so dedicated to helping people like this!

As a part of our commitment to service, we decided to spend the afternoon helping out Albertina Kerr in any way that they needed. It turns out that they are currently promoting a new campaign, Army of Angels, which is an attempt to build a larger community of dedicated volunteers in the Portland area. Many of the people who receive the Center’s services are younger, so they are hoping to reach out to a new young generation of volunteers who can better relate to and with the Center’s clients (sounds kind of like us!). We helped out by putting up posters for the Army of Angels campaign in the NE Alberta and Mississippi neighborhoods. Luckily, it was a sunny day, so we were able to get in some sightseeing and exercise along with our volunteering.

This is our lovely volunteer team (minus me). From left: Warren, Nikki, and fellow volunteer Yoko

This is Nikki doing some intense postering!

Our handiwork in action!

This activity was just one of the many exciting events we’ve been up to in Service committee this semester! We have also sponsored an Ivy Pull at Tryon Creek, and this upcoming Sunday we will be cooking dinner for volunteer medical workers at the Wallace Medical Center. I hope that you enjoyed my account of our excursion, and hopefully soon we will have pictures of the delicious dinner we’re cooking!

-Lili Pill-Kahan (’11)

Talk about a hectic (yet wonderful) spring semester! From my 18-credit course load to the Environmental Affairs Symposium to preparation for a semester abroad in India next spring, this semester has presented me with a vast amount of challenging and inspiring experiences.

I am currently taking a fascinating Environmental Studies topics course called Ecotopia/Ecopocalypse with a post-doctoral fellow from UCSB named Dr. Evan Berry. Evan and my Environmental Studies core professor, Jim Proctor, did a research project called “Ecotopia Revisited” last summer regarding the connections between utopias/dystopias and environmental attitudes. Evan’s class, Ecotopia/Ecopocalypse, has mainly been a seminar, where we spend most of our time discussing elements within the works of utopian/dystopian literature and their implications in modern day society. This class has acted as an incredible resource for me during the planning of my Environmental Studies concentration because it is not just about literature, but about how literature can help us to make sense of the world we live in. Ecotopia/Ecopocalypse has helped me particularly to organize my interests in the social and ethical elements of environmental behavior. Early in March, I officially proposed my Environmental Studies concentration on “Community, Individuals and the Connected Environment,” in which I hope to explore both the theoretical and practical relationships between community life and the individual member’s felt connections to their environment at various temporal and spatial scales. It is quite amazing to see how my ENVS peers have synthesized their ideas and passions into these major concentrations, I definitely recommend looking at our proposal page if you are ever in the need of inspiration.

Meeting the wonderful Dr. Vandana Shiva, founder of the Navdanya Farm. (Rosanne and I on the right).

This semester, my good friend Rosanne Wielemaker and I have also been planning an independent study project to do while we’re in India next fall. We’re interested in studying the various factors that influence municipal waste management in the cities of Delhi, Vrindavan and Varanasi. During the process of drafting our independent study proposal, we even had the chance to meet the influential ecofeminist and environmental activist, Dr. Vandana Shiva who helped to inspire us towards this project.

Rosie(anne) and I have also been working hard with our fellow ENVS major Molly Elder on organizing next fall’s Environmental Affairs Symposium. Coincidentally, all three of us will be overseas next fall (Molly will be in China) and will have to experience our Symposium handiwork via internet podcasts. The Symposium theme next year is “Re-Imagining the Good Life” and will focus what the re-imagining the good life means in thinking about the environmental crisies of today. The official blurbs that we have been working and information related to the Symposium are on the ENVS website, but will be updated within the next few weeks. I am especially excited about this Symposium topic because I feel that our world is in dire need of inspiration and hope in order to move towards effective environmental action.

Although this semester has deprived me of much sleep and free time, I am very excited for my busy schedule this summer. Before officially taking off to Delhi on August 31st, I will have the honor of working with Dr. Daena Goldsmith and Dr. Deborah Heath on their “Local/Global Networks: Wine & Foie Gras” project for 10 weeks as a Mellon Research assistant. In addition to researching wine and foie gras networks, I will also (hopefully) be making up for my lack of speaking French this semester and for that I am terribly glad!

Pamplin Fellow Jules Bailey has some new digs in Salem. Formerly Jules Kopel-Bailey, Bailey was elected to represent District 42 in the Oregon House of Representatives. This district – including the heart of Southeast and portions of nearby Northeast – is so consistently Democratic, that the primary election, rather than the general election, is the real contest. In the race to replace outgoing Representative Diane Rosenbaum, Bailey faced three other Democrats and finished with 41 percent of the vote, more than 10 points ahead of his closest rival. He had no Republican opponent in November, and handily defeated Pacific Green Party candidate Chris Extine.

Bailey has a dizzying resume. A native of Portland, he attended Lincoln High School, and worked on invasive species removal in Forest Park before starting classes at Lewis & Clark. He then took a leave from Lewis & Clark to work for a Swiss development company in Vietnam. After returning to LC to complete his degrees in International Affairs and Environmental Studies, Bailey won a Truman Scholarship which he used to spend a summer working in Washington, DC at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through a policy program with the Brookings Institution. From there he went on to earn a Masters in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Professionally, Bailey has worked as a policy analyst for Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradley, as a consultant for UNICEF in the Sudan, and currently as a Senior Policy Analyst at ECONorthwest, an economic consulting firm here in Portland. Oh, and he also speaks Mandarin Chinese.

On leave from ECONorthwest for the duration of the legislative session, Bailey has been assigned to four committees: Sustainability and Economic Development, Environment and Water, Transportation, and Revenue. He has several big goals in this session including an energy efficiency bill which he’s been working on “every waking moment since the end of the primary.” The program would use publicly and privately-financed loans to pay for homeowners and small businesses to retrofit their buildings for energy efficiency. The loans would be repaid slowly through utilities bills, but consumers would actually see a net decrease in these bills as a result of increased efficiency. The real beauty of the program though, according to Bailey, is that it will be revenue neutral.

Cost-conscious planning will be crucial in a legislature facing a potential $600 million shortfall in this biennium, and Bailey acknowledges that revenue issues are “where the rubber meets the road in this session.” On the Revenue Committee, Bailey hopes to engage in a “major restructuring of corporate taxation, especially the corporate minimum tax which has not been changed since the 1930s, and is still set at $10.” Yet the sheer size and immediacy of the hole in the budget mean little can be done from a revenue side. “There are going to have to be some drastic and painful cuts,” Bailey says.

Asked about the importance of his time at Lewis & Clark, Bailey remembers that he’ll be having breakfast with Cyrus Partovi the next morning. He thinks that sort of continued connection is “indicative of the relationships made at Lewis & Clark,” and that his time at LC fostered a “lifetime of critical thinking and love of policy.” The Pamplin Society, specifically, “was a chance to interact with both students and professors who could help shape his early interest in a way that was much more tangible than would have been in a classroom setting.”

Bailey has always been interested in policy, and knew “in the back of his mind” that he would end up in politics, but he did not realize the transition would happen as soon as it did. For any Pamplin Fellows (or others!) interested in politics and policy, he offers the following advice which was given to him: “If you’re interested in running for office, don’t make that your profession. Get a real job. When you knock on someone’s door and they ask you what you do, have an answer.”

In true Portland fashion, Bailey and his wife Amy Wong enjoy hiking, farmers’ markets, riding their bikes, and home-brewing.