The Civic Initiative generates a lot of "hellos". We also generate a lot of "goodbyes". The best thing we do each year is to get to know people from all over the world, but the saddest thing is saying goodbye at the program end. Many people have said it over the years but we become a family in a very short time.

 

This year will feature some special goodbyes. Sam Camera, who has directed our Pakistani Student Leader Program since 2009 will not be the Academic Director this year. Her co-director, Tom Fricke, will work with Journalism instructor Shaheen Pasha. Sam and I first said our "hello" working on Indonesian teacher programs. We have worked all over Indonesia and Pakistan. It has been an honor to work with Sam.

 

Lonce has been with the Civic Initiative since its founding in 2003. He has helped as a volunteer; worked as a full time employee; and served as the Academic Director for our SUSI Scholars program on American Politics and Political Science since 2007.  Lonce will work with the program for a part of this summer and take a lead in scheduling speakers. I will take over the day to day academic work.

 

Sam and Lonce are responsible for many of the Civic Initiative innovations over the years and they are the model of what an Academic Director should be. They are knowledgeable about the subject but also sensitive as to how to convey that information to an international audience. They both, in their different ways, went way beyond the classroom and reached out and touched the lives of every visitor. They were always engaged, curious, and enthusiastic.

 

I said we say a lot of goodbyes - but as many of you know - we also come back to re-engage. Both Lonce and Sam are looking for new projects and will also be around to help with the program; speak; and continue to inspire each and every one of our visitors. I will very much miss their daily support but I am also confident we will work together in the future.

Eric White

Mentor, Pakistan SUSI, 2011 

APD Team Leader, 2012

What have you been up to since Civic?  When we finished up the APD program and closed the summer programming in Amherst, I moved back to Boston, MA and joined the "Elizabeth Warren for U.S. Senate" campaign. I was a field organizer in my home neighborhoods of Roslindale and Hyde Park and organized door-to-door canvassing, phonebanks, and recruited for larger political events such as parades and rallies. I was later hired by an at-large Boston City Councilor named Ayanna Pressley. as a part-time neighborhood liaison handling constituent matters from neighborhoods around Boston-issues like potholes, broken street lights, and public park clean ups. In 2014, I was promoted to handle her policy portfolio on the Boston City Council as her Policy Director, which included her groundbreaking work reforming the State of Massachusetts' antiquated liquor license laws. At the end of 2017, I was promoted to be her Chief of Staff managing her entire operation inside City Hall, including her staff, policy, communications, constituent services, as well as her political organization. In 2018, she decided to run for the United States Congress in the Massachusetts 7th Congressional District. I remained her Chief of Staff managing her official and campaign activities and in September of 2018 she upset a 10-term incumbent Congressman for the Democratic nomination. In the November general election she became the first woman of color to represent Massachusetts in Congress in the 230-year history of the state's delegation. Since then, I have served as the Congresswoman's District Director in charge of her office here in the Massachusetts 7th District. I oversee a staff of four others who are responsible for all federal constituent services, managing the Congresswoman's official events, communicating with constituents as well as the press, and bringing the voices of constituents at home to Washington DC.

 

What was the most influential experience you had while in the U.S. with the Civic Initiative?  The most influential experiences might be the casual conversations outside of the classroom with participants and other staff. Away from the classroom and the 'assigned reading' we were able to learn about each other's day-to-day lives before coming to the Civic Initiative. I did not travel very much growing up, but for those summers I was working on the APD program I was able to meet and learn about 18 different countries through my new international friends. There were small quips about how we will never know what crowds really feel like until we visit Hyderabad, India. And, there were deeper conversations about how America earned its reputation in countries like the Sudan and how our personal interactions here in the program can build a new image in at least one professor's mind. It has always stayed with me that those honest conversations on the sidewalks of Amherst, Massachusetts put a face to a name for at least 18 professors.

If you could spend another day in Amherst, how would you spend it?  I have been back in Boston since graduating college, so first I would need to take a walking tour of the campus. I would love to poke my head back into the basement of the library and see where I wrote all those late-night papers. And of course, I would have to stop by The Hangar and grab some honey mustard boneless wings and a beer. Haven't found wings that good since I left college.

What is one piece of advice you would give to a person chosen to participate in this program?  It's the same advice I give anyone (even if I still struggle to follow it myself). Keep a journal of those conversations. You'll never recall the whole conversation, but I do wish I had a better record of who I had the privilege to share the summer with and at least a prompt of what we spoke about.