Jane Chong knew her decision to become a Hart Fellow would require "a fantastic leap of faith."
Six months after graduating from Duke, the Illinois native and Hart Leadership Fellow finds herself in the heart of one of Bangkok's largest, toughest slums. She watches as some of her pupils lose their battles with AIDS and others willingly abandon their education to take their chances with life on the street.
This is what comes with working as an English teacher and volunteer at Mercy Centre, a hospice and community center in Klong Toey for vulnerable children and families.
During the day, Chong serves as an English tutor, working with abused, abandoned and neglected children, many of whom are also HIV-positive. At night, she shares accommodations with other volunteers and at-risk teenage girls who attend school under Mercy's supervision.
She has learned much about hope, loss and humility.
"When I applied, I expressed in a very vague way wanting to do work with women and children and sex trafficking. Part of me imagined going undercover in a brothel or something," she says. "Of course, I'm doing work that's very different."
The Hart Fellows Program is all about learning to expect the unexpected and navigating the difficulties that go hand in hand with working with political and social problems abroad. Since 1995, the Hart Fellows Program has sent 69 recent Duke graduates to 30 developing countries to work with partner community organizations.
"The Hart Fellowship is a universally challenging program, but each placement presents unique challenges -- and of course, each fellow brings his or her unique personality to the table, so that no two fellowships are ever the same," says Andrea Marston, Hart Fellows Program Coordinator. "Using a combination of courage, humility and raw humanity, we ask fellows to navigate this situation more or less independently. That's no easy task."
Unlike other post-graduate opportunities, prospective fellows do not write grants for specific projects. Rather, they must commit to the program before knowing exactly where they'll go or which community partner they'll be matched with. Fellows spend the first three months of their field placements collaborating with their host organization to develop a research plan to be conducted over the remaining seven months.
Chong and the other 2010 Hart Fellows, Andrew Tutt and Yisel Valdes, agree that the chance to venture outside their comfort zones was both a point of anxiety and part of the program's appeal. "I was attracted to the fact that I could create my own experience," Valdes says. "I was attracted to the fact that there was going to be some negotiation between the student and the community organization's goals and purposes. But it would be an opportunity to experience the world firsthand, on the ground."
That was certainly the case for Tutt, who graduated from Duke with a triple major in economics, biomedical engineering and mathematics, but wanted to get a taste of what the real world had to offer.
"Your whole life is on a track if you're at Duke," Tutt agrees. "The fellowship takes you out of the stream for a while. It gives you the opportunity to think about what's important and to see how big the world really is."
Tutt remembers a time when an out-of-state license plate would fascinate him in his native California. Now, he is working with Transparency International-Armenia, a consulting body that aims to promote good governance reforms in one of the world's most intriguing regions a society on the brink of modernity. Tutt is evaluating the effectiveness of NGOs striving to help Eurasian nations transition to democracy.
"This is still a culture where a woman is expected to be a virgin on her wedding day, family ties are incredibly important, but at the same time, people are buying BMWs, they're discovering the Internet," Tutt says. "It's truly a world in flux."
Valdes applied to the Hart Fellows Program to learn more about microfinance in South America. She ended up farther north than she expected, in Pachuca, Mexico, working for a new branch of an international microfinance institution, Pro Mujer Mexico. The nonprofit provides microcredit loans and life skills training.
"I've learned a lot about responsibility here that it's required not just of leaders but of everyone, to make an organization really work," she says.
Valdes is examining how well Pro Mujer is able to serve its clients. In addition, she also has taken on responsibility for preparing presentations on various health topics ranging from diabetes to birth control for Pro Mujer's staff members that they can then pass on to their female clients.
The experience has changed all three Hart Fellows in meaningful ways--documented in the Letters Home they write to the Hart Fellows Program as part of the fellowship. Chong speaks eloquently of the need to withhold judgment in her interactions with people from all walks of life. Tutt tells how living alone in a foreign country and embracing a drastically different culture has made him a stronger person. And Valdes is grateful for having had the opportunity to learn how to command the respect of her colleagues, many of whom are twice her age.
"Having this experience has been liberating," Valdes says. "Professionally and personally, I've grown so much. In terms about coming out of my comfort zone and being confident, I've really gained a lot."