Borlaug-Ruan Alum Stephen Lauer Applies Lessons of Internship at Home and Abroad
by Stephen Lauer, 2006 Borlaug-Ruan International Intern
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| Borlaug-Ruan Alum Stephen Lauer in South Africa Lauer with South African farmers |
Stephen Lauer (2006 Borlaug-Ruan Intern at the WorldFish Center in Abbassa, Egypt, and recipient of the 2007 John Chrystal Award) provided the following account of his experiences while studying agricultural development at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa from January to June, 2009.
I exited the Borlaug-Ruan internship program with a heightened awareness of the injustices of hunger and a personal commitment to a world free of its depravations. While enrolled at Drake University, I acted on this commitment by establishing a grassroots network in central Iowa to support Oxfam America’s efforts to end global poverty. Meanwhile, I grew academically in every sub-field save one. Drake does not offer coursework in agriculture. The importance of agricultural development to reducing hunger, revealed to me by my experiences as a Borlaug-Ruan intern, was reinforced by my advocacy activities on behalf of Oxfam America’s agriculture and climate policy campaigns. When I decided to spend the second semester of my junior year abroad, I chose Drake’s sister school in South Africa because it offers coursework in agricultural development.
While studying the theory of agricultural development under lecturers who were themselves South African extension workers and policy analysts, I made time to volunteer with several South African NGOs. At one point, an ecumenical development organization assigned me to provide technical and advocacy support to a group of women gardeners in a rural area several kilometers from my university. Tired of relying on handouts from a local government that is often inefficient and at times corrupt, these women took matters into their own hands. By growing vegetables to supplement the diets of their children and community members with HIV/AIDS, these women are transitioning from passive victims to agents of change.
Having overcome depression in my mid-teens, I could empathize with this transition even as our different circumstances prevented me from fully understanding it. Regular conversations with these women enabled me to provide support when and how they needed it and reinforced my lecturers’ message that development is most transformational when entered into as a partnership.
During my activities with Oxfam America in the United States, I had often noticed that the most persistent advocates are people for whom advocacy transforms their self as well as their society. I first applied this insight to myself while assisting staff at an orphanage for abused and neglected girls. During my activities with them I discovered sources of character strength that I didn’t know I possessed. I became a better person in the presence of those children.
The pathways to development are complex and varied and can seem incomprehensible to an outsider. Progress is often elusive and setbacks are inevitable. In a pursuit where results are not immediately available in the numbers; success must instead be measured in the appearance of hidden virtues, the cultivation of character strength, and the smile of a child.
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