SEE-Beyond's global reach

One day this July, a director at the Clinton Foundation’s Global Initiative stopped by Skidmore SEE-Beyond recipient Musa Komeh’s desk to say hello. The exercise science major was scouring the Internet for news on the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, his home country. “Would you like to prepare a short presentation on Ebola for tomorrow morning’s supervisors meeting?” she asked, seizing the opportunity. There were lots of questions from supervisors and fellow interns and a spirited discussion following his 15-minute presentation, exactly the kind of real-life experience the College’s SEE-Beyond grant program is intended to provide.
 
Two months later, the Ebola situation in Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia and Guinea has worsened, so much so that a three-day nationwide lockdown just ended in Sierra Leone. Says Komeh, who is in constant contact with family and friends back home, “It’s scary, for sure, because everyone is at risk. But education is the key. My experience working for the Clinton Global Initiative’s health track has broadened my understanding of how health systems should work. I used to think we just needed more doctors and nurses. Now I understand how vital it is to have government, nonprofits, and other stakeholders all involved and on board.” The international attention on Sierra Leone is needed, he adds, because it will mean additional resources, both human and medical, and increased awareness.
 
Komeh’s work at the New York City-based Global Initiative, where he prepared background information on women’s sexual and reproductive health strategies, franchising global health systems, and non-communicable diseases for the nonprofit’s annual conference, along with the very personal nature of the Ebola crisis, has him primed to jump into the trenches. “I’m so pumped up to get into the field,” he says. But not before he earns a master’s degree in public health, with a concentration in epidemiology, which he plans to do after his Skidmore graduation in May 2015.  Ultimately, he hopes to work in one or more of the developing countries in Africa.
 
Komeh is one of 25 Skidmore students from a variety of academic disciplines and programs who were awarded 2014 SEE-Beyond grants of $4,000 to help them apply their classroom learning and clarify post-college goals.
 
Here are a few more summer stories:
 
Nicole Becker ’16, a self-determined major in dance science, researched the biomechanics of tendon injuries and repair at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. She was assigned the task of interpreting new data from an ongoing research project, “The Effect of Treadmill Running on the Recovery of Fatigue Damaged Rat Patellar Tendons,” and then editing and adding to an article that will be submitted for publication. Becker, who now knows for sure that she wants to work in the sports medicine or orthopedic fields, is grateful that her SEE-Beyond experience “not only exposed [her] to the research side of orthopedic medicine, but that it happened early enough in [her] academic career to heavily influence [her] future.”
 
Camila Mena ’16, a double major in international affairs and political economy (self-determined), interned with Ambassador Carlos Garcia Gonzales at the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations. Her work with the Economic and Social Council helped her “make intellectual connections between poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation when thinking about global development.” And being part of the dialogue and negotiations with the G-77 group (developing countries) on problems associated with the contemporary food system, foreign aid, mainstream economics, globalization, and more, made her realize just how dire the current situation is for many people. Nevertheless, Mena says she is on the “right path” careerwise, “I still believe that international organizations can solve fundamental issues in developing counties.”
 
Proving that real-world experiences are often close to home, history major Hannah Smith ’16 conducted Revolutionary War-related research with the Saratoga National Historical Park at Schuyler House, home to American General Philip Schuyler, in nearby Stillwater, N.Y. On the occasions when she visited the New York State Archives in Albany, she was able to review the Schuyler family papers. Says Smith, “It was a real thrill to handle documents written by my research subjects. I couldn’t stop thinking about how they held these pieces of paper, and that I was looking at their actual handwriting.” This November, Smith will give a presentation on her research.
 
Surbhi Hablani ’14, who earned a B.S. in physics and math, interned this summer at Boston-based Ras Labs, which is collaborating on a Center of the Advancement of Science in Space–International Space Station project testing the effect of space radiation. Ras synthetic-muscle samples are expected to be sent to the space station in October and return to earth in December. Hablani worked with a team that conducted preliminary tests on the synthetic muscles at the Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which has a radiation source.
 
Says Hablani, “It was a great introduction to the fields of radiation physics, plasma physics, and material science, in addition to an opportunity to participate in a truly large-scale project. I’m really looking forward to the results being published once the materials return to earth.”
 
Anastasia Eckerson ’15, a dance major and gender studies minor, combined a dance intensive at Deeply Rooted Dance Theater in Chicago, Ill., with a research project exploring the lived experience of black women through dance at the theater. Eckerson found that scheduling interviews and conducting research required flexibility and the willingness to shift project goals. For a variety of reasons, she has expanded the scope and duration of her research to explore other multiracial dance companies, in addition to incorporating her own personal experience, which she believes, based on her reading, is a valid source for the analysis. Says Eckerson, “I plan on using all that I have learned to inform my dance studies, as well as my career path when I graduate from Skidmore.”

For more on the 2014 SEE-Beyond awardees and their summer experiences, please click here.