August 25, 2005
Kendall Park resident Rebecca Dezan returns to Clark University after coaching youth soccer in Guatemala
WORCESTER, Mass. - Ms. Rebecca N. Dezan of Kendall Park, New Jersey, is one of ten Clark University undergraduates who is returning to campus after spending the summer abroad conducting research with support from the Anton Fellowship Program.
Dezan spent five weeks in Guatemala this summer, working in the region of Quetzaltenango, organizing and running after-school youth soccer programs. She used youth soccer as a community-building activity for children and their families.
Dezan started a program similar to one she is involved with in Worcester called Cultural Exchange Through Soccer. The Worcester program, which is run through the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center, fosters community development by providing youth with three hours of soccer participation every Saturday.
“When parents drop the children off for practice, they meet other parents, which helps to create a network of local families,” she said.
In her June 24th online diary, Dezan wrote about how women and girls were only allowed to watch, and not participate in, sports in the city of Xela because of cultural stigmas. Her July 16th diary entry reports on her experience playing soccer with children at an orphanage in Xela.
Dezan described the experience at the orphanage as “one of the most humbling and gratifying experiences, also one of the most upsetting.”
“I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of children there. Every arm, finger, leg, waist was embraced, and kids latched onto my middle, spitting questions of age, name, and whether we wanted to play with them,” she said, referring to her and her girlfriend Sabrina. “It was an incredibly intense group, the overwhelming feeling of too many children, not enough hands to hold, not enough anything for them…”
She wrote on July 16th, “I am overflowing with new ideas and plans and knowledge… I think I could write a book about experiences here with a soccer ball.”
More information about Dezan’s trip, her photo and diary entries are available at www.clarku.edu/research/access/anton/2005/dezandiary.shtml.
Janette Greenwood, associate professor and chair of Clark’s History Department, supported Rebecca’s application for funding through the Anton Fellows Program, describing the student at “flexible and open-minded,” someone who “seeks to understand worlds that are different than her own and to contribute to them.”
A history major with a minor in education, Dezan is a member of Clark's Class of 2006. She is involved with women’s varsity soccer, CHOICES, the University Judicial Board and is a ClarkTREK leader. Upon receipt of her bachelor’s degree, Dezan plans to take advantage of Clark’s Accelerated BA/Master's Degree Program to complete a master’s degree in community development and planning.
Dezan is the daughter of Philip and Beverly Dezan of Kendall Park. She is a 2002 graduate of South Brunswick High School.
This is the fifth year of the Anton Fellowship Program, which was created by a gift from Barbara ’56 and Thomas ’56 Anton to give undergraduates more opportunities to explore their intellectual interests. The fellowships range from $500 to $2,500. Recipients also become members of the Society of Anton Fellows, which meets with faculty mentors at special gatherings throughout the year to share their research experiences. The Anton Fellowship Program is directed by Professor Sharon Krefetz.
Clark University is a private, co-educational liberal-arts research university with 2,000 undergraduate and 600 graduate students. Since its founding in 1887 as the first all-graduate school in New England, Clark has challenged convention with innovative programs such as the International Studies Stream, the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the five-year BA/MA programs with the fifth year tuition-free for eligible students.
Angela M. Bazydlo
Associate Director of Media Relations
Clark University
Worcester, Mass.
phone: 508-793-7635
www.clarku.edu
|
