Roommates Ariel Gandolfo PO ’11 and Danny Low PO ’11 have been good friends since they met in middle school, and even their impending graduation will not separate them—at least not for a few more months. Gandolfo and Low are recipients of a $10,000 grant from philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis’s Projects for Peace, and will be spending this summer working at an orphanage in Honduras.
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The two seniors have known about the Davis grant, which funds about 90 student initiatives per year, for years, and met over winter break to discuss possible project proposals.
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“We’ve both had experience in international development for quite some time,” said Low, an Anthropology major and pre-med student. “And this is one of the few social justice grants you can apply for as a group.”
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After considering several options, they settled on an orphanage where Gandolfo volunteered during the summer after his junior year of high school.
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“My volunteer work at the orphanage was one of the watershed events in my interest in development,” said Gandolfo, an International Relations major who will join the Peace Corps next year. “I’d been looking for a way to go back and help for a while, when I had something more finite to contribute. This seemed like a meaningful project and a good use of money.”
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Low agreed. “We chose the place where we thought we could make the biggest difference and that would be the most practical,” he said.
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The two applied for the Davis grant through Pomona’s Draper Center for Community Partnerships. The Draper Center staff selected two finalists, and the Davis foundation awarded the grant to one group.
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While backpacking with a group of friends in the Channel Islands over spring break and anxiously waiting to hear whether their proposal was accepted, Gandolfo and Low occasionally climbed hills to get cell phone service so they could call home to see if there was any news.
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“One day there was a text from Danny’s dad saying, ‘Congratulations,'” Gandolfo said.
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Celebration ensued.
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“There are pictures of us running around in the sunset with my phone,” he added.
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With this grant, Gandolfo and Low plan to open a community center in conjunction with the orphanage, where they will teach health and nutrition classes and create clubs for children and community members.
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The orphanage, which housed about 150 children when Gandolfo volunteered there, just relocated from Comayagua to the town of Valle de Angeles.
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“It’s in a period of transition, so this is both a challenging and opportune time,” Gandolfo said. “Orphanages are seen as a drain on communities and people perceive this orphanage as bringing more poverty, violence, and instability to the community. Children get ostracized.”
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This perception inspired Gandalfo and Low to focus on collaborating with the community. They plan to create classes and clubs that cater to adult community members as well, such as an adult literacy group.
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Both Gandalfo and Low speak Spanish and have significant experience working with children in developing nations. In addition to the time he spent in Honduras, Gandalfo has worked with youth in Peru and Ecuador. Low taught health education in Tanzania and Kenya. He also received the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, which will allow him to get his master’s degree in Public Health in Malawi, where he will also teach health education classes beginning in the fall.
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Gandalfo, who still wears a bracelet he got in Honduras, is looking forward to rekindling the relationships he developed there.
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“One girl, who was ten when I was there, doesn’t have e-mail, so we send actual, physical letters to each other,” he said. “And they take four months to arrive!”