Student Profiles
 Ezra
Weinberg '03
Soon after graduating from Hampshire College in Hadley,
Massachusetts, with a major in conflict transformation, Ezra Weinberg
went to Israel to get involved with peacebuilding initiatives there. "I
wanted to put some practice to my theory," says Ezra.
Barely two months after he arrived in Jerusalem, the Intifada began.
"Initiatives I had heard about--these great success stories of Israelis
and Palestinians getting together--were disintegrating." Ezra needed some
inspiration to help him navigate this region, which was, as he described
it "before my eyes, moving from a postconflict zone to a conflict zone."
SIT gave Ezra the framework he needed. As a participant in the CONTACT:
Conflict Transformation Across Cultures program (see Academic Centers
and Projects, page 33), Ezra says, "I got support from the faculty, and
I was able to be in touch online with peacebuilders around the world--Sierra
Leone, Southern Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka--anywhere
there was conflict."
Following his CONTACT year, which included an internship as a fundraiser
for Palestine-Israel Journal, Ezra entered SIT's Programs in Intercultural
Service, Leadership, and Management to earn a Master of Arts in Conflict
Transformation.
SIT's experience-based educational model suited Ezra's learning style.
"It's a school that asks you to internalize experiences and reflect on
them. It asks you to challenge yourself and then use that experience to
challenge the world."
Ezra's experiences in Israel have convinced him that his future lies
in peacebuilding from a religious perspective. He will enter rabbinical
school in the fall.
"SIT asks you to challenge yourself and use that experience to challenge
the world."
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 Heather
Bruce Satrom '02
It was during a year studying French in Strasbourg,
France, that Heather Bruce Satrom developed a fascination for the language
learning process. When Heather returned to the US, she began teaching
courses in English as a Second Language and French on a part-time basis,
drawing on her own experiences as a language learner. "I loved it," says
Heather. "I realized: This is what I want to do with my life."
Intrigued with the learning process, Heather came to SIT because she
wanted to be a better teacher. "I wanted to learn more about linguistics,
about various methods for teaching foreign languages and about the many
ways people learn."
Looking back on her SIT experience Heather feels satisfied that she got
what she came for. To her surprise and delight, however, her SIT experience
was much richer than she had anticipated. "What I learned at SIT--which
I may not have been able to learn at another institution--was about me:
my identity as a teacher, my developing beliefs about learning and teaching."
Also important for Heather was the community of learners and change makers
she met at SIT. "It's a unique place," says Heather. "When you're at SIT,
you're surrounded by people from all over the world who are dedicating
their life's work to making a more peaceful world--whether it's through
education or development or through managing nonprofit organizations.
That's a powerful experience."
Heather is currently teaching English as a Second Language in Cocoa,
Florida.
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 Chris
Treter '03
After Chris Treter graduated from SIT, he and his
wife Jody, also an SIT student, launched Higher Ground Trading Co., a
fair-trade coffee business. For Chris, starting the company was a natural
progression from his work at SIT. "It completely came out of the SIT experience,"
he says. "Forming the company was a culmination of our education at SIT."
For Chris, SIT's emphasis on experiential learning was formative. "Everything
I learned at SIT was learned in action, so when we moved on we were already
in a routine of reflecting on our experiences and figuring out how we
could do things better."
During Chris's practicum phase, he and Jody went with Global Exchange
to Chiapas, Mexico, where Chris led delegations with indigenous community
leaders. It was a learning experience. "I didn't have the skills to run
delegations yet, but with the cross-cultural understanding and the Spanish
skills that I had developed at SIT, I gained those abilities. SIT gave
me the skills to get the skills."
During their academic year at SIT Chris and Jody were also part of a
group that helped SIT become a fair-trade only coffee purchaser.
Today, Higher Ground Trading, a 100 percent fair-trade coffee company,
is one of only 12 or so companies in the US that are fair-trade certified.
You can learn more about the company online at www.javaforjustice.com
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 Slobodanka
Dana Kitic '03
When Dana Kitic decided to get her Master of Arts
in Teaching, she already had many years of experience teaching English
as a foreign language. Dana was familiar with SIT's international reputation
and the work of several of its faculty members. More than that, she felt
that she recognized SIT's "spirit and way of thinking." Says Dana, "SIT
was the best choice for me. I wanted to learn with and from my teachers.
I wanted multicultural understanding and a place where differences are
welcomed and respected: individual, ethnic, sexual, cultural, political.
I also believed that the best way to learn is through your own experience."
Back in Serbia, Dana often employs the skills and knowledge she gained
at SIT. "I use them everywhere," says Dana, who feels her expectations
of SIT were met and exceeded. Not only did she find "the courage to teach,"
but also, says Dana, "I met a lot of soul friends at SIT from all over
the world--those who share the same beliefs and cherish the same hopes.
I'm part of a professional family now."
Dana received a PhD in linguistics in 1996 from Belgrade University.
She is vice dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Nis,
in southeastern Serbia, where she teaches English and Methodology. She
also teaches a course in English for Young Politicians at the Committee
of Civic Initiative Language Center, an NGO in Nis established during
the first civic protests in Serbia during 1996 and 1997.
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 Tanya
Cruz Teller '95
Getting a Master's degree at SIT was part of Tanya
Cruz Teller's five-year plan. Three years of research-based international
work for academic and nonprofit organizations in Grenada, Cuba and Israel
had convinced her that it was time to commit her energies in the US for
at least five years. Says Tanya, "I decided that if I could be of assistance
here it would have an international impact."
While she planned to work in the US, Tanya wanted to continue her education
at an institution that was internationally focused and also valued the
experiences of its students. "I was looking for a graduate school that
walked its talk around the value of experience," says Tanya.
Now, in her position as associate director of Youth Build USA's training
center, Tanya says she uses skills she learned at SIT every day. Viewed
as an expert process facilitator, meeting convener and trainer, Tanya
attributes much of her expertise to the significant work she did at SIT
in cross-cultural communication.
As her five-year plan unfolds, Tanya has been involved in a new area
of Youth Build's mission. In addition to her other roles, she manages
the organization's partnership with a youth organization in South Africa.
"It's very exciting, very inspirational," says Tanya, who will soon travel
to South Africa to help launch the new program.
"I'm very happy to be the one who's leading Youth Build's first international
initiative," says Tanya. "If I can keep checking myself with regard to
all that I learned at SIT, I'll be good and right in this partnership."
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 Sandra
Castro '03
Sandra Castro signed up as a volunteer community development
worker in Mexico soon after she received her BA from Hunter College in
her hometown, New York City. She loved the work she did in Chiapas and
wanted to return, but before she would go back, Sandra knew she needed
a few good tools. "I was doing the work of community development," says
Sandra, "but I wanted to be able to create more alternatives for the people;
I wanted to offer more."
Sandra was attracted to SIT's graduate and professional programs by the
diversity of the faculty and the school's "international view of what
development means." During her academic year at SIT it was the school's
experiential learning methods that meant most to her. "The teacher-student
relationship was part of the SIT experience, but it was also about what
students know and how they can share that knowledge with other students."
With her practicum year, Sandra got her wish to return to Chiapas, this
time to work with indigenous women in income-generating activities. Says
Sandra, "My academic year at SIT gave me the tools I needed: grant writing
skills, intercultural skills, being able to set up the steppingstones
to work as a team--that was all very significant."
Sandra is back in Chiapas now as a program coordinator for Enlace, Comunicacion
y Capacitacion. Her plans for the future include earning a PhD in rural
development.
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 Tim
Ewing '98
Tim Ewing was a professional actor and an instructor
at Arizona State University when he had "an epiphany." His students, a
group of first-generation college-bound persons of color were preparing
for the transition to academia. "On some level, I guess, we were asking
them to adopt the values and principles of the academy," says Tim. "I
realized: My students have valuable things to say, and their experiences
are rich. So, what can I do to prepare the academy or the business world
for the messages that my students have to share?"
Tim came to SIT to gain intercultural skills. Yet he found much more.
"In addition to learning the training skills, theories and concepts, I
came to a deeper sense of who I am and of my role in the world as a change
agent. Let's face it: the experiences of European Americans and African
Americans in this country are very different. Although I didn't come to
that realization at SIT, I did acquire a language for being able to discuss
it there. I like to say, when I came to SIT I was a man, and when I left
I was a proud African American man."
For Tim, the SIT experience was "transformative--just being there, reflecting,
doing more sense-making of my life and of my experiences. There's something
truly dynamic about that environment."
After graduation, Tim hung out his shingle as an independent consultant
in the areas of multicultural development within for-profit and not-for-profit
organizations, including Boeing, Upjohn and Russell Sage College, in Troy,
New York.
A former adjunct faculty member at SIT, where he taught organizational
behavior, Tim is currently a PhD candidate in the organizational management
program at Case Western Reserve University.
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 Kristi
Hanratty '03
Kristi Hanratty knew what she wanted to do with her
life. Although she had enjoyed working for an international travel outfitter,
she wanted to pursuea career in international education, with the ultimate
goal of directing a university study abroad program. She also longed to
go overseas again, an objective that was influenced by the two undergraduate
study abroad experiences she'd had as an international relations major.
When Kristi began looking for a graduate program that would help her
to meet her professional and personal goals, she chose SIT. "It's a practitioner's
program," says Kristi. "You study with faculty members who live international
education. Then, you go out and do your practicum, guided by SIT faculty
members. Finally, your thesis connects all of the phases. I appreciated
SIT's hands-on approach."
Also important to Kristi was SIT's multicultural approach. "I knew I
could get business skills--management, budgeting, marketing, human resources--at
any good graduate program. I wanted the cross-cultural component, too,
and SIT offered that."
Today, Kristi is an international student advisor at the University of
Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Kristi believes her SIT experience was
the ideal springboard for the international career she dreamed of. She
loves her job, which she sees as an excellent foundation for managerial
work; and she enjoys living in New Zealand. "I'm using all of the skills
that I learned at SIT, so it's good professionally as well as personally."
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