April 15, 2009
Princeton in Asia: 110 Years of Service in Asia
Anastasia Vrachnos
Executive Director, Princeton-in-Asia
Minutes of the 27th Meeting of the 67th Year
Liberation Hall of the Carl Field Center
Presiding officer – President George Hansen
Invocation led by – President George Hansen
Guests -- none
Estimated attendance -- 85
President Hansen called the meeting to order at 10:15 AM.
Minutes for the meeting of April 8 were delivered extemporaneously from notes by John Lasley, who had been afflicted by an untimely computer crash that prevented him from bringing a finished text to the meeting. For purposes of the official record, this was a first.
Charles Stenard notified the Old Guard that a slate of nominees for the program year 2009-2010 would be presented, following proper protocol as to timing, at the following meeting, April 22nd, when nominations from the floor would also be acceptable. Elections would be held the week after, on April 29th.
Henry King introduced the speaker, Anastasia Vrachnos, Executive Director of Princeton-in-Asia. However, he noted that this assignment should have fallen to David Dodge, who had recruited our speaker over six months ago but whose recent death necessitated Henry’s stepping in.
After sketching a brief history of Princeton-in-Asia—founded in 1898 as Princeton in Peking—Henry noted that PIA now has 151 fellows deployed at 72 sites in 7 countries throughout Asia. Anastasia Vrachnos, PU ’91, and Executive Director of PIA, had held a number of impressively varied positions, as a financial analyst, educator, photo-journalist, and media trainer for the UN, before taking her current position.
Given her employment history, Ms Vrachnos quipped that she must come across as someone who simply cannot hold a job. She admitted that directing PIA is the job she has loved best and the one she has retained the longest (five years), though she still wonders just what qualifications the Board detected in her as a candidate. However, when she later enumerated some of the qualities that PIA seeks in its fellows—the ability to laugh at oneself and to connect with other people; a willingness to take risks; creativity, adaptability, and a certain humility—we could well understand the Board’s selection. Add to these gifts her mastery of multiple languages, and we could easily believe that Anastasia had been an obvious choice for Executive Director.
Ms Vrachnos began with a heartfelt personal tribute to David Dodge, who as a-time long board member of PIA would unfailingly frame for her in their private meetings the five most pertinent current questions facing the organization. Speaking without notes, she then reeled off some salient background facts: that 50% of PIA’s fellows are Princeton graduates, while 50% are drawn from 110 other colleges; that PIA is both the oldest and the largest service agency of its kind, with a $650,000 budget yet only 4 employees on the payroll; that the lion’s share of the budget goes to support work in the field; and perhaps most important, that there is a life-changing alchemy that the Princeton-in-Asia experience stirs up in the fellows themselves.
In turn, these 21-year olds are so full of energy, enthusiasm and creativity that the communities in which they serve quite often simply marvel at them. When one skeptic asked what real skills these young people can possibly bring to local problems in agriculture, public health, or education, our speaker countered that they engage in vital grass-roots diplomacy and community-building no matter what their assignment. The majority of fellows opt to teach, though many work on environmental issues, in business, journalism, or disaster relief, while others may end up creating their own projects. One PIA fellow gathered data on the five organizations in Viet Nam engaged in micro-financing and ended up writing a White Paper for the US government on the subject.
Our charismatic speaker insisted that PIA has a mission to “screw up” young people by engaging them with levels of poverty and sacrifice they have never known, and connecting them to something larger than themselves. Fellows typically return with a transformed set of values that will remain with them for life, while a frequent ripple effect is set off in parents and others whose previous concerns, like those of the student to date, have often been narrowly—and sometimes obsessively--focused on “success” as defined by the elites of an Ivy League education and corporate America.
The mission, track-record, and overall impact of Princeton-in-Asia offer credible witness to Princeton’s proud claim to educate young people “in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations.”
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Fleming
Presiding officer – President George Hansen
Invocation led by – President George Hansen
Guests -- none
Estimated attendance -- 85
President Hansen called the meeting to order at 10:15 AM.
Minutes for the meeting of April 8 were delivered extemporaneously from notes by John Lasley, who had been afflicted by an untimely computer crash that prevented him from bringing a finished text to the meeting. For purposes of the official record, this was a first.
Charles Stenard notified the Old Guard that a slate of nominees for the program year 2009-2010 would be presented, following proper protocol as to timing, at the following meeting, April 22nd, when nominations from the floor would also be acceptable. Elections would be held the week after, on April 29th.
Henry King introduced the speaker, Anastasia Vrachnos, Executive Director of Princeton-in-Asia. However, he noted that this assignment should have fallen to David Dodge, who had recruited our speaker over six months ago but whose recent death necessitated Henry’s stepping in.
After sketching a brief history of Princeton-in-Asia—founded in 1898 as Princeton in Peking—Henry noted that PIA now has 151 fellows deployed at 72 sites in 7 countries throughout Asia. Anastasia Vrachnos, PU ’91, and Executive Director of PIA, had held a number of impressively varied positions, as a financial analyst, educator, photo-journalist, and media trainer for the UN, before taking her current position.
Given her employment history, Ms Vrachnos quipped that she must come across as someone who simply cannot hold a job. She admitted that directing PIA is the job she has loved best and the one she has retained the longest (five years), though she still wonders just what qualifications the Board detected in her as a candidate. However, when she later enumerated some of the qualities that PIA seeks in its fellows—the ability to laugh at oneself and to connect with other people; a willingness to take risks; creativity, adaptability, and a certain humility—we could well understand the Board’s selection. Add to these gifts her mastery of multiple languages, and we could easily believe that Anastasia had been an obvious choice for Executive Director.
Ms Vrachnos began with a heartfelt personal tribute to David Dodge, who as a-time long board member of PIA would unfailingly frame for her in their private meetings the five most pertinent current questions facing the organization. Speaking without notes, she then reeled off some salient background facts: that 50% of PIA’s fellows are Princeton graduates, while 50% are drawn from 110 other colleges; that PIA is both the oldest and the largest service agency of its kind, with a $650,000 budget yet only 4 employees on the payroll; that the lion’s share of the budget goes to support work in the field; and perhaps most important, that there is a life-changing alchemy that the Princeton-in-Asia experience stirs up in the fellows themselves.
In turn, these 21-year olds are so full of energy, enthusiasm and creativity that the communities in which they serve quite often simply marvel at them. When one skeptic asked what real skills these young people can possibly bring to local problems in agriculture, public health, or education, our speaker countered that they engage in vital grass-roots diplomacy and community-building no matter what their assignment. The majority of fellows opt to teach, though many work on environmental issues, in business, journalism, or disaster relief, while others may end up creating their own projects. One PIA fellow gathered data on the five organizations in Viet Nam engaged in micro-financing and ended up writing a White Paper for the US government on the subject.
Our charismatic speaker insisted that PIA has a mission to “screw up” young people by engaging them with levels of poverty and sacrifice they have never known, and connecting them to something larger than themselves. Fellows typically return with a transformed set of values that will remain with them for life, while a frequent ripple effect is set off in parents and others whose previous concerns, like those of the student to date, have often been narrowly—and sometimes obsessively--focused on “success” as defined by the elites of an Ivy League education and corporate America.
The mission, track-record, and overall impact of Princeton-in-Asia offer credible witness to Princeton’s proud claim to educate young people “in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations.”
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Fleming