Belly Dancin’ with Asali

Name: Asali Naima Locke Ellison

Nationality: African American

GYV Staff/ Participant during: Staff in 1999 and 2003

Education: Bachelor of Arts, Sociology – Hampton University

Occupation: Professional Dancer & Instructor as well as Graphic Designer

Most Interesting Country Visited: Egypt and Turkey

Favorite GYV Memory: Dancing and creating with the “Crazy Sisters of Siochain!” For some reason both years I worked at GYV I was assigned Cabin Siochain and each time the ladies I got to live and work with were always Phenomenal! Oxanna and Ebru were the perfect co-counselor cabin mates I could have ever asked for. The camp experience truly changed and inspired my life!

Volunteer/Civic Engagement since Global Youth Village: Member of S.G.I-USA Buddhist organization that promotes world peace and culture. Board secretary and volunteer for Camp Butterfly, programming volunteer for Teens on the Move and A.M.E.N. (African Male Empowerment Network) in Pittsburgh, resident artist at Johnson Elementary School in Chicago, workshop presenter at Bellevue Hospital day school in New York.

Biography: Asali Locke-Ellison has a knack for motivating others. Although a Pittsburgh, PA native she’s lived in New York, Atlanta, Virginia and Chicago where she’s worked, volunteered and delivered workshops in the corporate, non-profit, education and performing arts sectors. With an analytical brain and creative drive her diverse background has allowed her to present her thesis research topic “How to Overcome Conflict in Black Male and Female Relationships” at the Eastern Sociological Meetings in Baltimore, MD; create and facilitate an after school arts program “The C.A.F.É Club” (Creating Art For Expression) to students at Johnson Elementary school in Chicago; conduct workshops for “Teens on the Move” (a local youth program in Pittsburgh) and work with ARCH Productions (Artists Raising the Consciousness of Humanity) in Atlanta as director to a cast of teens in a touring theatre production to promote awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving. Asali currently serves on the Board of Directors of Camp Butterfly, a Chicago-based organization that promotes advocacy for girls of African descent.

A recent newlywed, in July 2010 Asali got married to her husband Brian whom she met in 2008. Today she is self-employed as a graphic designer, professional dancer and instructor of North African and Middle Eastern dance (aka “Belly dance”) where she performs American Cabaret, Egyptian, Turkish and Whirling (Sufi) dance styles. Not just a soloist, she performs as a duet with her husband a skilled fire/poi dancer and designer. Her goal is to help women and young girls “rediscover how cool it is to be a woman” and to employ the power of dance in a manner that evokes respect and admiration from themselves and others in a healthy and positive way. To learn more about Asali visit www.shimmysoul.com.

Tungjatjeta from Kosovo

Name: Kreshnik Kaçaniku

Nationality: Albanian from Kosova

GYV Staff/ Participant during: P ’03

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in International Business from from Royal University of Illyria

Occupation: Banker

Most Interesting Country Visited: Egypt (before revolution) can’t wait to go there again now after revolution and see the changes (hope so)

Favorite GYV Memory: Hmmm… there are simply too many.  I have to say that GYV was really special for me, every single day was special there but I can mention  that our peace building workshop was amazing. Our instructor Cloe Liparini was great. Cultural nights were awesome.

Volunteer/Civic Engagement Activities since Global Youth Village: I’ve worked  with a local NGO and occasionally volunteer as a judge for our high school debate team.

Biography: I was born and raised in Mitrovica a city in north of Kosovo. We had a terrible war in 1999.  The war has affected us a lot because we didn’t have the chance like other families to escape and go to neighboring countries.  Our houses were robbed and burned. The Serbs made us walk from our city which is in north to the south-east city on the border with Albania; they used the whole city a human shield so  NATO wouldn’t bomb them. We survived on onions and  whatever we could find along the way.

I’ve finished high school here and then moved to Prishtina (the capital) for 3 years to finish university. After that I was employed at a local bank and from then I work there as Client Adviser. I’ve tried to be an active member of society.  I enjoy hiking, rollerblading, mountain biking , watching movies and taking photos as an amateur.  I had a lot of prejudice towards certain people groups before I came to GYV but  I changed.  At GYV, I  learned not to hate, not to be prejudiced. I learned to love people for who they are.

From an Northern Irish alum

Philip and Julie Kane

Name: Phillip Kane

Nationality: British

GYV Staff/ Participant during: First session, 1998

Education: Aeronautical Engineering Diploma in 2000. HNC Manufacturing Engineering 2011

Occupation: Aircraft Structural Fitter

Most Interesting Country Visited: USA of course!

Favorite GYV Memory: Meeting loads of interesting people with all sorts of backgrounds, religions, and beliefs. I have so many other memories that with stay with me forever.

Volunteer/Civic Engagement since Global Youth Village: I coached junior football (soccer) for kids ages 5-16 years old. I also volunteered as a mentor for young adults dealing with substance abuse.

Biography: I was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  I went through protestant schooling until the age of 17 when I left with O.K.  grades.  In Northern Ireland, there is a lot if hostility between the Protestant and Catholics. I grew up fighting with people of the same age as me over religion, as a teenager we really didn’t know why we were fighting.  As I grew older I was more aware if the history if our country and why the animosity was there.

My mother and father raised my two brothers and me well and taught us not to show any disrespect towards any faith or religion.
My father always says, “it’s nice to be important, but, its more important to be nice” and this has stayed with me since I was young.

In 1997 got an apprenticeship at a local aircraft manufacturing company in Belfast (bombardier) and completed my certificate in September 2000. In between my studies, in June 1998 I got a chance of going to GYV with a friend of mine.

Going to GYV at 18 showed me how other cultures integrate and live side by side. I enjoyed the workshops, team building and activities that was put on for us and a lot of what I learned has stuck by me every since.

I stayed at the company for 5 years before leaving and becoming a self employed aircraft structural fitter.  I spent 4 years traveling around the UK and Europe working for various aircraft manufacturers and airports.  During this time I got married to my beautiful wife Julie in 2007.  It was honestly the best day of my life. I am now back working for Bombardier in Belfast and hope to start a family soon.  I have two wee dogs Ruby and Lily who are miniature daschunds (sausage dogs).

I want to thank everyone at GYV that took time from their own lives to mentor a bunch of moody teenagers.  I can honestly say it changed my way of thinking about other people’s religious beliefs, their cultures and their way of life.

GYV: A truly life-changing experience for Georgi

Name: Georgi Vogel Rosen

Nationality: American

GYV Staff/Participant during: P’92 – ’96

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Smith College in Sociology with a concentration in Third World Development Studies and a master’s from the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management

Occupation: Assistant Director of Program Evaluation at a nonprofit serving at-risk youth and families

Most Interesting Country Visited: Czech Republic (it’s where my grandfather was born)

Favorite GYV Memory: If you had asked me 15 years ago, I probably would have said the Dine (Navajo) giving ceremony or the Tajik/Uzbek cultural night where we all learned Central Asian dances. But in retrospect, my favorite memory of GYV is a set of three experiences in the summer of 1995 that had an extraordinary impact on me and continue to affect me to this day. First, a group of campers participated in a panel discussion in which they candidly described their experiences fleeing war or persecution. Hearing these terrifying stories told by those whom I considered close friends shook me deeply. I still remember my horror and the awe I felt for my friends’ resilience and courage. Later in the summer, my Global Issues and Leadership group set up a “hunger banquet” at lunchtime in which we randomly divided the participants and staff into three groups, corresponding with then-current statistics on world hunger. The smallest group received a large, indulgent meal. A slightly larger group had a very simple, bland meal, while the majority was given just a small bowl of rice. We intended to simulate the international disparity in consumption and poverty. Everything seemed very abstract when we were setting up the event: hunger had never been an issue for me. It was just a topic I had seen on the news or a cause we would donate a can of soup to around Thanksgiving. It never occurred to me that I would know someone for whom hunger had been a reality. Once we started the banquet though, it was very clear that for some of us, hunger was not an abstract concern but rather a memory from childhood. As with the refugee panel, I was very deeply moved by many of my friends’ comments, and I left wanting to do something to help. The next week or so, the Global Issues and Leadership group went on a field trip to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in DC, and we met with a staffer who told us about the UN’s efforts to help refugees. She told me that there were refugee resettlement agencies around the world and gave me the contact info for one in my community. I ended up volunteering there for years and later returned to work as a case manager. Those three experiences at GYV had such a fundamental impact on me that it’s hard to believe they happened over a period of just a few weeks.

Volunteer/Civic Engagement since Global Youth Village: Right now I am very active in efforts to strengthen Jewish-Muslim relations and counter the rise in Islamophobia in the United States. I also volunteer at two local civil rights organizations that work to combat housing discrimination and promote LGBT equality, and I volunteer with another project that helps reconnect Boston area refugees with loved ones from whom they were separated during war or genocide. I also serve on the steering committee of a group that matches young adult volunteers with non-profit organizations around Boston.

Biography: I grew up in Providence, Rhode Island in the United States with my mother and several pets. Ever since I was a little kid, I adored animals, and that passion led me to become a vegetarian when I was eight years old. A few years later, I came across a book called “Kids Can Save the Animals,” which referenced two vegetarian summer camps in North America: one was an outdoors camp that offered sailing, canoeing, kayaking and rock climbing lessons, and the other was a small camp in Virginia and had something to do with multiculturalism and leadership development. I didn’t really know what either of those things meant, but the camp had neither boats nor meat, and that was good enough for me. And that’s how I ended up at the Legacy International summer program, now known as the Global Youth Village. Few people can say that their summer camp shaped their adult lives, but GYV inspired interests and passions that I never could have conceived before arriving in 1992. Since GYV, I have traveled to several amazing countries, including Kenya, India, Costa Rica, the Philippines and most recently Ukraine, and volunteering on human and civil rights issues has been a huge part of my life. I now live in Brookline, Massachusetts, with my dog (Ralphie) and cat (Maggie), and I work at a wonderful non-profit that serves some of the most at-risk kids and families in the state.

Settling in at Swarthmore

Name: Daniel Baggarly

Nationality: American

GYV Staff/ Participant during: 2006-2009

Education: rising sophomore at Swarthmore College

Occupation: food vendor

Most Interesting Country Visited: USA (only one I’ve been to so far)

Favorite GYV Memory: There were enough of them to keep me coming back for four years… As I’ve never left America, going to camp is the closest I’ve been to traveling the word. What kept bringing me back was the wide range of interesting people GYV managed to pull in year after year and the resulting exposure to perspectives I otherwise might never have considered. The memories that stand out most distinctly in my mind are the two Iraqi-American sessions I attended. They brought the war much closer to home for me, and helped me understand the lives of those who actually lived in the country that mine had invaded to a much deeper extent than I could ever gain from TV, newspapers, or the Internet. Personal stories are much more powerful.

Volunteer/Civic Engagement since Global Youth Village: My parents run a homeless shelter in Norfolk, Virginia. Helping out there has always been a major part of my life. We constantly have many guests staying with us, serve breakfast on the streets three mornings a week, and regularly deliver food to the poor. This background certainly helped the long-held attraction I’ve had for GYV, which in turn helped me further appreciate my parents’ work.

Biography: I’ve lived my entire life in Norfolk, the first ten years in the aforementioned shelter (called the Norfolk Catholic Worker,) the next ten three blocks away. My family is still goes to the shelter everyday, and we even have guests stay at our new home from time to time. Along with working for the poor, my parents are life-long peace activists. My dad has been to jail a number of times for protesting war and militarism. He is currently incarcerated for trespassing on the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which houses an arsenal of nuclear weapons. As for myself, I went to public school for 12 years and spent a great deal of my free time both writing music and performing with a rock band I helped start at age 13.  Music has been a significant part of my life since childhood, when I first learned to play piano and discovered The Beatles. I recently finished my freshman year of college at Swarthmore where I am studying political science and playing rugby.

Enjoying Motherhood in Maryland…

Name: Meredith Janik

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