A Farmington First story sparks an alumni-student partnership

By Marc Glass (Winter 2008 issue)

In the fall 2007 Farmington First article “Connelly ’08 Casts a Wide Net to Save Lives,” senior Elizabeth Connelly said, “People’s first reaction to hearing about the catastrophic numbers of people who die from malaria is to be overwhelmed, to say ‘the problem is so tremendous, what possible difference could I make.’”

Sara (Hatch) Wotton ’95, assistant principal of Oyster River High School in Durham, N.H., saw the difference she could make. As faculty advisor to her local chapter of Interact (Rotary International’s service club for young people ages 14 to 18), Wotton convened the 35 student members and proposed supporting Soft Power health clinic’s efforts to curb malaria in Uganda.

“Just from reading the article, I thought Elizabeth seemed like a really driven, amazing person—someone I wanted to put in front of our students so they could hear about her experience and understand the power of a college education,” said Wotton, who has been assistant principal since 2001. “We considered many ideas for our annual international service project, mostly based on impersonal information we had from brochures or websites. The students knew they wanted to work with someone who had actual contact with the people who would be helped through our fundraising.”

Thus, Wotton invited Connelly to meet with club members in early December to discuss the clinic’s efforts to curb malaria by distributing mosquito nets. With a matching donation from the Rotary Club, the students hope to raise $6,000 by early June 2008 for Soft Power.

“I’m very excited that the students are becoming aware of global issues and grateful that they’re throwing their support behind an extremely important cause I happen to be passionate about,” Connelly said. “I think it’s important for young people to have a global awareness and to connect with other people from different cultures. By making that connection, we learn our superficial differences are no match for our commonalities.”