How do you make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged people? To Cassie Phillips, it means to go live with them and work for a change.
Chosen to be part of the CNN initiative "Be the Change," Phillips, Trinity '07, is currently working in Battambang, Cambodia, volunteering with nonprofit organization Homeland to aid downtrodden Cambodian children, including victims of abuse, the sex trade and HIV.
"Be the Change" is a CNN project about a group of volunteers who are trying to help people around the world through social action. The network has equipped six selected volunteers with cameras and laptops.
The subjects' blog and video posts about their experiences helping people around the world are available on the project's Web site. The project went live this month and will last one year.
"I didn't really know much about the program or other participants when I agreed to participate," Phillip wrote in an e-mail from Battambang. "Because it's a new project, I expect it will morph and change as the year goes on."
The goal of "Be the Change" is to inform people what volunteers go through when working in foreign countries.
"It's a project that involves six fairly young people-young, technologically savvy people, who are going off to various projects throughout the world to help out people and communities," David Lindsey, the project's producer, said.
Through the initiative, the volunteers are expected to file blogs and video diaries regularly about how they are adjusting in foreign countries, how their projects are progressing, what kinds of people they are meeting and what they are feeling for one year in their designated areas.
It was the Sanford Institute for Public Policy's Hart Leadership Program that connected Phillips with "Be the Change."
"We started with a long list of organizations that we thought may fit the bill," Lindsey said. "We narrowed it down and narrowed it down, and the Hart Leadership Program became one of the top organizations we were interested in."
During her time at Duke, Phillips was active in the Center for Race Relations as an assistant director for Common Ground and as codirector of the Peer Facilitation Training Program.
A seasoned traveler, Phillips spent a summer studying in Spain and traveled to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. She also volunteered at the Leave a Little Room Foundation in Gulu, Uganda while she was an undergraduate.
Seema Parkash, Trinity '06, the Hart Fellows Program coordinator, wrote in an e-mail that Phillips is a very thoughtful person.
"Her involvement in 'Be the Change' precipitated deep reflection on how to be true to the authenticity of her experiences without violating the privacy of her subjects, even before she left for Cambodia," Parkash said.
She added that Phillips has an ability to be honest, with herself and to others, about her shortcomings and fears.
"Cassie's thoughtfulness and honesty serve her well in her constant striving to learn and grow, particularly when she is outside of her comfort zone," Parkash said.
Phillips said taking part in "Be the Change" has been a new experience for her that made her uncomfortable at times.
"I was not entirely comfortable with the camera myself when I started and I'm still working on that," she said. "So it's been a slow process of trying different things and learning about how the camera affects me and the people I'm with."Her thoughtfulness and honesty have been useful for viewers as well.
"She's experiencing some things she has never experienced before," Lindsey said. "And we can watch her do it."
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