Development Studies: Socio-economic Development from an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Saleha Erdmann
Life Experience
My name is Saleha Erdmann. (My name is Arabic, I'm not Arab. I'm named after a friend of my mom, whom my mom knew while she was in the Peace Corp in Yemen. That Saleha was not Arab either, but she was Muslim and a Cambodian refugee.) I grew up in Minneapolis, MN in the US and I am currently a senior at St. Olaf College. I will graduate in May of 2006--if all goes as planned. And next year I will...uh, I'm not sure yet. But I'm okay with that.
Obviously I cannot describe all my formative life experience here, but I've included a limited list.
Loved Ones
My family has been of utmost importance to me, which I would explain here, but that's a lot of private
information to put on the internet, so I won't. Let's just say my parents and siblings are amazing, inspiring and frustrating people who I love very much. The same could be said for my dearest friends.
Education
I grew up in a middle class nieghborhood and attended Ramsey International Fine Arts Center (IFAC) from K-8th grade, a Minneapolis public school. Ramsey was influential in my formation in that it exposed me to a wide spectrum of art and cultures and instilled in me a need for social justice. In my third grade class we watched part of "Roots," we all began string instruments in first grade, all started learning basic Spanish in kindergarten, and painted a human rights mural in a stairwell. The interests and passions that were fostered in me at Ramsey have shaped what I have wanted to study ever since, including the things that made me want to design this major.
At Southwest High School I took classes in the International Baccaluarette program (IB), but did not do the diploma because I wanted to pursue interests outside the program, like dance, ELL tutoring and environmental studies, and was also sick of taking classes with all the same people. At Southwest I had some incredible teachers who shaped my view of the world and was very involved with the ELL (English Language Learners) program, Dance Company, and Amnesty International.
Then I graduated, went to a fancy schmancy women's college on the east coast (that shall not be named), became severly depressed and unmotivated and decided to transfer after a year. I ended up at St. Olaf (Gasp! That's where my mom went, I can't go there!) because of their
excellent music and dance programs that would allow me to simultaneously pursue academic interests. There I discovered that St. Olaf's academics are quite excellent and soon became distressed over what to major in. While on orchestra tour that first year I had a conversation with an oboeist who was a CIS major. She convinced me to look into the CIS department. And here I am. While at St. Olaf I have been involved in Karibu (the African students and culture organization), the St. Olaf Orchestra, Companydance, and Reaching Our Goals (ROG, a mentoring program for Latino youth in Northfield). I have also made some amazing friends here who have shaped who I am just as much as, if not more than, my classes.
This past fall, I studied abroad in Bolivia through the School for International Training (SIT), which is based in Vermont, on a program called Culture and Development. All SIT programs have an independent study project (ISP), which I conducted in lowland Bolivia at a classical music school.
This research has become my CIS senior project, which I presented in April 2006 (see photo, taken by my mom).
Travels
I have travelled to Honduras three times through the church I grew up in to work at a home for abandoned boys called El Hogar de Amor y Esperanza when I was 14, 15 and 17. These were never long trips, nothing more than 3 weeks. But I established some string friendships with some of the students there, one of whom I still keep in touch with. This was my first direct contact with Latin America, and while these trips were imperfect, they gave me my first tastes of travel and love for Latino culture.
In the summer of 2005 the St. Olaf Orchestra went on tour in Norway. We travelled all over the country. Through traveling to Honduras and friendships with immigrants I had had considerable contact with aspects of Latino and east African cultures. However, I had little experiential knowledge of Scandanavia (even though I go to a Norwegian Lutheran college). Being in Norway made me aware of differences between Western countries (i.e. there are very few gas stations in Norway).
Probably the most significant experience I have had abroad is studying abroad in Bolivia. While there I saw such a wide variety of cultures, climates, people, languages and lifestyles.
Being in Bolivia finally immersed me in a culture and showed me the diversity within one country, not to mention Latin America. There are not enough words to describe all the things I saw and felt there.