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Challenging a diplomat-to-be

Benjamin Gorelick '11

Ben Gorelick’s first exposure to Brandeis came through a grade-school friend in Namibia — a Guatemalan kid whose Jewish adoptive parents went to Africa so the mother could take a job with an AIDS prevention program run by the Catholic Church.

The mother had done graduate work at Brandeis, and when Gorelick visited their Windhoek home in third and fourth grades, he saw Brandeis literature and refrigerator magnets. Looking back, he recalls, "Lucy, the mother, said I really should apply, it would be a good fit."

"I do feel it is a good fit," he says now, as he pursues a dual major in politics and economics and aims at a future in Namibian diplomacy. "I feel challenged and at the same time comfortable."
    
Gorelick is one of 49 scholars from 20 countries who are currently on campus on Wien International Scholarship Program grants. He is a chief architect of the student-run Global Affairs Table.

Social justice on wheels

Liana Langdon-Embry '11

Liana Langdon-Embry spent most of her childhood abroad, living in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Indonesia. In summer 2008, she jumped at the opportunity to return to Latin America after receiving the Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice Award to intern for Fundacion Aldeas de Paz, a grassroots NGO in Venezuela. As part of the organization’s mobile school, she visited a different Santa Elena neighborhood each day, educating and mentoring children who were not attending school and lacked adult role models.

"The experience really changed my perspective and the way I view the world," says Langdon-Embry, who hopes to start an international NGO. "We often focus on big changes, but it’s also necessary to make sure that developing countries are provided with essential people, resources and institutions."

As a recipient of the university’s World-of-Work Fellowship, Langdon-Embry is traveling to Nepal in summer 2009 to participate with Volunteer Society Nepal on efforts to improve basic services and infrastructure in disadvantaged communities.

Looking for a small, big school

Seth Werfel '10

When it was time to apply to colleges, Seth Werfel knew what he wanted: a leading university in the Northeast small enough for close interaction with faculty members, yet big enough to be involved in cutting-edge research.

The Manhattan native was also looking for a campus that maintained a strong commitment to academic excellence and social justice.

"At Brandeis, the students are constantly engaged with challenging social issues," says Werfel. "It really balances the small-school feel with the excitement of vibrant discussion and active student life."

On campus, Werfel works as a research assistant and serves on the Provost's Undergraduate Advisory Committee. He co-founded the Millennium Campus Network, a national non-profit organization that supports student initatives to reduce extreme poverty and hunger. He has previously worked in the director's office of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. This summer, he is working for President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers in Washington, D.C.