Leading By Serving
According to UNICEF, over 60 million children live in Bangladesh, a number greater than the entire population of the United Kingdom.
One of Bangladesh’s many young faces.
In Bangladesh, between 2005 and 2009 the primary school attendance rate for males was 80%. For females, it was 83%.
Secondary school attendance for males was 46% and 53% for females.
While the first statistics are pretty impressive for a third world nation, demonstrating a clear attempt to educate as many children as possible in the most densely populated country in the world, something goes wrong between primary school and secondary school. Attendance declines by nearly half because dropout rates in primary school are disturbingly high. Many societal problems are to blame for this phenomenon: child labor, early marriages for girls, and high mortality rates among them.
Despite the many obstacles of poverty, Bangladesh has made incredible strides towards development and meeting Millenium Development Goals relating to children. But it is a struggle, and children are the ones to suffer. Without education, there is absolutely no hope to life outside of abject poverty. In a nation where half the children live under the international poverty line, it is critical to provide a means to a better life.
The key is education. Schooling is the pathway to a life of more comfort and purpose, a life where survival is not a daily question.
This is where I hope to come in.
At a café in Dhaka.
However, this has never been an issue for me. I like to stand out, I like to be unique, I like that I am different. However, this situation has made me question my life and the blessings I’ve been given. I have two cultures to call home, I have escaped a fate of poverty, and I am enrolled in the top public School of Architecture in the States. I can’t possibly have been blessed with these gifts without a reason. There must be a purpose to my life. I just have to find it. And this brings me back to my roots.
Everything for me goes back to education. My grandfathers on both sides of my family tree climbed the ladder of education to lift themselves out of rural life, and both did so in a spectacular fashion. They were not content to simply be clerks in the city or some such thing – both were first generation university students and both obtained PhD’s. Their hard work ensured that their progeny could move forward in life and succeed.
But what defines success? Wealth? Comfort? Power? Happiness? Probably all of the above. My definition of success is fulfillment, justice, and compassion. I’ve known that I have to give back to the world what the world has given me. Islam teaches us to spread good in the world, and that is my mission. I’ve determined that I need to define my life through service, so I have the Big Idea of my life. Now I need to fill in the frame with the details. Now I need to develop my vision, and my vision begins now, in college.
I am an Architecture and Plan II student. This is an apt, if somewhat difficult partnership. Because Plan II prides itself on the Renaissance education it provides, I am getting an incredibly well-rounded education in that regard. On the other hand, Architecture, in essence, requires one to be constantly learning, and to be learning everything about everything. You cannot build without understanding people, the environment, human nature, weather conditions, political situations, the laws of gravity and picturesque massing. The list truly never ends. Despite the difficulties of the lifestyle, I believe I have made the right choice. With this education, I can help improve educational opportunities for children in Bangladesh. Three quarters of Bangladesh’s population lives in rural areas, over half of whom subsist below the poverty line. Clearly, villages desperately need schools to teach these children the way to success.
I think it is imperative that the world responds to this crisis. I understand that there are similar stories to this one all over the world, but Bangladesh is one of my countries. Half of my roots bury into Bengali earth, so my personal obligation is there.
The first step for me is to complete my education. I cannot drop either major, but I especially cannot drop architecture. Both are crucial to my future as a skilled architect. An education from the States is well respected internationally, and UT and its School of Architecture are fairly renowned throughout the architecture community. I have four more years to complete after this, after which I must take my exams to obtain my license. This will enable me to practice in the field. I also plan on going to graduate school – architecture is an incredibly competitive field, and I plan to do as much as I can to stand out. So Harvard, the top architecture graduate program, is on my radar. PhD, here I come.
However, before graduate school but after I graduate, I have other plans. I plan to spend 2 years working for the Peace Corps. President JFK challenged us to think outside of our country, outside of our own life, and I plan to respond to that challenge. The Peace Corps is the perfect training ground. Bangladesh is now a closed country, but I would love to work in a south Asian country facing similar problems, such as Cambodia. There are several different fields I can work in: Education, Environment, Health, Youth and Community Development, Agriculture, HIV/AIDS, Food Security, and Business and Information and Communication Technology. I would primarily want to work in Education. First of all, because education is incredibly important to me, I would like to be involved in every step of it. I cannot imagine anything more rewarding than to directly influence and improve the life of a child. Also, this way I can experience what a teacher and student experience, and can get an innate understanding of the needs that a village school must fulfill. Poor architecture occurs when the designer fails to get inside her client’s life and mind, and doesn’t respond to the client’s needs. I want to create secondary schools that succeed. Schools in which children feel comfortable and safe and are excited to attend. Schools that teachers can utilize to the best of their abilities and where they can feel at ease. Schools that combat the steep dropout rates and are environmentally sustainable, easy to build and replicate by hand, and are beautiful. It is incredibly important – no, it is vital, to create beautiful schools. This is because people must be proud of their buildings. Villagers who are proud of their school will make an effort to ensure that their children attend. A beautiful structure will get used. It will be a source of inspiration and attraction. An ugly, utilitarian one will simply be another blemish on the land, and will inspire and excite no one. As a teacher, I would learn precisely what would create a sense of pride and honor in a school.
I would also be able to teach skills that will be valued in a third world country, due to my education in the United States. My English classes will assist me because English is incredibly valued outside of America. Bangladesh suffers in comparison to countries such as India because the English education is not as successful in many places, and on an international level, the better English one speaks and writes, the higher level of competency one is ascribed. Also, if I decide to start my own firm, my English skills will be incredibly useful, because businesses require high levels of written skills.
This is an example that truly works. It is called the METI Project.
Through the Peace Corps, I would also learn adaptability. Just like we have learned in this course, E603, it is crucial to character and leadership development to throw yourself into frightening and foreign situations, to take risks and make mistakes and just be completely out of your element. Our adventures with experiential learning and free falling have already begun to prepare me for this, but the Peace Corps would be the catalyst. The lifestyle I am proposing to lead is probably not going to be the highest paying one, so it’s a bit of a scary thought. I plan to work with a nonprofit group to accomplish these goals. After finishing with the Peace Corps, I will try to get a job with a firm in Northern Europe. Countries like Germany and Norway and Denmark do a lot of nonprofit work in Africa and Asia. This will be really good experience – but it’s also daunting. Getting into a firm like that is difficult. However, our fourth year of undergraduate studies can be spent interning abroad, so hopefully I can be placed in a firm with whom I can make connections and return after completing my Peace Corps stint. If that doesn’t work out, I would probably try to start my own firm. That is the most daunting goal of all: to strike out completely on my own. The thought of complete independence is terrifying, especially in an unfamiliar country.
Last week, I attended one of UTSOA’s Lecture Series. The speaker was Francis Kere, an architect from Burkina Faso who went to school in Berlin. He formed his own firm and organization for building schools, and has three main design principles on which he relies: local materials, traditional knowledge, and the power of the people. He builds schools in villages, including his own village of Gando, Burkina Faso, as well as in India. His projects span the globe and are not only limited to schools, but the fact that he has succeeded and is living what is in essence my dream gives me hope. Perhaps I could work with him in order to gain experience for my own goals.
Due to the difficulties of my college life, I sometimes lose sight of the future. It can be quite difficult, and sometimes I wonder if perhaps I’m meant for something else. No matter what, I know whatever I do must be meaningful. It must have purpose. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, then that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding.”
The photo speaks for itself.
Total Word Count: 1866
Without Quotes: 1807
Everything will be cited properly for my final, but these are the websites used:
IMAGES:
- http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/overview.html
- Picture taken by my mother
- http://www.greendiary.com/entry/meti-school-in-bangladesh-is-hand-built-and-eco-friendly/
- http://home.messiah.edu/~aw1313/PeaceCorps2.html
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