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Bird's EyeView
Friday, September 13, 1996
A KU student takes a passage to India
By Stephanie Fite
The streets weave without reason and 12-inch sidewalks
serve as an extension of the thinly thatched brown shacks that are shoved together. Coal-burning fires choke the evening air and cook meager meals for the 6,000 people who live in the two-and-a-half acre slum.
Dhiobitalalla Basti, a slum in Calcutta, India, has no running water and the residents are desperately poor. In past years, few social welfare students have expressed a desire to interm in developing countries. Those who have gone have returned shocked by the dire living conditions.
Dhiobiatalla Basti is a slum where none of the Bari Hollowh's social welfare colleagues dared to go, but it is where she wants to return.
"I know there is a job waiting for me if I go back," said the Florissant, Mo., graduate student in social welfare.
Hollowich was the first social welfare student to go to India, and she chose Calcutta because that is where her faculty adviser previously had worked.
"I wanted to affect people, to touch their lives," Holloway said.
Hollowich's internship in India was her first practicum study in the School of Social Welfare. A practicum study is required of all social welfare students to gain practical knowledge in the field. However, Hollowich's request to study in India was unique because the school is not set up for international placement.
"International placement requires a quality student who is willing to
give support and time to the project," said Goodwin Garfield, field practicum director in the School of Social Welfare.
In a place where the cost of a meal is one dollar and a bus ride is six cents, Hollowich's $3,000 loan from the study abroad office paid
for her monthly expenses and her plane ticket.
"I looked at it as important to my education, and I was willing to spend the money to get the practical experience," Hollowich said.
Hollowich planned to pursue a master's degree in business
“
When Hollowich was introduced to the Sisters of Charity and Mass led by Mother Teresa on Sunday, she began to return every Sunday. Eventually, she volunteered to work with the Sisters of Charity.
I was able to see the strength of their survival rather than the weakness of poverty.
Although she admitted that meeting Mother Teresa did not have a
business administration before she turned to social welfare. She decided she wasn't affecting people the way she wanted to as a quality assurance manager and accepted the $30,000 yearly cut in pay to work with children with emotional problems and their parents.
- Barbi Hollowich,
Florissant, Mo., graduate student
in social welfare
Since Hollowich was interested in working with the poorest of the poor,her interests led her to developing countries and to the doorstep of a Missionary of Charity, outside of Calcutta. It was at the missionary that Hollowich met Mother Teresa.
profound effect on her, the experi-ence showed her a side of life she didn't known exist.
to start small businesses. Although more than 70 percent of the people are self-employed, the average income is only $118 a month.
Hollowich's internship included working with the Institute for Motivating Self Employment. IMSE is a non-government organization that provides loans to people who wish
Surprisingly, business opportunities abound in the slum.
Piles of batteries, carbon and other waste provide for numerous recycling businesses, she said. Tailor, tea and paint shops are some other small businesses.
Mahasweta Banerjee, assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare, is from Calcutta and was Hollowich's liaison in the social welfare school. Banerjee said that
interning abroad was important to learn new ideas and innovative practices. Such practices include installing programs like IMSE in the United States and support groups for the poor to motivate the destitute to become creative and work for themselves rather than have others work for them.
"In India, there so many who are poor and here, there are so few," Banerjee said. "This is a wealthy county that is filled with people looking for the best of everything and the thought is, if you don't see it, nothing exists."
A city and port in eastern India and capital of West Bengal State, Calcutta is one of the largest cities in the world. The city is the most crowded, with about 100 square miles and a population of about four million. The housing shortage and crowding are apparent in the north, where the Dhobiatalla Basti is located.
Hollowich stayed at the Rhama Chrishina Mission Institute, which was as far from the Dhiobiatalla Basti as a drive across Kansas City. Hollowich described the institute as an oasis from the poverty.
"I had to live there because if I did live in the slums, I would have gotten sick," she said. "After four hours in the slum, I was ready to go."
Despite the fact that she was painfully empathetic to the way of life in the slum, Hollowich spent 20 hours a week for 12 weeks surrounded by abject poverty.
"I was able to see the strength of their survival rather than the weakness of poverty," she said.
Trading her tiara for textbooks
By Megan Jordan
Pageants are a way for women to get together, express opinions and express their achievements to the world.
-Leah Sexton, Kansas City,
Mo., freshman and ex-
Miss Missouri Teen USA
Two summers ago the Kansas City, Mo., freshman was working as an usher at the stadium when a woman she had never seen approached her.
Leah Sexton found fame at Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals. Not as a baseball player, but as Miss Missouri Teen USA.
"The first question she asked was how old I was," Sexton said. "I thought she was going to try to set me up with her brother."
But the woman identified herself as the sister of the regional director for the Miss Teen USA pageant and told Sexton that she should consider getting involved in the event.
"I was really flattered," Sexton said. "I had never even thought about being in a beauty pageant. I had never even watched one on TV."
"She taught me to walk in four-inch heels," Sexton said. "I'm so accustomed to it now, I don't feel right if I'm not in four inch heels."
She decided to give the pageant a try, although she was leery at first. She met with a
pageant coach who briefed her on current events, taught her to speak confidently and gave her a taste of pageant life.
Next on the list of preparations was purchasing clothes for the competition. Sexton's evening gown cost about $1,000.
"I didn't have a clue about this, I was thinking I'd wear my prom dress," she said with a laugh.
When the competition for Miss Missouri Teen rolled around, Sexton walked away with the title of Miss Missouri
Teen USA. She received $10,000 for winning the pageant.
The year after she won was a whirlwind of autograph sessions and public appearances, she said. She did not want to miss her senior year of high school, so her duties as Miss Missouri Teen were squeezed between student council meetings, ballet practices and other school activities.
Spending two weeks on five hours of sleep each night, appearing on three million televisions in 36 countries and worrying about college could be a lot of pressure. Sexton said.
The day before college classes started, Sexton competed for the title of Miss Teen USA in Las Cruces, N.M.
"At times I would find myself crying," she said. Although she did not win the Miss Teen USA crown, Sexton was one of six finalists in the
"I think, in general, in this culture, beauty and thinness are emphasized more in women than in men, and pageants are one thing that contributes," she said. "I would like to see scholarships based less on beauty and more on scholarship." Sexton said she never had experienced nega-
"Pageants are a way for women to get together, express opinions and express their achievements to the world," she said.
Sexton also said taking part in pageants might boost teens' self-esteem levels.
Sexton said she had never seen her participation as degrading to women.
pageant and won the swimsuit, evening gown and interview competitions.
Sexon said she is not surprised by the
consequences from beauty competitions.
Charlene Muehlenhard, associate professor of psychology and women's studies, has a different outlook on beauty pageants.
CD Order Pass / KANSAN
"I don't want to be known as Miss Missouri Teen, and actually right now I'm not," she said. "I just crowned the new Miss Missouri last week."
She now is settled in at Naismith Hall and doesn't plan to compete in pageants for a plan, she said.
Sexton is excited about her college career, she said. As a dedicated Jaya-hawk fan, she always wanted to attend the University and can't wait to wave the wheat at football and basketball games, she said. She is majoring in biology and wants to become an eye surgeon.
Thoughts of exams and new friends already are taking the place of four-inch heels and bright lights.
"I have my first biology test next week," she said. "Hopefully, that will still be my major after next week."