WEEK TEN: Farwell Lunch with the CEO

On my last day as an intern at the Carter Center, seven of us had the opportunity to go to lunch with Dr. John Hardman, the President and CEO of the Center. If you want to be impressed, read his bio: http://www.cartercenter.org/news/experts/john_hardman.html. It’s nearly impossible to repeat the conversation that transpired over 1.5 hours with Dr. Hardman, but perhaps one particular topic of that afternoon had special significance to me: Sudan.

Dr. Hardman spent much of our lunch speaking about the tenuous situation in Sudan. Following the elections in April, the international community is now focused on the lead up to the referendum in January. The majority of reports expect the South of Sudan will vote to secede from the North, and whether this type of transition could be achieved peacefully is one of the major challenges. Moreover, the capacity of the South to organize a fully-functioning government in such a short amount of time is an ambitious goal. It is admirable that the Carter Center is doing all it can to play a non-biased role in the referendum process, and yet the issue itself is daunting.

For me, the conversation struck a personal chord because Sudan is basically the reason I have shifted my career path. When I was 26 years old, I was three years into running my not-for-profit dance company and looking for a new choreographic challenge. I came across the book, “The Devil Came on Horseback”, which follows the life of US Marine Brian Steidle as he serves on the African Union Observation Mission in Darfur. For me, the images and deep inner turmoil Steidle expresses in his book were so powerful that they created a sense of individual responsibility for mass atrocities that destroy the human spirit. I knew I wanted to further Steidle’s story and message, and I used the voice I knew best to do it: choreography.

In 2008, my dance company premiered a ballet called “Darfur” based on Steidle’s story. It performed in several different cities and raised funds for an organization that assists victims of genocide, Global Grassroots. But at the same time, I did not feel that was enough to meet my responsibility as a human being to raise America’s awareness of the situation in Darfur or genocide in general. I looked toward foreign policy and NGOs for answers. I enrolled in a Masters program in International Relations, and two years later, I found myself in an internship at The Carter Center in Conflict Resolution.

Dr. Hardman speaks about Sudan in a way that pushes the boundaries of how I understand a conflict zone. Regardless of whether or not I can play a role in that dialogue through policy or the arts, I know that the Carter Center has been a significant part of my journey to meet my threshold of personal responsibility.