“…[M]any of our classroom teamwork assignments bring out the worst elements of teams. But acknowledging that teamwork isn’t easy, tapping into students’ own experiences working on teams and helping them focus on the three key areas I’ve outlined can produce both better products as well as insights into how teams themselves can work better. And no matter what they’re studying or whatever career they’re training for, insights into how teams can work better is a skill they can use for the rest of their lives.”

“This paper, using the team-based capstone experience of the “International Development in Practice” class at the University of Notre Dame, explores how an integrated negotiations approach contributes to the capstone value creation and learning experience“

“Do you know what was my brilliant idea to bring people into this important problem?” he asked. “Ebola: The Musical.” “You laugh,” he said in response to the audience’s reaction. “Shouldn’t we use our best minds and creativity to make addressing Ebola as immediate and important, as say, getting tickets to the musical Hamilton?”

“A tree represents my community in South Sudan,’ Majak told the group. He held up the leaf. ‘This leaf represents the many leaves that through photosynthesis make the energy for the tree. We, the young people, are the leaves that must make energy for our communities.“

“The challenge is to not only open your hand and your heart to the poor but also to open your mind to think seriously and rigorously about ways that in accompanying each other we might, walking together, build something better.“

Santiago’s Children was just recently released in a new Spanish version titled “Los niños de La Granja.” Steve traveled to Santiago just this past week to present this new version at two book launches.

The first was at Saint George’s College, and the second was at Domingo Savio with a special performance by some of the children from Mi Club Domingo Savio.

The book launches offered wonderful opportunities to meet with and reunite with many important figures from the book and from Santiago.

As the recent article in the Santiago Times says: Santiago’s Children “is finally available in the language of the people who inspired it,” which gives much cause for celebration.

Benito Baranda wrote the introduction for the new version in which he says:

“I am shocked once more by how much truth is represented from the reality and not from the creative mind of a writer, from the description of where he lived, to the description of each of the children, to the description of the dictatorship and the everyday life in the miserable oppression and abuse.”

The book launches offered wonderful opportunities to meet with and reunite with many important figures from the book and from Santiago.

Details, photos, and updates about the book Los niños de La Granja can be found on the new website and on the Facebook page for Santiago’s Children.

The Spanish version is now available in several bookstores in Santiago, Chile:

• Takk
• Qué Leo
• Prosa y Política
• Feria Chilena del Libro
• Antártica de La Reina

“We’re often overwhelmed by problems in the world. We can’t do everything. But choose something. Even if our own dreams and aspirations aren’t in line with what other people think, try anyway.”

The most transformative experience of Steve Reifenberg’s life now carries the possibility to transform the lives of hundreds of others. His book “Santiago’s Children: What I Learned About Life at an Orphanage in Chile” has been selected as the common reader for incoming first year students at Texas A&M International University in Laredo. The city of Laredo also has chosen Reifenberg’s book for its “One City One Book” program, with all area high school students reading it as well.

After graduating from Notre Dame in 1981, Reifenberg taught for one year in the States before spending two years in Chile. Based on those two years living and working at an orphanage there in the early 1980’s – when repressive military rule and widespread human rights violations gripped the country – “Santiago’s Children” chronicles the impact of political oppression on the lives of people, especially children.

“It was a remarkable opportunity to live and work at the orphanage at a critical moment in Chile’s history,” Reifenberg says. “It had a transformative effect on the rest of my life and gave me an interest in international issues and in vulnerable children in poverty.”

In the book, Reifenberg presents a series of vignettes of the lives of the orphans with whom he lived. Most of those stories are based on a journal Reifenberg kept during his time in Chile, when the systematic brutality of Pinochet’s regime darkened everyday life for people living there.  Reifenberg faced that brutal reality as he looked into the eyes of children orphaned because of the repression.

In one example, Reifenberg recalls the circumstances of two of the children:

“In a sign of protest against the government, a small group of unarmed people gathered at a home began banging pans together. Soldiers opened fire on the house and killed several people, leaving two children, ages 7 and 9, orphaned.”

Though exposing a tragic chapter in Chile’s history, “Santiago’s Children” offers readers an international history lesson with a personal touch.

“What caught our attention was the accessibility of the book to our incoming freshmen,” says Hayley Kazen, chair of the common reading committee and University Seminar instructor at Texas A&M International.

“We also really liked the fact that not only did the book have an issue we could discuss in class, but also that it incorporated some history of Chile as well. Probably what intrigued us most though, was that the author didn’t really know what he wanted to do with his life. I think that will hit a nerve with many freshmen who are grappling with this issue and open the door to some interesting conversations.”

Reifenberg spent the last 20 years working on international themes at Harvard University, including nearly 8 years as director of Harvard’s Regional Office in Santiago, Chile. His interest in international issues has brought him back to Notre Dame some 30 years after graduating. As executive director of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Reifenberg oversees strategic planning and international initiatives, and teaches a course on international development.

“Find something you’re passionate about and stay with it,” Reifenberg advises. “We’re often overwhelmed by problems in the world. We can’t do everything. But choose something. Even if our own dreams and aspirations aren’t in line with what other people think, try anyway.”

*This article, Transforming Lives, first appeared in the University of Notre Dame’s faculty spotlight section.

“Reluctantly, my wife, Chris, and I agree to take our three kids to Pet Refuge, with the explicit condition that we are not getting a dog at this time. Driving to an Adopt-a-Dog evening to “just look,” you know, pretty confidently, that the battle has been already lost.”

I left Chile two months ago, and as such it just so happened that it was the last week of December when I had to say goodbye to the children, to other volunteers and to friends. My departure was mixed with all the Christmas celebrations, something that’s emotionally hard to deal with for the children that we work with, given that are constantly reminded that they don’t have a family with whom to share their Christmas. Furthermore, my family came to visit me and I was a bit nervous about having them meet the kids during this time of year.  Yet it was a truly great experience:  showing my parents and brother what had been my life for a year as well as showing the children what was my family like. I think it worked great, as the children laughed at my father and brother’s jokes and they really had a good time participating in the games my mom created, and my family told me that they were “touched to their souls” while meeting my “other siblings”.

It was hard for me to say goodbye.  It may not be forever, but when I think hard about it, it probably will be. For a while I was torn by two contradictory feelings. On one hand, I didn’t want the children to miss me, I wanted them to be able to forget me easily without disturbing their lives.  These children already have many important adults who have disappeared from their lives, and I did not want to be just another face that waltzed into and then promptly out of their lives.  On the other hand, I wanted to feel that I had been important to them and that my time with them had been significant, so I have to admit that a part of me did in fact want to be missed.  In the end I decided that I did not need to give precedence to one feeling over the other, but to merely act as I felt and be open and honest with the them. So I told all of the children how special they were, and how special they had been for me, and that I wanted them to be happy even after I left (and to behave and to not say bad words, etc.).

And all of this came together in a single moment, when I hugged on of the girls and told her goodbye.  She hugged me strongly in return and started crying.  I knew she wasn’t crying because I was leaving, that was just a detonator of the emotional bomb she held within. She was crying because it was Christmas Eve and she was in a shelter, without her family, and feeling very alone.
In a certain way, this moment helped to resolve my conflicting feelings, as I realized that I was important for them and that I had helped them, yet they would not be traumatized simply because I was leaving.  It was natural for me to maintain my emotional connection with them right up until the end, showing them my feelings and letting them know how important they were for me. It is a part of life that people come and go into and out of your life, but that doesn’t mean they don’t love you, and I hope to have imparted this message to my girls. I know that I have a family that will always be there, but sadly they don’t, and their growth and development will have to proceed within this context.  Hopefully my relationship with them will help to make this context a bit less harsh and bit more compassionate.

I don’t know if what I did was the right thing, but at the time I felt that it was, and I still do. I don’t know what’s going to happen to the children that I used to work with, but I want them to know that I loved them as much as I could, and that they have been important in my life. They have to face many challenges in their lives, many more than what I would prefer, but I want them to face them knowing how great they are.

In honor of the 2008 International Volunteer Day, events were held in over 30 countries by a variety of organizations, including various UN bodies, national governments, and an impressive collection NGOs and other civil society groups. Furthermore, the day provided an opportunity for several corporate volunteer programs to highlight their work as well, with Intel, for example, announcing the completion of 1 million volunteer hours by its employees during the past year.

While the celebration of an international volunteer day is certainly a positive step towards recognizing and encouraging the work of many dedicated organizations and individuals across the globe, it is important to recognize that the tasks performed by volunteers must be carried out on a daily basis.  So don’t wait around until December 5th, 2009 to congratulate a volunteer who you know, or to sign up for a volunteer project yourself; though the spirit of volunteerism might be officially celebrated on this one particular date, it lived out by millions of volunteers each and every day of the year.