Alumnus
Finding the upside
By Tori Tragis; photos courtesy of Sam Perera
The rains came to southern Sudan, lowering the temperature from where it hovered just above 120 degrees. Now the temperature averaged a more bearable 112.
Rain is a mixed blessing. "Sudan is so flat that most rural areas in the south get flooded and the people cannot get around for the next five months," Sam Perera, '96, writes in an e-mail. "Because of this immobility and the availability of plenty of water and grass for the cows, there is much less tribal fighting in Sudan during the rainy season.
"Everything here has an upside and a downside, I guess."
Sam specializes in finding and holding on to the upside in some of the most dangerous, slippery-downhill-slope countries in the world. East Timor, Afghanistan, Sudan -- even his native country of Sri Lanka, still in the first year of a cease-fire in its bloody civil war -- all have made headlines with their carnage. Sam has made them each his home, at least for a time.
For now he's living in Kadugli, about 300 miles southwest of Khartoum, Sudan. Sam is a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration officer with the United Nations peacekeeping mission. His focus is on special-needs groups: child soldiers, disabled and elderly soldiers, and women associated with armed groups, including prostitutes.
Cross cultures
Sudan's heat is suffocating even for Mohotti Arachchilage Samanatha Perera, known as Sam to nearly everyone outside Sri Lanka, where he was born and raised. His hometown of Colombo is on roughly the same subequatorial latitude as Kadugli.
"My father, who was an English teacher and an avid reader, used to tell me about faraway lands," Sam says. "I remember once when he told me about a place called Siberia where the temperatures went beyond 60 below zero. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that one day I would be actually studying and living in such a place."
Sam applied for a high school study-abroad year with AFS Intercultural Programs, and in 1986 was placed with the Marrs family in Kenai, Alaska.
"Most people around the world form their opinions of the USA through what they see in Hollywood movies and TV," Sam says.
"I wish more people had the privilege of getting to know America the way I have. There would be much less anti-American sentiment around the world."
Sam did well in high school and won a scholarship to UAF. He stayed in Alaska two years after earning his B.B.A., working as a credit manager for a bank in Soldotna and Fairbanks before returning to Sri Lanka.
Leaving Alaska was difficult, because by then Sam had become a father.
He visits Alaska frequently to see his son, now 14, who lives in Anchorage with his mother. The trips were easier when Sam's job had a more predictable schedule. In early 2001, he relocated to East Timor (now Timor-Leste), as part of a U.N. effort to train the newly formed civil service.
"East Timor was just about to break away from Indonesia and become independent," Sam explains.
"Sadly, many lives were destroyed before the Indonesian army and its militias pulled out."
The violence was brutal. Up to a quarter of a million people were killed; hundreds of thousands became refugees. Sam was going to a place where peace existed on paper but not always in practice.
"Forty-two houses of the village I was living in were burned down," Sam says. "My house was also torched, and I lost all my money, passport, clothes, books, etc. When I went back to my house … angry villagers chased us with machetes and we had to drive [away] fast."
"One of the friendliest guys I've ever met"
Sam has an engaging smile, resonant laughter and a sincere interest in others. When his friends tell funny stories about him there is always genuine affection in their voices. His host parents from high school still speak warmly about the congenial chaos of life with the ever-popular Sam.
"Sam could sing and he was handsome, so he had girls calling the house all the time," Marie Marrs laughs.
Jacob Joseph, one of Sam's former professors at the School of Management, confirms Sam's easygoing social nature. "He can make friends with a dog in the street," Joseph says. "He's just one of the friendliest guys I've ever met. He has a lot of emotional intelligence."
Joseph sees Sam's role as a facilitator in conflict zones as a natural result of two aspects, Sam's character and geography. "If you recall, he's [already] gone through civil war. East Timor, Afghanistan, Sudan, Sri Lanka: all those places have a commonality.
"Given that he had to adapt to another culture, coming from Sri Lanka to the U.S., and then Alaska, which I would say is a culture of its own … he's shown a lot of adaptability," Joseph says.
Sam had to adapt again when he moved from East Timor to Kabul to hire and train the Afghan staff of the International Rescue Committee, an American nongovernmental organization; the staff eventually grew to about 450. His next assignment, back under the aegis of the U.N., was to educate Afghans about democracy and voting, and later, to run the disarmament office in Jalalabad. ("We collected enough tanks and heavy artillery for several countries.")
Breathing space
Sam has a self-imposed test: "From each country, when I leave, I want to have at least one lifelong friend. This has forced me to try to understand their cultures and ground-realities."
Finding and holding onto common ground is, Sam reasons, as much a part of his job as the actual decommissioning. "Just being in these countries, we provide the ordinary people some breathing space and a respite from brutal violence."
Sam's job is to turn swords into ploughshares, trade ammo packs for seed packets. But part of his heart is always with a baby girl in Sri Lanka. Sam married in 2008, and in late 2009 his wife, Nadee, gave birth to their daughter.
"My instinct is to return to Sri Lanka immediately to be with the family, but now I have to think of my daughter's future also," he says, explaining that he plans to stay in Sudan until the peacekeeping mission ends in 2011. By then he hopes his professional experience will be enough to secure a position in Sri Lanka to help in the rebuilding efforts there.
"Living in so many places and working in so many difficult places has indeed changed me as a person," he notes. "After seeing what people have gone through during brutal wars, I am grateful for the life I have."
"You will never hear me complaining about trivial things."
Tori Tragis, '94, '99, is a writer and editor for UAF Marketing and Communications.
Four lives, four successes: Northwest Campus' Class of 2010
Northwest Campus is based in Nome, a community of 3,500 that is the service hub for the 15 villages of the Bering Strait region. This 44,000-square-mile region extends from Shishmaref on the northern rim of the Seward Peninsula to Stebbins on the southern edge of Norton Sound, and includes communities on St. Lawrence and Little Diomede islands.
The campus works with regional health and tribal organizations, school districts and corporations to offer education programs that meet regional student and community needs, especially in vocational and business development and cultural preservation. Courses for certificates and associate, bachelor's and master's degrees are taught both in person and by distance delivery. NWC also supports learning centers in Shishmaref and Unalakleet.
Nikki (Polk) Scherer M.Ed., elementary education
"With UAF's program I was able to student-teach in Nome for a full year, which was very beneficial. I had a great mentor and was able to get a job in Nome."
It's a long way from the Midwest to Northwest, but Nikki Scherer found her home in Nome when she moved there in 2002. She'd been there before during summer visits with her sister, who already lived there, and she was able to parlay a degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater into a job working with the local community center providing children's programs in Nome and the surrounding villages.
Nikki loved being around children, and with her grant funding coming to an end, she decided to go back to school for a teaching degree. She student-taught in Nome for a year, working with her school's own fifth-grade students toward completion of her master’s project on culturally responsive reading assessments.
Lisa Haugen B.A., rural development: rural health and human services management
"I had three children before the age of 20 years and was living off of welfare. I knew I needed to further my education in order for my children to have a better lifestyle."
Before she was 20 years old, Lisa Haugen had three children and was on welfare. Although she'd dropped out of high school in the 10th grade, she had earned a GED diploma, and she knew would need more education to make a better life for her family. Lisa made her first try when she enrolled at UAF in 1993 but she didn't think she was doing well, and in 1995 she moved to Golovin, where she worked first at the Golovin Volunteer Fire Department and later as a secretary at the local school.
A new decade was a new start. Lisa moved in 2001 to Unalakleet and married Tony Haugen, with whom she had three more children. Taking distance courses allowed her to earn an associate's degree, and she got her bachelor's in rural development this past spring. While continuing as an administrative assistant with the Bering Strait School District, she will enroll in the rural development master's degree program this fall.
Janet Klein A.A.S., applied business
"Though I have done the same type of work in different areas for over 20+ years, perhaps the degree will give some people the idea that administrative work can be a career and has validity."
Janet Klein moved to Nome almost four years ago when her husband transferred there for work. She had taken classes at Yakima Valley Community College in Washington. Because most of her credits were accepted by NWC, she was able to pick up where she'd left off in Washington. Janet was a nontraditional student, having helped her husband through college a few years after they married, and though she liked taking classes on campus and making friends, she preferred doing things at her own pace. Distance-delivery classes from NWC were what she needed. While she had enough credits to pursue a double major, she decided to finish her degree in business management, which is the type of work she has done for the past 30 years; she currently works for the National Park Service.
Marie Katcheak certificate, high latitude range management
"[The HLRM course] sparked my interest. I could take my time learning with other persons who had reindeer knowledge and the same lifestyle as myself."
Conventional wisdom and quiz-show contestants hold that anything you learn might someday be useful. Marie Katcheak is a case study in that. She knows Alaska, having grown up in Holy Cross and graduated from Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Juneau. She knows about radio electronics from studying at the Haskell Institute in Kansas (now the Haskell Indian Nations University). She knows about teaching, which she did for six years. And she knew that when she met a man with a reindeer herd, she should marry him.
All four things came together when she earned her certificate in high latitude range management, which trains students to inventory and monitor northern animal and plant populations. Reindeer herding has been part of her family's lifestyle for the last 20 years. Now she wants to learn more about technologies like GPS and satellite-tracking collars, climate change and ecology, and becoming a USDA-certified meat inspector so she can help educate other herders in the region.
Google Map: UAF Northwest Campus, Nome, AK
President's column
By Gail Phillips, '67 (past president)
We welcome all new students to the university. We are so glad you have chosen UAF. This is a busy time for you as you get settled in, but we invite you to stop in and visit the alumni office. If there is anything we can do to help your transition to university life, please let us know.
Very special thanks go to all returning students. Without your continued support of the university, many of UAF's programs would be in jeopardy. I hope your summer break went well and that you are ready to hit the books again.
Our annual Reunion Weekend is scheduled for September 23 - 25. This provides a wonderful opportunity for alumni to meet new students and to see old friends. During the awards luncheon, special recognition will be presented to the recipients of the Distinguished Alumnus Award and Alumni Achievement Awards.
As the outgoing president of the alumni association, I congratulate the new members of the alumni board and the new officers, and remind all alumni of the importance of your stewardship commitment to the university. As state and federal dollars decline and the competition for grants increase, the alumni of the university play a greater role in ensuring the strength and viability of the university.
Your alumni association is a dynamic partner to the university, and it is only through continued support of our members that we grow and succeed. Thank you for all you do for the university.
Flo Larson
December 7, 2010
RE: "Finding the upside"
This is quite a story. I used to teach with Marie Marrs, his host mother in Kenai when we lived there years ago. The amazing thing is how AFS students infuse global situations, the influence they have and the role they play, and so often the story relates back to their AFS experience.
Thanks for sharing this story. What an admirable human he's become!
Flo
Nancy Cranston
December 7, 2010
RE: "Finding the upside"
Thanks, LJ. It was very interesting. I knew Sam very well. He and our Patrick (South Africa) were good friends. I'm glad he's doing well and making a difference in this world.
Nancy