By Diana Brement,
JTNews Columnist
Barbara Rosen, a 2001 Mercer Island High School graduate, will be a Fulbright Scholar this coming academic year, researching economic development in Peru. She’ll study “Financial Inclusion for Women in Rural Peru” out of the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, a research institute in Lima.
“My research will explore how the rural poor benefit from saving in financial institutions,” Barbara explained.
She’ll focus on two economic stimulus measures that have been used in Peru in the past decade: Conditional Cash Transfers, which pay poor families for beneficial behaviors such as sending kids to school or bringing them for health checkups; and Individual Development Accounts, in which government and private sources match the savings of low-income adults for a certain period of time. The money can then be used to invest in a home, business or higher education.
“Peru is the only country to date in Central and South America that has implemented both types of development strategies,” but no one has explored the relationship between the two, says Barbara. “I will investigate the extent to which rural women are depositing cash transfers into savings accounts…and the potential short and long-term benefits of having savings and other financial assets.”
This is particularly important now as many Latin American governments look to enhance Conditional Cash Transfers with other poverty relief programs.
Barbara became interested in this subject while taking classes in community economic development and urban development at the University of Pennsylvania (she graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2005). She was fascinated by the “idea that you can help people to help themselves,” by providing basic investment tools.
Saving money also makes people happy and bolsters self-esteem, Barbara points out.
“That’s what got me excited…. [Saving money] had a powerful psychological effect,” in contrast to welfare and other social services that don’t help people plan for the long term or develop forward thinking.
Except for a brief stint working on Capitol Hill (the “other one”), Barbara has worked since graduation for the Corporation for Enterprise Development, an economic development think tank and policy development organization in Washington, D.C. She’ll continue working there through July and have August off to relax in Seattle before leaving for South America.
Barbara is the daughter of Deborah and Doug Rosen and the sister of Jonathan and Adam.
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A press release earlier this year alerted JTNews that a gymnast from Woodinville would compete in the 18th Maccabiah games in Israel this summer. Joe Lawrence and I played phone tag for a couple of months, but the busy UW senior and I failed to connect until he answered his phone a few days after commencement, at home recuperating from shoulder surgery.
Joe’s athletic life has been a roller coaster of good and bad luck this past year. He heard about the Maccabiah games while on a Birthright trip to Israel trip last June, and decided to try out. Then he broke his leg while playing on a rope swing in the Jordan River.
“I barely recovered in time for the trials,” in December, Joe says. “I needed to make top five and I got third. I was pretty excited and I got to go back to Israel, which was a bonus deal.”
In January, he hurt his shoulder during a competition. Thinking it was a pulled muscle, he rested a while, but then hurt it again in February. The pain finally drove him to the doctor in March, where he discovered he had a torn labrum and rotator cuff.
He had surgery on April 6, and told his Maccabiah coach he couldn’t go. But when both alternates also couldn’t make it, Joe found himself back on the team just a few days before I called.
“Lucky once again,” he observes. Meanwhile, “I’m rehabbing and I just got to start doing trampoline.”
His most optimistic scenario is to perform a floor routine at the games, “a pretty aggressive goal.” If not, he’ll assist the team and the coach in any way possible. While in Israel he’ll visit some of the soldiers who escorted his Birthright trip and another friend who’s there for the summer.
The business major and active Theta Chi fraternity member will then come home to plunge into a vigorous job hunt. He hopes to work in the green sector, but is also checking out firefighting. He leaves for Israel on June 30, opening ceremonies are July 11, and the team will compete on July 12 and 13. Learn more about the games at www.maccabiah.com.
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Nance Adler received the 2009 Maria Erlitz Award for Excellence in Education at the Jewish Day School’s annual meeting on June 3. Nance teaches 5th grade Jewish studies and 7th grade Jewish history and culture from 70 C.E. to the middle ages. Rabbi Stuart Light, JDS’ head of Judaics, says, “Nance’s commitment to professional development and lifelong learning is a model for us all. She is constantly reinventing herself as teacher and is continually creating new ways to help students understand complex issues. The phrase “˜business as usual’ is just not found in Nance’s lexicon.”