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The Thunderbird Alumni Impact blog highlights the achievements and success stories of “T-birds” all over the world. Here you’ll find news and information from the alumni community as well as interviews, pictures and networking event information.
By Thomas Rhoden ‘09
This project had pretty simple beginnings. I remember that I was sitting under the thatched roof of last season’s rice crop in the school where I kept my office, when one of the younger students in my English enhancement class brought in a stack of crinkled papers. At first I was not sure what the boy wanted me to do with the yellowing sheets of paper. I quickly remembered that in my exhaustion from leading a full schedule of other classes and discussion groups that morning, I had been too tired to keep up being anything even slightly resembling a proper teacher of the English language that afternoon and had given out a quick assignment to the group of bright-eyed learners to turn into me in an hour.
So here the child was with the class’s finished product, well-handled and ink-imbued. I traded a few thank-yous for his disheveled ream of papers and promptly set the pile aside. I knew I would have a chance to look over them the next day since I had nothing planned.
When I did finally tackle the stack, I was very surprised to find the contents within to be captivating and endearing.
The in-class assignment had been something along the following: Please write three paragraphs about your past. I had been expecting nothing more than the normal drill of working on the past tenses. But the students’ essays to this question ended up being so genuine and their accounts of struggle and disenfranchisement so startling that I knew I wanted to understand better their particular plight.
I wished to learn more about the refugees that I worked with and their unique experiences fleeing to and living in the refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border as well as the complicated process of being resettled to a new host country. When I had another opportunity to meet with the class, I also asked them to write essays about their present situation and future dreams. I did this exercise with most of my classes.
Atop those green-wet mountains that border Thai and Burma, life continued on in the refugee camps as it always had, slowly, sparsely, until my own one-year commitment in the camps came to an end. Given some time to reflect over the experience, I knew it was time to reevaluate those essays to see if they could be brought to larger audience. This book is the final product of that process.
The main objective in compiling this manuscript is to increase awareness about the issues facing refugees and former political prisoners of Burma. Depending on which organization one cites, the total number of refugees in Thailand can vary by the tens of thousands, but most would agree that there are at least 150,000 Burmese refugees living in the camps that border Burma and Thailand.
I started the project on Kickstarter to raise funds for the production, distribution and marketing of the book. When compiling the budget for this project, I was pretty happy to see that I was able to save costs on all fronts.
Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing way to raise money for these types of creative projects. I’ve set a fundraising goal and a deadline by which I need to meet that goal. The trick is that if I don’t reach our goal by this deadline, I don’t get any of the funds that our supporters have pledged. On the bright side, I can go over our goal (and hope to do so). I’ll use any additional funds on additional marketing resources so we can reach an even larger audience.
I’m incredibly grateful to everyone in the Thunderbird community, both the alumni and current students, as well as the professors and staff for your support and encouragement. I can’t wait to share the book with all of you.
To make a pledge to my project, please see my page here.
July 7th, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Just wanted to extend my appreciation to everyone in the Thunderbird community. All of you have been awesome and super enthusiastic about getting the word out on this project. Out of all my colleagues/friends over the years, the T-birds have been the quickest and most generous to respond to my requests for pledges. I think that says a lot about the character and strength of the Thunderbird network!
Right now, looking over the funding drive, I am about a third of a way there in reaching my goal, with just under 22 days left to do it. If you haven’t had the opportunity yet, please pass this project (http://kck.st/itaINu) onto your friends or anyone interested in these type of humanitarian issues.
Thank you all again for your support!
July 10th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Quick update for all Thunderbird backers:
We have been very fortunate to get a review from Pascal Khoo Thwe. If you are not familiar with him, he is the author of the inspiring memoir From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey. Follow link below to read more:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rhoden/burmese-refugees-letters-from-the-thai-burma-borde/posts
We are now 2/3 of the way there for our funding goal with 18 days left to go. Thank you again everyone for your support!
July 14th, 2011 at 7:12 am
Thank you again everyone for your awesome support so far. We are only $375 away from our funding goal. 14 days left to go! Continue to help spread the word if you can!
July 31st, 2011 at 11:11 pm
We have successfully funded the book! Thank you to everyone who helped get the word out on this project. To follow current developments join the official facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Burmese-Refugees-Letters-from-the-Thai-Burma-Border/145320458880659
August 23rd, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Published!
After making some last little changes here and there and getting the title to be just the way we want it, we are happy now to announce that Burmese Refugees: Letters from the Thai-Burma Border is available in print and as an e-book. The book is now stocked up with distributors, so it can be ordered through Amazon or any normal brick-and-mortar retailer.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615471072/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=tfrh-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0615471072&adid=1AQFA3XVHC6P9BMY80FS
November 3rd, 2012 at 10:52 am
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November 17th, 2012 at 12:25 am
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February 4th, 2013 at 12:29 am
The Zune concentrates on being a Portable Media Player. Not a web browser. Not a game machine. Maybe in the future it’ll do even better in those areas, but for now it’s a fantastic way to organize and listen to your music and videos, and is without peer in that regard. The iPod’s strengths are its web browsing and apps. If those sound more compelling, perhaps it is your best choice.
February 4th, 2013 at 2:02 am
This is getting a bit more subjective, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like ‘Mixview’ that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you’re listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of “neighbors” will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users, the Zune “Social” is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.
April 18th, 2013 at 1:57 am
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April 29th, 2013 at 7:45 pm
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May 8th, 2013 at 10:27 pm
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May 8th, 2013 at 10:28 pm
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