Communities Chrissy Raudonis
Mining Activism in Argentina
On choosing Marlboro
I think a lot of it had to do with visiting campus and kind of seeing what the people were like, what it seems like socially—that was a really big part. The Colleges that Change Lives book was what directed me towards Marlboro in the first place, but the decision actually came down to visiting and seeing that I would be comfortable here and I liked a lot of the people I met. I like to be able to do things my own way, to have a lot of flexibility in what I do, and I think Marlboro offered that. The World Studies Program was definitely a draw, to be able to go abroad and do what I wanted to do.
On the Plan of Concentration
My Plan is centered on mining in Argentina, the social and environmental effects of mining and how those effects are interrelated. It's not necessarily just social and just environmental but how they kind of influence each other. One paper is on social and environmental conflict in Latin America, taking a broader look at the history of protest and its cultural underpinnings. Another paper is in Spanish, and that was important for me for ethical reasons. To go down there and gather a bunch of information and insights, and write in English, isn't very fair because it's not accessible to the people I'm writing about.
On the World Studies Program
World Studies has requirements. You have to take all these classes, and like a lot of other people at Marlboro, I can't stand requirements. But there were some very helpful classes that I wouldn't have taken if I hadn't been in the program. There was the fieldwork class I took with Seth Harter, and then a course in development at the School for International Training ended up really influencing my Plan. So it's been good in that sense.
On the international internship
I worked with an NGO called Argentina Natural, which works on a wide range of social and environmental issues. We took a trip to Patagonia to go to an activist meeting in what had been one of the first cities in Argentina to prevent a mine from being built on its outskirts. To go to this city and see that people can come together and actually make a difference, even in the face of large multinational corporations and governments, and to see how impassioned these people were about issues was definitely a highlight. And Patagonia was really beautiful too. Going abroad determined what I'm doing my Plan on to a really large extent. I didn't take away a lot of fieldwork, a lot of data, but it definitely influenced the perspective that I've approached it all from.
On life After Marlboro
For a long time I didn't know how my Plan was going to fit into what I was going to do post graduation and then NISGUA, the Network for Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, visited campus. I was pretty excited because they do human accompaniment—where they go into communities and deter human rights abuses and raise awareness when abuses do occur—and one of the groups they work with is mining activists who are confronting a lot of the same issues that I've been looking at in my Plan. That would still be a year or so out but it's definitely something that would be perfect for me. It's been a motivator for my Plan work too: It's important for me to have a firm understanding of these issues if I'm going to go and work in that field. In the meantime, I got a summer job with the Green Mountain Club. I do a lot of hiking and backpacking and will work up on Mount Mansfield caretaking and talking to people.