Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

Canagarajah’s Paalam Project Honored with Stand Up Award

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Stand Up Awards Posters 2011 2
Originally uploaded by LAUSatPSU

Paterno Fellow Ruth Canagarajah was honored earlier this semester with one of three coveted Rock Ethics Institute “Stand Up” Awards, awarded each year to “honor Penn State undergraduate students who have the courage and fortitude to take an ethical stand for a person, a cause, or belief, and thereby demonstrate ethical leadership.”

Ruth was recognized for initiating what she called “The Paalam Project.” “Paalam” is the Tamil word for “bridge,” and the project was intended to do some serious bridging–to span the divides that separate Sri Lankans as well as those that separate Penn State students from an awareness of the political and social situation in Sri Lanka.  Ruth’s family came to the United States from Sri Lanka, and so she decided to encourage Sri Lankan youth to take up playwriting as a way of healing after the civil war there.  She then translated their plays into English, and worked with Penn State students to produce them, providing unique opportunities for cross-cultural exchange and understanding.

Visit the Roch Ethics Institute’s website for more details.

Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 24

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In episode 24 of Liberal Arts Voices, International Politics and Sociology major Ruth Canagarajah joins the program to discuss her service leadership initiative Paalam.

Ruth begins the podcast by discussing her philosophy behind the Paalam project. She explains how the Paalam project works in collaboration with an NGO called SJC 87, a scholarship program for children in Sri Lanka, to provide Sri Lankan youth with an opportunity to write and perform their own plays. Ruth talks about how the Paalam project uses art, and specifically playwriting and theatre, as a medium through which Sri Lankan youth can communicate and reflect on their experiences. Classes in Sri Lanka participate in a playwriting competition where the winning groups have their plays performed at Penn State.

Towards the end of the podcast, Dean Long congratulates Ruth for winning one of the 2011 Rock Ethics Institute Stand Up Award. The annual Stand Up Award is given to students who have demonstrated a proficiency in ethical leadership. 

Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 24

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You can visit the Paalam project website to find out more or to get involved. Also, make sure to check out the Paalam video on the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies You Tube Page.

We encourage all of our listeners to write to us with comments, questions, or suggestions at laus@la.psu.edu. We may even respond to these comments on the next episode of Liberal Arts Voices.

Theatre Initiative Links PSU and Sri Lanka

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To aspiring and current Fellows and readers: Want to be involved with an exciting and inventive opportunity for involvement in the arts and international service? Interested in discovering what it’s like to collaborate with a non-governmental organization (NGO)? Read on!

First, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ruth and I am pursuing a double major in international politics and sociology with a minor in linguistics. As a junior Fellow, I enjoy learning about a broad range of topics but I’m especially taken with classes/research/activities that address the intersection of conflict, culture, and development. Belonging to a family of refugees from war-torn Sri Lanka, it could have been predictable that I would aim to work in the international conflict and reconstruction scene. This wasn’t the case. It took considerable time and reflection, especially because I was very young when we fled.

These interests have led me to help out with an NGO called SJC 87, a scholarship initiative that uses art as a rehabilitative tool for war-affected students in Sri Lanka. I had offered to sell calendars for their Art of Hope project which used art-work made by the youth, organized them into a calendar, and sold them to the Sri Lankan diaspora around the globe. I took a different trajectory by suggesting the expansion of the project to college students. Penn State was the trial run, which unfortunately did not work out as well as I had envisioned. And while it wasn’t mind-boggling letdown–Sri Lanka, after all, is a small, remote country that is thousands of miles away and Penn State has hundreds of organizations that are advocating for their own significant issues every day–it motivated me to find more engaging and creative approaches of raising awareness in a legitimate and representative manner.

I am now spearheading a project called Paalam (a Tamil word meaning “bridge”) in collaboration with SJC87, Oxfam at Penn State, and the PSU Theatre Department. At its core, the project uses playwriting and theatre as a tool for self-reflection, rehabilitation, and community-building among Sri Lankan youth. The website goes more into it but basically, we allow youth to write plays and monologues through which they share their experiences and their hopes for the future. These plays are then performed here at Penn State and the money we raise goes to the youth’s education. This project is truly a bridge; it’ll bridge internal emotions to external expressions, unspoken hopes for the future to cultural conversations on rebuilding. It is capable of bridging the chasm between two completely different countries and cultures, if only by a strained thread.

What excites me more than anything is that this project is no longer just an idea that is bouncing in my brain and between extremely supportive friends and family. It’s finally an active collaboration.

Thumbnail image for IMG_0082.JPGDuring the summer, Paalam was enthusiastically approved by principals in northern Sri Lanka and things have been rolling ever since. On Sept. 18th and 25th, workshops for playwriting were held for all interested youth (photos here!).

If you’ve stuck around this far and if anything here sounds like something you’d want to learn more about and get involved with (we’ll be meeting this upcoming Thursday), contact me at RLC272@psu.edu. This project is looking for ambitious self-starters, compassionate cosmopolitans, and idea-generators.

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