The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 97 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT Women’s Association International’s literacy project by purchasing sewing machines so that the program can include job training. In May 2004, Erickson returned to Kabul and taught sewing classes. At the same time two former AISK students, a doctor and an EMT, provided first- aid training. Dawn’s altruism seems to stem from her international childhood. As she says, “I lived in Kabul for five years, from 1966 through 1971. The experience of being a student at an International School allowed for forming friendships with students from other countries and encouraged me to interact with people of differ- ent cultures throughout my life. My sense of the world being inhabited by one people that are only divided by arbitrary boundaries comes from being an international student and seeing so much of the world at a young age. … The desire to give to the communities that I have lived in has been one that started in my youth and continues. When it was possible to go to Afghanistan again and to be directly involved in projects, I was ready to participate along with many other fellow international students. I hope to return again to work with and for the people of a country that helped to raise me.” Finding Home My own high school, Copen- hagen International School, had a reunion in 2002 (one of my class- mates, a TV producer, created a DVD of the reunion festivities), but I did not attend. I figured, with per- haps faulty logic, that I did not need to go dig up the past with people who weren’t necessarily close to me (since I am still in touch with my friends). But having heard many international reunion stories, includ- ing tales of those who have exponen- tially improved on their experiences, I think that I will go and see what I can find next time. n “My sense of the world being inhabited by one people that are only divided by arbitrary boundaries comes from seeing so much of the world at a young age.” — Dawn Erickson