Three recent recipients of the annual Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Prize presented their international findings last night in Carmichael Hall's faculty dining area.
The students, senior John Dulac, junior Anastasia Konstantakatou, and senior Eva Skillicorn, undertook varied multicultural projects intended to, according to the Prize's literature, "increase one's understanding of all peoples and [encourage] a commitment to the world community."
With the help of a PowerPoint presentation, Dulac, a triple-major in French, engineering and international relations, addressed the issue of how and why France's industry is so much more environmentally-conscious than that of the United States.
Using the Lafarge cement and roofing company as a case-study, Dulac explained that huge, multinational corporations can certainly maximize profits while at the same time undertaking sustainable approaches to the environment.
Lafarge, with industrial plants in 75 countries, 77,000 employees and gross profits of 14.6 billion euros in 2002, is a leading example of environmentally-friendly corporations, Dulac said.
"Success is made if the common good is respected," Dulac said. He noted that it's easy for a large company to make profits if short-term approaches are used; the key, apparently, is to create an environment receptive to "making a profit tomorrow."
Dulac said that Lafarge has developed economically viable ways to reduce its CO2 emissions, reduce its industry wastes, and establish community relations.
As an example, Dulac highlighted Lafarge's AIDS outreach program in its African industrial plants, as well as its building of playgrounds for families neighboring the plant.
Dulac largely attributed this socially and environmentally-aware corporation to inherently different business mentalities in Europe and the United States "France doesn't have that 'get it done now, I don't care how' mentality," that is apparently more prevalent in the United States.
Instead, European companies are more willing to sacrifice large profit margins in one year in order to develop environmentally sustainable programs that will generate even larger profits in the future.
To illustrate his point regarding U.S. and French environmental policies, he compared France with Texas, which are roughly similar in size. "France has 60 million people and generates 150 million tons of industrial waste annually, while Texas alone, with 20 million people, produces 190 million tons of industrial waste annually," Dulac said.
He said that in order for the United States to follow Europe's sustainable route, it will have to reassess its tax breaks regarding environmental progressiveness, and must promote "the social, industrial, and environmental benefits" of far-sighted approaches in industry, he said.
Konstantakatou, who undertook a project aimed to analyze the Greek community in South America, visited several countries there in an effort to understand what elements bolster Greek communities so far away from their native land.
"How have Greek communities maintained Greek identity despite being small, dispersed, monolingual, and 5,000 miles away from Greece?" she asked.
In an effort to answer this question, Konstantakatou visited homes in various Greek communities throughout South America. She observed that traditional Greek customs, such as dances, costumes, food, and celebrations, have all helped maintain a strong sense of "Greekness" in South America.
The Greek language, however, "doesn't exist there, unfortunately," she said. She attributed this lack of Greek to a "lack of money [for educational funding], a lack of buildings [for classes], and a lack of instructors."
Nevertheless, it is the "little details, the memories of Greece, that makes Greekness" in South America, Konstantakatou said.
She highlighted a unique cultural phenomenon in South America, where "Philo-Hellenes," people with no connection to Greece but who are enamored with the culture, add a distinct cross-cultural blend to traditional Greek communities there.
Skillicorn dedicated her project to establishing a high-speed Internet connection in a community center in an extremely underprivileged area of Santiago, Chile.
She discussed the difficult - yet ultimately rewarding - experience of living in and helping a community "with high levels of crime, poverty, drug abuse and educational drop-out rate." Skillicorn said she lived in the immediate community for about one and a half months.
The community center, a volunteer-based initiative, was meant to create a safe haven for children to learn vital skills for the futures. Aside from establishing four high-speed Internet computers, Skillicorn said that the center now also possesses a library where impoverished children can check out books.
The Internet has worked wonders for the community, Skillicorn said. "[The computers] attracted a bunch of younger children, who are now involved in educational and community programs."
Skillicorn said that, although there are still problems regarding the center in terms of finding enough volunteers to keep it open constantly, "we're working to make the community center sustainable." She noted that a small fee of 50 cents per hour for computer use dramatically helps to pay the center's bills.
The annual Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Prize was created in honor of Anne, J'89 by her parents, Roger and Betty Borghesani. It is affiliated with Tufts' international relations department.
Betty Borghesani, who spoke briefly at the presentation's outset, highlighted the commitment her daughter had to Tufts and the wider world community. "This prize was created in her memory to invite students to become more involved in the larger community and come back to Tufts and share their experiences - especially those who haven't had the opportunity to go abroad very much yet," Borghesani said.
A maximum of $3,000 per student is provided by the Borghesani family for those who wish to undertake projects that reflect this mission statement.
