Miami University

For over thirty years now, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been living to defeat death. While the Dirty War of Argentina is today just a memory, the Mothers gather every week for “Jueves en la Plaza.” They walk for thirty minutes around the plaza in front of the Casa Rosada. The plaza today has become one of the only original plazas in the world where people still gather to get their voices heard; it’s the political center of Argentina. However, when the mothers started their weekly walk, it wasn’t this way.

The children and teenagers in this photograph are just a few of the thousands of Liberians who fled their civil war-riffed homeland for the United States in July 2003, when Liberia’s capital Monrovia was under siege by rebel forces. I took this photograph with my friend’s 35 mm camera earlier this year after 11:00 mass at St. Patrick’s Church. The parish of St. Patrick’s has undertaken assisting the assimilation of those Liberian refugees who wish to seek a new life in the United States rather than return home to Liberia.

While marching in a gay pride parade in Paris, France, I took this picture of a few strangers who captured my heart. My participation in this event was part of my experience in the International Health Study Abroad program provided by the Department of Kinesiology and Health at Miami University. Look at the faces of these people. Could you look any of them in the eye and tell them that they do not deserve to be treated as human beings? Could you say that they do not deserve the same rights you enjoy?

I took this photograph in Northern Ireland in summer 2007 during my Undergraduate Summer Scholars project. This homeless man was sitting outside of a grocery store, carrying all of his worldly possessions with him. He played a haunting song on his flute that people walking by pointedly ignored. Though no human stopped to help him, he had one friend—a loyal dog who loved him and kept him warm. I deliberately included the garbage can in this picture because in this moment I realized that both here and abroad, the homeless are often treated like trash.

On the surface this is just another cheap prayer card, such as you could find in churches and Christian shops around the world. But this particular card is more than that. It is one man’s cry for help and for me a life changing moment.

This past summer, I volunteered at an LGBT Youth Program in Chicago. Meeting so many incredible young adults and learning about their struggles taught me a lot about opportunity and privilege. Although I often feel marginalized on Miami's campus, my path through life has been free of the obstacles faced by many of the youth I met this summer.

This photo was taken on a remote hillside in Costa Rica. Generally one may assume that they are abandoned shacks or a deserted village. These structures are made of metal and the people within make them a home, but these should not be houses; simply a shelter from the rain. However, these are the homes of several families who attempt to make a living among the mountains. This primitive housing is neither safe nor sanitary for any person to reside in. It was heartwarming to see the smiling faces of the children who knew no different; who did not know what they were missing.

Each summer, the streets of Paris are lined with over one million people who come from all over the area to watch the La Fierté parade. The parade does not celebrate a holiday, or a military victory though; the event champions the rights of those who identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, and is attended by individuals from all ages and walks of life. The parade lasts for hours, and the excitement and enthusiasm of the crowd gives hope to individuals who support GLBTQ rights around the world.

This adorable child lives in Dharamsala, India, at a Tibetan Children's Village. These villages were set up shortly after China invaded Tibet to assist the children who had been orphaned or separated from their parents during their escape from Tibet.

Children here not only receive basic care and schooling, but are also taught about their Tibetan heritage, allowing them to remain close as a community.

Some people think social justice has to be in a far-off country. I contend that it can be as close to home as a friendship.

My photo was taken on the steps of Hepburn Hall with a friend, a fellow co-worker Resident Assistant, and a person of inspiration to me. It was in this building, and on this campus that I discovered the beauty of breaking stereotypes, prejudices, and misconceptions.

Ashley has shown me pieces of her world, her history, her story. And I, too, have shown her windows into my world.