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Senior Dessa Cosma is a woman who lives
with a purpose. A triple major, she is an Honors Student and
a former UGA Honors in Washington participant. She interned
at the National Organization for Women, working in their headquarters
in Washington, D.C. in Chapter Development. This month, she
returned to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic to teach
children math and English. She plays on a wheelchair basketball
team in her free time and is planning to attend a UGA study-abroad
trip to Hungary this Maymester. When she graduates, she wants
to continue doing public service with Teach for America or
the Peace Corps and then eventually help set up women's health
clinics in developing countries.
Expected graduation: May 2006
Degree Objective: A.B. in Anthropology;
A.B. in International Affairs; A.B. in Women's Studies
University highlights, achievements and awards:
Every semester at UGA I have been on the President's or Dean's
List. In 2004, I started UGAChoices, a pro-choice organization
put together with the goal of getting Athenians to the March
for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 2004. We
succeeded and got over 100 UGA students on buses up to what
turned out to be the largest march in the history of the United
States -- with over 1 million people! Currently, I am the
co-chair of the Women's Studies Student Organization, which
meets bi-monthly to discuss women's issues, educate people
about these issues and act on these issues to make women's
lives better. Also, this is my third year playing on a wheelchair
basketball team, unofficially called the Rolling Dawgs. The
team is comprised of people with disabilities from UGA and
the surrounding Athens area and is set up through the Athens
Clarke-County Leisure Services. I personally think it is far
more entertaining than "normal" b-ball. Last spring
and this spring, I volunteered with Orphanage Outreach in
the Dominican Republic. I worked at an orphanage in Esperanza,
with kids ranging in age from 2 to 18 years, playing with
them, teaching math and English and easily learning as much
from them as they did from me.
In the 2004 Women's Studies Student Symposium, I presented
a paper entitled
"A Realist and Feminist Perspective of the Taliban."
In the paper I showed the
connection between strict gender roles, homophobia and terrorism.
Current employment:
I am the Athens representative for NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia.
I am also on NARAL Pro-Choice America's Student Advisory Committee
out of Washington, D.C. My job with NPCG to educate
students and community members in Athens about women's reproductive
health issues, including legislation efforts, medical information,
sexual education etc.
High School: John S. Davidson Fine Arts
Magnet School
Hometown: Augusta, Georgia
I chose to attend UGA because...
At first, I chose to come to simply UGA because I qualified
for the HOPE scholarship. However, by my first semester here,
I realized it was a good fit. North Campus is beautiful, and
I like having the advantages of a large and well-known public
university. I like the highly respected professors, a large
library, and lots of majors and classes from which to choose.
When I have free time, I like...
...traveling, especially abroad. All year, I eat two
dollar bean and rice burritos at Taco Stand so that when summer
comes around I can spend my money seeing the world! So far
I've made it to Italy, France, England, the Dominican Republic,
Canada, and Mexico. This summer, I plan to visit at least
that many countries on my Study Abroad (Hungary, Austria,
Romania, Slovakia , Lichentstein, Switzerland) and then
branch out on my own to see Spain and Morroco with a friend
studying
abroad in Cadiz.
The craziest thing I've done is...
Traveling alone is probably the craziest thing I've done.
Visiting a developing country in a wheelchair can be quite
difficult. There are no sidewalks or ramps, just rocky and
litter-strewn streets. There are certainly no other wheelchairs,
so everyone is always facinated and extremely curious by me
and my rolling chair. Last year on my trip to the Dominican
Republic, I didn't remember to take an extra pair of tubes
for my wheelchair tires until I was over the Gulf of Mexico!
So, of course, I had two flats by
my second day there! I rolled on flat tires for a while and
even tried gum to make a repair myself! Finally I found someone
who helped patch my tires for me, but I still had to pump
them up every 20 minutes or so! This year I did not forget
those tubes.
My favorite place to study is...
I spend an embarassing amount of time studying downtown at
Espresso Royale Cafe, but it's the best place for me to hit
the books.
My favorite professor is...
I've had a lot of excellent professors in all three areas
of study I'm pursuing here at UGA. However, I'd have
to say that Dezso Benedek, a professor of Anthropology and
Comparative Literature, takes the cake. He extends himself
beyond the classroom with his students, inviting them to his
home, suggesting books and never seeming like he doesn't have
time to even just chat with us. I admire him for his
wealth of knowledge in languages and for doing fieldwork with
the Yami people on a small island in the Pacific, but most
of all, I admire the friendship he maintains with his students.
I am excited to travel to Hungary with him this summer.
If I could share an afternoon with anyone, I would love to
share it with...
Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations.
I want to work as a humanitarian aid worker someday
for an organization like the U.N., and I would love to talk
to Mr. Annan about how it really works...as well as get my
foot in the door!
If money was not a consideration, I would love to...
...spend the next five years traveling aimlessly around the
world, hitting every continent and meeting as many people
as I can. As an anthropologist, I'm facinated by culture and
would rather experience it myself than merely read about in
a book or see someone else's pictures -- though I'm a sucker
for that too. I feel like the more
I learn about the world, the more I'll be able to help those
people who need it
because I will better understand where they're coming from
and how their
existence works.
After graduation, I plan to...
I'm going to apply both to the Peace Corps and Teach for America.
I plan on going to grad school to study International
Public Health and eventually help set up women's health clinics
in developing countries. Often times, women are the last to
get the things they need to progress as their societies move
toward development. Besides being inherently worthy of healthcare,
food, shelter and education, studies show that a society cannot
fully progress toward peace and democracy without gender equality
and women's rights. So, ultimately, it is better for everyone
if women have opportunities to grow with their communities.
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