B Y - A L E X - C R E V A R
P H O T O S - B Y - P E T E R - F R E Y

UGA's top scholarship recipients, the Foundation Fellows, spent spring break in Cuba, China, Argentina, and the Caribbean—where they were treated to the most vivid history, geography, and political science classes imaginable.

t's two in the morning and a group of UGA students is listening to late-night jazz at La Zorra y el Cuervo in the Havana nightclub district . . . Havana, as in C-U-B-A. The young man on the bandstand (see photo below) is trumpet phenom Yasek Manzano, who plays with revolutionary zeal, as if riding on the waves of his horn are the daily sacrifices of 11 million people, descendants of Spaniards and Africans mainly, who live on an island discovered by Christopher Columbus during his voyage to the New World in 1492. Ninety miles south of Miami, but economic light years from America's standard of living, the Cuban people sacrifice because of a dictator's edict and an intense national pride that has only since 1992 broken free from 500 years of colonialism.

The UGA students sit shoulder to shoulder at a table which dominates one side of the cramped nightclub. There are eight of them, each one a member of UGA's elite scholarship group, the Foundation Fellows. Each is a student who could have chosen any school in the country but chose UGA because of personal attention and educational perks only UGA offered. "The Fellows instantly made the University feel like a community," says Jennifer Srygley, a freshman political science and genetics major from Tallahassee. "Instead of being lost in the shuffle of an Ivy League school or learning in an overly competitive situation, we compete inwardly and then confer with our friends—more like an intellectual co-op."

The Fellows raise virgin mojitos to toast their first night out in Havana. In doing so, they toast themselves—representatives of a university committed to international travel and study. "Their instruments look so old," said Chung Gyn "Gemma" Suh, a freshman from Roswell, of the jazzmen on stage. "But they sure do a lot with what they have."

This is Castro's Cuba, and despite the fact that thousands have fled the island to seek freedom and a better life in America, UGA's top scholarship recipients feel privileged to be spending spring break here—to catch a glimpse of one of the few Communist states left in the world and to investigate its dichotomies. Their visas were made possible by UGA research associate Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, who teaches a class on Cuba and whose connections and travels to the island began shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The Foundation Fellows' 10-day visit began simply with a bicycle tour of Havana's threadbare streets. While they were maneuvering 30-year-old, one-speed bikes through midday traffic, craning their necks to see communist monuments, two other groups of Fellows were visiting Beijing and Buenos Aires while a fourth contingent spent spring break aboard a yacht in the Caribbean (see sidebars on p. 46).

These are just some of the perks UGA offers those with SATs in the stratosphere and extracurriculars a mile long. It is why Srygley, who was recruited by Harvard and Duke and offered full scholarships to Tulane, Vanderbilt, and Florida, chose UGA—and is delighted she did.

"The main thing I was impressed with, when I was deciding where to go to school," says Srygley, "was the people in the Foundation Fellows program. I had always heard that you become like the people you go to school with, and I really wanted to become like the Fellows I met."

Downtown Havana is a sea of pastel Chevy Bel Airs, a throwback to the pre-Castro days when Cuba was just an extension of Miami Beach, its casinos a precursor to Vegas. American hotels, once Western icons of capitalism, are now government buildings. But as the Foundation Fellows soon discovered, the mirage that is Cuba defies easy definition and deserves none. Over the course of 10 days, they set aside much of the U.S. vs. Castro political intrigue, and let rooftop congas serve as a backdrop to the most vivid history, geography, and political science classes imaginable.

"Look at that sign," said Frank Martin, a junior finance major from Atlanta, whose bike mate, Lakshmi Swamy, was able to translate while maneuvering through a series of potholes.

"Devuelvan Nuestro Hijo . . . Return Our Son . . . they want Elian back," said Swamy, a sophomore microbiology and computer science major from Milledgeville. "America has put itself into a position with the Elian situation that is similar to the one we're in on these bikes."

The Cuban bike-tour guides shouted broken-English directions as the group rode through the Cristobal Colon historic cemetery, paused briefly at the steps of Havana University, then continued on to the Plaza de Revolucion, which is surrounded by cement-block government buildings and a 30-foot mural of revolutionary hero Che Guevara, whose face wallpapers the city.

The Fellows' journey through Havana actually began in Washington, D. C., where UGA was issued a U.S. Treasury license, giving the students a no-questions-asked, two-year ticket into a country off-limits to Americans for 40 years. The license was brokered by Benjamin-Alvarado of UGA's Center for International Trade and Security, who says the visa, "gives UGA access to a population stuck in a political, social, and economic vacuum."

China JENNIFER SRYGLEY Freshman, Tallahassee, Fla. Genetics/ political science Diary entry: March 9 Every Thursday night, the gates of the university in Xi'an become a gathering place for students from all over the city to showcase and practice their English speaking skills. "And what is your Chinese name?" a Chinese student asked. When they learned that I didn't have one, they christened me Feng-ye—Red Maple—as they pointed at my hair. My orange locks have been a source of fascination since my arrival in China, drawing the stares of children of all ages. "Why do Americans like to own so many guns," asked another student. I countered with a question of my own, "How do you feel about communism?" They responded, in surprisingly eloquent English, that Chairman Mao was a great man who had brought China into the modern age, but that today's government does not always live up to Chairman Mao's ideals. Our conversation continued for hours, our voices growing hoarse from talking. Argentina SUZANNE SCOGGINS Sophomore, Bremen Journalism/ women's studies Diary entry: March 5 Tonight, we spent the evening in a tango hall in Buenos Aires. Although everyone in our group had seen the tango danced before, I don't think any of us were prepared for what we saw this evening. I've been dancing for years and seen many performances, but never before have I seen such a perfect combination of fluid movements, coordination, and passion on the dance floor. It must take years of practice to reach such an apex of talent and precision. It's as though the dancers are making love as their bodies intertwine with the music. The tango itself is actually as much about atmosphere as it is about dancing. I think it would be nearly impossible to emulate such moves without the warm sticky air, bright lights, and crowds of Spanish-speaking people that characterize the nights in Argentina. Caribbean KATIE STEPP Sophomore, Stone Mountain Ecology/ international agriculture Diary entry: March 8 This morning, we went scuba diving. We saw a wreck and then a reef. It was so beautiful, I didn't want to come up—schools of fish like shining blue rivers, bright purple and yellow sponges, waving sea fans, and these neat little filamentous creatures that sucked in their tentacles when a current passed over them. You could hear this high-pitched sound, not like anything I can recall hearing before. It was the ubiquitious hum of the ocean, the sound of life moving, swimming. Both dives were very peaceful—the reef, especially so. We were down to 95 feet, but it felt just like a nice little swim in shallow water. Only when I looked up to see the boat, a small shadow way above, did I realize just how deep we were. I felt like I was on the Discovery Channel.

Briefed on Cuban history before they arrived in Havana—by way of Cancun, since Americans are prohibited from flying directly to the island from U.S. soil—the Fellows learned that Cuba (the largest island in the Caribbean) was engaged in civil war during every generation from 1868 until Castro ousted America's puppet dictator, Fulgencio Batista, in 1959—when the Soviet Union became Cuba's principal benefactor and political ally. The events of the ensuing months—the Bay of Pigs debacle, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a subsequent economic blockade—ended short of all-out war but cost the U.S. a cultural outlet, sparking debate about American policy to this day.

"Why should the U.S. have any right to tell us how to run our country?" said Marcelino Fajardo, Cuba's North American Foreign Affairs Minister, who spoke to the Fellows during a decidedly partisan government welcome on the second day of the trip. "To state publicly in the Helms-Burton Act [enacted in 1996 by the U.S. Congress to strengthen the economic blockade] that we must change our government is crazy. We are not like the U.S. and don't care to be."

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba got its first true taste of self-determination since Spain first occupied the island in the early 1500s. But the Soviets took with them nearly 85 percent of the Cuban economy. Having relied almost exclusively on sugar traded for Soviet oil at a preferred status, the Cubans had no economic fail-safe.

No one was spared. There was less food to eat, and blackouts slowed the country to a crawl. The economy has since rebounded, with gains of 15 percent per year since 1993—due in large part to the adoption of a dollar-based economy, an upswing in tourism, and old-fashioned ingenuity.

One example of Cuba's ingenuity is its urban gardens, which are found all over Havana. These city-block-sized agricultural installations account for 550,000 tons of fruits and vegetables a year and supply 30 percent of Havana's food. The gardens are completely organic (students even had to dust their shoes in cal to sanitize them before entering) and all by-products are composted. Nothing is wasted—not even bugs. Old soda cans, filled with sugar-cane honey, are used to trap vegetable-harassing insects, giving garden managers valuable information to create environmentally friendly pesticides.

"It is so cool how they've developed natural systems of repelling insects," Mary Grace Alston, a senior public relations major from Winter Park, Fla., said to several Fellows, who were crawling about the garden. "Most American farmers can hardly claim such brilliant gardening systems."

To Cubans, innovation is a matter of necessity. "We see our situation and try to make things work," said Emilio Pérez Piñera, an officer with Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Fellows' "minder" for the week. "This system works because money is not the reason for our existence. There is more desire to assure that all have the basics."

But as with any ideology, Cuba's brand of communism is sometimes lost in the shuffle of shifting realities.

Case in point: Orlando Hernandez. A star pitcher with Havana's powerhouse professional baseball team, the Industriales, "El Duque" defected to the U.S. in 1997 for an opportunity to display his talents to the world—and for a $6.6 million contract with the New York Yankees. Six-million dollars is a lot of money no matter where you live, but it's off the scale to the average Cuban, who earns $15 a month.

"When El Duque left for money, he broke my heart," a baseball fan told Frank Martin, who was sitting next to the Cuban during an Industriales home game, which the Fellows attended. "But he is showing everyone that we have the best baseball players in the world. One thing is for certain: baseball been berry, berry good to El Duque," he said with a wide grin that opened into laughter, exposing red peanut skins.

Expanding horizons is what the Foundation Fellows program intended to do when the trustees of the UGA Foundation established it in 1972 with two students. The program honored "super scholars" with full scholarships of $2,500 that inaugural year. The intent was to keep the best and brightest students from leaving Georgia to attend college—just as the Morehead Scholars and Jefferson Scholars programs have done at UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia, respectively. Next fall's class of 24 incoming Foundation Fellows has an average SAT of 1508 and a high school GPA of 4.08.

In subsequent years, the program has grown 30-fold, with 60 students in 1999-2000 receiving fellowships that not only cover all expenses of attending UGA but also include approximately $15,000 for travel-study grants. Fueled by contributions from UGA's most generous benefactor, the late Bernard B. Ramsey, a former Merrill Lynch executive, the program will expand to 80 Fellows in the fall of 2000.

As recently as 1983, the total FF endowment was $2.1 million; today it is $55 million. With this level of support, Fellows are encouraged to travel and create educational projects. Trips have included summer excursions to Geneva and Tanzania and spring trips to Thailand, Cuba, Paris, London, Ecuador, Argentina, Greece, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and China—just to name a few. The University views the overseas venues as cultural classrooms with immense educational benefits.

"They are a 'special lot,' but I don't want them to think of themselves as such," says Foundation Fellows associate director Steven Elliott-Gower. "Still, the single greatest asset we have in the Foundation Fellowship is the 'Fellowship.' The intense interview process, the retreats, the study-abroad programs, the special access to people like former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, author Toni Morrison, and TV producer Matt Williams—all this goes together to cultivate and nurture a sense of community that's based on the love of learning."

"We are different than other students but only because of the things we do," says Robert Quinn, a freshman of undecided major from Nashville, Tenn. "For the most part, we do feel tight like a fraternity."

And like any fraternity, they stick together. Perpetually engaged in conversation, they are equally adept at the delicate art of listening. And they change debate caps—from science and history to the arts and philosophy—with disarming ease.

"This Cuba trip is another part of life," said Quinn, during a street debate in Havana. "It's about introspection. You are seeing other people in a situation you are not used to, and at the same time you are trying to find ways to validate yourself."

The sun rises early in Havana. On the bus by nine every morning, the Fellows were treated to tours of different Havana municipalities, each day dedicated to separate areas of island life.

The students received detailed information about the Cuban medical system, which is cost-free. Patients regularly see family doctors who live in their neighborhoods; they are referred to clinics and hospitals as needed. The tours included a visit to a natural medicine clinic, where the students learned that alternative healing and holistic medicine—which are frowned upon by the AMA—are considered legitimate means of disease prevention in Cuba, where resources are sorely limited.

Asked by a student to explain why doctors in Cuba are willing to work for almost nothing (about $20 per month), the director of the Natural and Traditional Medicines clinic, Dr. Juventino Acosta, said, "We think of our occupation as a pleasant duty to our fellow citizens." Acosta impressed the students with his gentle manner and with the way patients reacted to him, often hugging him while saying good-bye. "We took an oath to heal," said Acosta, "not to become rich."

Perhaps the most inspiring tour stop was at a school in the Miramar municipality, where 26 classes of first-, second-, and third-grade students, dressed in maroon-and-white uniforms, crowded the school's front courtyard, singing and dancing in a self-choreographed production to honor UGA's visit.

"Who are some of your heroes?" asked Jeff Pugh, a freshman speech communications major from Cumming, of a group of third-graders who had returned to their classroom. The Fellows stood at the head of the classroom and listened as the Cuban students explained that their heroes were Fidel Castro, Jose Marti, and Che Guevara—all revolutionary demigods in Cuba. There was no mention of Michael Jordan, or anything Pokemon related.

"Marvelously well-versed in party-line politics, aren't they?" observed Elliott-Gower.

That fact was further driven home by a cherub-faced, eight-year-old girl, who politely raised her hand to speak to the group and said, in the sweetest voice:

"Deseamos que Clinton moriria asi que Elian puede ser vuelto y papa poder levantar el bloqueo."

Translation: "It would be best for all if Clinton died so Elian Gonzalez could return home and the blockade be lifted."

When she finished, her classmates shouted in unison:

"Viva Fidel!"

"These kids are so serious—and smart," said Mary Grace Alston. "I don't think you would ever see such discipline from American students. It's touching."

"Yeah, and they know on which side their bread is buttered, too," added Benjamin-Alvarado.

The Fellows embraced the innate Cuban rhythms during an impromptu night-school visit to an apartment rooftop in Habana Vieja (old Havana). A band banged out cha-cha-cha beats and rumba vibrations while the Fellows boogied in the moon shadow of La Catedral de la Virgen Maria de la Concepcion Inmaculada. The class was loosely taught by a middle-aged dance master, Dulce Maria, who moved with liquid ease and coerced the Fellows to do the same.

"This is what I hoped to see in Cuba," said Alpharetta freshman Buudoan "Doannie" Vinh Tran, dancing in the sultry night air. "There is no reason the music should be lost in politics." Of Vietnamese heritage, Doannie proved to be one of the most rhythmic members of the group—so much so that one Cuban musician said, "I didn't know Chinese could dance." He was "Dancin' Doannie Chino" for the duration of the trip.

In stark contrast to Dulce Maria's rooftop was the Fellows' visit to the U.S. Interests Section, a facility that acts unofficially as an embassy. The facility is leased from the Swiss embassy and is among the newest and shiniest in all Havana. Down the street, groups of Cubans congregate to either protest against America or to gather information to enter the States. Directly across from the heavily guarded building (armed guards are positioned every 10 feet to prohibit people from walking down adjacent avenues) money, manpower, and resources needed nearly everywhere in the city are being spent to construct a 20-foot platform for anti-U.S. rallies. The platform is known to locals as estadio Elian—for Elian Gonzalez.

The purpose of the visit was to provide American contrast to the communist propaganda the Fellows had been hearing.

One must remember that these people have no political choice and are being ruled by one man," said an Interests Section public relations official, who demanded anonymity. "Until the time that Cubans have a political choice, we have chosen an embargo as our weapon."

"But do we do that at the expense of the citizens, who need food and medicine?" asked Fellow Robert Quinn. "Isn't it possible that an embargo from 40 years ago has lost its power today?" Many of the Fellows nodded their heads in agreement, as if the exact question was also on their minds.

The diplomat's response: "I am merely the messenger."

At the briefing's end, the Fellows were escorted into the hospital-clean corridor and back through metal detectors with a clearer understanding that everyone has a party line to toe.

"It is just so weird," said Gemma Suh. "It's like a pendulum. You fall in love with the Cubans and go to one extreme, then you visit the American government and go to the other extreme. I'm not sure if I will find the middle."

Cuba knows how to hide its warts. For all the generosity and beauty of the Cuban people, gaping contradictions do exist. During an afternoon discussion with University of Havana students, the Americans listened to Cuban youth explain that education is for the perpetuation of the Revolution (a catch-all term for Castro's government), which prompted Marshall Chalmers, a freshman political science major from Atlanta, to ask, "Who decides what is revolutionary?"

The Cuban students laughed nervously and circled the question at a safe distance, finally stating that "anything which does not support the Revolution is simply counter-Revolutionary."

"The discussion was good for us," says Chalmers. "We saw that certain concepts are beyond them, the same way concepts which deny us individual rights are difficult to accept. It seems we are all products of an ideology."

Joseph Mutti, a British expatriate and journalist for Radio Havana, believes the system is hard for people in Western countries to understand.

"Maintaining a system that provides medical care and education to all is what I agree with and why I stay in Cuba, earning Cuban wages," says Mutti. "I don't mind giving up a little bit of personal freedom to guarantee community benefit.

This glimpse of communism—and of the human element embedded in it—is why the Fellows came to Cuba. And thanks to Benjamin-Alvarado's connections, they got more than a glimpse. They saw the good and the bad that Castro has wrought, and grew to admire the Cuban people, whose spirit and survival skills belong to no political party.

"It's sometimes tough to bring a group of Americans here," said Benjamin-Alvarado, "but these students proved time and again that they are older than their years. They have received an education that will change their thoughts and their lives."

The Fellows finished the week with a four-course meal at a paladar (a private home, which serves meals to the public for a significant tax to the government). Fresh fruits and vegetables, oven-hot breads, and succulent pork, fish, and rabbit lined the banquet table for the four-hour feast. Toasts to a week of discovery and bonding carried glad tidings and regret that the trip had to end. During every "Salud!" one could see the reflections of Havana's streets, lined with towering palms and centuries-old, paint-thirsty buildings, in the Fellows' eyes.

"I know now that travel can't be based on just seeing rich beaches with tourists," said Jeff Pugh. "To travel, you must be with the people."

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