For 10 months, 27-year-old Alison Horton won’t have clean running water. She’ll have extremely limited access to electricity. And for almost a full year, she’ll basically be living in poverty in Bangladesh. But for the Latham resident working toward her doctorate in geography at Rutgers University, these are welcome challenges.
Horton is one of 17 recipients nationwide to receive a brand new type of Fulbright Scholarship called the Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship. These fellows will travel to eight different countries as special assistants in ministries of education, agriculture, commerce, health and others offices. Each recipient will get a stipend depending on the country – Horton will receive almost $30,000 for her stay, for airfare and a monthly stipend. Horton will be going to Bangladesh with two other recipients.
From October to August, Horton will be living in Dhaka, Bangladesh and working with the National Ministry of Education. Continuing her studies from Rutgers, Horton said she is focusing on alternative approaches to developing countries – “rather than just trying to expand the city … trying to strengthen the rural areas.”
“Bangladesh is super poor, super overpopulated and way underdeveloped,” Horton said. “The majority of the population still lives in the rural areas. They don’t have access to health care or education or the formal economy at all. (We want to work on ) clean water, food, basic health care in the attempt to facilitating lifestyles they have instead of forcing development.”
Horton is no stranger to Bangladesh. In the summer of 2011, she lived there for four months at an internship for the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee, a nongovernmental humanitarian organization. Horton said BRAC has a “stronger presence than the government” and it helps run schools, teach reading and writing and even teaches women how to be midwives. Because of BRAC, there has been a dramatic change in mortality.
So when Horton heard that Bangladesh was one of the countries offered for the new scholarship, she knew she had to apply.
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s a sign. I should go for it,’” she said.
Over the 10 months, Horton will mainly observe, but she still hopes to be able to take part in “some kind of change.”
“I’m trying to keep my expectations in check. I hope to observe and be a part of something,” she said. “I’m not at all an expert getting sent in. I’m a humble observer that has a perspective … only to share it humbly. I’m not going in to say, ‘This is how things should happen.’ Instead, I’m just going to be along for the ride. I think every day will be a learning opportunity for me.”
The biggest challenge for Horton will be dealing with the poverty for a longer time. Unlike her last visit to Bangladesh for four months, or a four-month trip to China to work with slum dwellers, 10 months is a bit closer to permanency.
“I think things will become very challenging. I will be homesick for people, comfort. I want to work in poverty and I want to experience the poverty to a point,” she said. “Eventually, the poverty will get to me. There will be some days when I want to see it all, but then there will be some days when I see the same 4-year-old kid poking through the same pile of trash and I’ll cry. It just will get to me sometimes. But that’s what I’m there to experience. I want to be bothered by it.”
Horton also said she has reservations about “putting her family through this.” She said they’ve been very supportive but she wants to try to make the transition as comfortable for them as possible. She said she will be able to contact them by cellphone when she gets there.
“We’re very proud of her,” Mary Pat Horton, Alison’s mother, said. “As parents we have worries for her safety, health … but she’s 27 years old. We can’t say no. We’re supporting her in every way. Sometimes she jokes and says, ‘I’m young and naive and I can make a difference.’ She’s going to make it matter, I think. If anybody can do it, she can. She’s just a special girl.”
When she returns at the end of next summer, Horton will finish up her doctorate and aim for a 2016 graduation. She also teaches a course at the university to about 300 freshmen. She said in the future she hopes to ideally get a job in the states, working for a large-scale alternative development organization and later, maybe becoming a professor.
“I see how uneven the world is and how privileged I am,” she said. “This is what I want to work on for a career. Who knows if I can ever make a difference, but I’m gonna try.”