Lauren Pluchino '08 of Horseheads, N.Y., spent summer 2006 in Mwanza, Tanzania, interviewing entrepreneurial women supported by micro-financing grants.

"We found some women weren't making much money because many of the same kinds of businesses were concentrated in one area," says Pluchino, whose work was funded by a Phillips Fellowship. "We were able to get them connections in Dar es Salaam, where there is a larger market for their products."

Back at Bates, Pluchino worked in an after-school program for Lewiston schoolchildren. "We've had mini-Kiswahili lessons and made collages from my pictures from Tanzania," she says. She and a fellow Bates student, Emmanuel Drabo '08, are also establishing a pen-pal program with students in other countries.

A sociology major, Pluchino has also pursued an interest in criminology. Aided by Professor of Sociology Sawyer Sylvester and a local judge, she studied the effects of drug court strategies on families. During her summer in Tanzania she presented her findings at the European Society of Criminology in Tübingen, Germany.

Through a class taught by a mentor, Professor of Anthropology Elizabeth Eames, Pluchino got involved with the local Africa Immigrants Association and is now helping to organize a Africana festival, scheduled for Sept. 1.

"Bates is small enough to link academics to the real world," Pluchino says, noting "a great support system" through the faculty and the College's Harward Center for Community Partnerships. "It is never, 'It's impossible,' but 'How do we make it work?'"