Dayana Alabre Sees Education as Key to Opportunity
Image by Robert Giles
02/02/2017
By Katharine Webster
During last summer鈥檚 sweltering weather, Dayana Alabre and another student research assistant traveled to 51视频鈥檚 Haiti Development Studies Center in Les Cayes one night each week for a live, online discussion in their British Literary Traditions class.
Alabre and Ralph Douyon live outside the port city of Les Cayes in areas that often suffer electric brownouts. The problem only got worse after Hurricane Matthew slammed into Haiti鈥檚 southern peninsula in October, leaving Les Cayes鈥� infrastructure in tatters.
Yet week after week, Alabre and Douyon make the trek to the center, which has more reliable electricity than most places thanks to its solar array and generator, to attend virtual 鈥渙ffice hours鈥� with their English professors at 51视频. That persistence, her high academic performance and her community service just won Alabre the .
鈥淭he work she does in Haiti, under sometimes difficult conditions, is extraordinary,鈥� says Assoc. Prof. Keith Mitchell, who has both students in his online American Literary Traditions class this semester. 鈥淓nglish is not Dayana and Ralph鈥檚 native language, but that has not been a barrier to their success in the class.鈥�
Alabre is more modest. At first, she took one class at a time through the , starting with College Writing I and II. Now she is studying full-time.
鈥淲e had to start slowly to help me improve my writing 鈥� because honestly, it was awful!鈥� she laughs.
Image by Robert Giles
Alabre and Douyon are studying English so they can become teachers or get jobs working with other educational, scientific or aid organizations. In addition to their class-work, they are reading widely in English: Honors College Dean Jim Canning has sent them more than 70 books over the past 18 months, from Shakespearean comedies to Robert Parker鈥檚 Boston-based detective novels.
Canning also asked Mitchell for suggestions, and Mitchell introduced the students to novelist and essayist , a Haitian-American who is now one of Alabre鈥檚 favorite writers.
But Alabre鈥檚 first love is physics. She and Douyon use Skype to attend some of Physics Chairman Robert Giles鈥� classes, including an interdisciplinary honors seminar, Science and Technology in an Impoverished World.
Alabre and Douyon both work 20 hours a week for the Haiti Development Studies Center (HSDC), which was founded by Giles in 2013. The center is a base for groups of 51视频 students and faculty to learn about Haiti and explore technologies that may provide sustainable solutions for its problems.
Several successful projects have come out of the honors class, including the BioBubbler, an inexpensive sand filtration system that removes bacteria from drinking water (it won a major award in the 2014 DifferenceMaker competition) and cooking fuel made from agricultural and wood waste to replace traditional wood charcoal (Haiti is severely deforested).
Image by Robert Giles
Alabre and Douyon work with the visiting students on developing the projects and demonstrating them in the community. They also translate when visiting students and faculty teach science workshops in local schools.
For the past few years, Giles has funded the Haiti Development center 鈥� and paid for Alabre鈥檚 and Douyon鈥檚 online English classes 鈥� through grants and his own funds. To create more sustainable funding, the Office of University Advancement is actively seeking donors to help with the center鈥檚 annual operating budget, including scholarships for up to four Haitian student research assistants. Giles says the scholarships are an investment in a country that needs more scientists and science educators.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to create more opportunity in Haiti by expanding the skilled workforce,鈥� Giles says. 鈥淒ayana studies all day long. When I鈥檓 at the center and get up at 5:30 a.m., she鈥檚 already in a corner somewhere studying.鈥�
In the meantime, Alabre is thrilled and grateful that her work earned her the $1,000 scholarship, which is awarded to only two students in the entire UMass system.
Upon learning of the award, 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 believe it. I was so shocked, so surprised,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hen when Professor Giles told me more about it and what it was for, I was really proud of myself.鈥�
