W&L Junior Cailin Slattery of South Nyack Wins $10,000 Project for Peace Prize

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LEXINGTON, VA (06/03/2010)(readMedia)-- Cailin Slattery, a Washington and Lee University student from South Nyack, N.Y., has won a $10,000 prize to establish a microfinance initiative with women entrepreneurs in northern Haiti, from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Projects for Peace.

Slattery, who will be a senior in the fall, is the third W&L student in as many years to fund a project through the Davis Projects for Peace, which are awarded based on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. She is a graduate of Nyack High School.

An economics and mathematics major, Slattery was one of the co-founders of the Washington and Lee microfinance organization called the General Development Initiative (GDI). The student members of GDI raise funds to make small loans that enable economic self-empowerment of poor people in Central and South America-while helping students learn about development in the underdeveloped world.

Slattery, who intends to work in development economics, will partner with a microfinance organization called Esperanza, headquartered in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The group has seven branch offices in the Dominican Republic and opened a branch in Trou-du-Nord, Haiti, in 2006.

"I completed my proposal three days before the earthquake in Haiti," said Slattery. "That only magnified the suffering of an already misfortunate people, and the project can be seen as a contribution to the relief efforts."

In her proposal, Slattery indicated that a portion of the $10,000 grant would be used purely as capital for loans.

"Each small loan - averaging $150 - starts or expands the small business of a woman living in poverty, empowering them with self-employment so they can invest in their business and use the profits to provide for the basic needs of their families," Slattery wrote.

This summer, Slattery intends to travel to the Dominican Republic and Trou-du-Nord, where she will observe the workings of Esperanza.

"I thought that if I were able to see how the process works from the ground - what is the organization's criteria for giving out loans, how do they collect - I would be better able to raise funds here on campus and educate people about the process for the GDI."

In addition to funding the microloans, Slattery will use part of the grant to assist Esperanza in the education of its clients in everything from business to health to literacy.

"The root causes of extreme poverty go deeper than lack of capital; the poor must have access to practical information and skills in order to succeed," she wrote in her proposal.

"My hope is that this money that I've been given through the Project for Peace initiative will recycle throughout the community," she said. "I think microfinance is empowering, or I wouldn't spend the time on it that I am. I fully expect this to be a life-changing experience for me."

The previous W&L winners of Projects for Peace grants were Andrew McWay, a 2008 graduate, whose proposal involved microfinance in Peru, and Eduardo Rodriguez, of the Class of 2009, who used his prize to set up a language laboratory in his hometown of Pehuajo, Argentina.

In developing her proposal, Slattery benefited from conversations with McWay, who co-founded the microfinance website dvelo.org.

"I had a lot of help from Drew McWay," said Slattery. "We exchanged e-mails, and I had the opportunity to talk with him about his experiences when he visited the campus this spring. In addition, the people at the Center for International Education were instrumental in the development of my proposal."

Projects for Peace is part of the Davis United World College Scholars Program, based in Middlebury, Vt. Kathryn Wasserman Davis, a philanthropist and the widow of Shelby Cullom Davis, a businessman and former United States ambassador to Switzerland, has put up $1 million in each of the past three years to fund 100 Projects for Peace.

Now 103 years old, Mrs. Davis launched the initiative on the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2007. She challenges today's college students to undertake innovative and meaningful projects. Designed to encourage and support motivated youth to create and implement their ideas for building peace throughout the world in the 21st century, each of the more than 100 projects will receive $10,000 in funding each year.

W&L is one of more than 90 colleges and universities whose students are eligible for Project for Peace funds because it participates in the Davis program, which provides scholarships to students who attend the United World Colleges, a series of international high schools around the world.