Ariel Delaney, a 2007 graduate of Castleton will be returning to campus on Thursday, May 2 to discuss conflict, humanitarian aid and development in Somalia.

            All Castleton students are welcome to attend the event that will take place at 12:30 p.m. in the Hoff Hall Conference Room.

            Communication Professor Tom Conroy is excited to see one of his students come back to speak. He is glad to see one of his former students be so successful and be passionate about what they’re doing.

            “She is multi-cultural [Dominican and American] and as a student, she worked like crazy,” he said. “She worked really, really hard in communication and Spanish.”

            Delaney has done a lot of traveling since her graduation. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Communication/Spanish Language and Literature, she worked as a counselor until she got a posting with the Peace Corps in 2008.

            She worked under the ministry of health and trained in community health, the local dialect called Tashelheit and Morocco’s millennium Development Goal Plan.

            “More importantly, I was promoting the three main goals of the Peace Corps,” Delaney said.

            These three goals include helping the people of certain countries in meeting the need for trained men and women, helping to promote a better understanding of Americans, and helping to promote a better understanding of other cultures.

            “I loved being in Morocco as I learned even more about myself,” she said.

            She explained that she had volunteered before and worked in the filed previously, but spending time in Morocco made here realize her passion.

            “Journalism and a lot of my other studies at CSC helped me to expose many of the injustices I saw and tell real stories,” she said. “But development was the hands on, less glamorous work of assisting to solve major problems instead of just chasing after them.”

            After her time in Morocco, Delaney moved to Kenya, but due to expenses, she had to come home to the United States. However, after living in such a diverse culture and being immersed in a totally different lifestyle, Delaney said she felt “bored” living in the U.S.  

            While spending time with the Winooski Coalition for a Safe and Peaceful Community as well as the Vermont Catholic Charities, Delaney had been applying to graduate schools.

            She attended the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. There, she studied Sustainable International Development.

            “I missed how CSC was so nurturing,” she said. “At Brandeis, only the fittest survive.”

            Delaney explained how she read cases about people studying in Somalia and knew she wanted to follow suit. She found an organization that had the same “nurturing” feeling as CSC, called Adeso.