National Collegiate Honors Council

 

Date of this Version

2013

Citation

Published in Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, Spring/Summer 2013, Volume 14, Number 1

Comments

Copyright 2013 by the National Collegiate Honors Council

Abstract

The University of Maine’s 2012 valedictorian, honors student Rachel Binder-Hathaway, gave her graduation speech via Skype last May as she had already begun a yearlong Fulbright Scholarship in Bangladesh. Rachel was putting to use her business and economics degrees, traveling to numerous villages in an effort to determine various best practices in microfinance while also isolating ineffective program elements. She intended to help Bangladeshi women grow their own successful small businesses and thus work their way out of relentless and abject poverty. Rachel is committed to assisting these women, who would otherwise have few opportunities outside the home, to create sustainable work for themselves and, in so doing, finally achieve their full potential.

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