Wheaton's independent majors
"I try to make the most of every opportunity presented to me … and I want others to have the same kind of opportunities I have had."
RYAN PATCH '08
Lexington, Mass.
Global Economics
Mapping the journey
Ryan Patch experienced an awakening during his First-Year Seminar, "Poverty in a Global Context," taught by Gordon Weil, former professor of economics.
"The course opened my eyes to the extent and severity of poverty throughout the world," says Patch. "And once you know, you can't not know."
Patch began exploring the dynamics of poverty through courses in sociology, anthropology, political science and economics. "The more I delved into questions of poverty, the more I found that you cannot grasp the entirety of everything affecting people's lives without a multidisciplinary lens."
Peak experiences
Patch designed a major comprising courses in economics, political science, sociology and philosophy in a quest to understand the personal impact of poverty and "to find ways to help people empower themselves—not only to achieve economic self-sufficiency but also to extend their capabilities and expand their choices. People say that development is freedom."
With the support of a Projects for Peace grant from Wheaton, Patch spent three months in Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua, where he set up two community banks that provided small loans to 28 individuals. Over the course of the summer, Patch saw lives transformed as budding entrepreneurs invested their 50- to 300-dollar loans in goods to sell, farm animals to raise, or an oven for baking bread. (Pictured above: Ryan Patch, far right, with Nicaraguan friends.)
"Microcredit can break the cycle of poverty, because it's self-sustaining," says Patch. As loans are repaid, the funds are reinvested in new loans to community members. In April 2008, Patch presented his senior honors thesis, based on his work in Nueva Guinea, at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.
The road ahead
This summer, Patch and a friend are their riding bicycles from San Diego to Boston to promote awareness and raise funds for FINCA, an international microcredit organization. Patch will return to Nicaragua in September to work on a permaculture farm and later will pursue a master's in sustainable development at the SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont.
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[Back to News@Wheaton for June 2008]
