Spider Spotlight - A Q&A with Genevieve Goulding, ’07

BY LIA TREMBLAY
Writer/Editor, University Communications

You’ve spent the past two years working with refugees in Africa. Tell me about that.
In 2004, the winter of my sophomore year, I went to Kenya and Tanzania with the help of a Quest grant. It was the first time I’d ever seen such complete poverty. People who were once doctors, lawyers and teachers were living in mud huts in crowded camps with no way out. I didn’t understand why things had to be that way, and I wanted to know more.
So in 2005, on a second Quest grant, I went to Switzerland to study at the School for International Training and research the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). From there, I spent the spring in Uganda and received a third Quest grant to stay for summer research. 

What was it like, going from a refugee camp to a European city?
I think Geneva is the richest city in Europe, so it was definitely different to see a bank on every corner and so much wealth. I could see that as hard as these people were working to change things, the context was just wrong. Everything in Geneva seems so detached from what refugees are experiencing.

Can you give an example?
In Geneva, a woman from the International Labor Organization (ILO) gave a presentation about what was being done to help refugees. She spoke so passionately and held up a poster they had designed as part of their awareness campaign.
Flash forward to Uganda. I’m at an orphanage that takes in street kids who are abandoned. The teacher is talking about how hard it is to teach when they don’t have any supplies and the kids have nothing to eat. The kids don’t have pencils or food, but they do have that same ILO poster from Geneva hanging on their wall.
That just shows you the difference in context. In Geneva, refugee policy is about political survival. To refugees, it’s just plain survival.

What do you plan to do after graduating in May?
I’ve applied for a Fulbright scholarship. If I get that, I’ll spend a year continuing my studies in Paris. My research would focus on how UNHCR performs its advocacy role in light of recently passed restrictions on asylum-seekers in France. I’ve done research on UNHCR’s protection mandate in East Africa. I’d now like to see how that same mandate works in a Western nation with different circumstances.
If I don’t get the Fulbright, I’d like to get my ESL certification and travel, teaching English to pay my way. I’d love to go to Turkey, China, Eastern Europe and West Africa. Eventually, I’d like to have a career in helping refugees, but there are so many ways to approach that so it will take some time to decide.

Where are you from originally?
My dad is in the Navy, so we moved around a lot. I was born in Japan and lived all over the States. I tell people I’m from Virginia Beach because that’s where I graduated from high school.

Where is home now?
My family has recently moved from Virginia Beach to a little horse farm they’ve built in Corapeake, N.C. It’s funny that as I’m just now preparing for a life of wandering, my parents are settling down from theirs.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
I love catching up with the friends I’ve missed this past year and planning my next adventure abroad.