Heston Scholarship

In Summer 2006, the first annual Mironda Heston Scholarship was awarded to Eric Anderson, MA 07. The awarding committee unanimously decided that Eric's intended work and ambitions reflected Mironda's values and dreams for the country of Haiti.

For his second-year practicum, Eric is working with Fonkoze (http://www.fonkoze.org/), the largest micro-credit organization in Haiti. So far, Eric has assisted in the evaluation of Fonkoze's Housing Microfinance program, which focuses on loans to build latrines, cement floors and tin roofs, three major factors impacting the health of families. He is also working on developing a social performance monitoring unit that will help the organization assess the impact of its programs, and the replication of BRAC's micro-credit program, which is designed to reach the poorest of the poor. To document the work of Haitian agronomists and small farming collectives supporting the revitalization of the country's nearly deforested environment in the face of on-going conflict, Eric will create a photo-essay.

A bright, committed, fun and considerate woman, Mironda Heston enrolled in the Master's Program in Sustainable International Development in 2002. It immediately became apparent that behind her youthful, innocent appearance lay a very thoughtful and serious individual with a tremendous potential to change the world. Unfortunately her opportunity to make those changes was ended in September 2004, a few months after her graduation.

Mironda had chosen to return to the site of her second-year practicum in Haiti with the Peasant Movement of Papaye. She continued her working with them on building a women's health center and promoting gender equality. Tragically, soon after she arrived in Haiti, Mironda contracted dengue fever and following a month-long struggle she succumbed to the illness leaving her family, her friends, her community in Haiti, and the world bereft of her presence.

Mironda has continued to inspire others, particularly her classmates who established the Mironda Heston Scholarship Fund in partnership with The Heller School for Social Policy and Management. The scholarship is intended to support a full-time SID student who is doing their Second-Year Practicum in Haiti. A committee was formed earlier this year to evaluate the applications for the award. The committee is made up of Linda Heston, Mironda's mother and the person who first inspired Mironda to visit Haiti; Louise Bowditch, an activist who connected Mironda with the Peasant Movement of Papaye and provided her with invaluable support; Bindu Sunny and Pem Wangdi, two of Mironda's classmates who were instrumental in establishing the fund; Agathe Jean Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papaye and a dear friend of Mironda; and Kelley Ready, the Associated Director of Academics for the SID/MA program and Mironda's Second-Year Adviser.

Everyone at SID wishes Eric luck and looks forward to hearing about his experience and seeing his photo-essay. If you would like to contact Eric directly, please email him at eanders@brandeis.edu.