Is there a better way to travel?

Every morning I come into the office and start my day with some important rituals. I come into the office and turn on my computer (which is terribly slow and takes 3-4 minutes to fully boot up). During my wait I walk into the kitchen and make myself a cup of Ecco. For those of you not familiar with Ecco it is a delight from Bolivia which my friend Luis brought to me. It's like Perro or Postum but better and the perfect treat for a girl who is doing her darndest to say goodbye to caffine. I then come back to the computer and scan the news looking for stories that relate to the countries where we work or to the kinds of things that we do. I'm come to rely on the news in general and the BBC in particular to keep me connected to the world. And in between stories of Michael Jackson and his funeral (I'll have you know that I saw him in real life once waving from a hotel window in Germany but that's a story for another day) and this little gem about ingenuity in India, I've also been following the stories of Mark Sanford, his extra marital affair with a woman from Argentina and his spending of tax money on trips to visit her.

Now, every day after I check the news I also check Ascend's social media programs (you should follow us on twitter (@ascend_alliance) and be our friend on facebook.). A wife myself (and one who has a jealous streak--sad but true) Mark Sanford's story was rolling through my brain as I checked our facebook page last week. This is what greeted me.

These are the Fosters. I've met them a couple of times and we are facebook friends. Last week they returned from an Ascend trip to Ethiopia and Kenya. While they were traveling for two weeks at their own expense they met some good friends...

...helped people in a remote village in Ethiopia learn about health and hygiene, taught classes and helped local doctors and nurses, shared their talents....

...helped local orphans learn about animal production so they can use the proceeds of animal sales to pay for school...

...Seriously considered stealing this little boy...

...and shared some good ol' fashioned culture (the Ethiopians danced and sang; the Americans brought bubbles which the locals had never seen before).

I was struck with the difference between Mark Sanford and this amazing family. If I have to pick between traveling like Mark Sanford (which involves selfishness, deceit and teary press conferences) and traveling like the Fosters (which involves hard work, dirty little faces and helping others); I pick to travel like the Fosters.

Ethiopia: The Beautiful Land and People

Team ASCEND

Being an intern at ASCEND has been quite the adventure. Sometimes there is a crazy amount of work to do and other times, not as much. Today is my last day interning at ASCEND until this August and looking back I have learned a lot during my time here. I have meet new people, researched information, and some how taught myself how to use Microsoft Publisher. Although the days seem long sometimes, I am so glad that I have been able to be a part of ASCEND for a small amount of time and am looking forward to returning in August. Go Team ASCEND!

Written by Abbi Aird
ASCEND Alliance Intern

Gary Alton Mathews

My father-in-law passed away two weeks ago. He had been ill for several years and passed away from complications of colon cancer. Being relatively newly married (11 months and counting) and not living in the same states, I did not know him well. His original illness (before the cancer)started 3 years ago, three days after Christmas. A young family who attended the same religious congregation had lost their father. They were packing up to move closer to family. At 61 Gary was one of the first to volunteer to help them move. He fell down the stair and was in a coma. Whether the fall caused the stroke or the stroke caused the fall will never be known but Gary was never the same. He was left with the cognitive abilities of a first grader. I never met him before he got sick.
The few times that I did meet Gary he told me long stories that didn't necessarily end. While my husband and I were still dating he told me several times about the day my husband scheduled 3 dates in the same day with 3 different girls (much to my husband's dismay). Once when Gary was telling me a thrilling story about getting pulled over by a highway patrolman while speeding (whom he convinced to not give him a ticket by telling him about Jesus) my husband tried to steer the conversation and correct the story. In a skill that the last 11 months have honed I gave my husband what I call, "the stink eye." He whispered, "but that's not true. It didn't happen!" I whispered back, "I don't care. It doesn't matter."

I went to church with Gary once in the congregation that he led for a time and that he attended for nearly 30 years. During class he raised his hand and gave comments that didn't always relate to the topic, were lengthy and frequent but the others smiled and said, "thank you Gary" every time he finished. No one seemed to mind. Coming home from church I was talking to my mother-in-law about the experience (she had been in another room). She got embarrassed and said, "I usually try to moderate his comments a little."

What my husband and mother-in-law didn't realize is that Gary's lifetime of serving other people, of helping every family move and staying to clean up after events had heard him a little leeway from the rest of us. We loved Gary whether or not his stories always made sense. Now, you may be thinking, "but you said that you never met Gary before he was sick." That is true. But I have met my husband. On our first date my husband had to drop me off early because he was volunteering with the Special Olympics the next day. He is really disappointed that he can't volunteer here (it's 12 hours long I'd like to point out) this weekend because we have house guests. I have a good husband who tries to serve other people. He learned that from his dad.
At Gary's funeral and burial thought, over and over again, of the words to a famous Beatles song; "in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." I've come to another conclusion; you don't take the love with you. It stays here and blesses those you serve, your children, your friends and everyone else with whom they come in contact.

So serve on. And on. And on.

Affiliate Marketing Network

Hi Y’all! The name is Dane Leary and I am a bran spankin new intern here at the headquarters of Ascend Alliance by way of the Hinckley Institute of Politics. I’m here to get a better understanding of how a non-profit organization works. It’s really great to see a system that is productive. Also, the staff and other interns are great to work with. It is very professional and works gets done; but what’s really refreshing is how fun and casual the environment is to work in.

This is my 3rd week here and boy have they put me to work! Aside from cranking out binders for the folks going on expeditions, my work has been mostly on finding an Affiliate Marketing Network for Ascend.

First I had to learn what in the world an Affiliate Network was. The gist of it is; In Affiliate Marketing there are 4 players, Web User, Publisher, Affiliate and the Network.

The web user visits the publisher site, which then directs the user to an affiliate where a purchase or donation is made. A percentage or a flat commission from the purchase or donation is then transferred from the affiliate to publisher. This transaction is facilitated by the network, which tracks the user from site to site amongst its member sites.

So all those ads you see on MySpace, Facebook and other sites are actually part of an affiliated network. It is a multi-million dollar industry now! Some of the adds are Pay-Per-Click, where the affiliate pays the publisher every time someone clicks the add. But that’s not what we are looking for here at Ascend.

The thing is that very few of these Affiliate Networks have worked with a non-profit before, it almost seems like NONE have worked with non-profits! So it’s a new innovative field that Ascend Alliance is trying to open up. Just as everything cutting edge, it isn’t easy, nor is it at all clear, what will happen. What is clear is that if successful, Ascend stands to really increase its donation pool and range. Ascend could even increase the funds it has to work with by advertising for other companies products that are humanitarian, socially and environmentally friendly. In effect promoting a wide range of items that create a better world.

Well, till next time have a good one.

Written by: Dane Leary
ASCEND Alliance Intern

Why Being an Intern at a Non-Profit Matters to Me

Hello! My name is Nicole Rasmussen and this is my second week as an intern at the Ascend Alliance headquarters. I’m still in the learning process of everything that goes on around here, and I’m still getting to know what Ascend’s role is in worldwide development. Let me give you some of my thoughts on Ascend’s mission and worldwide development.

I am very interested in development in developing countries. I have taken several economics classes at the University of Utah and read several books about development economics. It fascinates me how important this work is and how difficult, and expensive it is. It also surprises me how little effort the developed countries seem to put into it. The US government only spent about $15.7 billion in 2003 on development aid, compared to its hefty spending in 2005 of $547 billion on military and defense. Only 15-20% of aid comes from private organizations, like Ascend, which means governments carry the biggest burden. Unfortunately, few governments meet UN standards of development aid contributions.

These facts are humbling to me, especially taking into account how much the world spends on military expenses (over $1.4 trillion), and how little the world spends on development aid (a little more than $100 billion). Just last month these numbers became personal to me when my brother was deployed to Iraq. He is part of the rebuilding effort in Baghdad, and although I am happy that he will mostly have nothing to worry about, security wise, it makes me sad to think the US has chosen the route of military rather than the route of peaceful development. Instead of sending people with food and kind hearts, the US puts men like my brother in harm’s way with guns and bombs, under the guise that they are building a better life for the Iraqis. I have a hard time believing a better life can be built with guns, barbed wire, and explosives.

I am proud of my brother, and I am also privileged to be working for a non-profit organization that chooses to rebuild lives with education and knowledge. My brother and I are working for the same common goal, however I want to see the day when soldiers will no longer be necessary for development and my work in the non profit world will be the most valuable: that of peaceful and safe development aid.

Written by: Nicole Rasmussen
ASCEND Alliance Intern

Committed to Making a Difference

It first happened for me in my final year of high school. Throughout my life I had been interested in social, political, economic, and military crises, but I didn’t really think that I could make a difference in the world. I was on a school trip in California teaching co-mediation to other students. Observing these students as they came to realize the possibilities of conflict resolution was the moment that I realized I wanted to, and that I could make a difference in the world.


I graduated with a Masters in International Relations. Soon after I was leaving my homeland of New Zealand in my pursuit of making a difference. My first stop was in Chile, volunteering in an orphanage. There were over 40 children all under the age of five. My responsibilities included feeding, changing, playing with, and most of all, loving the adorable babies. Although my role was simple, months later I look back on that experience in my life and am so grateful for my time there.

Next, I came to the US with the intent on seeing development work from the administrative side. I was living in NYC at the time I was offered my internship here at ASCEND. One week after being offered the internship, I was in Utah attending ASCEND’s annual conference. Over the past four months I have gained invaluable experience from making cold calls to asking for donations, to researching and writing grants, and every other odd job that is required to make a humanitarian organization like ASCEND work well.

Before leaving ASCEND in September, I will be offering my thoughts about interning with ASCEND from the perspective of one who seeks to commit their life to humanitarian work. I will be honest in my blog entries, as there are always those days where it can be difficult to see the greater picture of our work here in the US and its impact in developing countries. Overall though, I hope to convey to you, the reader, my enthusiasm for this work, and hopefully encourage you to become more involved with this great organization ASCEND.

Written by: Michelle Broczek
ASCEND Alliance Intern

Business Development is Key

"We see every day how human beings are packed with unlimited capacity, unlimited potential. They're not helpless people; they're as capable as anyone else. It's that society never gave them an opportunity to unwrap that gift. It's a matter of removing the barrier." - Muhammad Yunus

There are so many ways for individual people to be brought out of poverty. We here at ASCEND are working on one of them: providing the same basic access to business and financial know-how to everyone we work with. When Muhammad Yunus created the Grameen Bank, he touched on a fundamental principle of poverty: when people don't have access to capital, they aren't able to create any of their own. What a basic concept! Yet so few institutions, even after decades of microcredit successes, believe in the power of human creativity and the capacity of an individual to bring his or her own self out of poverty.

Part of why I have loved working with ASCEND so much is that this organization DOES believe in that capacity, and is laser-focused on building it. We are working on a couple projects that could really do some fantastic things in the world of business development. Getting a network of young entrepreneurs from across the globe together to take on humanitarian projects, like small business mentoring; partnering with colleges and universities to create academic programs focused on teaching small business consulting so students, while learning consulting skills, also learn how to use those skills to holistically better their own communities; and always developing more and better ways to help those with the desire to provide for themselves to be able to do so.

Capitalism has created drastic challenges for the modern global economy. But wise capitalism - that which takes into consideration more than the monetary bottom line - can be the answer to those very challenges. It's a pretty exciting thing to be a part of that.

Written by: Sabrina King
ASCEND Alliance Intern

First Week on the Job

Greetings! My name is Tim Marti and this is my first week as an administrative intern at the Ascend Alliance HQ. After only two days on the job, I have already learned a ton about what it is like to be an intern and what it is that the Ascend Alliance does. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about myself: what my hobbies are, what my goals are and what I am currently working on at Ascend.

First off, I am an avid biker and hiker. When I’m not working, you can probably find me on the streets and canyons of Salt Lake City on my bike or hiking in the glorious and majestic mountains that bless our valley. To me, finding a little solitude and serenity in our mountains and canyons is the perfect relief for the hectic lifestyle that our society has become so accustomed to and that I am also a part of. One of my goals is to climb all of the peaks along the Wasatch Front that are taller than 11,000 feet, a goal which I have almost already met.

When I’m not posing as an intern, a worker at ARUP Laboratories or an outdoorsman, we may cross paths at certain nightclubs and bars in the Salt Lake Valley where one of the two bands with which I currently play are performing. I play bass guitar and my greatest musical influences are Jazz, Soul, World and Reggae music, although I am open to pretty much any genre of music that carries a heavy, danceable beat.

Well, that is enough about my super-interesting hobbies (even though I know you want to hear more about my incredibly exciting life!). What I really want to talk about is why I choose Ascend Alliance and what my goals are for this internship. The main reasons why I chose Ascend are that it seems like the organization in Salt Lake City that has the most genuine intentions and mission, it has a proven track record of success and I think it will provide me the best chance to impact the lives of those who are not so fortunate as I am. I feel that my education in entrepreneurism and Spanish (U of U baby!) will be utilized for the benefit of those whom we help. My personal goals for my HQ internship are to:
• Secure an international internship for next fall so I can go to South America and meet firsthand with our beneficiaries and live abroad
• Experience the day-to-day operations of a nonprofit
• Understand all of the projects that Ascend engages in
• Offer new insights and ideas for possible projects
• Polish up on some Spanish
• Learn a little bit (or a lot) about myself in the process
• Experience the satisfaction of knowing that the work I do makes a difference in someone’s life

Currently, I am working on compiling a demographics and health survey that is going to be used in Bolivia by expedition teams and in-country staff. I look forward to working with all everyone at ASCEND.

Written by: Tim Marti
ASCEND Alliance Intern

Life as an Intern

So life as an intern is pretty routine. My day usually consists of me sitting at my computer from 9-5 working on assignments that keep coming. It's ok though because everyone in the office is extremely nice and willing to help and answer questions. The last couple of days I have been working on a book that shows ways to have successful fundraisers and how to donate for those who are interested. I have been able to completely look over all the pictures that are in ASCEND's file and had to laugh when I saw myself on an expedition that I went on this last spring break. Seeing all of the other pictures that people have taken has really boosted my motivation to go and see the world through a humanitarian stand point. Helping others brings so much happiness. Oberserving all the great work that goes on here in the office and the field work shows me how amazing this company is and its goal to help those in need.

Written by: Abbi Aird

ASCEND Alliance intern