Meet a Sandboxer: Nettra Pan
May 26th, 2010 by Katrin Winiarski
Nettra Pan is an American and French Cambodian young woman in New York. She is passionate about empowering people – especially women and youth – to move towards poverty reduction and sustainable development. Nettra is on Twitter and on Facebook.
Tell us the story of your latest project.
This Summer, I’m working at Columbia University’s History Department, preparing the launch of the inaugural session of the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative, a Summer long research program which critically analyzes a pressing topic in international relations. This year, the issue in focus is Nuclear Proliferation. Nuclear Summer, as this year’s program is called, will involve intensive classes, lectures, independent research and collaborative writing with select students and experts from around the world.
The lectures, which will be livestreamed and open to the public, start on Thursday at 6pm with Hans Blix of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission. It will also feature guest speakers such as the deputy secretary of state, the Washington bureau chief for the New York Times and the coordinator of threat reduction program for the Obama administration.
So I’ll be working on this project all summer, perhaps conducting research in France and following up on some extracurricular activities and hobbies before returning to Columbia for my last year as a B.A. Candidate.
What are you doing and how did you get there?
It goes without saying that I’m delighted to be able to participate in such a cutting-edge research program, but I am especially excited about the multiple hats I will be figuratively wearing this summer. In addition to being a student – attending the public lectures, auditing classes; I will sometimes play the role of a Teacher’s Assistant in facilitating workshops.
Finally, one of my main responsibilities is outreach and the use of new media to promote and support the programs the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative is offering. Professor Matthew Connelly, one of the key people behind this program is such an impressive individual and very approachable. He’s given me a lot of freedom to explore how we might incorporate the use of social media and online public forums to enhance the student experience, provide another dimension to interactions with experts and contribute to the existing debates and databases which already exist on this topic. I will be incorporating live tweeting, moderating online conversations in real time, helping to increase visibility of the summer’s virtual archive and suggesting different forms of presentation which will hopefully provide an alternative to the uni-directional PowerPoint lecture slides often seen in classrooms and offices.
I happily stumbled into this union of new media, academia and international relations after working as Professor Connelly’s Research Assistant since the fall of 2009. I started working with him after a contact made at a great History class called Law & Violence taught by Professor Thomas J. Hill. I would like to say that I worked really hard to promote my skills and build up a personal brand that people can trust, and maybe I did, but a lot of it was luck and meeting the right people.
Tell us about the biggest successes and failures in your life. What worked, what didn’t, and what did you learn?
Biggest successes: This year, my team at SEADS in Cambodia (Columbia Students for Southeast Asian Development & Service) hosted several successful events. It was great for this fairly new club which focuses on an often overlooked area to gain more attention at Columbia. Last year, I was also thrilled to have my artwork featured at the US Embassy in Cambodia, as a Cambodian visual artist. Looking back, I also remember how ecstatic I was in 2007 when I got into one of my top choices for university. That was a huge moment. The financial support I later got at Stanford and Columbia allowed me and my parents to rest easy without the complete burden of an Ivy League tuition. And, although this was also a long time ago, it was really rewarding to have received the Creativity, Action & Service award at the International School of Phnom Penh for my contributions there. That’s where I grew up and where my home is. That community continues to give me perspective for whatever I do in the future.
Failures: I threw myself into a non-profit organization when I just moved to Columbia and although I met some amazing people through it and raised awareness for a very important cause, I realized later that the programs I was supporting were not achieving what they claimed to do. Due to my naïveté, I was so eager to give back to my community back home that I did not fully analyze what was going on. I felt like I betrayed the trust of the people who supported me for not exercising better judgment and am much more prudent now. Also, I consider my time management this semester, the fact I have not made any new artwork, stories or songs since ~2007 to be failures, too. I need to check in more often with myself and do what I love more often.
What do you want to achieve in the next week, the next year, the next 10 years?
Next week: decorate the apartment I’m living in this summer (thanks @pforti!) and host a nice get-together with friends as we “warm” the place. Next year: I’d like to take as many interesting classes as possible and take advantage of the resources at Columbia and in New York, because I will most likely be attending Sciences Po Paris in Fall 2011. I also want to successfully pass on SEADS to the next generation of Columbia students. In ten years: I hope to have successfully led and completed a project (I’m currently considering a couple) in Cambodia that has a positive social impact and brings Cambodia more into the international sphere. I also hope by then to have graduated from Columbia College, Sciences Po and law school and be able to travel a lot. I want to eventually return to Cambodia and help develop their legal sector. That’s the plan! I think it’s important to have a plan, even if you don’t necessarily follow it.
What was your most inspiring moment during the last two weeks?
Watching the sun rise in my new place. I’m on the top floor and the entire sky changed colors, it was so beautiful and sparked internal reflection. Even though I’m only staying here this summer, it’s my first time renting a place, living independently from school or family. I’m 20 years old.
How could other Sandboxers and the outside world support you and why would that be exciting for them?
Sandboxers and others have already supported me a lot by showing interest in what I do, in Cambodia and wanting to collaborate, invest, volunteer and create win-win opportunities for communities in the developing world with people around the world. Thank you and keep it coming! I think anyone would be interested in Cambodia, a very culturally rich region, home to Angkor Wat and a peaceful and stable gateway to Southeast Asia and ASEAN. It’s exciting because it’s starting to develop again; it’s doing so very fast and attracting all sorts of interesting people. Phnom Penh is actually a pretty international city and Siem Reap’s contemporary art scene is blossoming. Visit Cambodia!
Nettra’s favorites:
Book
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Place on earth
The beach in Kampong Som, Cambodia; or on a rooftop or terrace in New York
Travel destination during last year:
Zurich, Switzerland
Food
Fried crab with green pepper and salt, done the Cambodian way
Drink
Fresh coconut juice from a coconut that’s neither too young or too old
Quote:
How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. George Washington Carver
Nous sommes tous les jours. Jacques Prévert
