College Bound

As executive director of Partnership Scholars, Patricia Zwagerman provides a number of enrichment activities for economically disadvantaged California teens, such as trips to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

New experiences lead to open doors. That’s a pattern Patricia Zwagerman ’73 has witnessed repeatedly in her work as executive director of Partnership Scholars, a California-based program that helps prepare economically disadvantaged youth for college.

The program pairs seventh through twelfth graders with mentors who plan educational and cultural enrichment activities.

“It exposes students to a world they haven’t seen before,” she says. “When they go to a college campus, they see people who look like them, and they think, ‘I could do this.’”

The program works with 22 California schools, all of which have graduation rates under 50 percent. Among Partnership Scholars participants, 92 percent graduate and enroll at a four-year school.

“Relationships make all the difference,” says Zwagerman, who also mentors two students. “Without the mentors, we wouldn’t be as successful.”

Nearly 400 students have been inducted into the program since its inception in 1996, with 57 more added this year.

“This scholarship took me from a shy and quiet seventh grader to a poised and confident senior,” says Maryell Hernandez, a Partnership Scholar who now goes to Harvard. “The trips I took with my mentor were instrumental in showing me a different world, a world where graffiti didn’t loom in the distance and where success was possible.”

by Emily Hennager ’06

Cultural Liaison

A Boeing employee since 2001, John Williams has negotiated contracts for his company’s military aircraft with such countries as Israel, Kuwait, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Last January, he and his family moved to New Delhi, where he interacts with Indian industry and government leaders.

“Cultural influences are something I’ve observed very carefully. I’ve seen people both succeed and fail in multicultural situations,” says John Williams ’84.

It’s a subject he knows well, both personally and professionally.

Last January, Williams, along with his wife and three children, moved from Arizona to New Delhi, India, where he is Boeing’s director of offset programs. In that role he engages in business with Indian companies, oversees Boeing’s commitments to the country, and administers their philanthropic initiatives. 

Born in Bangladesh to Indian parents and raised in Pakistan, he first came to the U.S. to attend Northwestern. “It was a multicultural experience by immersion,” says Williams, who speaks five languages and several Indian dialects. “It was definitely a shock to the system, but it had a lasting impact on me and my ability to embrace cultural differences.” 

His cultural outlook expanded once again when he made the move to India with his family. “We went from the classic suburban lifestyle in the U.S. to living in an apartment in the heart of one of the largest cities in the world.”

Reflecting on his experiences, Williams says people’s similarities are greater than cultural differences. “Embrace other cultures in a genuine way,” he says. “We may come from different cultures, but we all have similar motivations, dreams and desires.”

by Emily Hennager ’06

In the Wilderness

Kevin Sutton leads a ministry that seeks to promote spiritual growth through experiences in the backcountry, such as Northwestern’s first Boundary Waters alumni trip last fall.

Remember the verse in James about how the testing of your faith develops perseverance? Kevin Sutton ’92 says the reverse is also true: The testing of your perseverance develops faith.

Sutton is the founder and director of Coldwater Programs, an outdoor ministry focused on college students. He and his wife, Jen (Gravatt ’92), organize outings such as taking a group of incoming Northwestern freshmen—or NWC alumni—hiking and canoeing through Minnesota’s Boundary Waters.

The trips are not superficial team-building experiences; instead, they’re about building deep relationships—with each other and with God.

“When you’re in the wilderness, you can’t keep a mask on for long. People make mistakes, get frustrated, throw down their paddles, say unkind words,” says Sutton. “It reminds us that in reality, a community isn’t a cozy, easy place with people you like and get along with. It’s a place where we can be real and forgive one another.”

Sutton has a lifelong love of wild places, having grown up in northwestern Ontario. Northwestern taught him how such experiences could nurture spiritual growth.

“It’s fascinating to see in Scripture how often God moved his people into the wilderness where they had to look to him for provision, direction and shelter,” Sutton says. “Our lives today are so filled with noise and busyness, I think we have to pull ourselves away deliberately sometimes to be reminded of that lesson.”

by Sherrie Barber Willson ’98

A Promise Kept

JP Sundararajan spends part of the year in Michigan and part in his home country of India, helping to spread the gospel through Audio Scripture Ministries.

While standing in knee-deep water with thousands of others over the course of a long, rainy night, John Paul (JP) Sundararajan ’00 felt sure that, come morning, he’d secure the paperwork necessary to leave India and study at Northwestern. After all, the exact amount of tuition assistance he needed had come through miraculously; surely God would navigate him through this process too.

When he faced the agent known for granting only the rare visa, his heart sank. She demanded proof he’d not be part of the “brain drain” to the United States.

“I want to be a missionary,” he told her, vowing to return someday. And then the next miracle happened: She believed him.

Twelve years later, Sundararajan is making good on his promise. As India-Asia director of Audio Scripture Ministries, Sundararajan helps record and distribute Scriptures in native languages worldwide. He partnered with Northwestern to create Operation Awaaz, a project that enabled students to fund the recording of Scriptures for the Vasavi, a primarily illiterate tribe in India.

“Your names will always be in their history,” Sundararajan told Northwestern students who gave.

Making those connections is his calling, he says, “to be a bridge between the U.S. and India—between cultures—and help other people do that as well.”

Audio Scripture Ministries is based in Holland, Mich. Find out more at www.asmtoday.org.

by Amy Scheer