Help Sonja attend Harvard

My name is Sonja Anderson. I grew up in a small rural community in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Northwest Washington. In 2009 I moved to San Francisco to attend the University of San Francisco after being offered a full ride scholarship. With additional support through local island grants I finished university, graduating Valedictorian and summa cum laude. After much hard work and focus I've been granted the opportunity to attend Harvard Graduate School of Education and am incredibly excited to make the move to Cambridge this fall.

After getting my Bachelors in International Studies with a focus on Middle Eastern Politics, I've chosen to pursue a masters in International Education Policy. Continuing to take the Middle East as my area of interest I want to promote education as a tool for progressive development. The introduction of peace and human rights principles into education in post-conflict settings, will enable students to deal critically with their reality. I see education as the ideal means to understand and reimagine a collective memory of conflict, in turn empowering individual and social majority transformation. 

Unfortunately, Harvard isn't free! While the university has offered me modest financial aid, the remaining gap along with moving expenses is far more then I can cover on my own. Raised in such a tight-knit community in the San Juan Islands, I am a strong believer in extended family and community support. I am confident that fields like international education policy are the key to progressive and peaceful international development - which is why I am putting it out to the global community and asking for your help. INVEST IN EDUCATION.

I am genuinely grateful for any and all of your support. 

-Below are excerpts from my statement of purpose elaborating on my studies. Please take a moment to read. Thank you!


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Education can affect a positive or negative force. Consider the fact that many countries’ educated elite are historically the biggest perpetrators of racism, violence and human rights violations. Education systems and textbooks often propagate and perpetuate stereotypes that have sparked extreme ethnic and religious violence, as seen in Rwanda, the Balkans, Cambodia and the Middle East. While education is a fundamental human right, I find it necessary to identify, define and promote education that fosters critical thinking, active citizenship, and social development. Specifically, I wish to ask how education can enhance or combat cultural narratives and stereotypes.

Respect for education is a constant thread in my life. From a young age, I’ve loved learning both formally in school, and informally throughout my childhood on an isolated island in northwest Washington State.

Throughout my time at the University of San Francisco, where I studied Middle Eastern Politics and Societies, my interest in education gained a regional focus. I want to explore whether education in the Middle East typically enhances or combats cultural narratives. Considering a local culture’s collective memory, how do systems of education respect tradition while simultaneously creating a safe space for progressive development? 

I was exposed first-hand to such issues in 2012 when I studied in Rabat, Morocco. As the Arab Spring reached its second anniversary, many countries in the Middle East and North Africa were in a state of transition. Even in the seemingly quiet and stable kingdom of Morocco, change was evident. Walking to school, I observed daily protests in the streets demanding labor reforms. Meanwhile, organizations such as Transparency Maroc (the Moroccan branch of Transparency International I interned for), struggled behind the scenes as they worked to increase government legitimacy, promote transparency and demand government accountability. I worked weekly in their offices compiling an online database of similar world-wide organizations calling for increased transparency in their struggle against endemic governmental corruption. Inspired by the energy of so many people critically engaging the status quo stereotypes, I couldn’t help but wonder how this re-awakening would be internalized and incorporated into the Arab collective memory. 

Today, my interest lies in the intersection of post conflict, peace and human rights education and policy. How are the politically and culturally charged events of the Arab Spring portrayed in the education sector? How are they taught, understood, internalized and reimagined to make way for new ideas and movements for change? By using education as a tool for progressive development, how does the global community support social peace and equality?

I would like to pursue a career implementing education as a system of development. I want to work with International NGO’s to promote education policy and practice for peace, so that education becomes a tool for breaking age-old cultural stigmas and cycles of conflict. Working to align the structure, content, and pedagogy of education in post-conflict settings with peace and human rights principles will enable students to deal critically with reality by actively engaging in the transformation of their world. I see education as the ideal means to understand and reimagine a collective memory of conflict. This in turn will empower individual and social majority transformation.