Alumni Spotlight

Yvette Issar '07
Anna Crumley-Effinger '07

Friends at the U.N.

(L-R) Yvette Issar '07 and Anna Crumley-Effinger '07 deliver the benediction at their commencement ceremony last spring.

Four years ago, they were first-year roommates at a college that neither thought was the perfect fit. One was a willowy, white woman who grew-up across the street from campus and feared Earlham might be too familiar. The other was a short, compact woman of Kenyan and Indian heritage who traveled all the way from Africa, even though she would have preferred not to attend college in the United States as the Iraq War was beginning. Now they are proud Earlham graduates, close friends and soon will both work for the Quaker United Nations Office (Q.U.N.O.). And they agree that Director of Admissions Nancy Sinex '76, who personally matched them up as roommates, is a genius.

Anna Crumley-Effinger and Yvette Issar (both '07) begin work this month as program assistants for Q.U.N.O. Crumley-Effinger works in New York while Issar is posted to Geneva, Switzerland. The pair, both international studies majors, plan to remain in close contact by e-mail. They are happy that even though they will be at a great distance, they will still be working together. Each will be responsible for introducing visitors to the office's work, and both will contribute to Q.U.N.O.'s work on peace building efforts. They are also grateful that they landed the jobs, especially since there are only two of the highly sought-after positions in New York and three in Geneva. This is the first time that two graduates of the same institution have held these positions simultaneously.

Q.U.N.O. is an advocacy group that represents Quakers through the Friends World Committee for Consultation. It is rare among Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in that it has "general consultative status" with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. This status allows the Q.U.N.O. staff to attend many UN meetings and receive official documents. The organization is also allowed to make written and oral statements and suggest agenda items to the Economic and Social Council.

"It's a pretty big deal to have that status at the U.N.," notes Issar, a native of Naroibi, Kenya who has been participating in Model U.N. activities since middle school. "Quakers have been at the U.N. since the beginning, so the officials have respect for the Quakers' commitment to peace work."

Q.U.N.O. also works to bring together diplomats and leaders of NGOs for more informal discussions at Quaker Houses near the U.N. headquarters in New York and Geneva. Crumley-Effinger and Issar are looking forward to helping Q.U.N.O. arrange these meetings, which are thought to be a crucial, though unofficial, part of the diplomatic process.

"Q.U.N.O. is working to connect civil society groups and NGOs with the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission in Burundi and northern Uganda," says Crumley-Effinger, a Richmond, Ind. native and birthright Quaker. "I'm excited to have an opportunity to contribute to the work of this office."

Both women will bring impressive international credentials to their work at Q.U.N.O. Crumley-Effinger has spent two summers working in Rwanda and attended Earlham's semester-long program in Martinique. Issar participated in Earlham's Vienna Choral Program. Both attended a May Term program that focused on the U.N. Based in New York, the program included visits to numerous permanent missions and offered an introduction to several NGOs, including Q.U.N.O. Crumley-Effinger calls that three-week program, "an amazing experience." The two maintained a keen interest in the U.N. and participated in Model U.N. activities while attending Earlham. Both helped organize the College's annual Model U.N. conference for high school students, and Crumley-Effinger was the adviser to the first Model U.N. Club at Richmond High School. Crumley-Effinger and Issar cite Welling Hall, professor of politics and international studies and Model U.N. adviser, as a crucial mentor. Both say that Hall, who a leader of the U.N. May Term program, was influential both personally and academically.

As they embark on their professional lives, Crumley-Effinger and Issar plan to bolster one another as they adjust to their new roles. Since their jobs will be closely related, they will have lots to discuss.

"We're looking forward to supporting one another," Crumley-Effinger says.

Issar adds, "We will be able to process this experience together, and we will be able to identify with what the other is experiencing."

That's just an extension of the last four years. Crumley-Effinger and Issar helped one another adjust to life at Earlham. Crumley-Effinger has deep family roots in the Earlham community. (Her mother is Stephanie Crumley-Effinger '77, a longtime Earlham employee who is now director of supervised ministry at Earlham School of Religion. Other Earlhamites in the family include her grandmother, Vera (Freivogel) Crumley '53, cousin Sandy Hartmannsgruber '05 and brother Max '10.) Since she grew up with Earlham, Crumley-Effinger worried that it might be stifling to attend a school she knew so well. She soon discovered that being a student was a much richer and more surprising experience than she had bargained for. She also found that having Yvette as a roommate helped view her familiarity with Earlham and Richmond as strengths.

"I remember helping Yvette with little things like how to work the food dispensers in the dining hall, but also sharing information I knew about professors and offices on campus," notes Crumley-Effinger. "I ended up driving groups of international students to Jungle Jim's (a popular produce market in Ohio) because my parents had a 15-passenger van."

"Anna knew everybody on campus, and that was great for me, but she also helped me adjust to life in a new place. On my first day here, we went to K-Mart. I had never been to a big store like that. I was so overwhelmed, I couldn't even check out. I just handed Anna my money and had her take care of it," Issar recalls with a laugh.

Sitting in the Earlhamite office recently, Crumley-Effinger and Issar reminisced about how their friendship developed and laughed about how wrong their first impressions of the other had been. After exchanging e-mails prior to start of classes in 2003, Crumley-Effinger looks at her petite friend with arched brows and says, "I thought you were going to be a lot bigger."

Issar grins at the tall and dark haired Crumley-Effinger and says, "You were supposed to be short with curly blonde hair." As they reflected on their experiences at Earlham and how central their friendship has been to their educational experience, the remarkable effects of internationalism at Earlham are crystal clear.

"I wouldn't have stayed at Earlham without this one," Issar says, pointing to her friend. "I quickly realized how much we had in common and she helped me discover all that Earlham had to offer. I also got to know her family and started attending Quaker meeting with them. That was a really important part of my Earlham experience."

Crumley-Effinger returned the compliment, noting how helpful it was for her to have a roommate from Africa, given her strong interest in the continent. "I learned so much from Yvette, and when I went abroad, I was able to meet her family in Nairobi. That was great."

After their year at Q.U.N.O., both women are contemplating graduate school, but neither knows where, or even in what academic discipline, she will study. Issar thinks they should attend the same graduate institution. Crumley-Effinger smiles at this idea.

"Maybe we can be roommates," she says.