An introduction

Hello,

My name is Nicolas Kauffman. I'm (almost) a fourth year Manchester (Ind.) College peace studies major from Goshen, Indiana. This summer I will be doing an internship in Indianapolis, Indiana at an organization called Aftercare for Indiana through Mentoring (AIM), which uses mentoring to work with youth with the goal of reducing the rate of recidivism. I am doing this internship as part of the summer program at the Indianapolis Peace Institute/Indianapolis Peace House.

This is possible because of a grant from the Scout Fuller Fund for Social Justice. Josephine "Scout" Fuller passed away from rhabdomyosarcoma on July 7, 2007, at the age of eight. She is the daughter of Abby Fuller and Neil Wollman, who have been active members of the Manchester College and North Manchester town communities. I am sorry I did not know her and grateful that I've been given the honor of this opportunity.

I am currently finishing a year of study in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico and will be starting my internship July 7 - one year to the day after Scout died. I'm keeping this blog with a few purposes in mind:

1. To provide updates for and share my experiences with Neil and Abby, and anyone else in the community.
2. To keep an account of my summer so as to create a final paper or project for credit at Manchester College.
3. To keep on blogging, because it's just something I do.

I probably won't post again before I actually start the internship, unless of course something of note actually occurs between now and then. In the meantime, here are some links you can peruse for more information:

About Scout
About the Fund
About AIM
About the Indy Peace Institute