Four Boyd Students Bridging Borders this Summer in Southeast Asia (part three)

Four Boyd School of Law students were among 43 students from 38 law schools who were accepted into the Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia 2009 summer legal internship program (BABSEA). Aaron MacDonald ’11 worked in Laos, Jeff Haywood ’10 in Thailand, and Heidi Hauck ’11 and Rebecca Blood ’10 in Cambodia. Since 2004, BABSEA legal interns have been aiding the struggle to ameliorate the hardships and legal inequities in Southeast Asia.

(This is part three of a three-part series of stories. The first part featured Heidi Hauck and Rebecca Blood and can be viewed here); the second part featured Aaron MacDonald and can be viewed here.)

Pictured with Jeff is Pea, an orphan from a hill tribe. Pea was adopted by a family in Mea Rim, where Jeff spent his BABSEA emersion week and where the photo was taken.

Jeff said he decided to work with BABSEA because he “wanted to do human rights work,” thinking he “would go out and help the less fortunate.” What he discovered, however, was that his experience at BABSEA “may have helped” him more then he “helped the ostensibly less fortunate."

Because his family had emigrated from Myanmar to America, Jeff at first was somewhat apprehensive that the Thai might not embrace him. His host family, though, accepted him “without prejudice,” inviting him “into their home and treated” him “with the utmost respect.”

“Even thought the language barrier prevented us from articulating this commonality,” he said, “I felt that it was understood.”

Jeff termed his BABSEA assignments “diverse and rewarding,” noting, “I had the opportunity to work with a LGBTQ organization and girls in a juvenile detention center. I also had the opportunity to contribute to a grant proposal, teach English, develop HIV/AIDs curriculum for Chiang Mai University Law Clinic, evaluate and create an annual report about Chiang Mai University’s Law Clinic and edit Bruce Lasky’s contribution to a book about community legal education around the world.”

Among his many gratifying activities, he deemed creating a mock trial the most rewarding. “Although at some times laborious,” he said, “learning how to create mock trials gave our team the opportunity to contribute to Community Legal Education (CLE) in Thailand.”

Another way that BABSEA helped him as much as he helped BABSEA is reflected in his resolve “to use my new found skills to improve the Street Law program at UNLV.” He adds, “The teaching methods, lesson plan creation, group collaboration and organization are invaluable skills I can use to create and improve CLE in my community.”

Not only did he acquire from the mock trial experience skills in “understanding basic administrative, criminal and civil procedures and laws in Thailand,” but because the activity was multinational in scope, he said he “enjoyed the insights of many legal systems,” including “learning about the legal values and traditions of the United Kingdom, Poland, and Russia.”

Another highlight of his experience was “the opportunity to observe a criminal court proceeding in a provincial court.”

Declaring he is “a changed man,” Jeff notes, “Living in Thailand and working for BABSEA helped me to come a step closer to really knowing myself. I went to help them but they ended up helping me.”