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Crusade scholar plans to make a difference for Haiti

Sep. 30, 2005

NOTE: A photograph is available at http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Feature
By Allison Scahill*

For Jean-Michel Basquin, receiving a Crusade Scholarship from the United
Methodist Church means being able to finish school more quickly and
pursue his dream of making a difference in the lives of the people back
home.

"My ultimate plan is go back to Haiti in the near future to help the
Methodist Church of Haiti, possibly the UMCOR-Haiti office ... and
whoever can use my help to shape a better future for the country," says
Basquin, a doctoral student in sociology at South Dakota State
University. "... I feel it can be done with the right strategies and
plans. That's really what I want to do. I feel that is my calling."

The Crusade Scholarship, given by the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries, enables people outside the United States or U.S. ethnic and
racial minorities to prepare for leadership in mission in church and
society.

The scholarship is supported by the annual World Communion Sunday
offering. General Conference, the United Methodist Church's legislative
assembly, has set the special day as the first Sunday in October - Oct.
2 this year - but congregations can observe it on any Sunday of their
choosing.

Originally from the southern Haiti community of Massan, Basquin grew up
in a large Christian family. He was the second of six children. "My
father has been a minister for over 40 years. He has his own church," he
says. "I went to a Methodist school for grade school and did my
secondary education in a public high school."

Basquin earned an associate's degree in 1995 from Kirkwood Community
College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Returning home to Haiti, he worked for
the Methodist Church there from 1995 to 2001, leading several different
rural community projects. His wife, Rosanie, worked with home on
agricultural projects with Haitian farmers.

"It was quite a lot of work," he says. "Most of my work there was with
production and livestock. I also served on the advisory board of the
(United Methodist Committee on Relief)-Haiti office in the late 1990s."

Basquin returned to the United States in 2001, earning a bachelor's
degree in agribusiness at Western Illinois University followed by a
master's in economics at South Dakota State.

"Jean-Michel has surpassed every kind of expectation that has been set
for him," says the Rev. Robert Osgood, of Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. "People
would tell him to stop after his bachelor's or master's, but he really
wanted to acquire every level (of degree)."

Osgood met Basquin while working in Haiti through United Methodist
Volunteers In Mission. They became good friends, and when Basquin wanted
to return to the United States, Osgood wrote him a letter of
recommendation to speed up the process.

"He's a very extraordinary person as far as his determination, openness
and integrity," Osgood says. "He has a wonderful personality and faith."

Osgood's wife, Nancy, says she appreciates the friendship of the
Basquins. "If we ever have a problem or we're celebrating something,
they're usually the first to call. They're very ambitious and very
dedicated in involving Haitian people in the United Methodist Church."

Basquin, who still has two semesters left, says the Crusade Scholarship
enables him to meet his financial obligations and move rapidly through
school. "I would not be able to go as fast as I have in the last four
years if it wasn't for (scholarships). There is no way I could have done
what I have been doing. And I do not have one penny of a college loan."

Along with the financial support he has received from scholarships,
Basquin has worked as a teaching and research assistant in the rural
sociology department and as an administrative assistant in the Office
for Diversity Enhancement at South Dakota State, based in Brookings.

Basquin said his wife also is a student and has received financial aid
and scholarships.

"We blend everything together," he says. "Somehow we manage. (The
scholarships) allow us to hang in there."

Basquin said his time in America has given him another home and family.
While in Cedar Rapids, he says, he was "adopted by many families,"
including St. Paul's United Methodist Church and a group called Friends
of Internationals. "I owe part of my success to such hospitality."

Help also came from Rodney Fink, the former dean of the college of
applied sciences at Western Illinois University. Fink helped Basquin
finish a two-year program in 15 months, and he helped Rosanie get some
scholarships.

"Whatever support he and Rosanie need, a letter of recommendation or
anything else, we try to help him out," Fink says. "He'll make a
contribution anywhere he goes."

Basquin wants more people to have the kind of opportunities he has had.

There was "no way" he could have pursued his dreams without the
scholarship, he says. People who support the Crusade Scholarship are
helping him reach his ultimate goal of dedicating his life to helping
the less fortunate in Haiti and around the world.

 "We are living in one world and we are all God's children. I'm positive
there are people who would like to make a difference and like the
opportunity."

Information on Crusade Scholarships is available by calling (212)
870-3787 or writing Scholars@gbgm-umc.org.

*Scahill is a mass communications major at United Methodist-related
Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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