Caitlyn Bradburn took the long way around in her journey from her family home in Wheaton, Illinois, to Penn.  After high school, she worked for a couple of years in homeless shelters in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, before moving to Lamego, Mozambique for a year.

"I was just disconnected from the whole college process," Caitlyn explains. "I just knew that it was time for me to escape the very sheltered life I lived. It was the best decision I’ve ever made." The homeless shelter where she worked in Washington housed 1,350 people. "I found that I could do something," she says. "Of course, in the grand scheme of things, it was not much, but it was something."

After two years in Washington, she went to work in a much smaller shelter in Philadelphia. It was there that she decided to see first hand how poverty worked not just locally but globally. Through the Institute for International Cooperation and Development, based in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Caitlyn was placed in the village of Lamego, Mozambique.

In Lamego, she worked as an assistant agriculture teacher in the local school but also focused on such issues as HIV, AIDS education, and sexual health in general. "The HIV/AIDS situation in Mozambique is horrible," she says. "Lamego is along a trade corridor between Zimbabwe and the coast, and disease migrates with people. Sixty percent of the test results came back positive. And these were only the people who self-chose for testing."

While Caitlyn was in Lamego, she realized that to be even more effective and to create more widespread, lasting change, she needed to complete her education. She returned to the United States in May of 2003 to begin the college search process and began her studies at Penn’s College of General Studies—now the College of Liberal and Professional Studies—in the fall of 2004, where she majored in anthropology.

"I knew that I couldn’t go to a traditional four-year school," she says. "I didn’t feel like I could remove myself that much from the world. I knew I’d have to work while I’m in school to feel like I’m involved in the community." Caitlyn works during the day as an HIV prevention counselor at the Mazzoni Center in Philadelphia, the oldest HIV service provider in the city.

"The option to study part-time offers a great deal of flexibility and such a wide choice of classes that fit into a working person’s schedule. There’s a pretty good mix of people in the classes, too, and I think it benefits the typical undergraduate to have people with real-life experience who bring it into the classroom. And all the professors are really so wonderfully supportive."

After she finishes her bachelor’s degree, Caitlyn hopes to go on for a master’s in the anthropology of economic development. "I have been quite fortunate in my life," she acknowledges. "I have a wonderful, loving, supportive family. I have had a good education. I have been able to easily access the care I need. I have never known hunger. I have never gone to bed truly afraid that I will not wake up in the morning. The majority of the people in the world simply do not have anywhere near that good fortune."

"I want to do something about it."