On the meaning of service, the power of cultural understanding, and keeping a legacy alive through education and human connection.
Some people leave behind more than memories. They leave behind ideas, values and relationships that continue to grow through the lives of others. Sometimes, that legacy takes root in unexpected places: in a young person’s curiosity, in the knowledge of an elder, in the rediscovery of a traditional plant, or in a seed passed from one generation to the next.
Alice Rowan Swanson was one of those people.
Although her life was tragically cut short in 2008, the values she stood for continue to find expression through the people she inspired and the initiatives established in her memory. One of these is the Alice Rowan Swanson Fellowship, created by her family in 2009. Another, in a different way, is Kokiri – Home of World Learning, whose beginnings were made possible through the support of this Fellowship.
For us at Kokiri, Alice’s story is not simply part of our institutional history. It is a reminder of why we do what we do, and of how a person’s commitment to understanding, serving and connecting with others can continue to bear fruit across generations and cultures.
A life shaped by curiosity and human connection
Alice Rowan Swanson graduated from Amherst College in 2007. During her university years, she developed a strong interest in international affairs, human rights and the relationships between people from different cultural backgrounds.
In 2006, she participated in the School for International Training’s study abroad programme in Nicaragua, where she explored revolution, transformation and civil society. The experience had a profound influence on her understanding of the world and strengthened her desire to work alongside communities rather than simply study them from a distance.
Alice was fluent in Spanish and also proficient in Arabic. She had studied Arab societies in Cairo and maintained a strong interest in intercultural understanding.
Her engagement with Nicaragua did not end when her semester abroad was over. With support from Amherst College, she returned to continue working with local communities. Among her activities was an oral history project with the Monimbó Council of Elders, documenting memories and experiences of the Nicaraguan Revolution.
This work offers a glimpse into what mattered to Alice: listening to people, recognising the importance of their experiences and understanding history through the voices of those who had lived it.
Rather than seeing cultural exchange as a one-directional process, she understood the value of learning from others and building relationships through direct engagement.
Alice was only 22 when, in 2008, she was tragically killed while cycling to work at an international NGO in Washington, DC.
Her death was an enormous loss to her family, friends and everyone who had seen the promise and commitment she carried.
Yet the story did not end there.
Turning remembrance into a living commitment
In 2009, Alice’s parents, Ruth Rowan and Brian Swanson, established the Alice Rowan Swanson Fellowship through the School for International Training.
Their intention was to create something that would honour not only Alice’s memory but also the direction her life had been taking.
They wanted to give other graduates the opportunity to return to the countries where they had studied, work alongside local communities and pursue initiatives that contribute to human rights and social development.
The Fellowship reflects a particular understanding of remembrance: that honouring someone can also mean creating opportunities for others to continue the kind of work that mattered to them.
Its projects have supported initiatives in different parts of the world, including Indigenous land rights, education, women’s health, cultural documentation and environmental sustainability.
Each project takes shape in a different context, but the underlying commitment remains connected to the values associated with Alice’s life: bridging cultures, helping others and recognising the importance of locally rooted initiatives.
In this sense, the Fellowship is more than a financial grant. It is an invitation to turn inspiration into action.
It allows Alice’s memory to become part of the lives and experiences of people she never had the opportunity to meet.
Where Alice’s story meets the beginning of Kokiri
In 2019, Kokiri’s journey began with the support of the Alice Rowan Swanson Fellowship.
The initial project grew out of an interest in Indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage and the importance of preserving knowledge that is often transmitted orally, through relationships, stories and everyday practices.
In Northeast India, we began exploring how traditional knowledge could be documented and how opportunities could be created for younger generations to learn from elders and community knowledge holders.
What initially developed as a specific project gradually became something broader.
Through encounters with Indigenous communities, elders, young people, educators and local organisations, we came to recognise that the question was not simply how to document knowledge before it disappears.
It was also how to create meaningful opportunities for that knowledge to remain part of everyday life.
How can children learn about their natural environment from people who have spent generations living in relationship with it?
How can traditional ecological knowledge become part of contemporary education without losing its cultural context?
How can schools become places where different generations meet, exchange experiences and recognise the value of what each has to contribute?
And how can knowledge be passed on in ways that strengthen communities rather than simply turn their cultural heritage into material for external research?
These questions gradually shaped the direction of Kokiri – Home of World Learning.
What began with the support of the Fellowship has since developed into an independent commitment to education, Indigenous and local knowledge, ecological understanding, cultural exchange and sustainable ways of living.
The connection between Alice and Kokiri is therefore not simply that her name appears in the history of our organisation. Her family’s decision to establish the Fellowship helped make the first steps of this journey possible.
Keeping knowledge alive, keeping relationships alive
One of the central ideas behind Kokiri is that knowledge is not merely information that can be collected, stored and archived.
Knowledge is also something lived.
It exists in the experience of an elder who knows which plants grow in a particular forest, in the stories through which a community remembers its past, in the skills of a craftsperson, and in the understanding that develops through generations of living in a particular landscape.
Such knowledge is carried through relationships. It survives when people have opportunities to share it, practise it and adapt it to changing circumstances.
This is why intergenerational learning has become such an important part of our work.
In our initiatives in Tripura, for example, we seek to bring elders, children, teachers and local practitioners together. Through conversations, storytelling, plant observation, documentation and practical learning activities, we explore ways of connecting Indigenous knowledge with contemporary school education.
We also recognise that not everything needs to be documented or made publicly accessible. Communities and knowledge holders must retain the authority to decide what can be shared, how it is shared and what should remain within their own cultural context.
For us, this is part of respecting the people whose knowledge makes such initiatives possible.
In a broader sense, it also reflects something that can be recognised in Alice’s own engagement with communities: the importance of listening, learning from others and understanding that meaningful work begins with human relationships.
Education as a bridge between cultures and generations
Alice’s experience in Nicaragua demonstrated how transformative it can be to encounter different perspectives and learn directly from the people whose lives and histories one is trying to understand.
At Kokiri, we see education as an opportunity to create similar encounters.
Education should not be limited to the transmission of information from one generation to another, or from a teacher to a student. It can also create spaces in which different forms of knowledge meet.
Scientific understanding and traditional ecological knowledge do not necessarily need to compete. They can enrich one another.
Contemporary education can benefit from the experience of elders, just as traditional knowledge holders may find new opportunities to document, communicate and strengthen their knowledge through collaboration with educators and researchers.
Likewise, cultural exchange should not be understood as the movement of people and ideas in only one direction. It should create relationships in which everyone has something to contribute and something to learn.
This is the kind of learning culture Kokiri seeks to encourage: one that recognises cultural diversity, strengthens local capacities and helps people develop a deeper understanding of their relationship with one another and the natural world.
A legacy that belongs to the future
There is something deeply meaningful about the way Alice’s family chose to honour her life.
Rather than allowing remembrance to remain confined to the past, they created an opportunity for others to carry something forward.
Over the years, Fellowship recipients have returned to communities and countries that had shaped their own experiences, contributing to initiatives that respond to local priorities and challenges.
Their work is diverse, and each project has its own purpose. Yet together, these initiatives form a continuing expression of the values that inspired the Fellowship.
Kokiri is one small part of this wider story.
We do not claim to know everything Alice might have pursued had she been given more time. Nor do we presume that our work represents the only way to honour her memory.
But we can recognise the significance of the opportunity her family created, and we can take responsibility for what grew from it.
For us, carrying this legacy forward means continuing to build relationships across cultures, supporting communities in strengthening their own knowledge systems, creating opportunities for younger generations to learn from elders and exploring forms of education that contribute to a more peaceful and sustainable world.
It also means remembering that meaningful change rarely happens through one person alone. It grows through relationships, shared experiences and the efforts of many people over time.
Alice is still part of the story
When we speak about keeping someone’s memory alive, we sometimes use words that can seem abstract. But perhaps the most meaningful way to do so is through the things that continue to happen because of the life that person lived.
A young person discovers the value of an elder’s knowledge.
A community finds new ways to preserve and transmit its cultural heritage.
A teacher introduces children to the plants, stories and traditions of their surroundings.
People from different backgrounds meet, listen to one another and discover new ways of understanding the world.
These moments may seem small in isolation. Yet they are part of a much larger process through which knowledge, compassion and understanding move from one person to another.
Alice Rowan Swanson is no longer physically here. But the opportunities created in her memory continue to bring people together, support meaningful work and open possibilities for others.
Through the Fellowship, through the initiatives of its recipients and, in our own way, through the continuing work of Kokiri, something of the spirit that inspired her continues to find expression.
Perhaps this is what a living legacy means: not simply being remembered, but allowing something meaningful to continue through the lives of others.
We are deeply grateful to Ruth Rowan, Brian Swanson and the Alice Rowan Swanson Fellowship for making the beginning of our journey possible.
We honour Alice by continuing to learn, to listen, to build bridges and to serve.
Her life remains part of a story that is still unfolding.
