Patrick Cook-Deegan
Patrick Cook-Deegan grew up in Annapolis, MD, where he was an All-American lacrosse player at a large public high school. He was recruited to Brown University to play lacrosse and played for his first two years on the Men's Varsity team. After his sophomore year in 2005, he traveled through New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia, and theMiddle East, eventually arriving in Istanbul, Turkey where he spent his fall semester at the University of the Bosporus. This trip, particularly the time he spent in Southeast Asia, inspired the creation of a fundraising trip called "Cycle for Schools," which he used to raise money for building schools through Room to Read. Patrickspent a month traveling around Laos where he fell in love with the country. "The people were wonderful, the culture absorbing, and the scenery stunning," he says. "Many Laotians welcomed me into their communities and homes. I sang Karaoke, visited local monasteries, and played soccer with the men after work. In 
many villages, young kids excitedly took me to their schools, where I was surprised — and upset — by the poor condition of most schools. I wanted to give something back to the people who had been so kind to me. So upon returning to the United States in January of 2006, I started the Cycle for Schools project."
Following Patrick's bike trip, he started working for an organization called the US Campaign for Burma, a group that promotes freedom, democracy, and human rights in the country. During his travels Patrick had learned first hand about the atrocities that the government commits against its citizens on a daily basis. In 2007 Burma was listed among the world's most failed states by Foreign Policy magazine, right behind Sudan in human rights violations. At the time of this interview in September 2007, Patrick was a senior at Brown University and volunteering as the Northeast Regional Director for US Campaign for Burma.
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Patrick's interview with Abroad View (produced by Alex Crumb and Sherry Schwarz)
1. As a lacrosse player for Brown, it probably wasn’t easy to take time to go abroad. What made you decide to travel abroad and then study for a semester in Turkey?
3. How did studying abroad in Turkey contribute to what you’re doing today? Did it give you a point of comparison for then traveling in more remote reaches of the world?
4. Do you recommend that other students consider a total immersion experience?
5.
What was the original impetus for doing a bicycle ride to raise $15,500 to build a school in Laos?
Why biking as your method for fundraising?
6. In an interview Abroad View did with Bill McKibben, he mentions the value of roughing it and rugged travel as a way to better understand the conditions in which most of the world lives. Does this ring true to you?
7. Certain people are hesitant to embrace the Global Citizen idea. Why was it easy for you?
8. How do you view America's role in the world?
9. How were you accepted as an American in these other parts of the world?
10. What has been the value of volunteering and doing civic engagement work during your life so far?
11. On a backpacking trip in summer 2005, when you were a senior at Brown University, you toured Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Laos. What made you include Laos on an otherwise more mainstream itinerary, and why did it affect you the most?
12. What is the importance of sustainability in terms of international development work? How did your experience in Rwanda and observing Dr. Paul Farmer in his day-to-day work for the Partners In Health clinics there inform your perspective.
13. Do you think there should be more emphasis on connecting academic and experiential learning?
14. Do you believe it is important for students to share their international experiences publicly?
15. What approaches do you think are most effective for creating change in the world? What role is the Internet playing, and do you have a particular approach for engaging students in the U.S. Campaign for Burma at Brown?
16. In relation to Burma, what can people, and ideally students, do to affect real-world change?
17. Please tell us about your experience with Burma. What made you decide to travel there? What did you learn that made you come back and become a leader with U.S. Campaign for Burma? Given Aung San Suu Kyi's request that outsiders not travel to Burma in protest of the government, what advice would you give prospective travelers?
18. How have your international experiences affected your career path? Did you have certain career expectations before entering Brown, and how have your international experiences shaped your future direction?
19. You created a scholarship program, Transform Abroad, to give high school kids a chance to study abroad if they couldn't afford to do so. What inspired you to do this? How did you establish and publicize it in such a short time, what did organizing this teach you, and what were some of the outcomes?
20. You do a lot of in-person events, especially for fundraising; especially in today's media-driven world, what is the value of connecting face-to-face with people on pressing issues?