"A Story to Tell"

Social Work Professor Janice Potter moved from behind her desk, which acted as a barrier between us, and sat in a chair across from me. Her professional earth tone attire contrasted the bright green in the photos on the wall behind her. The exotic foliage of those pictures was captured on camera in Bali, just one of the many places where Potter has traveled and immersed herself in foreign culture.

“When you travel, sometimes your concepts and even your ideals get shattered by the truth of other people’s lives.” Potter said, explaining the quote she loves by Hazrat Inayat Khan. “You realize there are many ways to see reality, many ways to see what is true. [There’s] so many things that, if you open your mind to them, make you alive. So once you allow your concepts to be shattered, you are so much bigger of a person, and life is so much more beautiful and so much more rich. And your heart expands. It’s not just your mind, but it expands your heart.”

As one can see, travel is important and even life-altering to Potter. By the age of 12 she’d already decided that she wanted to live her life around the globe. And she’s off to a good start. Potter has been to at least 13 countries outside the U.S. including: Mexico, Columbia, India, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Austria, Guatemala, Thailand, Nepal, and Bali.

The nature of her travels varies, but wherever she is “the idea is to learn.” Much of her travel experiences involve using her gift for helping others. Whether she’s doing a service trip in Mexico, an immersion journey to Bali, or a trip to Columbia with the Peace Corps, the strategy she embraces in coming to the aid of others is to “work with the people in a very humble way.” She doesn’t go with a paternalistic approach, but an egalitarian one. Potter cautions against making people feel ‘less than.’ Rather, she has a casual air about her, enjoying meeting different people and hanging out with them. She stresses cultural sensitivity while traveling.

“She’s great to travel with because everybody bonds with her.” said Mandy Hershey, a Social Work major. She had the privilege of taking a trip with Potter to Guatemala during interim. “You feel very comfortable around her.” She said. “She is so fun and understanding.”

Potter values greatly the idea of joint participation, between the local people and those visiting, to be successful in affecting long-term change.

Like in Columbia.

Potter described that their mission there included helping people in various lower class communities organize community planning groups. Those groups would decide what the community wanted most in life, what their greatest need was, and also how to achieve that goal. “It was their show not ours.” Potter explained. She and her group helped them get started, but the empowered group was left in charge of themselves.

“The point was to build grassroots organizations so the people idealistically could, when we left, have some influence over their lives.” Potter explained.

There’s a lot that can be taken away from a rewarding experience like those Potter has been able to be a part of. She mentioned learning different philosophies and ways of life in other cultures as being particularly amazing.

For instance, in Bali “their philosophy of life is all about being happy.” The Balinese totally changed Potter’s view of human nature and what is possible for human beings. The Balinese believe in mastering one’s emotions, and they rarely seem to experience anger. “They raise children in such a way that the children have no reason to be disturbed, unless they are ill, because they believe children are little angels coming from another realm. Earth is a shock for them. They are not allowed to have their feet touch the ground usually for the first 6 or 7 months because that would be too big of a shock, they’re always held. It’s a great solid foundation of love.”

Similarly, Potter enjoys the beauty of the Native American culture, and doesn’t have to leave the U.S. to explore their ceremonies, beliefs, and values. Visiting reservations and spending time with different tribes is another interim trip Potter has offered over the years to expand peoples’ minds.

In general, Potter’s passion for travel and desire to help and learn about others is captivating to many. Her work and experiences in travel are like “being transported into another reality.” She describes.

This intrigue has caught the attention of Hershey and other Dana students who have taken the initiative to travel with Potter. When asked to describe Potter, Hershey said “She has a really free spirit…She is one of those people that are few and far between, you don’t meet very often. You can talk to her about anything. You can learn a lot from her. She’s always happy, uplifting.”

When asked if she had a favorite place to travel, Potter smiled, “Every time I get back from a place, that’s my favorite!” The value of travel for her is multifaceted. She describes it as “transformative. It’s a mindblower, literally. It opens your eyes to realms so far beyond what you know. It helps you to see your own culture and your own life with new eyes. It’s so cliché to say, but it’s broadening, it opens the world up.”