As members of the Tufts community mourn the dreadful passing of a beloved alum, we have the opportunity to reflect on and grow from his remarkable achievements and his outstanding embodiment of the active-citizenship values this university hopes to promote.
U.S. Army Capt. Benjamin Sklaver was a "double Jumbo," a 1999 graduate of the School of Arts and Sciences and a 2003 Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy alum, who worked consistently but in various ways to improve others' lives across the globe.
During his first stint in the Army, Sklaver was a member of the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, a military division devoted to promoting stability by developing schools, roadways and other necessities in needy areas. While serving in war-torn northern Uganda, he spotted a problem: a scarcity of clean drinking water. Identifying the need was not the hard part; addressing it was. Sklaver spent the time between his first and second Army tours founding and directing the ClearWater Initiative, a non-profit organization based exclusively on volunteer work that focuses on providing clean drinking water to Ugandans.
In 2008, its first year, the organization provided clean water for more than 5,000 people, including over 1,000 school children, far exceeding its own expectations while spending an impressive 78 percent of its funds to support its program work, according to its Web site. ClearWater achieved all this while operating on a bare-bones budget of under $25,000.
Sklaver had also worked at the Centers for Disease Control as an international emergency and refugee health analyst, and later he took a job at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Sklaver went to Afghanistan this year to help lead infrastructural missions, but his life was reportedly taken by a suicide bomber.
As a Tufts student, Sklaver showed the same drive to make a difference that he demonstrated in his later life. He served in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, worked on a student-alumni relations committee and took an active role in the campus' Jewish community.
Sklaver's contributions to Tufts and to our planet serve not only to highlight the tragedy of his loss. They are also tangible inspirations to all of us who are steeped in Tufts' rhetoric and resources promoting active citizenship.
