On Saturday, May 22 Jeremy Konyndyk graduated from Calvin College with majors in History and Classics and minors in French and archaeology.

On Tuesday, May 25 he hopped on a jet for Albania, where he will spend a minimum of six months working on behalf of Spring Lake-based International Aid, which has hired him to serve as project manager of its relief efforts at the refugee center in Peshkopi, Albania.

Last summer Konyndyk -- Calvin's 1998-99 Student Senate President -- worked on a dig in Jordan and became interested in the Palestinian Refugee Crisis. This summer's Kosovar Refugee Crisis drew him away from his plans to attend graduate school (he had been accepted to Johns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Washington, DC) and compelled him to accept the challenges he will face in Albania.

While at Calvin, Konyndyk -- an All-MIAA swimmer -- served on several committees with Jinny DeJong, who served as vice president for student life at the college before joining the staff of International Aid as chief operating officer last year.

"I called her (DeJong) to see if she knew of any jobs in international affairs and she told me about the project manager position in Peshkopi, Albania," Konyndyk said.

In DeJong he had a strong advocate.

"Jeremy Konyndyk has everything going for him," DeJong said. "Outstanding academic credentials, athletic success, leadership accomplishments. He could be heading off to graduate school or landing a well paying job in government or business. Instead, he’s going to live in Peshkopi as the IA project coordinator in order to serve the community of displaced Kosovars there. By using his talents and organizational skills to improve the quality of their lives in small but tangible ways, he’ll be sowing seeds of hope through acts of compassion."

Located in the northeastern part of Albania, the prefecture that Peshkopi is a part of presently houses 10,000 Kosovar refugees. That number is expected to grow to 13,000 in a few weeks. 

International Aid’s projects in the area include renovating a dormitory and a gym that will serve as a transit center for the refugees as well as distribution of food and non-food products. 

Konyndyk will oversee these projects -- evaluating needs, identifying projects, arranging logistics and providing on-going coordination to International Aid’s work in that region of Albania. 

Although admittedly a little apprehensive, he says his belief in God and the compassion he feels for the refugees far outweigh his little fear. 

Through its global outreach, International Aid provided emergency relief, missionary assistance and medical aid with an estimated value of more than $71 million in 1998. Included in that total was aid distributed through Michigan Gov. John Engler’s "Michigan Cares" program which helped Honduran and Nicaraguan victims of Hurricane Mitch. 

The state of Michigan is again partnering with International Aid to provide humanitarian aid for the Kosovar refugees through a relief effort called "Michigan Cares II." International Aid is serving as the Coordinating Agency for the program.