Below is an excerpt from the cover story of the most recent edition of Washington University Magazine. The entire article can be read here.
Fernando Cutz is a Presidential Management Fellow at USAID, the federal agency that fosters health and human rights in more than 100 countries across the globe. Projects include battling malaria in Cambodia, introducing sustainable agriculture in Honduras, and opening schools in Afghanistan. And when war strikes, whether in South Sudan or Syria, USAID is there to protect victims from violence, hunger and disease.
“It’s easy to wake up in the morning and feel good about what you’re doing,” says Cutz, who also holds a master’s degree in public service from the Clinton School of Public Service, University of Arkansas. “The mission is so positive: We’re trying to help people. That’s the bottom line — always.”
USAID is just the latest — albeit the biggest stage — for Cutz. As an undergraduate at WUSTL, he was a passionate advocate for justice and equality. Along with Chase Sackett, AB ’10, Cutz co-founded U/FUSED (United for Undergraduate Socioeconomic Diversity), a national advocacy group devoted to increasing the number of low-income students going to college. And as senior class president, Cutz led the protest against the Chicago bar that refused to admit six black students during a senior class trip. Ultimately, the bar’s owners apologized and agreed to enroll workers in a diversity training class.
Cutz says the Enterprise Holdings Scholars and John B. Ervin Scholars programs motivated him to serve others.
“A core value of the Ervin program is to bring diverse communities together,” Cutz says. “I think my interest in diplomacy — especially in the development track I’ve been involved with at USAID — goes back to those values.”
Further, Cutz says he found a great community with his fellow Enterprise Scholars. “We were exposed to some awesome mentorship experiences by the folks at Enterprise Rent-A-Car,” he says.
Cutz says the financial assistance that comes from being both an Enterprise Holdings and an Ervin scholar made it possible for him to attend Washington University. It also motivated him, as a graduate student at the Clinton School of Public Service, to start an outreach project to help low-income students in the Arkansas Delta go to college. That’s how he met Eddie King III.
“He was a role model in a place that didn’t have many,” Cutz says. “I knew he would make a great Ervin Scholar.”
King’s mother wanted a school with a good reputation for her son. King’s father, a pastor with little money, wanted a school with good scholarships. King agreed with them, but he wanted more — a school with a good community.
“Find your own strength and your own direction. It’s not necessarily Washington University. Maybe it’s another college or a vocational school or the military. But find a way to help yourself so you can help your community.”— Eddie King III, Arts & Sciences and Business Class of ’15
Growing up in Lilburn, Ga., King felt accepted and supported by his diverse group of friends. (“My sister called us the Rainbow Coalition,” King jokes.) But in the small Arkansas town where he had relocated, King felt marginalized.
“So the first thing I wanted to know when I visited was how do the communities and the micro-communities get along here,” King says. “What I found was a family-type atmosphere. I expected the community service and scholarship, but I didn’t expect that.”
King is a junior studying economics in Arts & Sciences and accounting in the Olin Business School. During breaks, he returns to Arkansas and encourages students to think big.
“Find your own strength and your own direction,” King says. “It’s not necessarily Washington University. Maybe it’s another college or a vocational school or the military. But find a way to help yourself so you can help your community.”
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