Azzara Reflects on Operation Smile's Success

Author: Matthew Christ

Michael Azzara '02.5 is president of Middlebury Operation Smile, and the driving force behind last week's "Global Human Health: Perspectives and Possibilities" symposium. His tireless efforts, combined with a handful of dedicated staffers, organized the events, lectures and meals. The Campus caught up with Azzara Monday night, after the Symposium had ended.

Campus: How did you conceive the idea for this symposium?
Azzara: The idea started a few years ago. We realized our involvement with Operation Smile was one aspect of a larger situation, and we wanted to educate ourselves and the community about global health. We wanted to bring people out and together.

Campus: What did the execution of the idea entail?
Azzara: It was an incredible amount of work. We started with nothing and built a program. It required a system of networking and talking to students for their input.We had to use our passion to show other people why they should be interested.

Campus: What was the most difficult part of the planning process?
Azzara: In the beginning, we had to learn more about the state of global health, from economic, political, environmental and medical perspectives. We had to establish some kind of structure. The next step was finding speakers. We had to decide between getting the best or getting the closest. I was impressed at how interested all the speakers were; they were so interested that all the lecturers spoke for free. Finalizing the speakers was rather difficult. We had to work out travel plans and accomodations. We wanted to publicize like no other previous event — this part was really exciting because there were so many creative ideas.

Campus: What was your role last week?
Azzara: Running around like a maniac. I had to pick up the speakers, take them out to lunch and spend quality time with them. It was a constant process — as soon as one lecture ended, we began publicizing the next one. I really couldn't do school work. I had a lot of good help from a core group of people.

Campus: What was your favorite part of the week?
Azzara: My favorite speaker was Dr. Rick Hodes '75. Dr. Hodes lives in Ethiopia and works with refugees going to Israel. It was amazing to hear from a Middlebury alumnus. He came from the same place, shared the same potential and showed us what we can do. He caused many realizations from the students. Another great moment was when Dr. William Magee, the co-founder of Operation Smile, spoke on Saturday night. He truly inspired people, and for me it fulfilled the vision; it was truly a culmination of everything we had worked towards.

Campus: Were you pleased with the response from the students, faculty, staff and community?
Azzara: I was very, very pleased to see such a strong response. There was a core group at every lecture, and all of the attendees were seriously focused. It was great to see the students naturally interacting and talking with the speakers. The symposium allowed us to fill a gap at Middlebury — there are not many resources concerning health. This was one aspect of the symposium that truly pleased us.

Campus: In retrospect, would you have done anything differently?
Azzara: I would have publicized the event more in the beginning. There were many times when I needed ideas and help because it truly was a full time job. I did have a great team working with me though, namely seniors Harvest Ficker, Doug Dagan, Amy Hendrickson, Peter Park, Damon Gacicia, Chris White and junior Devon Bertram My right hand man throughout the whole process was Greg Connolly ['02].