Nellie Langeland is a student-athlete graduate from Tulane University. She is currently a graduate student in the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida. The article below was published in the Orlando Sentinel.
I watched anxiously in early September as Hurricane Gustav bore down on the delicate infrastructure of New Orleans, the city that captured my heart.
As Gulf Coast residents fled Gustav's "cone of uncertainty," I was taken back three years to the start of my junior year at Tulane University, and my own flight from Katrina. As I sat in the contraflow traffic, I was unaware that I was embarking on the start of a defining journey for me, and my country.
Having lived in the Gulf South, two years in New Orleans, hurricanes were a part of my life. But everything changed as I watched the breached levees drown the city and the ensuing chaos. I spent a semester displaced at Texas A&M University and returned to New Orleans to finish my education as the city rebuilt.
It was trying to live in a place where entire blocks of homes had been washed away, and everyone had a personal story of loss, some more devastating than others. Over time, however, life crept back into the city, and armies of volunteers came to work alongside residents to restore the city. I graduated last May to return to my storm-battered home state of Florida, leaving a new New Orleans, with a buzz of hope and a glimmer of what the future might hold.
I had witnessed the emergence of a remarkable spirit, an esprit de corps shared by residents and volunteers compelled to reach out to their fellow Americans. At the forefront were students and young professionals fueled by civic mindedness and an entrepreneurial spirit.
Thousands of young people came to build and chart a new course for the city; these young entrepreneurs have been connected through the New Orleans YURP (Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals) Initiative. Some joined Americorps or Teach for America, or they founded their own organizations to build a sustainable city. They have focused their education and entrepreneurial spirit to rebuild and renew New Orleans.
Because many of my generation grew up in economic prosperity, we have been called by some spoiled and ill-prepared to take the reins of the country. But Katrina's YURPs are socially conscious, entrepreneurial and innovative, displaying a new and rejuvenated brand of the American spirit on which our country was founded.
The government's response to Katrina was deemed one of the great American failures, but it has been a defining experience for my generation. The response of my peers is inspiring and a testament to a revival of the American spirit that will carry us as we take on the future. The Gulf Coast is a vulnerable home front, but the challenges have created a training ground for future leaders, and many have responded to the adversity.
I consider myself an ambassador for the city of New Orleans, and I have tried to spread the word that rebuilding continues. But it is also important for people to see the silver lining, because the spirit that brought thousands of young people to rebuild is the spirit that can carry America into the future.
The state of the economy and energy and the loss of life abroad have bred concern for the future of America. But today, the social entrepreneurship of young leaders such as New Orleans' YURPs offers hope for the future, exhibiting a compassionate energy unlike the malaise Jimmy Carter diagnosed in 1979, when he proclaimed a "crisis of confidence" in America.
Hurricanes will always threaten our coasts, but there is light after the storm. Tropical winds have been followed by the winds of change, blowing a new spirit into a city and country in need of rejuvenation.
Nellie Langeland
DeVos Class of 2009
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