After getting an undergraduate degree from Michigan Tech in forestry and then taking some time to walk the outback in Australia, he joined the Peace Corps. His mom, Julie Sklom, said, "Ethan has always been extremely independent, always wanting to do everything on his own." And he was into the environment long before being green became popular. "It has always been his opinion that the Earth is much more important than the people who populate it," Julie Sklom said. "He was way ahead of the curve in terms of touting that theme." Julie Sklom can't help but be proud of her 27-year-old son. "I read his blog and I think, wow, this is a man who has really made something of himself. He's very insightful, probably because he has spent a lot of time by himself. "He's always had ideas about how life should be but now it's more concrete in his mind." Although she knows he can take care of himself - he once fended off a wolf while camping alone off an island near his university - Julie Sklom can't help but worry when she reads in his blog that he spilled boiling cooking oil on his feet. "That would be a terrible thing to happen here, where we have hospitals nearby and everything is relatively clean. To be in a dirt-floored house with no running water ..." What she misses most is simply talking with him. Julie and her husband, Mike, a science teacher at Lemont High School, will visit him next month during a three-week trip to South Africa. "I am so excited, thrilled," she said. "And I'm happy that he'll have a vacation, too."
Peace Corps Volunteer Ethan Sklom has been struggling to improve basic conditions in Malawi
Eisenhower grad working in Africa gets help from his alma mater
May 3, 2009
By Donna Vickroy
It's a long way from Blue Island to Malawi, but not too far to help a friend in need.
When the biology students at Eisenhower High School found out that former student Ethan Sklom was struggling to improve basic conditions in the poverty-stricken African country, they rolled up their sleeves.
Sklom, who is working with Peace Corps volunteers in the third-world nation, told the Blue Island kids about how people in his community had to walk for hours, hauling seeds to the capital city so they could be pressed into precious cooking oil.
If they had an oil press of their own, Sklom told them, the Malawians could save thousands of hours each year, enabling them to grow other crops, such as bananas, and to even produce their own biofuel.
The Eisenhower students took to the cafeteria and the school hallways and the streets of their neighborhoods, collecting money in canisters. They ended up with more than $700, enough to buy and ship six oil presses to the landlocked country.
The project was organized by biology teachers Vanessa Conner and Jeanette Navarro.
"It's not very often that students can do a service project in which they can make a really significant impact on a community," Navarro said.
"This project opened their eyes to how different things are in other parts of the world. There are no electronics there. There are few cars. They walk or ride bikes everywhere on bumpy roads. All the things we take for granted," she said.
Mostly, though, she said, it showed the students how easy it is to make a big difference by doing something little.
Sklom graduated from Eisenhower almost 10 years ago. After getting an undergraduate degree from Michigan Tech in forestry and then taking some time to walk the outback in Australia, he joined the Peace Corps.
His mom, Julie Sklom, said, "Ethan has always been extremely independent, always wanting to do everything on his own."
And he was into the environment long before being green became popular.
"It has always been his opinion that the Earth is much more important than the people who populate it," Julie Sklom said. "He was way ahead of the curve in terms of touting that theme."
Julie Sklom can't help but be proud of her 27-year-old son.
"I read his blog and I think, wow, this is a man who has really made something of himself. He's very insightful, probably because he has spent a lot of time by himself.
"He's always had ideas about how life should be but now it's more concrete in his mind."
Although she knows he can take care of himself - he once fended off a wolf while camping alone off an island near his university - Julie Sklom can't help but worry when she reads in his blog that he spilled boiling cooking oil on his feet.
"That would be a terrible thing to happen here, where we have hospitals nearby and everything is relatively clean. To be in a dirt-floored house with no running water ..."
What she misses most is simply talking with him. Julie and her husband, Mike, a science teacher at Lemont High School, will visit him next month during a three-week trip to South Africa.
"I am so excited, thrilled," she said. "And I'm happy that he'll have a vacation, too."
Sklom is the oldest of three children. His sister Mary is a phlebotomist. His brother Matt passed away six years ago.
Though Sklom has always been sensitive to the needs of others, he's also not a pushover.
After his grandmother sent money, Sklom hired someone to help him train members of the community in how to grow mushrooms. Afterward, several of those new mushroom farmers sent thank you letters to Sklom's grandmother. Sklom attached a brief addendum that said, in effect, "Don't get roped into this and think they need more money."
Julie Sklom sums up her son this way: "He is wonderful human being. There aren't many people I know who could live the way he's living and never complain about the difficulties."
Donna Vickroy can be reached at dvickroy@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5982.
