Vandenberg's path since leaving Pomona with a degree in International Relations has certainly been inspirational, but hardly predictable. She completed her M.Phil. in Russian and Eastern European Studies as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford in 1992, then joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Within 6 months, she was sent to Russia with the first wave of humanitarian aid from the U.S. after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There, she helped manage the $700-million Food Aid program out of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

As an undergraduate, Vandenberg had volunteered as a hotline counselor for Project Sister, a program aimed at helping rape victims. At Oxford, while doing field work in Russia, she met a rape victim and had a "total epiphany" about Russia's sexual abuse problem, as well as her own immediate goals. She continued her Russian Military Studies at Oxford, but began exploring ways to start a volunteer hotline for victims of sexual abuse in Russia.

Shortly after arriving in Moscow, Vandenberg met Russian psychologist Natasha Gaidarenko, who shared her concern about deep-rooted problems of women in Russia. Together they organized a group of women that met at Vandenberg's apartment to discuss feminist issues and plan a hotline service.

The first meeting was a landmark to Vandenberg who "realized this was real," that it really could happen, when a small but dedicated group of women committed themselves to extensive training. But the struggle didn't end when the hotline opened on April 14, 1994. According to Vandenberg, "It was birthed in a very tentative way, and there were times when I thought it might not survive... after I had dedicated my life to this organization and had invested thousands of hours and hundreds of meetings."

Her fears proved to be unfounded. Hundreds of women used the hotline, and the threat of being shut down evaporated after the program was featured on international news shows. "Survival was dependent on media credibility, and being on television gave us confidence they would persist, knowing there would be a national outcry if we were shut down."

The hotline's success fueled her desire to obtain a law degree. "I had done as much as I could with the degree I had," says Vandenberg, who hopes to do more hands-on human rights work, preferably with a major organization like Human Rights Watch, after she graduates. "I needed a law degree to do the real concrete work." -- Chris Hansen '99