The story behind the GENESIS Network founder. A philanthropist, Army Lieutenant and Boldfacer.

BOLDFACERS
November 20009

Adam Swartzbaugh

Adam Swartzbaugh

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It’s been a year since Barack Obama won the Presidential election, and chances are, if he was going to hand pick the sort of guy he’d want to represent our country on and off the battlefield, he’d choose Lieutenant Adam Swartzbaugh.

Too bad Swartzbaugh can’t say the same. It’s not that he doesn’t pledge wholehearted allegiance to the flag–of course he does–but he doesn’t agree with all of President Obama’s international policies. He’s not crazy about the continued asymmetric treatment of the Middle East or the recent undermining of the Kyoto Protocol in Bangkok. While politicians can wave the international relations wand, Swartzbaugh says, it’s the military, he believes, that has the ability to change people’s lives day by day.

Swartzbaugh is no army brat. There are no family war stories or hand-me-down fatigues in his closet. He enlisted in the ROTC on his own. Which was after he won the nationals as a competitive cyclist; and after he dropped out of Hobart College; and after he learned Chinese; and after he traveled to Viet Nam and met Ngoc Toan, a double amputee with pitch black eyes and a ponytail who painted so beautifully that Swartzbaugh taught him to make a living off his art; and after he witnessed child prostitution firsthand; and after he jumped on a Russian Army motorcycle and roared through Cambodia to Thailand to help Tsunami victims. After, really, that he realized helping others felt good, and that one individual can make a difference.

Swartzbaugh returned to the States to finish college and then some. He enlisted in the ROTC and graduated from Brown University. He recently launched the Genesis Network, an online networking platform devoted to helping grassroots human rights and social development initiatives all over the world. He’s building schools in Thailand and Burma and crusading against human trafficking in China, India and Africa.

Why all the good behavior? Swartzbaugh cares about being a leader. He’s learned the fundamentals: biking taught him discipline and commitment (He was chosen as one of Sports Illustrated’s “faces to watch” during high school), and the military educated him on how to observe, react and execute. He’s waiting to be deployed to Afghanistan, where he’d like to empower the local people to take control of their country. A model American soldier, you might say. Happy Anniversary, Mr. President.

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Boldfacers

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