Most Division I basketball players spend the balance of their summer vacations on the court at local camps, or feverishly working out in anticipation of pre-season practices. So it’s a safe bet to say that Harvard senior Elliott Prasse-Freeman was the only Division I point guard traveling the deep jungles of Southeast Asia, notebook in hand, asking Buddhist monks about prostitution.

Confused? Don’t be. Prasse-Freeman has always been about more than just what goes on the hardwood, and his six-week stint in Thailand this past summer provided him an opportunity to combine his sense of social justice with thesis field research.

“Obviously, it’s not part of the stereotype,” Prasse-Freeman says.

The Crimson’s starting point guard from almost the moment he arrived on campus, Prasse-Freeman has rarely fit any stereotypes about athletes. For one thing, he barely considers himself a jock.

“I’m one of the worst Division I athletes to play basketball,” he jokes, claiming that any success he’s had is due more to mental toughness than anything else.

Toughness and leadership are in abundance on this senior-laden Harvard team, and no one has more experience on the court than Prasse-Freeman.

But all that experience meant little thousands of miles away from home, in a strange Third World country.

MONK BUSINESS

“It is important to analyze the way Buddhism could potentially reinforce the exploitation of prostitutes on a purely religious level and how this potential correspondingly becomes exacerbated by culture.”

That line, taken from Prasse-Freeman’s social studies thesis prospectus, was the motivating reason behind his trip.

Thailand is notorious for its sex tourism industry, and many human rights organizations point to its exploitation of young girls as one of modern humanity’s glaring failures. And since over 90 percent of the Thai population identifies itself as Buddhist, Prasse-Freeman, as any good Ivy assists leader should, wanted to make the connection.

So he wrote up the grant proposal, and, after securing the company of roommate Patrick Toomey ’03 by promising a little backpacking, the 6’3, 180-lb. Prasse-Freeman set out in mid-June to visit monks and young, poverty-stricken girls.

In his mind, this trip could not just be about academics.

“I felt like if I was going to do it, I wanted to help people,” Prasse-Freeman says. “There’s a lot of sympathy for the prostitutes. There’s really a lot of sympathy for everybody.”

He got to Thailand and immediately realized the difficulties. For one thing, the phenomenon of exploitative prostitution was so pervasive as to make it impossible to get a grasp on the whole thing. For the uninitiated, field research was tough.