When Aaron Bodansky and Eric Silverman announced their summer plans to bike through Africa, their friends and family reacted with shock and concern. They feared for the students’ safety in what was assumed to be an unstable, poverty-stricken and disease-ridden part of the world. In an effort to combat such negative perceptions, Bodansky, a Washington University senior, and Silverman, a Skidmore College senior, founded their own non-profit organization called Cycle for Understanding.