Winter 2010 - Vol 2, Issue 2
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Letter from the Interim Director
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Dear Friends,
I write this greeting on a gorgeous day in March, a month so
far marked by less mud and more sun than most of the Marches
in Maine I
have experienced. My 6-month stint as
interim director of the Harward
Center has nearly reached
the halfway point, and I am still on a learning curve. Teachers often say that you don't learn a
concept until you teach it. There must
be a similar truth about organizational entities. Until you function within them and make
decisions that affect them, you don't really "get" them. I am happy to say that "getting" the Harward Center has been a great pleasure.
This newsletter details many of the events and initiatives
that have occurred since the last newsletter.
Let me add a more personal perspective.
I have taught at Bates for the last 27 years and loved every minute of
my teaching life. The Harward Center
has broadened my teaching and learning in exciting ways. Twice each month, I meet with the Center's
community-based research fellows and talk with them about the joys and
challenges of their action-oriented research projects. We get to tackle some of the hard questions,
such as the sustainability of their projects, that they may not have time for
with their academic advisors. I also
have the pleasure of hosting our Public Works in Process talks, of which there
have already been six this semester.
They have stretched me to think about issues close to home, such as how
to teach students what it means to write for their community partners, and
issues far from home, such as the U.S.-Mexico border and the history of
immigration policies. Not only have I
had a chance to occupy the other side of the desk while inside the Harward Center, but I have had the wonderful
experience of meeting with many community partners who serve as co-teachers of
our students every day. That some of
them are my former students or Bates graduates has been an added bonus!
I hope that as you read about origami, lobster traps, and
banking, you will share with me the sense that we are involved in an expansive
and important mission at the Harward
Center. Please be in touch with your reactions,
questions, suggestions, and stories. I
will be back in the Department of Psychology in July, but David Scobey and
everyone at the Harward
Center would love to hear
from you.
Best wishes, Georgia Nigro
Interim Director, Harward Center for Community Partnerships
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Coastal Clean-Up 2009-10 Submitted by Laura Sewall, Director, Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and Shortridge Coastal Center
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On a windless day in late August, Hurricane Bill passed by
offshore, sending giant waves that pounded Seawall Beach. In the aftermath, piles of lobster traps and tangled
rope were strewn down the beach and still rolling in the surf. Two days later, volunteers were digging out
traps, cutting line and loading traps into trucks. For three more days, traps were transported
to the Bates-Morse Mountain parking lot.
Altogether, 150 or more traps were piled into a corner of
the lot and hauled off to be recycled as an alternative energy source later
that fall.
This local success story is one of those often unsung
win-win partnerships between community, private and public entities. On Seawall Beach, the removal and recycling
of traps began with concerned volunteers from the Small Point community. Bates College, the Maine Coastal Program, the
Department of Marine Resources, a local excavator and local lobstermen all
contributed to the success of the effort, and to clarifying a process for
on-going clean-up and recycling. The
Maine Coastal Program-concerned with the number of traps that collect on our
shores or remain, untended, on the bottom of the Gulf of Maine-is continuing to
support efforts to collect unclaimed or destroyed traps. Those that are still
able to catch marine life are of particular concern.
Volunteers are invited to join the Bates National Day of
Service on May 2nd to help clean Seawall Beach, again in
coordination with The Maine Coastal Program and others. Participants will gather at the Bates-Morse
Mountain parking lot at 10 am. For more
information please contact the BMMCA Director, Laura Sewall ([email protected] or
786-6078). Lunch will be provided with
an RSVP. To join the Maine Coastal Program's
efforts to collect marine debris during Coastweek,
September 25th through October 2nd, please contact Theresa
Torrent-Ellis at [email protected]
or 287-2351.
Photo credits: Abbie Sewall, Laura Sewall
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2009-2010 Student Volunteer Fellows Submitted by Marty Deschaines, Assistant Director, Community Volunteerism and Student Leadership Development Program
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Now
in its eighth year, the Student Volunteer Fellows program places students in
community leadership positions. They
work with community organizations to plan volunteer programs that best meet the
current local need and then they recruit students to become involved in the
program. They also make sure the
volunteers are trained, scheduled and supported in their work. One of the Fellows is responsible for campus
outreach, working with student organizations and teams to provide interesting
group opportunities. In addition to the
individual work, the Fellows function as a team: they meet each week to discuss
their work, they plan monthly one-time volunteer opportunities and they manage
a volunteer grant fund.
The
program varies slightly each year as different students bring their individual
gifts to their positions. This year's
Fellows are:
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Lorena
Bustamante, a sophomore from Ecuador, coordinates the America Reads/America
Counts program and the Project Storyboost work through the Lewiston School
Department.
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Emily
Crawford, a senior from Massachusetts, runs the Hillview After-School Program
at Lewiston Housing Authority's Hillview Family Development.
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Catherine
Elliott, a sophomore from Minnesota, focuses on literacy and educational
opportunities for adults. Lewiston Adult
Education and WestSide Neurorehab are among her partners.
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Lil
Henry, a sophomore from New Hampshire, works to provide volunteer opportunities
around food security. She works with
Good Shepherd Food Bank, Trinity Jubilee Soup Kitchen, and the Nutrition
Center.
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Pamela
Mejia, a sophomore from Florida, works with Lewiston Housing Authority to
provide volunteers for activities at residences for low-income elderly and
younger disabled people. The activities
are designed to combat the isolation that many residents feel.
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Obichukwu
Udeh, a sophomore from California, is responsible for campus outreach. He is currently working to connect a student
organization with a boys aspirations group where they can serve as mentors.
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Krystina
Zaykowski, a senior from New York, coordinates the Longley Mentoring
Program. Her mentors are matched with 5th
and 6th graders at Longley School and they meet for an hour each
week.
As
the Volunteer Fellows finish their work each year, they are instrumental in the
selection of the group that will succeed them.
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A Bonner Abroad: Dani Scherer Submitted by Mary Therese Fleming, AmeriCorps VISTA
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The
Bonner Leader program had its first semester on campus this fall. Students in the program spend eight hours
each week working within the Lewiston-Auburn community, and also come together
for trainings and reflections, building a sense of community around civic engagement
at Bates.
Bonners who are interested can
continue their community work while studying abroad, and this semester, one of our Bonner Leaders is doing just that. Danielle Scherer, a junior at Bates, is spending her semester studying
in New Zealand. She left for her voyage six weeks before the semester started, so that she would be able to spend time
working on an intentional living farm.
Dani has started a blog to journal her experiences and to keep those of
us in Maine updated on her travels. Please
feel free to share in Dani's adventures with us.
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Food, Justice and the City: An Environmental Studies Community-Based Research Capstone Project Submitted by Holly Lasagna, Associate Director, Community-Based Learning Program
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The
Environmental Studies program at Bates engages students from various
disciplines. Each major follows a unique path to graduating with an ES
degree. Over the last year, the
Environmental Studies department has been working to create a capstone experience
that effectively integrates these varied student interests, passions and
experiences. Professors Holly Ewing and
Sonja Pieck worked collaboratively with the Harward Center to develop a
theme-based course that gives students the opportunity to engage in
cross-disciplinary communication and collaborative research that brings their
specific expertise from their concentrations to bear on issues that have local
and global relevance. Ewing and Pieck
decided to focus the course on the community food assessment, Local Food for Lewiston.
Local Food for Lewiston is a collaborative
community-based project whose goal is to develop a comprehensive
plan to improve access to healthy food for consumers, support local
producers, and create sustainable food system solutions. The aim of the
project is to effectively address community food security needs through
research, assessment and the identification of solutions. Students in the capstone course implemented
quantitative and qualitative research projects in collaboration with numerous
community partners.
So, what do our faculty members and community partners have to say about the project?
"Our
central goal is to work with individuals from the community to collaboratively
create knowledge and products that ultimately will benefit residents of
Lewiston and Auburn. At the same time, we expect to recognize our own position
and role in the community differently."
- Holly Ewing, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies
"Through various community-based
projects, students are learning to grapple with the concrete, lived reality of
hunger and food insecurity in Lewiston-Auburn, are acquiring methodological
skills, and are gaining an appreciation for the sensitivity and humility needed
to collaborate with community partners. Students and community members thus
become co-creators of knowledge that will be of importance for future work trying
to address food insecurity in the area." - Sonja Pieck, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies
"The strong collaborative support and community buy-in for
this project is reflected in the active participation of Lewiston-Auburn's
higher education institutions and in the broad base of support from community
partners. The
involvement of the colleges and the community enables us to put together a
dynamic demographic, food and transportation systems picture of Lewiston. Through the Community Food Assessment (CFA)
process, we will involve community members working in collaboration with higher
education institutions and local non-profits in every phase of the work. Our goal is to develop solutions that will
engage all members of our community."
- Kirsten Walter, Director, Nutrition
Center of Maine
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Origami Workshops at the Downtown Education Collaborative Submitted by Kristen Cloutier, Assistant Director for Center Operations
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Currently taking place at the Downtown Education Collaborative is "Project Modular Origami," a continuing education course for teachers of mathematics, G/T teachers, special education teachers,
artists, and paraprofessionals using modular origami for therapeutic
reasons, social connectedness or improving fine motor skills.
Modular origami is similar to origami,
except instead of folding one single object, the folder creates many
identical objects (units), then pieces the units together to form a
much larger shape (such as a Platonic solid). By incorporating the
"modular" extension to the origami, the folder transitions into a three
dimensional mode of thinking (spatial reasoning) which is a much higher
level of thinking. One of the major difficulties students face with
mathematics is the subject seems to be very procedure driven. Modular
origami is an active and discovery-based teaching of mathematics, as it
requires hands-on participation. It teaches students how to follow a
procedure. There is no way that someone can hide and fall asleep in the
back of the room while folding the models. Also, there is no way that
students can make the models out of 12 or 30 units without an
understanding of some fundamental properties of the object. Modular origami also teaches students to see relationships between different
models by examining various modifications of the procedure, and to work
cooperatively.
Modular origami classes take place at The Downtown Education
Collaborative (located at 219 Lisbon Street in Lewiston) on Tuesdays
from 5:30pm to 8:30pm from January 26-May 18, 2010. For more information
or to register, please contact Dr. Eva Szillery at
[email protected].
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Student Spotlight: Gina Petracca '10
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"Overall, my work with the Nutrition Center was productive, challenging, and fun. I learned a great deal about gardening and cooking from the Summer Youth Gardener program and how to go about collecting data on the availability, accessibility, and affordability of food in Lewiston because of the Community Food Assessment. I am incredibly proud of the final report I produced, because I devoted a great deal of time to analyzing the data and making conclusions based on my findings. My work at the Nutrition Center has made me realize what I would like to do in the future, with regard to my career and graduate school choices. And my senior thesis is inspired by my work with the SYG program. I have designed and taught a cooking program to high school students from the Lewiston community. The curriculum of the program is based on my summer research - it addresses the barriers that adolescents face with regard to healthy eating. My community partner is, once again, the Nutrition Center. Through this collaboration, the Nutrition Center and I hope to determine which aspects of the cooking classes are the most effective, so that they can be used in future classes taught at the Nutrition Center."
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Questions? Please contact Kristen Cloutier at [email protected] or 207-786-6202 Or visit us online.
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