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ShortTerm 2011 - Vol 3, Issue 3
In This Issue
Debating for Democracy (D4D) and Project Pericles
New Initiative: The Public Scholars Symposium
PLTC 423: Internships in Public Policy Research
Celebrating Play: The Head Start Block Party
News From the Coast
What Are Our Faculty Saying?
Alumni Spotlight: Jason Rafferty '05
Support our Bonner Leader Program!
Join Our Mailing List!
Quick Links
Harward Center honors 15 persons and organizations for community work

Bates anthropologist, student honored for community work

Bates hosts community forum for labor leaders, Latino immigrants

Porst '11 receives Projects for Peace award to build first school in a remote Andean community

One of New Yorker's '20 under40,' novelist Mengestu to read

Letter from the Interim Director
Georgia Nigro

Dear Friends,

 

With spring in the air and short term in full swing, we prepare for the end of another academic year, an end marked by many transitions, including the departure of our president, Elaine Hansen, and the stepping down of our dean of faculty, Jill Reich.  The Harward Center has benefited enormously from their steady and creative leadership.  We look forward to a continued relationship with Jill when she joins the Department of Psychology after a year's sabbatical.  Her wisdom and years of experience in higher education will help us hone our practices to better serve students facing twenty-first century realities.

 

Whereas dance was the word this fall, snow was the word this winter.  It fell on several of our parties at the Harward Center.  A visit by a team from Amherst College was cut short because of snow, but not before they had a chance to join one of our Public Works in Progress talks by Periclean Faculty Leader Emily Kane, who reported on her study of students' changing perceptions of community partners over the course of a semester engaged in community-based research.  Snow also fell for the College's Mt. David Summit, a presentation of student scholarship, where our six community-based research fellows offered a World Caf� of Public Scholarship, designed as a poster session followed by discussion of key issues raised by public scholarship.  The small but lively session included students, parents, faculty members, and community partners, who had many questions and comments for the students.

 

PSSIn addition to our World Caf� of Public Scholarship, we launched a Public Scholars Symposium this spring, and in collaboration with colleagues from other departments at Bates, were able to offer two that broadly concerned immigration.  Each symposium involved a distinguished visitor who interacted with students, faculty members, and community partners on and off campus.  See my story in this newsletter for more details about these activites.

 

We also welcomed Naomi Schalit and John Christie from the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting this short term; Naomi and John are teaching a short term class called "There's More to the Story."  We hope to provide more to that story in our next newsletter.

 

We say good-bye to a fine cohort of seniors this spring, who have worked with us as Bonner Leaders, Student Volunteer Fellows, and Community-Based Research Fellows.  Some wore more than one of these hats, and many engaged with the community in a variety of ways over their four years at Bates.  They will be missed by the many children and adults whose lives they have touched during their tenure with us.  We wish them well and hope that they, like all of you, will stay in touch with us. 

 

Best wishes,

Georgia Nigro

Interim Director

Debating for Democracy (D4D) and Project Pericles
Submitted by Kristen Cloutier, Assistant Director, Center Operations
As part of its ongoing commitment to civic engagement, Bates College is a proud member of Project Pericles, a New York-based nonprofit organization that promotes the importance of teaching the principles and tools of participatory democracy in higher education.

This year, as part of that membership, Bates hosted its second Debating for Democracy (D4D) On theD4D Road Workshop, which helped students, administrators, faculty, staff and community partners learn the skills needed to communicate effectively and motivate individuals to action.  The workshop was led by The Center for Progressive Leadership, a national nonpartisan political training institute based in Washington, D.C.

In addition, two students from the College, Mary Osborne '13 and Doug Kempner '12 were also able to attend the 2011 Debating for Democracy (D4D) National Conference at Pace University in New York City on March 24-25.  More than 60 student leaders from 27 Periclean colleges and universities had the opportunity to participate in workshops and panel discussions on social action, democracy and technology, the federal budget, income inequality, and the role of non-profits.

Here is what Mary and Doug had to say about the conference:

"My experience at the D4D Conference was innovative and rewarding. It was great to be around people with a shared passion for public service." - Mary Osborne '13

"Project Pericles was an outstanding opportunity to meet and discuss political advocacy with students from around the country. I find this type of event greatly enriches my academic experience at Bates and exposes me to new ideas that I bring back to my classes and work. I am very pleased that the Harward Center is able to help students attend such important and engaging events." - Doug Kempner '13

Thanks to both Mary and Doug for representing Bates and the Harward Center!
New Initiative: The Public Scholars Symposium
Submitted by Georgia Nigro, Interim Director

With support from the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, the Harward Center offered two MengestuPublic Scholars Symposia this spring.  On April 26th, we joined with the Language Arts Live series offered by the English Department to bring Ethiopian-American writer Dinaw Mengestu to campus.  Identified as one of "20 under 40" writers to watch by The New Yorker, Mengestu first visited the Lewiston Public Library, where he spoke to a group of schoolchildren and library patrons about the craft of writing.  He deftly fielded questions by Somali teenagers, who wondered how he had learned the language well enough to write books and how they would ever learn to read well when their texts were punctuated with questions they had to answer on every page.  (Mengestu told them to ignore the questions and find stories they loved to read.)  At Bates that evening, he read from his second novel, How to Read the Air, talked to the audience about his desire to be known as a writer of American fiction, and answered many questions.

 

AnsleyWe also collaborated with Professor Leila Kewar of the Politics Department to bring Fran Ansley to campus from May 2nd through May 5th.  Ansley is Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.  Her work focuses on the rights and well-being of low-wage workers and on the problems facing international migrants in today's global economy.  She served as principal humanities adviser on the documentary film Morristown:  In the Air and Sun, which was shown during her visit at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall in Lewiston to a large crowd of union workers and organizers as well as Bates students and faculty members.  After the film, Professor Jen Sandler of the Education Department at Bates asked the crowd to form small groups of strangers and share their own stories of work.  The discussions brought alive the very broad spectrum conditions under which citizens in one small U.S. city work.  In addition to her appearance at the union hall, Ansley visited classes and gave a workshop for faculty members.

PLTC 423: Internships in Public Policy Research
Submitted by Nicole Witherbee, Principal, PolicyEdge
PLTC423Internships in Public Policy Research considers the political process by which public policy is formed in Maine from both a practical and an academic point of view.  Students worked on a policy project for a partner within a government agency, non-profit organization or advocacy group.  As a participant-observer in the policy process, students had an opportunity to gain a personal understanding of how decisions are made to formulate policy, implement policy, and to evaluate and change policy.  The academic portion of the course allowed students to place the policy project experience in an intellectual context--to transform personal experience into the ability to understand why certain polices are adopted or not, to operate within policy constraints, to evaluate policy effectiveness and to effect policy change.  This year students worked with partners at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Central Maine Medical Center, the Democrat Caucus of the Maine Legislature and with many others to learn about policy making in Maine.
Celebrating Play: The Head Start Block Party
Submitted by Hannah Mack '11

On May 18, a group of local preschoolers and about twenty-five Bates students will be building with Legos, coloring with sidewalk chalk, making music, painting, climbing, reading, creating, imagining and learning at Simard-Payne Police Memorial Park. Modeled on the Ultimate Block Party held in New York City last fall, the "Head Start Block Party" will be a celebration of the importance of play to early childhood development.

 

I began planning this event last semester as a member of a group in Professor Emily Kane's Privilege, Power and Inequality class. With Ellen Alcorn's guidance, we set out to design a community action project that would address the issue of social inequality in early childhood. Ellen brought to us the story of the Ultimate Block Party, and we immediately jumped on the idea of holding a similar event that would allow Lewiston children to engage in playful learning. This project has been nothing if not an extremely collaborative effort from start to finish. Professor Georgia Nigro-who actually was a guest at the Ultimate Block Party-suggested we partner with Androscoggin Head Start and Childcare, who host a Family Parade for their children each spring. Head Start, a preschool program that serves predominantly low-income children, has centers in five locations across Lewiston. In late March, I had the opportunity to attend a Family Parade planning session with representatives from each of these classroom sites and was delighted by how enthusiastic they all were about combining our playful Block Party with their event.

 

The Head Start Block Party will include six activity stations designed to encourage the preschoolers, siblings and parents to get moving, thinking creatively, and having fun. As I mentioned before, the entire process has involved many people and ideas, and that collaborative spirit will continue on May 18. Students in Professor Anita Charles' Literacy in the Community Short Term have offered to run a station where the families can relax and read together. We've borrowed the idea of a giant Simon Says game directly from the original Block Party formula, although in this case it will be entirely run by students in the Coaching Methodology class. Thanks to generous donations from Bates professors and students, we even have quite a few Legos stockpiled and ready for building. As the day nears, I'm arranging the final details with the substantial crew of student volunteers that will be in charge of "guiding" the play. Head Start and I can't predict the turnout, but we are hoping that fifty families will join us for a fun, sunny afternoon that celebrates how wonderful playful learning can be.

News from the Coast
Submitted by Laura Sewall, Director, Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and Shortridge Coastal Center
BMM ST11Jen Lindelof '12 and Heather Doolittle '12 are spending the summer walking around the Phippsburg peninsula, rain or shine.  They are mapping the bedrock geology that stretches from the north end of the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area to the south and west, around Cape Small and then back up the western side of the peninsula to Hermit Island.  With guidance from Geology Professor, Dyk Eusden, Jen and Heather's research will provide fundamental data regarding the geologic history of the region and serve to clarify competing theories of lithology and deformation.   While living at the Bates College Shortridge Coastal Center, they will continue fieldwork throughout the summer, for their year-long senior theses. Peter Miller '12 and Haley Sive '12  will join them in late June.
BMM ST11 2
Further research on the Sprague River Marsh this summer will add to a growing understanding of salt marsh restoration and ecological function, with particular focus on biogeochemical cycling of carbon.  Working under the supervision of Geology Professor, Bev Johnson, Colin Barry '12 will be collecting data on water quality in shallow pools, carbon isotopes in fish, and salt marsh vegetation. This work continues three years of research conducted by Bev and senior students, and is supported by contributions to the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area.

Beginning in July, The Sarah H. Trafton Memorial Fund will provide income to support student-faculty research at the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and the Bates College Coastal Center at Shortridge. The fund was generously given by the family, colleagues, and friends of Sarah H. Trafton to honor her memory. The Trafton family has long term connections to mid-coast Maine and is pleased that the gifts in honor of Sarah will support students and coastal environmental research. The Sarah H. Trafton Memorial Fund will be maintained as a perpetual endowment at Bates College, will support the kind of on-going research that informs complex environmental questions, and will be greatly appreciated by future students, faculty and stewards of Bates-Morse Mountain.
What Are Our Faculty Saying?
"Currently, the Bates students in s27: Literacy in the Community are engaged in a family storytelling project with Lewiston Middle School and the LEAP afterschool program.  The youth involved are primarily from the high-need ELL population, and the project has brought together parents, children and Bates students to create family stories that will be bound and copied.  The Faculty Discretionary grant that I received for the class has provided funding for an initial training session with The Telling Room (located in Portland); two family events (a beginning and a closing event for sharing the stories) with snacks provided; and the printing and binding of the books.  This has been a wonderful success to date, with the families appreciating the opportunity to tell their stories, the children eager to produce a 'published' story, and the Bates students taking part in a valuable community-based learning experience.  The Middle School and LEAP teachers are very appreciative, and the Bates students have shared deeply moving anecdotes through their journals about their time with the children and parents."
- Anita Charles, Lecturer, Education Department and Director, Secondary Teacher Education
Alumni Spotlight: Jason Rafferty '05
Jason RaffertyJason Rafferty of Greenland, N.H., a 2005 magna cum laude graduate of Bates College, and one of the Harward Center's first Student Volunteer Fellows, was recently named the Intellectual Contribution/Faculty Tribute Award Recipient at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Jason took the last year at the Ed School to further his understanding of child psychology.  He will return to Harvard Medical School in June to continue his final year of training as a pediatrician.

Congratulations Jason!
Support our Bonner Leader Program!
Bonner1 As we prepare to recruit a new class of Bonners, Bates is actively seeking funds for this program.  If you have questions, or would like to support the Bonner Leader Program, please contact Ellen Alcorn at the Harward Center at 207-786-8235 or Matt Hanson in the Office of Advancement at 207-755-5988.

For more information about the Bonner Leader Program at Bates, please click here to view a short video (note that you will be redirected to the Bates College channel on Vimeo).
Questions?
Please contact Kristen Cloutier at [email protected] or 207-786-6202
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