HCCP Logo Maroon
Winter 2013 - Vol 5, Issue 2
In This Issue
Mouthful of Cavities: Examining Community Dental Care through Biological Chemistry and Education
College Access Mentoring Program
The ArtVan-Bates Connection
Summer on the Coast
Debating for Democracy in the Big Apple
Leading the Leaders: Bonner Seniors Hold Workshops
A Message to the Bates Community: Have you Completed our Volunteer Questionnaire?
Alumni Update: Doug Kempner '12
Support our Bonner Leader Program!
Join Our Mailing List!
Making Headlines: Bates' Civic Engagement in the News
 
 "I like my tutors always":East African Students in a Public Library Homework Help Program by Jordan Conwell Bates in Brief Lewiston: Many and One turns 10, Bobcats in the community

 'Eco-anxious' about climate change? Try a dose of natural beauty

Chapel to Lewiston: Hello!

Otis Intern Kate Paladin '15 learns the value of 'green action'

Dauge-Roth's course on teaching genocide highlighted in International Educator
Dear Friends,
Spring greetings from the Harward Center, where I am happy to report that I survived (and enjoyed!) my first Maine winter. I'm even more delighted to share with you the wonderful stories and accomplishments narrated below by Bates students and staff. Although they represent only a fraction of the community-engaged work undertaken during the past semester, these projects illustrate the college's robust commitment to the cultivation of "informed civic action" and "responsible stewardship of the wider world" (Bates mission statement). From year-long research projects to peer leadership programs, sustained volunteer commitments, national conferences, and summer residencies, the opportunities for civic learning and action at Bates are diverse and impressive. My colleagues and I at the Harward Center are grateful for the chance to join with others at the college and in the off-campus community in supporting such exciting work.

All best,

Darby Ray 

Director and Donald W. and Ann M. Harward Professor of Civic Engagement 

Mouthful of Cavities: Examining Community Dental Care through Biological Chemistry and Education
Submitted by Tara Prasad '13, Community-Engaged Research Fellow

As a Harward Center Community-Engaged Research Fellow, I am currently conducting a Biological Chemistry thesis in partnership with B Street Dental Center in downtown Lewiston. B Street is an outpatient clinic of St. Mary's Health System that serves children under the age of 15 who are either uninsured or covered under MaineCare. My thesis focuses on the prevalence and treatment of Early Childhood Caries (ECC) in Somali and non-Somali children. ECC is the most common chronic infection in the United States, affecting nearly 41% of children across the country and disproportionally affecting children living in low-income areas. General anesthesia has emerged as a potential method to address this public health problem, allowing dentists to conduct several caries-removing procedures at once. Through a retrospective records review, my thesis investigates the outcomes of general anesthesia procedures and will offer recommendations for preventive treatment options.

 

Fortunately, I've had the opportunity to address the public health issues raised in my thesis with a concurrent capstone project through my Educational Studies minor. To promote positive and preventive oral health behaviors, I am developing a sustainable after-school dental education workshop for parents and children. The curriculum, based on best practices in community education and input from the B Street staff, will provide interactive instruction and drop-in hours to accommodate parents' work schedules. A pilot workshop is planned for Short Term, and B Street will utilize the curriculum to host workshops in the coming years.

College Access Mentoring Program 
Submitted by Julia Dunn '16, C.A.M.P. Program Mentor

Julia As a first year at Bates, the college process is still fresh in my mind. I remember well the many brochures that flooded my mailbox as well as the buzz of stepping onto a new campus and wondering, is this the place for me? While the act of applying to college was not without its challenges, it was also an exciting time full of possibility. So, when I was given the opportunity to act as a mentor in the second year of C.A.M.P. (College Access Mentoring Program) at Bates, I leapt at the chance. This program focuses on motivating students from Lewiston Middle School to attend college in the future as well as providing information and resources that help them achieve this goal.

 

Middle school is a critical period in the development of students. It is during these years that they begin to formulate individual identities, bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood, and find their voice inside and outside of school. C.A.M.P. utilizes this formative time by pairing middle school students with college student mentors. This year I have had the opportunity to work with a group of five wonderful young women. Together we have visited college campuses, considered future career options for them, and discussed the necessary academic requirements they must meet to gain access to these occupations. I have enjoyed hearing the opinions of each of the girls and getting the chance to encourage their dreams and goals. Likewise, the challenge of crafting programs to engage the large group of middle school students which we host has been an amazing learning experience. It has included everything from technological trouble shooting to creating a jeopardy game about college programs throughout the country. Over the course of these activities and meetings, I have seen C.A.M.P.'s positive effect first hand. Particularly, during the tour of the Bates campus, I heard my mentees speak with gusto about wanting to attend college. They discussed their likes and dislikes together and with the mentors. I was very excited to see this level of enthusiasm regarding the college experience.

 

Though C.A.M.P. is a relatively new program, it has already begun to take root and make positive changes. It has served as an important link between the Lewiston community and Bates and is a phenomenal example of Bates's community-engaged learning initiative. It has taught me a great deal about motivation and the importance of mentorship for young students. I have watched it help middle school students focus their abstract hopes into a clear and exciting path toward future careers and higher education. As the C.A.M.P. program matures, I believe it will only become a greater teaching tool for both Bates student mentors and the middle school mentees.

The ArtVan-Bates Connection
Submitted by Juwon Song '15, Student Volunteer Fellow

Art The recently-founded ArtVan-Bates connection through the Harward Center's Student Volunteer Fellowship program has reaped amazing discoveries, opportunities, and relationships. ArtVan is a non-profit arts therapy program delivering art supplies, activities, and occasional tasty cupcake fundraiser parties across Maine for low-income kids and adults who cannot afford the means to engage in arts activities and programs.

 

Bates recently became officially involved with the ArtVan program in Lewiston, and the benefits have certainly been tangible. The connection includes volunteers every last Wednesday of the month for the Auburn Housing Development program and the Center for Wisdom's Women program, as well as the ever-so-popular weekly Monday Lewiston Public Library after-school program, for which up to five volunteers sit with the local children to make arts and crafts.

 

The therapy piece comes into play when the art serves as a personal connective blanket, with the volunteer and the child forming an immediate friendship. It begins with what seems like perfunctory chatter to us grown-ups, but to the child, serves as an irreplaceable time to release their thoughts, stories, and concerns. Even just by sharing a laugh, a favorite color, or a word of realistic encouragement, the Bates volunteer helps the ArtVan kids in ways that seem invisible until the kids recognize that volunteer as a friend and eagerly ask him/her over to create art with them. The relationship is still equally rich with adults who participate in the ArtVan program, who are just as welcoming to a listening ear for their stories.

 

The ArtVan-Bates connection has also been established through the Lewiston Farmers' Market, where Bates volunteers help host a table and sell ArtVan merchandise - pottery, clothing, bracelets, and cards - created by the young ArtVan artists, ranging in age from four to 21. The market is also a means of introducing the volunteers to a wonderful local venue that is often overlooked by Batesies. 

 

With the end of the Winter Semester, the Student Volunteer Fellowship program comes to a close. However, the ArtVan-Bates connection has stimulated new ideas and attitudes towards  and within the Lewiston community that will hopefully fuel the continuance of an open-minded attitude with the help of a medium that has no boundaries anywhere - ART!

Summer on the Coast
Submitted by Laura Sewall, Director, Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and Shortridge Coastal Center

This year's Summer Residency at Shortridge will be the most active and interdisciplinary to date. Over the course of the summer, nine students and practitioners will be in residence doing research, land conservation and art work. Research projects will focus on shorebirds, the geology of the area's beaches and marshes, and on the adaptation of salt marsh nesting birds to sea level rise. The art students are charged with "bringing the arts to Shortridge" through photography and sculpture, and under the supervision of The Nature Conservancy, two residents will serve as regional land stewards. Students will be coming from Bates, Smith and Prescott Colleges, and from the University of Maine.

 

One project is new to Shortridge and will initiate a long-term shorebird monitoring program for Seawall and Popham beaches. Working with Lindsay Tudor of Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Iza Bruen-Morningstar, a recent graduate of Prescott College, will conduct surveys of four "Species of Greatest Conservation Need" (defined by Maine's Wildlife Action Plan) including Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderlings, and Black-bellied Plovers. Iza's work will contribute to a larger International Shorebird Survey and help to establish a multi-year, collaborative shorebird monitoring program for a number of southern Maine beaches in York, Cumberland, and Sagadahoc counties. The inventories will answer fundamental questions about changing population sizes and adaptation to coastal conditions, and will link data across large scale migratory routes.

 

From the inception of the Shortridge Summer Residency, the hope has been to create opportunities for a deepened, multi-disciplinary exchange of ideas amongst students and young professionals working within environmental fields. This summer - with environmentally-focused artists, wildlife biologists, geologists and conservationists working and living together at Shortridge - promises just that. I hope to join the summer residents frequently for dinner conversation and invite interested others to do the same.  

Debating for Democracy in the Big Apple
Submitted by Kristen Cloutier, Assistant Director, Center Operations and Program Coordinator, Project Pericles

This year, the Harward Center strengthened its public policy work through its continued relationship with Project Pericles, a not-for-profit organization that encourages and facilitates commitments by 29 member colleges and universities to include social responsibility and participatory citizenship as essential elements of their educational programs.

 

In January, Bates hosted another successful D4D (Debating for Democracy) on the Road workshop, facilitated this year by Chris Kush and Kevin Schultze of Soapbox Consulting.  The duo received rave reviews from students, community members, faculty and staff.  This year, participants learned the tools and tactics to get their message across to policy makers, community leaders, and the public. Workshops addressed strategy, developing an effective message, public speaking, letter writing, bill analysis, writing a press release, and how to handle a face-to-face meeting with an official.  

 

Bates students got to put some of these skills into practice in New York City as part of Project Pericles' fifth annual D4D National Conference at The New School in late March. S

ophomores Kate Paladin and Jess Nichols were selected as finalists based on their well-researched and compelling letter to U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, a Democrat representing Maine's 2nd District, expressing concern about proposals to pipe tar-sands oil through Maine. As finalists, Kate and Jess presented and defended their argument in New York in front of a panel of former lawmakers. While they didn't win the competition, they will receive a $500 grant to further their work on the issue. Also attending the event as Bates delegates were two first-year students, Alexandra Morrow and Dana Cohen-Kaplan.  

 

As a means of acknowledging the hard work of all of the students who submitted letters to an elected official as part of the Project Pericles D4D competition, the Harward Center has put together two special events.  The first, held on April 2nd, was a luncheon discussion for the students with Senator Angus King, where students were able to ask pointed questions about policy issues important to them.  In addition, on April 25th, the students will travel to Portland for a tour of the city building and a meeting with Mayor Michael Brennan.  After their visit, a celebratory dinner will be held at a local restaurant.  We offer our sincerest thanks to Senator King, Mayor Brennan, and their staff for such gracious support of our students and programming.

Leading the Leaders: Bonner Seniors Hold Workshops
Submitted by Ellen Alcorn, Assistant Director, Community-Engaged Learning Program and Director, Bonner Leader Program

Each semester, our team of nearly forty student leaders participates in a variety of workshops and reflection sessions designed to help them hone their civic leadership skills and aptitudes. This winter, a group of our senior Bonner Leaders put their four years of learning into action by planning and implementing many of these trainings. Ellen Gawarkiewicz kicked things off at our January leadership retreat with an outdoor team-building activity at Mount David, a small mountain adjacent to the Bates campus. Ellen's work has revolved around environmental education, with an emphasis on the "nature deficit" experienced by many local youth. Her activity afforded her peers the opportunity to experience the community in an entirely new light; many had never climbed to the top of Mount David even after years at Bates, and it was a revelation to students they might spend time in the woods just by crossing the street.    

 

In February, Nathalie Navarrete and Mary Osborne led a forum called "What's Race Got to do With It?," in which students discussed issues of race and racial privilege at Bates College and in the wider world. In March, Kim Sullivan and Destinee Warner asked students to share difficult experiences they have encountered in their community work and to explore possible responses to tough situations. They ended their session with a "true/false" quiz about Lewiston-Auburn, highlighting just how much we all still have to learn about the community in which we live and work. Finally, Quinne Moran led a group of first-year student leaders in a conversation about how to set good boundaries in their community work, highlighting a variety of pitfalls such as social media, overreaching in an effort to help, and sharing too much personal information with curious community members, particularly youth. 


Says Ellen Gawarkiewicz about this experience: "The training was a wonderful way for me to bring all my thoughts together and really reflect on my ideas of community and environment." 
A MESSAGE TO THE BATES COMMUNITY: HAVE YOU COMPLETED OUR VOLUNTEER QUESTIONNAIRE?
In an effort to capture more of the great community-engaged work being done by members of the Bates community, we invite you to make use of a new online form to record your volunteer work. Data will be used for institutional recognitions like the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification and the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. Please submit all volunteer work completed since this past June, even if it had no connection to the Harward Center for Community Partnerships and regardless of where it took place. Record your work by clicking here or pasting this web address into your browser: http://bit.ly/batesvolunteers.

Please note: This form is not intended to capture work that occurred within academic courses, including thesis, since that work gets recorded elsewhere, and it is not intended for paid community work. If you have questions about what kinds of work should or should not be submitted, please let me know.

Thanks in advance for supporting this effort to capture more of the good work of the Bates community!
Alumni Update: Doug Kempner '12 Submitted by Kristen Cloutier, Assistant Director, Center Operations and Program Coordinator, Project Pericles 
Doug Kempner '12, currently residing in Orono, ME, was recently appointed as a legislative aid in the Maine State House.  Doug received high recommendations for his work on the House Democratic Campaign Committee.

While studying at Bates, Doug led the College Democrats and worked for the Maine People's Alliance to successfully protect same-day voter registration. In addition, he studied community organizing with the Midwest Academy through a Project Pericles D4D on the Road Workshop.

Congratulations, Doug!
Support our Bonner Leader Program!

Bates is actively seeking funds to support its Bonner Leader 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.

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 or visit us online.