Staff News
Kristen Muir ’05, Antioch College Community Manager, was hired as Community Manager in 2004 and is enjoying the establishment of her first home off-campus in five years. She recently adopted two special needs kitties and had her car hit by a bison at a highly problematic safari park in Virginia. She also experienced the joy of being the bride’s maid in a friend’s wedding.
Kristen just completed her senior project, a collection of poetry titled Waiting for Everything We Cannot Name. The book was self-published with help from the Belinda McGuire Grant.
Jennifer Bennett, Bookstore Director, received a scholarship that helped her to attend the Tin House Writers’ Workshop in Portland, Oregon in July of 2004, where she studied with Abigail Thomas.
Learning through Service
By Marcus Brevik, ’03
“What motivates you?” I ask, the last question I pose to students who are applying to the Antioch Literacy Corps (ALC) program. The answers to this question highlight the enthusiasm and extraordinary nature of today’s Antioch students. Students express “wanting to grow,” “wanting to learn from kids,” being “excited to have the chance to travel and have new experiences,” “to be around children who come from a more familiar culture,” “to do the kind of work I want to do for life,” and also “to be healthy.” Numerous students have expressed their need to be around children to balance out the intensity of being surrounded by their peers on campus, to remind them of the simple things in life, and to keep them honest. “ When I work with kids, I’m often put into situations that I’ve never been in and don’t really know what to do. I think I figured out that the best thing to do is to be real, stay calm, and tell the truth. Children these days are already fed enough lies,” a student told me.
In the three semesters I have coordinated the ALC program, one of my responsibilities as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer, students have returned time and again to maintain their relationships with the school and after-school programs. Several students have told me they value their tutoring work as much as their academics, if not more. I have had students come into the office to reflect on how their tutoring work has pushed them to levels of introspection they never thought possible. Their devotion to providing support for children’s classroom work, homework, and personal learning interests is amazing.
Antioch students grow immensely through their ALC work, so much so that I envision the ALC as a ‘course’ in itself. And the ALC, with up to 35 members a term, is just one of many ways Antioch students are involved with the local and surrounding communities. The combined 350 student recipients of the Bonner Scholars Program Scholarship and Community Responsibility Scholarship (CRS) are required to commit volunteer time on and off campus.
“The children taught me a lot, more than I expected” a student noted in her reflection paperwork, a required component of the CRS and Bonner programs. Both scholarship programs, and the ALC, are hosted in the Center for Community Learning (CCL) office located within Antioch’s Main Building. The CCL also supports faculty members who have a service-learning component in their course.
In the Spring, I assisted Professor Jahwara Giddings’ “Introduction
to African Studies” course in a community gardening
collaboration with a 3rd grade class from a Springfield charter
school. Students in this intro course volunteered time well
beyond the class requirements to meet with the elementary
school students and take part in the creation of a raised
garden bed. The garden includes a range of flowers and vegetables
planted within an area reflecting the shape of Africa. They
also created several beautifully painted flower-pots that
now decorate the area outside the classrooms. Students expressed
how their work with the charter school fully complemented
and enhanced what they were learning in the intro course.
Every semester, we in the CCL are affirmed that our vision is unfolding. Our intent was and still is to enrich the liberal arts program and mission of the college.
Students working on campus have rewarding experiences. One student said, “From working in the smokers’ lounge, I learned the importance of respecting property at Antioch since there are so few hang-out spaces that look decent. The more a space is treated with respect, the more likely others will continue to behave responsibly inside of that space.” Another student on campus said: “Having responsibility for a space that others use and depend on was a really good experience for me.”
Both the CRS and Bonner Scholarships have off campus requirements, but Bonner scholars must complete at least half of their required hours off campus. “I am very glad that I ventured off campus because the experience was much richer than the two previous ones of working on the Antioch campus,” one student acknowledged in her reflections. Another student who volunteered through Habitat for Humanity expressed that “I enjoyed being able to get off campus and do some physical labor, as well as meet people I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.” One student drew connections to her academics, “I am working towards an Environmental Science major and it [service work] allowed me an opportunity to bring some of my classroom ideas outside where they really matter.”
Whether tutoring students at an elementary school or assisting Community Government, today’s Antioch students realize how service work holds a significant place within their education.
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