Author Archives: Jocelyn Tenorio

College Access Passion Meets Practice: Brian Ketchabaw Reflects

This student leader spotlight features Brian Ketchabaw ’20, one of the future co-presidents for MiddCAM (Middlebury College Access Mentors).

MiddCAM is a one-on-one mentorship program that pairs Middlebury College student mentors with high school juniors who are primarily first-generation and/or low-income college applicants. Mentors help guide their mentees through the college application process by helping them coordinate standardized testing, come up with a college list, editing essays and personal statements, and providing information about the college experience. Recently, they also began supporting drop-in hours at both Middlebury Union High School (MUHS) and Mt. Abe High School.

I asked Brian some questions to learn about how his story and MiddCAM’s story intersect. Here are his reflections!

Let’s get a little background on you: Where are you from and what’s your major? What activities are you involved with on (and off) campus?

I am from Rye Brook, NY and I am a double major in Economics and Sociology with a minor in Education Studies. I am on the Men’s Varsity Ice Hockey team, co-president of MiddCAM, and I am going into my third year as student staff with ResLife.  

Why and when did you first join MiddCAM?

I joined MiddCAM my freshman year because the president at the time (Meg Poterba) was my FYC in Battell. I immediately felt a close connection with MiddCAM and joined the board my freshman spring.

What have you learned, both about yourself or the world around you, as a member of MiddCAM?

I have learned that all college students–especially students at a college like Middlebury–have a lot to give to their community. Whether it is volunteering at places like the Charter House, joining the Community Friends program, or joining MiddCAM, we can make a real impact in the community that has given us so much. I am a big believer in paying it forward. I was lucky enough to have a fantastic college advising team in high school which prepared me for the college process very well. Instead of just simply using those developed skills on myself, I love the fact that I can share my knowledge with MUHS students.

Congrats on your co-president leadership role in MiddCAM for next year! What are you looking forward to in that role?

I am looking forward to expanding MiddCAM. Since I joined my freshman year, we have more than doubled the mentors and mentees involved. I would like to continue that trend in order to increase our impact even further. Additionally, we are progressing “drop-in hours” so even MUHS students who are not involved in MiddCAM can come ask us questions about the college process.

We hear from Sociology Assistant Professor Matt Lawrence (the new Faculty Director of the Privilege and Poverty Academic Cluster) that you’re connecting this interest to your thesis. Tell us about how MiddCAM has shaped your academic interests and pursuits.

I have always been interested in education, but my experience with MiddCAM and at Middlebury College as a whole has accelerated my interest. The Education Studies department is fantastic here, and I have learned a great deal about the inequalities of education and how difficult it is for disadvantaged students to succeed in the current education system. Additionally, I have taken Sociology classes, such as Higher Education in Society, that helped me develop a thesis in my interests. Next fall, I will be writing my thesis about MiddCAM and the importance of pre-college access programs. Additionally, this will give me a great opportunity to hear real feedback from past MiddCAM mentees in order to figure out what parts of MiddCAM need to be developed further.  

Thanks, Brian, and we look forward to hearing more about MiddCAM as it continues to develop!


Brian playing at the rink for the Men’s Varsity Ice Hockey team.

Connecting coursework and the immigrant community, by Emma Ronai-Durning 19’

Emma Ronai-Durning 19’ reflects on her CCE Community Engagement Academic Outreach Endowment (AOE) grant funded employment with Rural Organizing Project.

          This summer, thanks to an Academic Outreach Endowment Grant, I was able to return home to Oregon and work with the Rural Organizing Project. My summer was full of new projects that challenged me and enabled me to grow as a human and as an organizer.

          I started the summer researching how to file public records requests. My goal was to create resources for folks across Oregon so that they could carry out their own research into what was going on in their communities in regards to police-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) collaboration. As I discussed in my initial project proposal, this practice of providing the tools of research to those who might not otherwise have access to them aligned with my spring semester’s geography course, which explored radical geographic pedagogy quite extensively. More personally, it was exciting to see how the work of so many different fields can come together for a common cause.

          In my research I worked with activists, immigration lawyers, public defenders, immigrant justice organizers, and criminal justice advocates to figure out how to best file public records requests in the state of Oregon. It also confirmed in me the answer to a question I often receive from family members and family friends: “No, I do not want to be a lawyer.” While I deeply appreciate the assistance I received from those with legal training, I feel much more motivated to work with people at a community-wide scale instead of on a case-by-case basis. This summer provided me the opportunity to gain more clarity on my goals beyond college, while also becoming a more skilled and experienced organizer, so as to better fill that role in the future.

          You can read the resources I created on Public Records Requests here: a story of how records requests can be used as one tool in the toolbox, and a nitty-gritty how to.

The Springfield City Council ending their jail’s contract with ICE (thanks to multiple packed hearing rooms and months of local organizing).

 

Connecting Food and Community, by Nora Peachin ’21

Nora Peachin ‘21, employed through the Middlebury FoodWorks Fellowship this summer, reflects on her experience as the Local Food Access Intern at HOPE.

          This summer, I worked at HOPE (Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects) as the Local Food Access Intern. HOPE assists low income individuals in Addison County in identifying and securing the necessary resources to meet their basic needs. HOPE’s food shelf is the largest in Addison County and serves over 600 people every month. Some of the food HOPE provides its clients is donated by local farms and stores.

          As the Local Food Access Intern, I helped my supervisor, Lily Bradburn, do on-farm pick-ups and gleans, plan and teach cooking workshops, prepare educational materials on local food, and organize other outreach efforts.

          During my ten weeks at HOPE, I came to better understand the realities of poverty in this county. I learned about the complexities and contradictions of nonprofit work — for example, the constant struggles of finding a balance between helping people and helping them help themselves, of avoiding telling people what they need in place of asking them, and of budgeting an organization’s limited budget fairly. All of this forced me to question some of my beliefs about poverty and poverty relief efforts, and to rethink how I approach nonprofit work.

          As a result of my work, I now feel more in tune with the local food system and local community. I was able to experience first-hand how the many organizations in and around Middlebury work together to address issues like poverty, homelessness, and hunger. I got to see and hear about the struggles many farmers are facing and their efforts to overcome them, as well as their great achievements and contributions to the community.

          My internship gave me the opportunity to break out of the Middlebury College bubble, and to connect with and learn from many individuals doing inspiring and important work in the county. I am so grateful for Lily and all the other wonderful staff at HOPE, for FoodWorks director Sophie Esser-Calvi, for Tiffany Sargent, James Davis, Rachel Roseman and Liz Cleveland at the CCE, and for all the other FoodWorks and Privilege & Poverty Interns for shaping my summer in Middlebury.

Nora Peachin ‘21 with some of her gleaned crops.

Dance as a Form of Therapy, by Matea Mills-Andruk ‘18.5

Matea Mills-Andruk‘18.5 reflects on her CCE Community Engagement mini-grant funded participation (along with six other students) in a 3-day intensive on Dance/Movement Therapy at Antioch University New England. These experiential/didactic workshops are conducted by faculty of Antioch University New England’s Master’s Program in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling.

          Before attending this workshop, I had no idea that Dance Movement Therapy was a widely used form of group and individual counseling. I hope to attend midwifery school after graduating and think that incorporating dance movement therapy into a midwifery practice would greatly benefit people giving birth and their families. In my own experience, reflection exercises that incorporate symbolism and movement have always allowed me to more fully understand what I am feeling and the ways I interact with people. For example, during this workshop we did an exercise in which we moved around the space, walking or dancing, and met the other participants with eye-contact or touch, and stayed together until we decided it was time to go. Embodying hello’s and goodbye’s, comings and goings, we explored what it feels like to meet, to be met, and to leave and be left. In the group discussion afterwards we talked about how this could be used as an access point from which to talk about meeting people and leaving people in our everyday lives. We thought about how we could physically practice meeting and leaving in the contained space of the movement studio and how we could change or simply become more aware of how we experience these interactions through embodiment.

          In a logocentric culture, in which logic, rationality, and the cerebral are privileged over emotion and the body, and within a medical system that largely privileges the doctors diagnoses over a patient’s self-knowing, it is empowering to learn skills that aid in self and group reflection. In the same way that verbal communication must be practiced and cultivated, and emotional awareness must be fostered and supported, awareness of the body must also be facilitated and taught within community. It is a skill that needs to be learned and shared.

Students in dance/movement therapy workshop at Antioch University New England.

My homestay in Tenrymura, Japan: Beyond Service-Learning, by Diana Lam ‘21

Diana Lam ‘21 reflects on her participation in the Japan Summer Service-Learning Program.

          At the beginning of the Japan Summer Service-Learning (JSSL) Program, I did not expect to learn as much as I did. However, I quickly learned that this program exposes us to more than what I understood to be service-learning. I learned how to be independent by doing things like taking the train in Tokyo, and I broadened my perspective to appreciate Japanese culture and language by doing things like eating nagashi soumen and making connections with a host family. Those are just a few examples of the many experiences and knowledge I gained throughout my summer in Japan.

          One of the most memorable experiences I had in the JSSL Program was going to Tenryumura, Nagano. During our time in Tenryumura, we had the chance to do a homestay with local families to experience daily life in a small mountain village. At first, I was quite worried that there would be a language barrier. However, the host family I was with made me feel as if the language barrier was non-existent. The host family used basic English and Japanese words along with body gestures to communicate with me. I realized that besides language and culture, it all boiled down to human interaction and the desire to communicate. As a result, I ended up building a deep connection with my host family.

          When I arrived in Tenryumura, I was taken away at the natural landscape; how beautiful and different it is from what I am used to. Born and raised in a big city, I did not have many chances to go to rural areas surrounded by nature. While I was only there for a few days, the daily flow seemed to be different from what I know.  The day seemed to be less structured around clocks and external schedules – and more around tasks at hand and relationships. Personally, I am so used to completing tasks one after another that I often forget what I am doing in the present; I am always focused on the future. Being in Tenryumura made me reflect on my life and the present; it made me aware that sometimes, it is important to have simplicity in life. I intend on taking the lessons I’ve learned this summer and applying them to my life at home, beyond the meaningful cross-cultural service-learning experience in Japan.

Diana Lam ‘21 with her homestay family

Rural Fun Delivery: My Local Privilege & Poverty Internship, by Claiborne Beary ’20

Claiborne Beary ‘20 reflects on her experiences as an Addison County Privilege & Poverty Intern with Mary Johnson Children’s Center as their Rural Fun Delivery Program Manager

Rural Fun Delivery (RFD), a Mary Johnson Children’s Center program, provides free, healthy lunches and engaging summer programming to kids 18 and under in mobile home parks in Starksboro, Vermont. Last summer, RFD expanded to offer afternoon activities on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and provided each site with a Little Free Library full of books donated by local non-profits. Eight weeks into my internship, I am thrilled to be a part of RFD’s fifth summer delivering food and fun to the kiddos in Starksboro.

I began my internship with RFD by planning activities for the summer and preparing promotional materials with my co-lead intern Lily Barter ’19.5, in addition to helping out with the Mary Johnson Children’s Center’s after-school program at Middlebury’s Mary Hogan Elementary School. Having served with Middlebury College’s Page One Literacy Project, I was especially excited to build on the existing Little Free Libraries and offer a new summer reading challenge to help foster a love of reading.

We began delivering lunches – prepared by the Mt. Abraham Union School District – three weeks into my internship and centered that week’s activities around community. That included playing blob tag and creating a collaborative poster! We have since traveled through space, explored nature, and transformed into superheroes. This is currently our fifth week and we are going under the sea by learning the classic game Captain’s Coming, creating slime, and perfecting our water balloon toss. I have greatly enjoyed building relationships with the kids so far – getting insider knowledge about all the animatronics in the video game Five Nights at Freddy’s, meeting a fantastic group of stuffed animals, and discussing our favorite superhero movies.

I look forward to drawing from my experience with RFD in my work with Middlebury’s Page One Literacy program and in future non-profit work with kids. I am so grateful to Anne Gleason, Director of School Age Programs at Mary Johnson, for this opportunity and to Lily for her creativity and enthusiasm.

“These interactions have really helped me understand the power of providing a safe space for kids to be kids.”

Service and learning with local community collaborators in Mitaka, by Chloe Fung ‘18.5

This blog post is a reflection from Chloe Fung about her participation in the Japan Summer Service-Learning Program (JSSL).

          In the beginning of July, we started the JSSL program with 14 students- four from Middlebury College, four from ICU (Japan), two from Assumption University (Thailand), two from Silliman University (The Phillipines), and two from Union Christian College (India). In the past two weeks, we’ve visited different communities in and near Mitaka city, including elderly homes, public elementary schools, and an urban blueberry farm. We’ve cut down bamboo plants for a Nagashi Soumen event, cleaned the classroom floors after school lunch with sixth graders, made takoyaki and tempura with host families… The program has given us an opportunity to glimpse into the lives of local people, which would not otherwise be easily accessible as a foreign tourist.

          Last week, our group visited two public elementary schools, Minamiura and Higashi. At the elementary schools, we participated in the activities prepared by the English teachers and also helped prepare for future activities. I was struck by the difference between the atmosphere and structure of the school compared to schools I had experienced or seen before. In my view, the students’ had learned a sense of responsibility already at an early age. This was most clear during lunch time, when all the students would prepare the classroom for lunch, bring food in from the kitchen, pass out food, and make sure everyone had a meal set on their desk. After lunch, students spread out to clean the classroom and also other rooms in the school. Even without explicit instruction or supervision, every student went to perform their assigned task. That diligence to me was incredible to see for sixth graders.

          Experiences like this have inspired me to reflect on my own schooling experiences, started discussions with others in the program about Japanese culture, group norms, and English education, and also taught me more about group dynamics and teamwork. Whether it is cleaning classrooms with children, working with native English, second-language English, and native Japanese speakers in translating materials or having cultural comparisons about the streetside farm stands that run on an honesty system, I have been learning a lot about myself, the different experiences of other program students, and about Japanese culture. I am looking forward to future fruitful discussions and to going to Tenryumura soon and experiencing a potential cultural shift as we move into a rural space with an aging population.

 

One of the Familia staff and a fellow program participant cutting down a bamboo plant for Nagashi Soumen.

 

Soumen (a kind of Japanese noodles) during the Nagashi Soumen event. In the picture, the bamboo is also pictured. In Nagashi Soumen, noodles are placed in the cut open bamboo plant while water is run through the ‘bamboo channel’ so that people stationed along the bamboo can try to catch some noodles with their chopsticks!

 

Making takoyaki with a local family who hosted us for the evening.

 

As we walked past this farm stand that ran on an honesty system (where there is no shopkeeper and customers place their payment into a box), we all had some laughs and interesting conversations about how this would not be feasible where we were from!