Greetings from the staff at the Center for Community Engagement! As we look ahead to the start of the fall semester, we’re delighted to share several announcements and welcome new staff.
Front row: Tiffany Sargent (CCE Director), Megan Brakeley (CCE Assistant Director), Emma McDonald (SerVermont VISTA), Kristen Mullins (LiM Program Coordinator)
Back row: Erin Bodin (CCE Interim Associate Director), Ashley Laux (CCE Associate Director), Liz Cleveland (CCE Program Administrator), and Katie Carpenter (VCC AmeriCorps VISTA)
First off, we have moved! We’re now located at 20 Old Chapel Road, between Parton Health Center and Axinn. All are welcome to drop by and check out our new home.
Our name has also shifted: we are excited to now be the Center for Community Engagement. You may notice we’re shifting from CE to CCE.
We’re also truly delighted to welcome three new staff to our team: Erin Bodin, Katie Carpenter, and Emma McDonald.
Erin joins us as Interim Associate Director as Ashley is on parental leave. Erin graduated from Saint Michael’s College in 2006. During her time in college she found herself spending most of her free time in the MOVE office (CCE equivalent), particularly interested in supporting the international extended service opportunities. After graduation, Erin explored and worked both in Vermont and abroad, and found herself back in the MOVE office as their assistant director of community service from 2009-2012. Since that time, she received her MFA in Creative Writing and trained as a birth doula. Erin lives with her husband and little toddler on family farm land in Chittenden, Vermont and she is thrilled to be back in community engagement work– she looks forward to meeting you this fall.
Katie will be one of this year’s two new AmeriCorps VISTAs in Middlebury’s Center for Community Engagement. Her role for the next year will be supporting Youth and Mentoring student organizations. Katie’s AmeriCorps assignment is through Vermont Campus Compact, which aims to increase college aspiration, access and retention, and the position imagines that fairly broadly, since encouraging kids to see college as a potential path can happen at almost any age. She’s excited to get started!
Emma is from Baltimore, MD and graduated in May of 2016 from Middlebury College with a degree in Religion. Some highlights from her undergraduate experience include learning German and living in the German House, working as a student staff member for the Language in Motion program at the Center for Community Engagement, working as a peer writing tutor and freshman seminar mentor, and writing her senior thesis on Catholic moral theology and assisted reproductive technologies. As a SerVermont AmeriCorps VISTA, Emma is collaborating with students and the Center for Community Engagement to build capacity in Middlebury’s anti-poverty initiatives, especially the Privilege & Poverty academic cluster. Her work will focus on studying and enhancing community partnerships to facilitate Middlebury’s improved understanding of and engagement with needs and opportunities identified by the community. She is excited to be back at Middlebury in this new role.
Kristen’s role will be expanding as Megan will be a Posse mentor for Chicago 5. Kristen will now be supporting Juntos, MiddCAM and (in partnership with Chellis House) Brother to Brother and Sister to Sister.
Please drop by our new office to say hi and we look forward to working with you this year!