Sarah Ray writes about the development of the Academic Cluster model as a complement to majors and minors. Follow the link below to read the full story!
Read more about the development of Privilege & Poverty and the “Academic Cluster” model in the Middlebury College Newsroom.
Pictured: back row: James Calvin Davis (Academic Director for the Privilege & Poverty Academic Cluster), Wynne Ebner ’19, Jamison Fletcher ’18, Andrew Plotch ’18, Jack Parker ’19, Katie Corrigan ’19; front row: Tiffany N. Sargent (Internship Director for Privilege & Poverty), Anna Dennis ‘17.5, Yuliana Lopez ’18, Luna Shen (FoodWorks Intern) ‘19.5, and Emma McDonald ’16 (CCE AmeriCorps VISTA)
The summer 2017 Privilege & Poverty local interns meet weekly at the Center for Community Engagement for breakfast and discussion. Interns begin the summer sharing experiences from their internship, challenges and surprises, misconceptions and frustrations. Throughout the summer, they explore with P&P faculty and staff complicated moral questions related to economic inequality, bringing their internship experiences into the discussion to inform how they think about this complex social problem.
SHECP interns based in Vermont, Middlebury’s Addison County Privilege & Poverty interns, UVM staff and faculty, Middlebury staff and faculty, and many of our wonderful community partners gathered for the annual mid-summer dinner in Lincoln, VT.
The tradition continues! Our Privilege & Poverty Addison County interns gathered last night with community partners, SHECP national interns based in Vermont, and our colleagues from UVM for a wonderful reflection and discussion. Thank you to Nancy and Katie Shepherd, and Bern Terry for their gracious hospitality and a great evening of conversation and delicious food!
from left: James Calvin Davis (Academic Director of Privilege & Poverty); Cicilia Robison ’18; Caleb Green ’19; Gia Gould ’19; Amirah Fauzi ’18; Sergio Nuñez-Xoconoxtle ’18; Tiffany Sargent ’79 (Internship Director of Privilege & Poverty). Not pictured: Caitlin Klemme ’18 and Elizabeth Zhou ’18
Our Privilege & Poverty national interns attended the SHECP 2017 Frueauff Opening Conference at Marymount University this weekend. This conference began to explore themes of poverty, incarceration and race, which will be the focus of the Closing Conference and Annual Symposium. Additionally, interns engaged in discussions on living and learning environments and cultural humility, getting to know one another before they travel to their internship sites and begin their internships!
Taylor Banaszewski ’17 receives her certificate of completion from James Calvin Davis, Academic Director of Privilege & Poverty
At the Privilege & Poverty End-of-Year Reception in May, students, faculty, and staff gathered to celebrate the achievements of the Privilege & Poverty program this year, and in particular, of one student, Taylor Banaszewski ’17. Taylor is the first student to complete the Privilege & Poverty Academic Cluster – an Economics major and Sociology minor, Taylor took the Flagship Course in the fall of her junior year and completed a national P&P internship the summer before her senior year. She served as a Financial Capability Intern with Foundation Communities in Austin, TX, where supported financial coaching services and collected client success stories for the non-profit.
Adding in electives from a variety of disciplines, Taylor completed the Cluster with her senior thesis in Economics as her Capstone. In her thesis, which received Highest Honors, she conducted a quantitative analysis of the effect of status on a person’s willingness to acquire debt. She presented her thesis at the Spring Symposium in April and at the Economics Senior Thesis Poster Session in May. After her graduation from Middlebury this month, Taylor will begin a role at Bank of America this summer.
Faculty affiliates, staff, and students gather outside the Center for Community Engagement for the Privilege & Poverty End-of-Year Reception
Students discuss inequality and the “American Dream” over lunch at the Center for Community Engagement
Privilege & Poverty students, faculty, and staff gathered at the Center for Community Engagement for a lunchtime discussion of the “American Dream.” Organized by Privilege & Poverty CCE student interns with faculty guest Matthew Lawrence (Sociology), students discussed together how the concept of the “American Dream” has impacted how we think about inequality, privilege, and poverty.
from left: Academic Director James Calvin Davis, Internship Director Tiffany Nourse Sargent ’79, CCE P&P Intern Kate Johnson ’18, CCE P&P Intern Taylor Banaszewski ’17, and CCE AmeriCorps VISTA Emma McDonald ’16
This year, Internship Director Tiffany Sargent ’79 and Academic Director James Calvin Davis are joined by three team members:
Doug Wilson ’18 presents on his summer internship at the Charter House Coalition in Middlebury.
Toni Cuevas ’18 presents on her summer internship at CodeInteractive in New York City.
Summer 2016 Privilege & Poverty interns participated in a poster session as part of the 2016 Clifford Symposium, the theme of which was “Fully Present: The Art and Science of Mindful Engagement.” Read more about interns’ Clifford presentations here.
We celebrated our Privilege & Poverty interns’ presentations afterward with a P&P BBQ at the Center for Community Engagement for faculty, students, and staff involved with P&P.
