In the week leading up to MLK Day, many in our community were concerned about the imminent escalation of Federal immigration and customs enforcement in Maine and its impact on our . MLK Day itself was a brief reprieve from the concerns and fears, but that reprieve did not last. On the very next day, Federal immigration enforcement began , a ten-day escalation that has resulted in over, many without criminal records. One thing that has sustained me through this dark time is the many community members who came together to honor Dr. King’s life and engage in the issues and conversations that are deeply resonant with social justice and civil rights. The Harward Center was honored to help organize three of those conversations:

Loving Your “Enemies”:  Learning allyship and solidarity during moments of adversity

Along with our partners at the college’s Student Center for Belonging and Community, we held an MLK Day workshop on the urgency of allyship and solidarity, especially in support of transgender people and immigrants, who have experienced unprecedented attacks at a state and federal level. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Loving Your Enemies” sermon, the workshop invited participants to reflect on allyship as a community responsibility, navigating our complex lived experiences, identities, and narratives during hard times. Participants explored the inner work of allyship, which requires conscious consideration of one’s power and positionality, as well as the recognition that allyship is a spectrum. Facilitators acknowledged that allyship can be uncomfortable, imperfect, and sometimes misses the mark. Allyship is manifested in many ways, but we’re not typically afforded the time or space to process what it means to show up in the moment. Participants engaged in small group discussions about their own hopes and fears in allyship, and what intentions they hope to set for themselves in 2026.

Creating Refuge:  Zine Making for Creative Community Building

Over the past year, Harward Center programs have explored what looks like for the intersectional spaces that community and civically engaged work occupies. Given that the concept of community evolves over time, how should community engagement centers and practitioners adapt our work in response to complicated times? Questions like this lend themselves to creative exploration, which in this workshop took the shape of zine making. , zines have been popular avenues for sharing perspectives, art, or information that can be easily reprinted and distributed. At �ֲ���ý, zine-making is an activity used by the nonpartisan student voting initiative �ֲ���ý Votes to engage a variety of student organizations by offering a creative drop-in space for students to make their own voting zines based on the issues they care about. In this MLK Day workshop, participants explored zine-making as a dimension of creative practice and activism, enjoying an intergenerational space for art-making and political expression. 

Looking for Light in Political Darkness

This MLK Day session grappled with a new political era in which the role and function of the U.S. government has been rapidly changing, its impacts rippling across public and private institutions and touching nearly all facets of civic life. How can voters process the dramatic policy changes at the national and local level, and what can we expect in 2026? This workshop explored this question in conversation with leaders involved in the areas of gender equity, labor rights, and racial justice. Three esteemed panelists – Destie Hohman Sprague, executive director of Maine Women’s Lobby and Maine Women’s Policy Center; Jan Kosinski, government relations director of the Maine Education Association; and Shay Stewart-Bouley, creator of Black Girl in Maine Media – shared keen insights into today’s public policy landscape and potential strategies for change. Among their words of wisdom to those who wonder how to respond to a world that often feels overwhelming in its complexity and dysfunction was to make the picture we’re looking at smaller by making a regular commitment, whether that’s helping an organization with spreadsheets or data analytics, knocking on doors for a cause or candidate, or attending a rally. 

For more information and photos from MLK Day at �ֲ���ý, click

As the new year comes into focus, we are zooming in on a digital media project undertaken last semester by �ֲ���ý students in “Introduction to Digital Media,” taught by professor Courtney Smith. As their final project in the class, students worked in small groups to research Lewiston’s iconic Lisbon Street. They then used archival materials to create a digital story of Lisbon Street through the years, which was projected outward from a gallery for three weeks so that passersby could enjoy the 10-minute visual narrative as they walked or drove down Lisbon Street. Our friends at the Sun Journal wrote a lovely article, including photos at the “big reveal” event for the project. If the paper’s paywall gets in the way, you could also consider a $2.50/week , which provides access to the Sun Journal, the Portland Press Herald, and several other Maine papers.

Enjoy!

This year, I began volunteering at the Student Resource Center. I had previously worked with unhoused adults in Lewiston and Boston, but I had little knowledge about how homelessness impacts families and unaccompanied children. I was eager to work more with kids this year, and SRC was the perfect opportunity to do so. As a volunteer, I provide homework support to any students who need it, as well as assist with donation sorting, provide resources for guests, or help the staff in any capacity. It has been so wonderful to work with the same students over the course of the year and build those relationships together– as they’ve grown as students, I’ve seen myself grow and improve as a tutor, and I am so grateful for how much they have taught me this year.

What’s so special about the is its individualized approach to supporting children and their families. Whether this means organizing an Amazon wish list so that teenagers can get a Homecoming dress that suits them or taking unaccompanied teenagers grocery shopping so they can buy their favorite snacks, the Student Resource Center is dedicated to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for all students in Lewiston. I look forward to continuing the partnership between the Student Resource Center and �ֲ���ý in the coming years; I know this partnership will continue to help �ֲ���ý and Lewiston students learn, grow, and connect in and beyond the classroom.

��“Every so often, you may be dutifully studying in the library when suddenly a large group of talkative middle schoolers trudges past you, led by a couple of �ֲ���ý students. You might wonder what all of this commotion is about. The answer? Aspiration Days.” So begins a recent article in��The �ֲ���ý Student��by Ellen Cabin ’28 of Penrose, North Carolina and a 2025 �ֲ���ý Votes Fellow. For those who didn’t notice the article in the student newspaper, . Enjoy!

In This Issue

• Theory to Action, Farm to Table: A Community Engaged Anthropology Course
• Diving Right In: Community Engagement in the First-Year Seminar
• Public Policy Comes Alive
• Rockin’ the Vote, Bobcat Style
• K-12 Invasion!
• In The News

Dear Friends,

It has been crazy-cold in Maine lately, but this newsletter should warm the heart. It includes a story about an Anthropology class’s research into a potential Somali-Bantu farm-to-table restaurant in Lewiston; a story about the incorporation of community-engaged learning projects in several First-Year Seminars; an overview of a new public policy series launched by the Harward Center; an update on voter registration and other election engagement activities at �ֲ���ý; and an overview of the extensive college aspirations programming with local youth that took place on campus last semester. These are only a modest handful of the stories that could be told about the publicly-engaged liberal arts at �ֲ���ý, including dozens of other impressive community-engaged learning, research, and leadership projects undertaken during the fall semester.

The Harward Center contributes in vitally important ways to the �ֲ���ý mission. We are proud to share this small sample of our work with you, and as always, we are grateful to all the students, faculty, staff, off-campus partners, and generous donors who make this work possible. Have a question or suggestion, or want to support our work? Give us a holler — we’d love to hear from you!

In community,
Darby

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

Theory to Action, Farm to Table: A Community Engaged Anthropology Course

Professor Elizabeth Eames

Every autumn I include some sort of community-engaged research project in ANTH339 Production and Reproduction: Economic Anthropology, the anthropology department’s required junior/senior seminar (and an economics elective). ��Over the decades, students have embarked upon many distinct ventures, touching upon such themes as workforce development or financial literacy or Islamic banking. ��Past partners include the chamber of commerce, the middle school, a local bank, as well as several ethnically-based non-profits. ��Typically, I generate my own projects.

Last summer, though, the Harward Center’s Sam Boss proposed that we partner with an existing cooperative of Somali Bantu farmers known as The Sustainable Livelihoods Relief Organization (a.k.a. The Isuken Co-op). ��He knew they were initiating the creation of a farm-to-table restaurant and market in downtown Lewiston and that they had already enlisted the assistance of Jonah Fertig-Burd, Director of Cooperative Food Systems at The Cooperative Development Institute (CDI). ��Could we help them in this effort? ��I jumped at the chance!

I knew this project would resonate with a multitude of course themes, such as reciprocity, redistribution, maximization, resource allocation, labor mobilization, social networks, general purpose currency, and social enterprise, just to name a few. ��Moreover, I was confident that the insights of such thinkers as Marcel Mauss, Bronislaw Malinowski, Karl Polanyi, and Karl Marx, again to name just a few, would become substantially more legible to learners through this community work.

In full consultation across constituencies, we devised a plan. ��Each group of students would delve into one of four topics identified by the members of Isuken: ��Location; Farm-to-Table Effective Practices; Ethnic Restaurant Comparisons; or Promotions. ��On the evening of November 28^th we would convene at St. Mary’s Nutrition Center for a celebratory presentation of our results. By all accounts, it went very well.

Reflecting on the collaboration, Jonah Fertig-Burd of CDI commented: “Through working with Dr. Eames’ class at �ֲ���ý, Isuken Co-op and the students learned about restaurants, cooperatives, and each other’s cultures.�� The work that the students did will be very helpful for Isuken and the Cooperative Development Institute as we continue to grow the co-op and Lewiston’s (and the Nation’s) first Somali Bantu farm-to-table restaurant.”

In their final papers, every student responded positively to their being asked to work for, and under the direction of, members of the local community. They appreciated not studying people, as is so often the case in ethnographic fieldwork projects, but rather working in a non-exploitative way with a group to build something totally new—as one junior put it, “reframing how anthropology can be useful in the real world.” ��Another student noted: “Our final dinner presentation was one of the coolest community events I went to during my entire time at �ֲ���ý. It…came together better than we could have hoped.” Still another student reported, “the close connection between the class material and our community work made this class feel particularly important…and…was one of my favorite parts about it.”�� Finally, a junior expressed gratitude to the project’s community partners: “Thank you to the members of SLRO for feeding us, teaching us, and letting us be a part of your team. ��Getting to know each of you made my semester better, and going forward I will continue to be astounded by your dedication, creativity, and generosity.”

Well, I, too, am continually astounded by my students’ dedication, creativity, and generosity. ��I look forward to next year’s cohort working with SLRO to see the Isuken Co-op Restaurant and Market through to fruition.

Here is a link to the full written report: /anthropology/files/2010/07/AN339-CEL-Presentation-at-Nutrition-Center-on-November-28-2017.pdf

And here is a link to the students’ short promotional video: ��.

Diving Right In: Community-Engagement in the First-Year Seminar

This past fall, ninety �ֲ���ý students in six different First-Year Seminars learned about their new home of Lewiston, Maine through community-engaged learning (CEL) assignments. Two of these courses were taught by Education professors. In a course called Exploring Education through Narratives, students gained glimpses into the local education system through fieldwork at an after-school homework help and enrichment program, Tree Street Youth, and a school-based elementary reading program, Montello Book Buddies. Bronwyn Sale, the course professor, reflected on the course and the inclusion of community-engaged learning in a First-Year Seminar: “These placements provided students with opportunities to contribute both to their own and to others’ emerging narratives of education. Through mentoring, reading, and interactions with students and teachers, course concepts moved from theory to practice and were made “real” through CEL experiences. Including CEL in a First-Year Seminar, in particular, supports students in learning the how and why of CEL early in their �ֲ���ý education.” In the other education-related FYS, Environment and Social Justice, students worked closely with the Police Activities League (PAL) Center of Auburn and the Auburn Public Library’s teen program to develop educational materials about the hazards of lead poisoning and simple steps that renters can take to make their homes safer for children.

In the natural sciences, two First-Year Seminars were community-engaged. In Communicating Science to the Public, taught by Biology professor Andrew Mountcastle, students first consulted with students and teachers at Lewiston Middle School to identify science topics of interest or importance to them, and then developed engaging presentations on those topics for presentation later in the semester. Presentation topics included the Periodic Table (Who knew there was such a compelling logic behind its organization?); the question of how trees travel (Did you know trees can actually move from one spot to another?); and the differences between aerobic and anaerobic exercise. In First-Year Seminar taught by Physics and Astronomy professor Aleks Diamond-Stanic, Race, Gender, and Identity in STEM, students visited a science classroom at nearby STAR Academy, an alternative 9^th grade program, to share what they had learned about the importance of a growth mindset for academic success.

In an extra-disciplinary course, Reconsidering the American Dream, instructor Ellen Alcorn’s students considered questions of success, justice, and freedom in a variety of community contexts, including a community-based ethnic organization serving African refugee adults and a low-income elementary school. Finally, students in a First-Year Seminar taught by Psychology professor Georgia Nigro, entitled Strangers in the House, worked at the Social Learning Center, a day center for adults with disabilities. Students provided enrichment activities for the adults, such as painting, karaoke, and drumming. “The community-engaged experience was meaningful for students on many levels,” reflected professor Nigro. “It forced us to think about disabilities beyond childhood. It introduced students to the community, and importantly, to a very isolated group within the community that welcomed them.”

Among the student feedback on their First-Year Seminar community engagement experiences was this endorsement articulated in a final paper: “Volunteering at these organizations has enhanced my education. There is a richness in going outside of my ‘lifestyle enclave’ that I wish more people experienced… I have learned about different cultures, which has made me better understand my own culture… I am very grateful for what I have gotten out of the community-engaged learning part of this course.”

Public Policy Comes Alive

The Harward Center initiated a new public policy series this past fall entitled, “Theory into Practice.” The purpose of the series is to provide students with the opportunity to learn more about some of the important policy debates taking place in the U.S. Congress, the Maine State House, and in the City of Lewiston, and to learn more about how all of us can have a voice in these debates. The program is designed to help students more fully understand how the theories they study in class translate into policies and laws, how these policies and laws affect people’s everyday lives, and how we can most effectively advocate for laws that are important to us. Our intention with the series is to inform, stimulate ethical reflection, and motivate people to act.

The first panel focused on poverty and featured presenters from Maine Equal Justice Partners. The second in the series brought Hilary Schneider ’96, Maine Government Relations Director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Inc., and Erin Guay, Executive Director of Healthy Androscoggin, to campus to speak about public health policies.�� The final program focused on environmental issues and featured presentations by Beth Ahearn, Political Director of Maine Conservation Voters, and Kristin Jackson, Federal Outreach Coordinator for the Natural Resources Council of Maine. In each instance, presenters not only shared information about specific policy debates and initiatives but also presented opportunities for students to engage in a policy-related action such as writing a letter to an elected official or signing a petition. Students seemed to appreciate the chance to learn and act.

Rockin’ the Vote, Bobcat Style

Recognizing that all elections are important, the Harward Center partnered with others on campus this fall to encourage students to exercise the most basic form of civic engagement by voting in the 2017 local elections.

An energized, bipartisan voter registration drive started during First-Year Orientation in early September and continued throughout the fall. Through the Harward Center website, nonpartisan information was made available about the candidates, state bond referenda, and the ballot question regarding the potential merger of the cities of Lewiston and Auburn.

There was also a spirited Get Out the Vote effort as election day approached. Students fully engaged social media, chalked sidewalks with reminders to vote, put up signs directing students to the local polling place, organized teams to escort first-time voters to the polls, and stormed the �ֲ���ý library on election eve to remind students to vote.

Because none of the mayoral candidates received a majority of the votes in the November 7^th election, a run-off was required by the Lewiston City Charter, and thus election season continued into December. The Harward Center remains committed to helping the college live up to its mission of cultivating “informed civic action” and to ensuring a thriving democracy through student participation in the electoral process.

K-12 Invasion!

During September, October, and November, over 1,200 students from Lewiston Middle School, Auburn Middle School, and four Lewiston elementary schools came to the �ֲ���ý campus for college aspirations field trips. Students participated in a variety of programs with the goal of building teamwork skills, connections, and excitement about college.

Each of the six Lewiston Middle School teams visited campus on separate dates for a full morning of activities. The Blue, Red, and Orange Teams were the first to arrive, visiting campus the last week in September, while the Purple, Green, and Pink teams visited during early November. While on campus, the LMS students participated in team-building activities in their homeroom groups and small groups, scavenger hunts around campus, and goal-setting activities (especially relevant at the beginning of the school year).

Auburn Middle School’s Tumbledown, Sugarloaf, and Katahdin 8th grade teams also visited campus in early November. AMS students took a campus tour, visited the Olin Art Museum, completed an art activity inspired by the current museum exhibit, enjoyed lunch in Commons, and participated in a college Question & Answer session with �ֲ���ý student volunteers.

In early December, students from Martel, McMahon, Geiger, and Longley Elementary Schools visited campus for an evening of team-building activities and dinner in Commons with �ֲ���ý students.

To ensure each of the ten days of campus visits went smoothly for this raft of K-12 guests, �ֲ���ý students from the Squash, Football, Field Hockey, Softball, and Women’s Ultimate Frisbee teams helped out. In addition, students from several residence hall groups (shout-out to Page Hall 4th floor, 280 Mountain Side and Street Side, Parker 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floor, and Rand 3rd floor First-Year Centers) assisted with lunch and dinner in Commons and on the Quad. In all, 122 �ֲ���ý students volunteered.

One focus of the Harward Center during the past five years has been to develop compelling pathways — beyond the academic program — for �ֲ���ý students to access meaningful community engagement experiences. The Community Liaison program, according to which every student club and athletic team at the college has a student leader for community engagement, is one such pathway, and the Residence Life community engagement program is another. Together, these programs make it easy for students to learn about and connect to off-campus community partners and projects and hence to embrace the college’s civic mission through their co-curricular activities.

In The News

• �ֲ���ý debuts one-of-a-kind search engine for diverse children’s books
• Students partner with community organizations for capstone course
• Q&A: Psychologist Amy Bradfield Douglass on eyewitness identifications
• What’s In a Lewiston Name: Androscoggin
• How �ֲ���ý helps Lewiston firefighters do their dangerous jobs safer and better
• Don’t taste the hops: �ֲ���ý students take a Lewiston brewery tour

Want to know more about something in this newsletter, or have questions about the Harward Center or the civic mission of �ֲ���ý College? Please contact Kristen Cloutier or visit us online.

In This Issue

• Building Faculty Capacity: The 2016 Publicly-Engaged Pedagogy Learning Community
• Student Voices: Short Term Action/Research Team
• Faculty Spotlight: Professor Bev Johnson
• Student Voices: Community-Engaged Research Fellows
• Faculty Spotlight: Professor Mara Tieken
• In The News

Dear Friends,

Summer greetings from Maine! I am delighted to share the Harward Center’s biannual newsletter, which offers a window onto some of the exciting publicly-engaged work happening at �ֲ���ý College in recent months. This edition of the newsletter highlights student and faculty voices, a new faculty development initiative, and a range of compelling questions and topics. You’ll hear from two distinguished faculty members, including the 2016 winner of the nationally competitive Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty, and four fantastic students. There are many additional stories we could share. . . If you want to know more, please be in touch, and feel free to share the newsletter far and wide.

With appreciation for your interest and support,

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

Building Faculty Capacity: The 2016 Publicly-Engaged Pedagogy Learning Community

Did you know that in a typical year at �ֲ���ý, around 800 students take at least one community-engaged learning (CEL) course? Almost every academic department and program offers one or more CEL course. However, developing a CEL course takes time, expertise, and strong working relationships with prospective community partners. How can busy faculty members fit such things in while maintaining their commitment to excellence in the classroom and their discipline? We might assume that the prudent course of action would be to earn tenure before venturing into the sometimes unpredictable waters of community-engaged teaching, but a strong argument can be made that the ideal time to integrate CEL into a course is during the initial phase of course design and implementation. At �ֲ���ý, where the Harward Center provides comprehensive support for CEL, increasing numbers of pre-tenure faculty are successfully integrating community-engaged work into their courses, producing enhanced learning experiences for students, positive benefit for community partners, and gratifying teaching experiences for faculty.

One new avenue of support for both pre-tenure and tenured faculty is the Publicly-Engaged Pedagogy (PEP!) Learning Community, which saw a successful launch during the fall semester of 2016 and whose fruits were abundantly evident during the subsequent winter and spring terms. The PEP Learning Community was open to all interested faculty members, with an emphasis on pre-tenure faculty. Originally designed for a cohort of six faculty, the program was expanded to ten to meet faculty demand from across the disciplines. Those ten faculty members met together once a month during the fall semester — joined by Harward Center staff members and buoyed by dinner from a local restaurant — to develop a new community-engaged learning course. Attention was paid to diverse topics and tasks, including student learning outcomes, syllabus language, course assignments, community engagement ethics, logistics like transportation, and the all-important question of community reciprocity and benefit. In addition to the monthly cohort gatherings, PEP faculty had one-on-one consultations with Harward Center staff to support their course design and partnership building.

As a result of the PEP Learning Community, six new community-engaged learning courses were taught for the first time during the subsequent winter and spring terms. These courses featured diverse community-engaged projects in Politics, Environmental Studies, Dance, Religious Studies, Physics and Astronomy, and Biology. For example, in a Religious Studies course on Death, Dying, and Afterlife, professor Alison Melnick’s students complemented their learning about Asian religious traditions with class visits from local leaders of Western traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. At the end of the semester, these leaders and others from their congregations joined the �ֲ���ý students for a Community Teach-In. The Teach-In featured interactive poster presentations by �ֲ���ý students to convey their learning about Asian traditions, followed by a dessert reception and small-group discussions, facilitated by �ֲ���ý students, during which members of the different Western religious traditions were invited to share insights and practices from their own traditions while learning about traditions different than their own. In a large introductory course in Astronomy, professor Aleks Diamond-Stanic gave his students the option of doing a community-engaged project, and 77 out of 83 of them jumped at the chance, working together to produce a wildly successful “Astronomy Extravaganza” for local school children and their families. In Biology, professor Andrew Mountcastle challenged students in his Science Communication course to develop skits and interactive presentations to engage Lewiston Middle School students in learning about contemporary issues is science. The middle schoolers came to �ֲ���ý on two different days to enjoy creative and compelling lessons about a range of topics from ocean acidification (featuring a memorable Nemo skit) to bee colony collapse (with an audience-participation activity featuring Queen Bey). At the end of each presentation, middle school students took a moment to jot down their learning and questions, and these reflections eventually formed the basis for small-group discussion with �ֲ���ý students over lunch. In Literatures of Agriculture, professor Misty Beck’s students enjoyed a range of community-engaged experiences, including volunteer placements at Whiting Farm in Auburn, the Somali Bantu Community Association, and the New Roots Cooperative farm. Based on these immersive experiences, students created written and photographic portraits of their experiences with agriculture, some of which they shared at the end of the semester when they visited an active Grange Hall in Vassalboro, where they learned about the traditions of the grange and shared their findings about the trends and developments they observed in their fieldwork. In professor Jacob Longaker’s Experiences in Policy Process course, students complemented classroom learning about the behind-the-scenes negotiations, maneuvering, and strategy that shape policy by engaging in hands-on work with community partners advancing legislative initiatives at the state level. Some of the projects were primarily research-based, with students collecting information to help with education and advocacy efforts; other projects were more advocacy focused, with students communicating directly with members of the voting public about specific issues. Partners included the Maine Prisoner’s Advocacy Coalition, the Prevent Harm environmental advocacy group, the Maine People’s Alliance, Equality Maine, and the American Cancer Association.

“This has been the richest teaching experience I’ve had in 25 years. Truly. Straight up.” Such was the testimony of one of the PEP faculty participants who reflected on this first foray into community-engaged teaching. While there were certainly bumps along the way, the inaugural PEP cohort members were unanimous in their appreciation for the opportunity to journey with each other, with Harward Center staff, and with their students and community partners into the land of publicly-engaged pedagogy. Feedback from students and partners was equally positive (perhaps a story for another day).

Student Voices: Short Term Action/Research Team

Spring time at �ֲ���ý means, among other things, the Harward Center’s Short Term Action/Research Team (START). This year’s program featured ten students, each of whom worked twenty hours per week during the five-week Short Term to complete a project for a local nonprofit or social entrepreneur partner. Community partners included Healthy Androscoggin, Museum L-A, the��Immigrant and Refugee Integration and Policy Development Working Group, Tri-County Mental Health, Montello Elementary School, Health Equity Alliance, and Lewiston Middle School. Two other partnerships are described below by START participants Sean Antonuccio (Economics major) and Emily Halford (Biology and Environmental Studies double major).

Sean Antonuccio

I first met Amy Smith, the founder and director of Healthy Homeworks, at the START kickoff organized by the Harward Center in late March. After speaking with her for nearly an hour, I had a good sense of the inner workings of Healthy Homeworks. In short, Healthy Homeworks is a non-profit agency that aims to provide suitable sleeping arrangements to those without them. The cornerstone initiative is the Earn-a-Bed program, which offers a bed (frame, bed cover, and mattress included) to those with an inadequate sleeping situation in exchange for 20 hours of volunteer work. During those 20 hours, the volunteer builds not only their own bed, but two to three other beds as well. Amy then tries to sell this surplus, either wholesale or retail, in hopes of subsidizing the program’s cost. You can read more about the program in this recent .

During my five weeks as a START Fellow, I could be found making profitability excel sheets or on my hands and knees sanding down bed posts. At the moment, Healthy Homeworks relies on grants to stay afloat; however, Amy hopes the non-profit will be self-sustainable in the next three to five years. To accomplish this, she “simply” has to sell more beds. Thus, a good deal of my time was spent making profitability and forecasting tools, as well as figuring out the logistics of shipping the 100+ pound bed frames made of Maine lumber. On my final day, Amy and I shipped our first bed frame (in a container made out of old bicycle boxes that were jury-rigged) to South Carolina. I later learned the frame arrived safe and sound.

As an Economics major with scant volunteer experience, I was originally primarily interested in the business side of Healthy Homeworks. Well, at least at first. It was hard not to notice how passionate Amy is about her agency’s social mission and her hope to help improve Lewiston. Numerous times I would come in at 9:00 am to later find out Amy had been there since 4:00 am. Amy’s passion, in addition to my interactions with countless volunteers, made this a truly worthwhile experience.

Emily Halford

My START project was to explore the feasibility of implementing a health coaching program that would link �ֲ���ý College students and local healthcare providers. The term “health coaching program” refers to a program where trained students provide non-clinical supportive care to patients identified by a partner hospital, assisted living facility, or health clinic. This supportive care can take a variety of forms, but it most commonly entails either connecting patients with the resources they need to maximize health or coaching patients through the lifestyle changes necessary to confront certain common chronic diseases.

Health coaching programs are beneficial because they offer the opportunity for students to gain valuable healthcare experience while confronting major issues like poor health literacy, high hospital readmission rates, and social determinants of health. A handful of undergraduate schools have successfully implemented such programs, and it appears there might be a place for a program of this sort at �ֲ���ý and in the Lewiston community. This uncommon program would set �ֲ���ý apart from other similar schools for any student interested in the health sciences, and in turn would set participating students apart in graduate school application pools.

I have spent the past few weeks exploring the challenges and considerations entailed in starting a health coaching program at �ֲ���ý, and although there are many factors to take into account, something along these lines might be feasible. If further exploration into this idea is undertaken, �ֲ���ý and its healthcare partner would need to consider numerous issues, including methods of training students, the kinds of patients to target, liability and student safety, funding, staffing, and transportation. However, all of these considerations are manageable. Most importantly, a health coaching program at �ֲ���ý would help maximize the community’s health while filling the gap created by diminishing shadowing and clinical experience opportunities for pre-health students.

Faculty Spotlight: Professor Bev Johnson

A recent featured Geology professor Bev Johnson for her efforts to identify large and invisible influences on climate. The article is perfectly titled: “At �ֲ���ý-Morse Mountain, there is a lot more going on than sun-bathing: Students and professors dig in deep for lessons on climate change.”

The lessons are mostly buried below the surface and hidden as “blue carbon”—referring to the carbon that is sequestered and stored in coastal wetlands, or salt marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangroves. Johnson and her students began their research on blue carbon by developing a clever method for estimating how much carbon is stored in the Sprague Marsh, at �ֲ���ý-Morse Mountain. Working with Margaret Pickoff ’13, Johnson mapped the underground depth or topography of the peat layer of the marsh, and then analyzed the carbon density of the peat they pulled up in core samples. By adding up volumes and densities, early estimates suggested that the Sprague Marsh sequesters and then stores something on the order of what 30,000 cars emit in a year’s time. More recent calculations have honed the number to 900 metric tons per year. The method was included in a manual developed by the international group, in 2014, and has since been reported on at regional, national, and international conferences, and in additional publications. This early work on blue carbon sets the stage for evaluating carbon storage as a quantifiable ecosystem service, providing opportunities for carbon offsets and carbon markets. This, of course, adds to an already compelling case for the conservation of coastal wetlands.

Johnson’s work is clearly notable not just for its determination to identify significant factors in the global carbon equation. The work is additionally notable for its seamless stretch between pure science and critically relevant applications to a global-scale problem—the problem of climate change.

And furthermore, Johnson has not rested on laurels or concluded her research with carbon. In Johnson’s most recent work, she and students have studied salt marsh conditions that amplify methane emissions, or conversely, support the underground and natural storage capacity of salt marshes. For starters, they have confirmed earlier findings that more saline systems, meaning those that are open to the natural tidal flow (or not limited by tidal restrictions), provide the very best conditions for keeping methane in the ground. Again, the take home, “deep dig” lesson is that coastal conservation matters a great deal—for the sake of all planetary life. For that, we can thank Johnson and her students for their good science.

In coursework, Prof. Johnson has asked her students to identify effective ways to communicate climate science. Johnson’s Global Change course had students focus on the impact of climate change on different areas of the environment. As part of the course, Johnson asked students to put together information sheets for policy makers, distilling the science they had learned into language the general public could understand. She invited �ֲ���ý alumna and freelance science journalist Laura Poppick into class to give students professional advice on the first draft of their information sheets. At the end of the course, students shared their fact sheets with and made presentations to former Maine state legislator and Harward Center staff member, Peggy Rotundo, who gave tips on how to advocate effectively for policy change.

Student Voices: Community-Engaged Research Fellows

During Winter Term each year, the Harward Center welcomes a small but talented group of students as Community-Engaged Research Fellows. These are students from a range of disciplines who develop a community of shared inquiry and support as they pursue diverse research projects in partnership with off-campus community members and with guidance from Harward Center staff members and faculty advisors. In this section, two of this year’s CER Fellows, Katie Stevenson and Isobel Curtis, share their community-engaged research stories. In addition, to a brief radio interview featuring Katie and her work.�� A third CER Fellow, Claire Brown, is featured in this �ֲ���ýNews story.

Katie Stevenson

Walking through downtown Auburn, few notice the large, nondescript grey building hidden between the County Courthouse and the Auburn YMCA. This building is the Androscoggin County Jail. On any given night, over 70% of the individuals incarcerated there suffer from a substance use disorder and/or another mental illness. Like other correctional facilities across the country, the patients (traditionally referred to as inmates) at ACJ are often trapped in cycles of poverty, incarceration, and mental illness. In Androscoggin County, these cycles are exacerbated by public policy changes that lead correctional facilities, rather than mental health agencies, to act as the default mental health “treatment” facility in the county, a trend that has been seen nationally. I worked with Androscoggin County Jail (ACJ), in partnership with Tri County Mental Health Services, for my senior thesis, through which I became connected with the Harward Center’s Community-Engaged Research Fellows program. My research focused on quantifying the prevalence of mental illness among inmates at the jail and analyzing those prevalence rates within the context of recent changes in MaineCare and other public policies.

When I first heard about the Community-Engaged Research Fellows program, I thought it would be an exciting opportunity to bounce some research ideas off of other students. However, working with the Fellows gave me the opportunity not only to receive feedback and find support for my research, but also to connect with other seniors on their work. Over the course of the semester, I found that I loved hearing about the other Fellows’ research just as much as I enjoyed engaging in my own. As a self-designed major at �ֲ���ý, I never participated in a Capstone or Senior Seminar class. Being a CER Fellow ended up providing me with a sense of academic community that I hadn’t realized I was missing until I became part of the program.

I initially chose to attend �ֲ���ý because of the intentional relationships the college seemed to be building with its surrounding community. The Fellows program managed to combine academic passion that �ֲ���ý is known for with an excitement for community connections within �ֲ���ý and the greater Lewiston/Auburn area that had appealed to me from the start. As my senior year drew to a close, finishing my time at �ֲ���ý as a Community-Engaged Research Fellow was the perfect concluding piece to my experience over the past four years.

Isobel Curtis

This past winter semester the Harward Center supported six Community-Engaged Research (CER) Fellows, varying widely in the topic and nature of their research. Our individual work was complimented by bi-weekly meetings where advice was exchanged over home-cooked meals. In this unconventional and intimate setting we discussed community research pedagogy as it applied to the challenging and rewarding aspects of our own work. What began as a collection of independent projects evolved into a support network– a collaborative initiative to strengthen the communities we were a part of. Each individual’s efforts were enhanced by the insight of their peers, who provided perspectives from fields of study completely different than their own.

My experience as a Harward Center CER Fellow helped me identify the underlying elements common to all work I have found most gratifying throughout my studies at �ֲ���ý. I learned that personal connection to the people and places my efforts aim to benefit is fundamental to my definition of meaningful work. By forming these personal connections, I am able to realize the larger context of my work and frame the implications of my findings. For me this is the most motivating part of science and holds me accountable for the quality of work I produce. The act of forming connections becomes the foundation for the process of community building. Reflecting on my four years at �ֲ���ý and our CER group in particular, it struck me that forming communities of individuals with similar goals allows for more dynamic problem solving and creative solutions. Though the scientific process is often seen as rigid and impersonal, in reality it is a very collaborative community that fosters connections among scholars. At the end of my junior year, I had become disheartened by the dry and formal research process and had trouble visualizing a future for myself in the field of research. I had not yet encountered the networks and communities that balance and give life to the scientific method.

In my final year at �ֲ���ý I was fortunate enough to take part in many such communities, all different yet vibrant and resilient in their own right. I began working at Whiting Farm located in Auburn, ME my junior year through the Environmental Studies capstone in Community Engaged Research. Though I knew little about renewable energy prior to the project, I quickly became enthralled with geothermal energy and its potential to help farmers save money. As my time as a CER Fellow progressed, I found myself shifting from the familiar and expected role of researcher (i.e. operating behind a computer screen) to network builder. Progressive work was already happening on the renewable energy front, led both by farmers and renewable energy developers. Connecting Whiting Farm’s director, Kim Finnerty, to these human resources created a living network from which she could draw support after I graduated. At the end of the semester, Whiting had partnered with Shift Energy of Biddeford, ME to install Phase Change Material and temperature sensors in one of their many greenhouses. This technology works to lower heating and cooling costs by storing excess energy during the day and releasing it at night when the temperature drops. If quality data is collected, demonstrating the efficacy of this product, it can then be marketed to other farmers who struggle with the cost of greenhouse heating. Phase Change Material represents just one of many technologies being adapted from the residential market and tested in agricultural settings. By utilizing renewable energies to make year-round heated greenhouses a financially viable option, farmers in the northeast can provide their communities with a greater diversity of fresh food in the winter months.

Just as the Harward Center strives to root student research in the surrounding community, I believe fieldwork is necessary to ground students in the place or subject of their research. There is a depth of information that can only be obtained from an intimate understanding of the system you are attempting to study. Community-engaged research emphasizes working with community members for this same reason—because they have a far richer understanding of the problems at hand due to their lived experience. To draw a parallel to fieldwork, the researcher gains a better understanding of the system as a whole from direct observation, rather than simply analyzing select variables with little knowledge of the system they attempt to represent/reconstruct.

I argue that the process of data collection in the field is important because the researcher becomes familiar with the other variables present that may exert influence, thus creating capacity for intuitive insight. It is especially important for young researchers to engage in field work or analogous hands-on laboratory work. I view it as an exercise in active observation: What variables could I be missing? What alternative explanations could be explored? This past May I had the privilege of working with Laura Sewall, the director of the �ֲ���ý-Morse Mountain Conservation Area (BMMCA), to plan and execute a habitat mapping initiative of the 600 acre property located in Phippsburg, ME. For those not familiar, �ֲ���ý College manages BMMCA with the goal of furthering research and education efforts. Each year students take to the beaches and marshes to study topics ranging from dune migration to carbon sequestration. By providing a habitat map of the property, I hope to extend student research to the forested regions that cover roughly 70% of the property and create more opportunities for hands-on research.

While my work at BMMCA and Whiting Farm occupy different fields entirely, they are both deeply concerned with the concept of community resilience. In ecology, community resilience is defined as the ability to incur and recover from disturbance and is strengthened by community diversity and connectivity. Quite literally, BMMCA represents an ecologically resilient community composed of highly diverse habitat types. Yet, behind this pristine land is the network of passionate people responsible for its conservation. This group includes members of the St. John family, who originally owned the land and generously placed it under a conservation easement in 1976. At Whiting Farm, resilience grew from tapping into the burgeoning renewable energy network. By increasing connectivity between farmers and renewable energy companies, a lasting partnership was made that will ideally yield creative new solutions.

Faculty Spotlight: Professor Mara Tieken

Does education research matter for education practice? The ivory tower world of evidence and data can sometimes seem far removed from real classrooms and schools, and theory often has little relevance for actual practice. What would it mean to more tightly connect the two?

During Short Term 2017, fifteen students and I worked with the leadership of the Lewiston Public Schools to bridge that gap. Collaborating with Superintendent Bill Webster, Longley Principal Kristie Clark, and Martel Principal Steve Whitfield, we designed a research project focused on the upcoming merger of Martel and Longley Elementary Schools. In the process, we also developed our qualitative research skills.

Set to open in September 2019, the new elementary school will be one of the state’s largest. It will also consolidate two schools with very different cultures and student demographics, and district leaders recognize the need for a thoughtful plan to support their integration. In particular, the principals and superintendent wondered about their faculty and staff’s concerns about the merger, as well as their hopes for the new facility. And so, when I approached Superintendent Webster about the possibility of collaborating on a research project, he welcomed the opportunity and asked us to explore these issues.

We began the project by meeting with Superintendent Webster and Principals Clark and Whitfield to find out details about the merger and to better understand their perceptions of staff concerns and hopes. They were generous with their time and eagerly engaged our questions, and we developed a plan to first begin volunteering and observing in Martel and Longley classrooms to learn more about the schools and later conduct in-depth interviews with teachers and staff.

One of the challenges of community-engaged research is its unpredictability, and we confronted a surprise from the start. To get the best, most useful data possible, it quickly became clear that we would also need to survey the entire staffs of both schools—and we only had five weeks.

So we got to work, functioning more like a research team than a traditional class. We began volunteering in classrooms in both schools and talking over our informal observations. We wrote the survey, discussed it with the superintendent and principals, and administered it. By week three, we had started interviews. Our fourth week was devoted to data analysis—identifying themes, coding the interview data, cross-referencing with our survey results—and the final week concluded with a written memo for the staffs of both schools and a presentation to Superintendent Webster, Principal Clark, and Principal Whitfield.

At the project’s end, students reported they had learned a lot about designing a research study, writing surveys and conducting interviews, analyzing data, and reporting findings. They grew more comfortable with the responsibilities of conducting ethical research—like, for example, what it means to really hear someone’s story or how to think through the power dynamics of a research project. More than anything else, students said they valued the authentic collaboration—with teachers, with school leaders, and with each other. Yes, qualitative research can be messy and unpredictable and time-consuming, but it can also be useful. My students were excited to take part in a project that just might contribute to the successful start of a new school.

In The News

• $10,000 grant helps Gift Pola Kiti ’18 bring clinic to Kenyan village
• Student’s social enterprise pitch wins $9k Bobcat Ventures competition
• With �ֲ���ý’ help, young leaders show true colors in a mural project

Want to know more about something in this newsletter, or have questions about the Harward Center or the civic mission of �ֲ���ý College? Please contact Kristen Cloutier or visit us online.

In This Issue

• Election Activity: Ensuring a Thriving Democracy
• Community Engagement in the First-Year Seminar Program and Beyond
• Addressing Intergenerational Poverty through the Volunteer Lawyers Project
• The Long-term Impact of Civic Engagement Experiences: Insights from a �ֲ���ý Alumni Survey
• Student Learning + Community Benefit = The 2016 Environmental Studies Capstone Course
• �ֲ���ý Students Step Up
• Kids on Campus
• In The News

Dear Friends,

If the winter weather, political climate, or anything else has you feeling down, this is the newsletter for you! It is chock full of stories about how �ֲ���ý students, faculty, staff, and alumni are engaging the challenges and needs of our day with intelligence, creativity, persistence, and empathy. It also reflects the wide range of community partners who so generously contribute time, expertise, and opportunity to help the college live up to its mission of cultivating “informed civic action,” “the transformative power of our differences,” and “responsible stewardship of the wider world.” In addition to the newsletter’s featured articles, don’t miss the “In the News” links at the bottom of the page.

All best wishes,

Darby

Election Activity: Ensuring a Thriving Democracy

The �ֲ���ý campus was alive with election activity this past fall. The Harward Center partnered with others on campus to coordinate a range of activities through which students could participate in the electoral process that helps ensure a thriving democracy. Since many students turn eighteen while in college, the 2016 election was the first opportunity many of them had to exercise their right to vote. Thanks to a major voter registration drive, �ֲ���ý students won the Maine Secretary of State’s award, besting all other Maine higher education institutions by registering the highest number of students on any college campus in Maine. There was also a huge Get Out the Vote effort on election day, with reminders to vote chalked on the sidewalks, and teams of students organized to escort first-time voters to the polls. Despite a local voter suppression effort, the �ֲ���ý Bobcat and plenty of others encouraged students to vote via absentee ballot or in Maine.

Harward Center Post-Baccalaureate Civic Leadership Fellow and AmeriCorps VISTA member Brenna Callahan ’15 blitzed the campus with non partisan information to educate students about the policy positions of local and national candidates and to provide background on the state ballot questions. The Politics and Rhetoric Departments sponsored the 2016 Election Series, which featured several lectures by visiting academics as well as a series of lively debate and election result watch parties.

Of particular note was the offered by Prof. Stephanie Kelley- Romano, in which students not only learned to analyze past and present presidential campaign rhetoric but also ran their own mock presidential campaign, replete with debates, polls, campaign ads, candidate speeches, and even an inaugural ball. Students shared their learnings from the course with the larger Lewiston/Auburn community during a multi-media presentation at the Great Falls Forum at the Lewiston Public Library.

The evening after the election, U.S. Senator Susan Collins met with students as part of the College’s Purposeful Work Unplugged series, talking with them about her career path as well as the consequences of the election. Numerous other opportunities for students to explore the meaning of the election were also available, including “What just happened?” – a standing room only forum featuring post-election analysis from Politics Department faculty members.

Voting is the most basic form of civic engagement. We are pleased that the College seems to have set a new record for student participation.

Community Engagement in the First-Year Seminar Program and Beyond

Emily Kane, Professor, Sociology and Women and Gender Studies

What role should colleges and universities play in building students’ civic capacity? What are our obligations to make sure that effort isn’t only about students, but that it’s at least as effective in contributing to positive social change in our communities? How do various organizations in Lewiston and Auburn seek to engage community to pursue social justice and social change? And what are some of the many great shops, restaurants, and local attractions first-year students might want to check out nearby campus?

These are some of the questions I explored with a wonderful group of smart, energetic, and dedicated students from the Class of 2020, in a first-year seminar (FYS) called “Community Engagement, Social Justice, and Social Change.” Our goals ranged from introducing the expectations of college-level writing and academic support resources of the college, to understanding how sociologists think about social inequality and social change, to reviewing the scholarly literature on higher education’s obligations to the public good. But the most central goals of the seminar involved engaging with our local community, exploring its many resources and working together with community partners to learn more about how local organizations address social inequalities.

Our very first day together, before classes or readings began, before they headed out on their orientation trips or athletic team retreats, I asked my fifteen new students to free-write in response to these questions: What is college for? Why are you/we here? They all focused on thoughts far beyond their own individual gain. Perhaps that is to be anticipated from incoming students who selected a first-year seminar with this title, from among a range of great FYS options. But even so, I was surprised by the degree to which they considered civic growth and contribution to the public good part of the purpose of college, and how much they knew about Lewiston/Auburn as a place to pursue that growth and learning.

Once they returned for the official start of classes, we spent the next thirteen weeks digging deeper into all of the questions that frame the seminar, and exploring the cities of Lewiston and Auburn. The centerpiece of it all was our community-engaged learning work with several local partner organizations: Lewiston Housing Authority, Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services, the Auburn Police Activities League, and the Center for Wisdom’s Women. Watching these students demonstrate the many talents and capacities they brought with them, and watching them grow further as they learned from the people they met at their partner organizations, and struggled with questions about reciprocity, community impact, and the politics of knowledge, was truly a pleasure.

Students wrote about these topics in a variety of ways, from informal forum posts to free-writes to formal papers, and a quote from their final forum post helps convey the thinking they engaged in throughout the semester. In the last of several moments of reflecting on the �ֲ���ý College mission statement, I asked them to focus in specifically on “informed civic action and responsible stewardship of the wider world” as elements of our collective mission here. One of them captured themes many others offered: “�ֲ���ý understands that engagement is finding wisdom in its students and in the residents of Lewiston, and combining their talents and experiences to find new meaning in the civic.”

The pleasure of taking this intellectual and civic journey with a wonderful group of first-years was all the deeper because the writing aspect of the FYS was supported by a senior peer-writing assistant who had taken the same FYS with me back in her first semester at �ֲ���ý. Bringing community engagement full circle, Ali Rabideau (Class of 2017) did an amazing job helping me introduce these fifteen first-years to our local community, to basic concepts in sociology, and to the mysterious art of college-level writing, as she simultaneously wrote her own community-based research thesis in sociology with me as her advisor. In that work, partnered with the Center for Wisdom’s Women, Ali demonstrated the deeply heart-felt reciprocity and co-creation of knowledge and action that is foreshadowed in the quote from one of the first-year students, and I hope also foreshadowed by some of what she learned as a participant in this same FYS back in the Fall of 2013. Thank you Ali, and thanks to all fifteen of our wonderful students, for reminding me yet again of the powerful potential for learning, civic capacity development, and progressive social change that come from well-supported community-engagement work. And thanks to the Harward Center and our many remarkable community partners for making it all possible.

Addressing Intergenerational Poverty through the Volunteer Lawyers Project

Dylan Metsch-Ampel ’19

A common theme in our Bonner Leadership discussions is what kinds of community engagement work are “en vogue” compared to the kinds of work that need more attention than they’re getting. Intergenerational poverty is one of the realities in Maine that seems to attract relatively little problem-solving energy. Even well-intended �ֲ���ý students tend to avoid this work. The reasons for this avoidance include legitimate issues like the relatively small number of programs targeting this population. They also include issues of political or ideological differences that make many liberal arts students hesitant to work with generationally poor citizens. This is not to say that all �ֲ���ý students are liberal or that the entirety of Maine’s working class is staunchly conservative. However, such differences do exist and can become obstacles to people getting the help they need and deserve.

Every Thursday I take my weekly trip to the Lewiston District Court to work with the Volunteer Lawyers Project. While I do get to work with recent immigrants and people from various cultural backgrounds, the majority of the people seeking counsel are from families that have lived in Maine for generations. In spite of all of their differences, these people share common troubles and problems, and they deserve legal help even though they cannot afford the legal fees of a lawyer. By doing client intake, including determination of financial eligibility and summarizing their concerns, the other volunteers and I make sure the clients get to speak to a lawyer and get the guidance they need.

Now more than ever, it is essential that we shift part of the focus of our community- engaged work to intergenerational poverty and members of our community who have rightfully felt ignored for years. I have had such rewarding experiences working with people very different from myself at the District Court. Without the marvelous people at the Harward Center, the Bonner Leadership Program, and the Volunteer Lawyers Project’s wonderful (and recently retired!) volunteer coordinator, Lin Martin-Hunt, I would not have had the opportunity to learn so much from the incredible community of Lewiston, and Maine as a whole.

Thank you!

The Long-term Impact of Civic Engagement Experiences: Insights from a �ֲ���ý Alumni Survey

What difference, if any, do civic engagement experiences during college have on one’s later life? That was the question Matt Gee ’16 sought to answer last spring during the college’s five-week Short Term. Matt worked with Harward Center director Darby Ray to develop a survey that was then sent via email to alumni from the classes of 2007-2015 who had participated in one or more intensive community engagement program while at �ֲ���ý (e.g., Bonner Leader Program, community-engaged research, Davis Projects for Peace, Harward Summer Fellowship, two or more community-engaged learning courses, etc.). One hundred forty-six alumni completed the survey. Matt also conducted follow-up phone interviews with several respondents who agreed to talk further about their �ֲ���ý civic engagement experiences and its impact on their post-baccalaureate lives.

Are there particular areas of life that seem to have been especially influenced by undergraduate civic engagement experiences? As the table below indicates, the vast majority of survey respondents reported that their �ֲ���ý civic engagement experiences shaped their post-college work, attitudes toward diverse others, and overall world view.

^{Percentage of Participants Who Indicated Certain Areas of Life to Have Been Influenced by their �ֲ���ý Civic Engagement Experience:}

Interestingly, although survey respondents claim quite diverse career fields, more than two-thirds characterize their paid work as having a consistent civic mission or contributing to the common good. Not surprisingly, correlational analysis reveals that the more civic engagement programs one participated in while at �ֲ���ý, the higher the reported impact on every sphere of life we inquired about.

When asked to identify the skills or capacities they developed through civic engagement experiences while in college, the most oft-cited were communication, cross-cultural understanding, collaboration, and self-awareness.

In terms of overall impact, 79% of respondents reported that their civic engagement experiences while at �ֲ���ý have had a “very transformative” or “moderately transformative” impact on their lives thus far.

Student Learning + Community Benefit = The 2016 Environmental Studies Capstone Course

Every fall, the Environmental Studies program offers a capstone course in community-engaged research that empowers students to apply the skills they have developed to address real-world environmental issues at the state, local, and campus level. Working in teams of two or three, students act as research consultants to groups ranging from environmental advocacy organizations to refugee farmers, municipal officials, and the �ֲ���ý Facilities department. Over the course of the semester, they conduct intensive research on the questions and challenges their partners have identified, while using class time to work through the ethics and methods of responsible community-engaged scholarship. At the conclusion of the course, students share their results with partners as research reports or presentations, with their projects often serving to inform key organizational decisions. After the deliverables have been shared, Environmental Studies faculty and Harward Center staff work with students and their partners to maximize community benefit by ensuring others can take up the work going forward.

This year’s cohort of capstone students supported a wide variety of initiatives, and the research projects they completed yielded valuable results and opened avenues for further collaborations. A team featuring Halie Lange, Amy Katz, and Audrey Puleio helped develop a management plan for a new 55-acre property acquired by the Stanton Bird Club to expand the Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary in Lewiston. Through their fieldwork and consultations with the club’s Board of Directors and Thorncrag steward Gary Maurer, the students analyzed both the financial and ecological arguments for different trail routes, parking options, and plant wildlife management strategies. Another team comprising Katherine Cook, Anna Marr, and Katherine Traquina partnered with farmers from the Somali Bantu Community Association of Lewiston-Auburn to develop a comprehensive marketing and distribution plan to allow Somali-Bantu refugees and immigrants to sell extra produce to local vendors in order to generate revenue. In addition to providing a strategic model for the group to follow, the students established connections with potential vendors and created a template for further outreach.

Other projects provided solutions for reducing waste, restoring habitat, promoting energy efficiency, and addressing food insecurity within Lewiston-Auburn and across Androscoggin County. Building on a project begun by a student last spring to analyze and improve Lewiston recycling rates, team members Jonathan Anderson, Brent Feldman, and William Sadlo developed curricula for local schools to promote environmental awareness and increase understanding of proper recycling practices. In collaboration with the Androscoggin Soil and Water Commission, students Elise Emil and Jess Wilson conducted an extensive ecological and economic analysis of the benefits and costs of remediating different sites. In still another project, Emma Katz, Misha Copeland, and Kate Cuthbert worked with Whiting Farm to develop a comprehensive system for reducing expenditures on water usage by developing harvesting systems that use gutters to catch and store rain that falls on the farm’s eleven greenhouses. Team members Emma Egan, Jenny Rosenfeld, and Nora Stoner worked with St. Mary’s Nutrition Center to assess the impact on local farming of an expanded Harvest Bucks program, which allows low-income individuals to use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to purchase more healthy fruits and vegetables.

Finally, two groups in the capstone course focused on building understanding of local agriculture within the �ֲ���ý campus community and reducing the carbon footprint of the college. Allison Berman, Zsofia Duarte, and Emma Marchetti created a model for developing a campus garden that would provide opportunities for students to learn about sustainable farming practices through special events and coursework, while also producing fresh vegetables for the Vegan Bar in Commons. To advance �ֲ���ý’ mission of global stewardship, Mac Reynolds, Matt Marcus, and Jack Martell evaluated options for installing a major solar electricity array that would reduce the college’s demand on the electrical grid and our reliance on fossil fuels. Like all of the work undertaken through the Environmental Studies capstone course this year, the �ֲ���ý garden and solar projects will serve as foundations for informed civic action and further research. Next year’s capstone course promises to continue this work while embarking on another exciting array of projects.

�ֲ���ý Students Step Up

Dylan Metsch-Ampel ’19

�ֲ���ý College students are known for their commitment to social change through community engagement. Some make such important contributions to off-campus organizations that they are invited to serve on the boards of these agencies. Among current students serving on local boards are Cristopher Hernandez Sifontes, Jason DeFelice, Ahmed Sheikh, and Melody Altschuler. Collectively, they work with six different organizations including College Guild, Outright Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Community Integration, and the Autism Society of Maine.

Cristopher Hernandez Sifontes ‘18 – College Guild

College Guild is a non-profit organization headquartered in Brunswick, Maine, about forty minutes from �ֲ���ý. College Guild offers free education courses to incarcerated people. Cristopher’s participation began with Professor Cynthia Baker’s community-engaged learning course, “Human Suffering.” As a window onto human suffering, students in the class volunteered with different organizations whose work connected in some way to mass incarceration. Throughout the semester they put the text of their experience into conversation with other course texts. Cristopher and two of his classmates were trained by College Guild staff to read the work of incarcerated people and and offer supportive feedback. It was a powerful learning experience that prompted Cristopher to work with others to establish a �ֲ���ý chapter of College Guild so more students could engage in this meaningful work. Now, as one of two �ֲ���ý students chosen to sit on the board of directors, it is Cristopher’s responsibility to maintain lines of communication between �ֲ���ý and the organization, coordinate volunteers, and attend board meetings once every six weeks. Cristopher, along with another �ֲ���ý student, have helped College Guild build a computer database and move toward paperless operations, which has helped the organization work with more inmates. There are over 800 people on the College Guild waitlist. Of his experience Cristopher said, “[It’s] great to be a part of a project that can bring people together like this.”

Jason DeFelice ‘17 – Outright L/A

Outright L/A is an organization serving LGBTQ+ youth in the Lewiston/Auburn area. It offers drop-in hours, advisors, and workshops with mentors from other non-profits.�� �ֲ���ý senior Jason DeFelice became involved when he applied for a Harward Center summer fellowship. He worked on the pilot program “Q and A,” which is a summer camp at the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries for middle school and high school students ages 13 – 18. The camp offers arts and crafts as well as workshops focusing on sex positivity, healthy relationships, and transgender health care, among other things.

After the summer fellowship, Outright L/A asked Jason to join their board. He now focuses on strengthening the relationship between �ֲ���ý and Outright, which included starting a peer mentoring program between local youth and �ֲ���ý students. Jason, who is also a Bonner Leader, reports that the most rewarding part of his work was instantly bonding and becoming friends with two youth who entered the program with no prior support network and who were uncomfortable with their identity. Jason describes his relationship with them as a microcosm of Outright L/A’s goals. After graduating, Jason plans to attend medical school with the goal of becoming a psychiatrist.

Ahmed Sheikh ‘17 – MCI, MIRS, & RaiseOp Housing Cooperative

Ahmed Sheikh is a board member of the organization, Maine Community Integration (MCI). He is also extremely involved with Maine Immigrant & Refugee Services (MIRS) and RaiseOp, a local housing cooperative. During his senior year, he served as a Harward Center Community Outreach Fellow for MCI and MIRS, which means he was responsible for helping �ֲ���ý students connect to the work of these two refugee-led organizations. Ahmed first became involved with these organizations through two community-engaged learning classes, “Islam in America” and “Human Suffering,” taught by visiting Professor Samaneh Oladi and Professor Cynthia Baker, respectively. Ahmed’s involvement with RaiseOp, a local housing cooperative founded by �ֲ���ý alum Craig Saddlemire, was prompted by his interest in local housing issues. As a member of one of Lewiston’s many Somali refugee families, Ahmed’s commitment to the well-being of the local community is not only academic.

Of his experiences Ahmed said, “All three organizations and their members and staff are so committed and engaged with creating active change in the community. �ֲ���ý students have a lot to learn by working with local organizations, from how they run their co-ops to the level of commitment among their volunteers, many of whom have day jobs. They show growth from nothing.”

Melody Altschuler ‘17 – Autism Society of Maine

After taking classes with psychology professor Georgia Nigro and working in the lab of psychology professor Michael Sargent during her first year at �ֲ���ý, Melody Altschuler worked in a developmental psychology research lab in the summer before her sophomore year and discovered her love for research. According to Melody, “Professor Nigro inspired me to want to learn how to ‘bridge the gap between research, practice, and policy,’ as she eloquently describes it.” Melody wanted to become involved with organizations that focused on autism in Maine so she could learn first-hand the issues facing individuals with autism and their families and translate her community work to a future career in translational “bench to bedside” research. Melody discovered the Autism Society of Maine (ASM) and emailed Bonner Leader director Ellen Alcorn of the Harward Center to discuss the possibility of getting involved. After Ellen’s encouraging response, she applied and was voted onto the board for a three-year term that began the fall of her sophomore year.

For Melody, her most formative experiences while on the board of ASM have been “discussing the feedback we get from families and reaching out to connect them with the resources they need. Hearing their perspectives on issues they face is also very valuable…Outside of the committee and Board meetings, I really enjoy helping to lead a monthly social group for teens with autism. It has inspired me to study the underlying neurobiology of their social challenges and how to ensure treatments are grounded in research.” Melody emphasized the importance of being a member of the Bonner Leader Program and the Harward Center’s network as integral to her success and ability to be so actively involved with ASM. After graduating, Melody wants to gain additional research experience before applying to graduate programs in developmental cognitive neuroscience/clinical psychology.

The work Cristopher, Jason, Ahmed, and Melody are involved in is so important to the community, but it has also been integral to their growth as students and people. If you’re looking to get engaged in the community, do it! You may find yourself on the board of an organization you love.

Kids on Campus

The months of October, November, and December saw more than 500 students from Lewiston Middle School, Auburn Middle School, and four Auburn elementary schools visit the �ֲ���ý campus. Students who visited campus participated in a variety of programs including frisbee, art activities, planetarium visits, Olin art museum visits, campus tours, question and answer sessions with current students, and even a coveted meal in Commons.

In late October, Auburn Middle School eighth graders had their turn. Their day-long visits included a campus tour, a visit to the Olin Art Museum, lunch in Commons, and an art activity connected to their current classwork. To complete their visit, each group participated in a college-focused question and answer session with members of the �ֲ���ý women’s field hockey team, the Crosstones a capella group, and many other student volunteers.

Lewiston Middle School eighth graders visited campus throughout the first two weeks of November as part of their career preparation class. The focus of their visit was a “networking” lunch in Commons during which they practiced connecting to �ֲ���ý students and honing their self-presentation skills. Members of the �ֲ���ý men’s and women’s cross country teams, Brooks Quimby debate council, women’s varsity and club lacrosse teams, and many other student volunteers served as table hosts and networking partners.

In early December, students in grades three through six who participate in the Community Learning Center programs at Auburn’s Washburn, Sherwood, Walton, and Park Avenue elementary schools visited campus for an afternoon of activities. Students visited the planetarium for a show about the night sky. Afterwards, they walked to the Gray Cage to play frisbee and do crafts with students on the men’s and women’s ultimate frisbee teams and residents of the community engagement theme house. Finally, they finished off their afternoon with dinner in Commons with members of the 280 and Parker First-Year Centers, among other student volunteers.

After walking through the gym, eating dinner in Commons, and seeing all the college athletes around him, one young student expressed his excitement about going to college and his goal of being on the �ֲ���ý Basketball team in eight years. Though each group of students visited campus for reasons that ranged from experiencing the new exhibit at the art museum and learning about the constellations in the night sky, to finding the best dessert in Commons, all students left campus with a small taste of college life and, ideally, with a dose of excitement about their own college prospects.

In The News

• Mara Tieken, an ‘exceedingly important voice’ in rural education, receives national award
• Student-picked Carignan grants strengthen �ֲ���ý’ bonds with the community
• Solar Panel Installation at Shortridge Coastal Center
• What’s in a Lewiston name: Lown

Want to know more about something in this newsletter, or have questions about the Harward Center or the civic mission of �ֲ���ý College? Please contact Kristen Cloutier or visit us online.

In This Issue

• What Real Community Looks Like
• NeCSA Takes Off: Networking for Coastal Science, Learning, and Engagement
• The Meaning and Depiction of Suffering: Mass Incarceration in the Spotlight
• �ֲ���ý Students and Math Department Win Statewide Recognition
• A Growing Relationship with our Adopt-A-School Partner, Lewiston Middle School
• Living with Infinite Hope: Remarks upon Receiving the Harward Center’s Carignan Lifetime Achievement Award
• What It Means To Be Human: “Question of the Animal”
• Community-Engaged Research Blitz: The 2016 Short Term Action/Research Team
• In The News

Dear Friends,

Greetings from �ֲ���ý! I am delighted to share the most recent newsletter from the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, where my colleagues and I have been busy working with �ֲ���ý faculty, staff, and students to support community-engaged learning, research, leadership, and volunteer experiences that are co-created with community partners to address community-identified needs. During the recent festivities in honor of the graduating Class of 2016, I was struck by how many times I heard graduating seniors or their family members talk about the significant impact of community-engaged experiences on students’ intellectual, social, and vocational development. Even though there is no civic engagement requirement at �ֲ���ý, it is the rare student whose way of seeing and being in the world has not been affected by learning experiences made possible by our location and its myriad partners, challenges, and opportunities.

This newsletter shines a light on a representative handful of such opportunities, with themes ranging from mass incarceration to climate change to youth resiliency. It also invites us into the reflections of two extraordinary civic leaders—a graduating senior and a celebrated Maine public servant. Finally, you will not want to miss the great articles whose web links are at the end of the newsletter. These articles highlight exciting community projects and partners, student reflections, local media coverage of �ֲ���ý in the community, national stories about Lewiston, and more. Thank you, on behalf of the Harward Center, for your interest in �ֲ���ý and its long-standing commitment to the cultivation of informed civic action and responsible stewardship of the wider world. We welcome your questions, suggestions, and support.

Darby

What Real Community Looks Like

Alexandra Morrow, Class of 2016

It’s 10pm. I’m on a bus with five girls from Lewiston High School, and we’re on our way back to Lewiston from Portland, Maine. It’s been a long night; the girls presented poetry at a restaurant in Old Port. It was a fundraiser for the 21st Century after-school program. Let me just say, they kicked butt. Smart, confident, intelligent – these girls exude a light that can’t be dimmed. Jenn Carter, my community partner, is at the wheel. This will have been her second trip from Portland to Lewiston today, and she’ll be driving back once more to Portland after dropping each girl at her home in Lewiston. The girls are sitting in the back singing Justin Bieber; Jenn is smiling, hands at the wheel. This is a good night. It is a tired night, but it is a good night all the same.

I am filming this scene as it takes place as part of my senior thesis. My hands shake as I laugh, sing, smile at this moment. But as I look back at footage of the night, with sunken feelings I realize my filming in no way does justice to the moment. To the swell of hearts and the expanse of smiles, to the wide eyes of hopes and dreams, to these young women making their way through a harsh world and coming out strong. I want to capture this moment, but I don’t. It’s not the same watching it play out on a pixelated screen with the hiss of uncalibrated audio, and microphones I did not set up correctly. I want people to feel the way I felt in this moment, but it seems the moment has passed us by.

You see, I came to �ֲ���ý wanting to be a teacher, then thought I wanted to produce public radio. For a hot second I thought about applying to grad school, toyed with the idea of working abroad, before finally shifting to focus on documentary film. In many ways my engagement with Lewiston, too, has followed this trajectory. I started as a teacher’s aide, moved into 21st Century as an afterschool instructor of youth radio, before working with area organizations to develop short videos about their programming.

In a lot of ways my focus on film has been inspired by the people I’ve met in this community. Their resilience and drive to create positive impact – to do so on a shoestring budget, with limited staffing, and without recognition. These people have been my teachers. This has been my education. The resilience of community partners, administrators, and organizational staff in this community is unprecedented. I hope someday I’ll do them justice by documenting their stories.
I’ll forever be grateful to the Harward Center for connecting me with community partners, to the Bonner Foundation for ensuring I’m financially able to do so, to Lewiston for showing me what a real community looks like, and to community partners for teaching me that resilience and hard work trumps all. Thank you.

NeCSA Takes Off: Networking for Coastal Science, Learning, and Engagement

Laura Sewall, Director of BMMCA & the Shortridge Coastal Center

The Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance (NeCSA) is taking off! Under the leadership of Caitlin Cleaver (Hurricane Island Foundation for Science and Leadership) and myself (Laura Sewall, �ֲ���ý College), NeCSA held its third planning meeting on March 28th and 29th, at the Darling Marine Center. Twenty participants from colleges and universities, state and federal agencies, and independent marine laboratories discussed the nuts and bolts of collaborating to track ecosystem changes in the Gulf of Maine’s near-shore. A pilot program is slated for this summer, involving 8-10 field sites, including the �ֲ���ý-Morse Mountain Conservation Area. As a “proof of concept,” the project includes deploying temperature loggers, documenting biological conditions in the intertidal zone, and testing methods for sharing and integrating data collected at stations ranging from Bowdoin’s Kent Island in New Brunswick to Shoals Marine Lab in New Hampshire.

The Gulf of Maine is changing significantly, as evidenced by having the world’s most rapid rate of warming (99% faster than all other marine waters, according to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute), and by dramatic changes in both biological conditions and ecosystem services. NeCSA’s overarching mission is to coordinate research and monitoring to fill in data gaps with respect to these changes; to provide field-based training for a range of students in a number of disciplines; and to help coastal communities adapt to new environmental conditions.

It is as if NeCSA is on the doorstep, or in flight school. We are developing a strategic plan and learning to collaborate, with a vista of opportunities before us. Collaboration takes time, but the rewards are many. NeCSA offers opportunities for synergies between research programs, disciplines, habitat types, and innovative methods for experiential learning and community engagement. We are eager to take flight!

We thank the National Science Foundation for funding our planning efforts.

The Meaning and Depiction of Suffering: Mass Incarceration in the Spotlight

Sam Boss, Assistant Director of Community-Engaged Learning and Research

This semester marked the fourth time that Professor Cynthia Baker included community-engaged projects as a central component of her Religious Studies course, “Human Suffering,” and students were once again emphatic about the meaningful impact this work had in enriching their learning. Complementing their close readings and discussion of the meaning and depiction of suffering in the biblical books of Job, Revelation, and Genesis, class members collaborated with partner organizations that are working to end mass incarceration and improve the lives of prisoners and those who are re-entering society. The efforts on this issue carried on the conversations initiated by the Martin Luther King Jr. observances at �ֲ���ý, which focused on the disproportionate effect of incarceration on minorities, while also responding to community members’ growing concerns about increasing rates of addiction and juvenile incarceration.

Working in small groups, students in “Human Suffering” supported the work of their partner organizations through both action and research-based projects. Cristopher Hernandez Sifontes, Mae Lubetkin, and Wendy Goldman offered detailed feedback on essays written by students in the College Guild’s correspondence education program for prisoners. Based in Brunswick Maine, the College Guild offers courses on a wide variety of subjects for prisoners from around the country, operating on the motto that “Respect Reduces Recidivism.” In reflections about their work with the College Guild, Cristopher, Mae, and Wendy noted the remarkable level of organization and dedication demonstrated by the members of the College Guild, which is staffed exclusively by volunteers. They also spoke highly of the written work submitted by students in the program, while acknowledging the complicated struggle between hopefulness, resilience, and anguish that came through in their poems and creative essays. In order to carry on their work and offer courses and feedback to more of the hundreds of prisoners who are eager to participate in the College Guild program, these students are planning to establish a club on campus next year to recruit more volunteers.

Other projects for the course laid the groundwork for sustained collaborations as well. Responding to concerns within Lewiston’s New American community about increasing rates of juvenile arrest and detention, Ahmed Sheikh, Alex Tritell, and Ezra Oliff-Lieberman researched culturally competent programs to educate immigrant youth and prevent them from entering juvenile corrections. Their findings will support the efforts of Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services (MIRS) to enhance their own programming. Another student, William Cleaves, mentored students in the Police Activities League (PAL) Center in Auburn, which aims to foster positive relationships between youth and law enforcement in an area of Auburn that has a high rate of juvenile crime. William continued his work at the PAL Center during Short Term and plans to recruit more volunteers for next year and establish greater connections with the �ֲ���ý athletic teams. For his class project, Joshua Moise-Silverman made a comprehensive list of addiction recovery services in Androscoggin County and is working to bring the information together into a mobile app that will provide a resource for law enforcement and justice department personnel seeking to offer alternatives to incarceration. Students Kelsey Pearson and Sasha Grodsky developed social media accounts and strategies to support efforts by the Center for Wisdom’s Women to establish a house for women re-entering society after incarceration.

For their final project, each student group developed poster presentations that brought together their analysis of biblical texts and their work in the community. They shared their results at the public symposium, “Chaos or Community: Conversations on Criminal Justice Reform in Maine,” which was organized by the Harward Center in conjunction with Professor Michael Rocque, Lecturer Christopher Petrella, and Professor Baker. Among a list of speakers that included formerly incarcerated individuals, two U.S. Attorneys, and law enforcement, corrections, and justice officials from around Androscoggin County, one of the highlights of the day was a short film by “Human Suffering” students Alexandra Morrow, Alexandra Berman, and Caleb Perlman, which featured four people in treatment at Grace Street Recovery Services responding to Governor Paul LePage’s call for vigilante violence against drug traffickers. Many in the audience were moved to tears by the personal narratives shared in the film, and the piece served as a powerful testament to the role that collaborations between community members and �ֲ���ý students have for transforming perceptions of issues of social injustice.

�ֲ���ý Students and Math Department Win Statewide Recognition

Darby Ray, Director

�ֲ���ý students and faculty were well represented at Maine Campus Compact’s 15th annual awards ceremony, which was held in the Hall of Flags at the State House in Augusta, Maine. Receiving the President’s Campus Leadership Award for �ֲ���ý was the Mathematics Department, which was recognized for its successful efforts to integrate community-engaged learning into its curriculum and for its support of students’ community-engaged research.

Of particular note is the department’s work to connect �ֲ���ý calculus students to local youth in need of algebra tutoring. The successful completion of algebra is one of the gateways to college acceptance and success, but few high schools are able to offer the differentiated instruction and personalized learning environments necessary for diverse students to succeed. In response to this challenge, �ֲ���ý math professors Katy Ott and Henry Boateng have developed community-engaged learning projects within their college calculus courses that pair their students with algebra students at Lewiston High School and various after-school programs. At the same time as �ֲ���ý students improve their chances of success in calculus by shoring up their algebra skills, local high school students receive one-on-one tutoring in algebra, enhancing their likelihood of completing a college-bound curriculum.

In addition to the Math department, two �ֲ���ý students received Student Heart and Soul Awards for their exceptional leadership both on campus and within their community. Mathematics major Camden Bock ’16 was recognized for his stellar work as a Harward Center Community Outreach Fellow, a role in which Camden recruited and supported over 50 of his fellow students as volunteers for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program in our area. Camden’s work supported seven site-based programs, including three he established during his leadership tenure. As a result of his efforts, there are now Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs in five out of the six elementary schools in Lewiston. Camden also established a successful robotics after-school program at Farwell Elementary School to reinforce Common Core standards in math, and he successfully completed a year-long, community-engaged honors thesis. In the coming year Camden will join the Ph.D. program in Math Education at the University of Maine in Orono.

Also completing a year-long honors thesis with community impacts was Heart and Soul Award winner Matthew Gee ’16, who was recognized for his extraordinary work as Community Outreach Fellow for Blake Street Towers, a Lewiston Housing Authority residence for low-income elderly and younger disabled people. In this role, Matt worked with the resident services director and the tenant council to plan activities aimed at bringing residents together and avoiding isolation. Each week for four years, Matt organized and recruited �ֲ���ý student volunteers to cook and serve Sunday brunch at Blake Street and to socialize with its residents. He planned menus, wrote grants, shared healthy recipes with and provided leftovers to residents, and became a much-loved member of the Blake Street community. Matt also organized and recruited his fellow bates students to be volunteers at mid-week game nights and other community-building activities. During his junior and senior years at �ֲ���ý, Matt expanded this program to another Lewiston Housing Authority residence for senior citizens, recruiting volunteers to help with more meals and activities. Matt’s next move will be to serve as Assistant Director at Bowdoin College’s McKeen Center for the Common Good.

A Growing Relationship with our Adopt-A-School Partner, Lewiston Middle School

Bethel Kifle, AmeriCorps VISTA

�ֲ���ý has been bustling with Lewiston middle-schoolers this year! Thanks to a growing partnership between the Harward Center and the college’s Residential Life (ResLife) program, a five-part community engagement series highlighting themes of nutrition, fitness, literacy, recreation, professional development, and college aspirations took place during Winter Term, with ResLife student staff members partnering with teachers and staff at Lewiston Middle School. The events included Dinner and a Movie, Mock Job Interviews, Snacks & Smoothies, Literacy Night, and Physical Education and were hosted on both the �ֲ���ý and Lewiston Middle School campuses.

Lewiston Middle School also held their first annual “Reading Across America” week in early March. For that, thirty �ֲ���ý students volunteered at a Scholastic Book Fair and shared their favorite middle school novel with students and their families. During “�ֲ���ý Day,” staff and students from the Admissions office, Ladd Library, and the Office of Intercultural Education provided short tours of reading spaces and shared other functions of those areas. In the evening, Lewiston Middle School students and their families were invited to the Harward Center for an evening of reading, literacy games, cookies, and chai. ResLife student staff members and other student volunteers joined them for a great night of literary fun!

During the college’s spring Short Term, the entire eighth grade came to �ֲ���ý for a full day of “college aspirations” programming. The class was divided into three groups of 125 students, with each group spending a different Friday on the �ֲ���ý campus. The weather cooperated beautifully! Organized by neuroscience major Grace Huang and featuring the volunteer efforts of the Short Term Action/Research Team, the Alpine Ski Teams, and numerous other �ֲ���ý volunteers, the middle schoolers enjoyed a campus scavenger hunt, conducted “man/woman on the quad” interviews with college students, played games and had discussions about their hoped-for futures, and feasted on lunch in Commons (always the most popular part of the visit). Formal surveys of participating teachers and students backed up what the anecdotal evidence from the day demonstrated, which is that both middle schoolers and their teachers were delighted with the information, insight, and positive energy offered by the day.

Living with Infinite Hope: Remarks upon Receiving the Harward Center’s Carignan Lifetime Achievement Award

Peggy Rotundo, Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives at the Harward Center and Celebrated Public Servant

I am deeply grateful to my colleagues at the Harward Center for this extraordinary honor. This award is deeply meaningful to me. First, to be selected by my wonderful peers for this honor and second, to be recognized by an award named for Jim and Sally Carignan, who have not only been friends and inspiring mentors to me, but have been central to my professional life and public service. Not only did Jim Carignan hire me twice to work at �ֲ���ý—first in Career Services and then at the Center for Service-Learning, but he also strongly supported my public service, making it possible for me to serve in Augusta while continuing to work part time at �ֲ���ý.

Jim was in many ways larger than life. He was filled with enormous optimism, good cheer, and faith in people’s capacity to do the right thing. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that “we must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Jim never lost hope.

He was passionate about building community and was a crusader for greater social justice. He understood that civility and respect were the cornerstones of a vibrant democracy, and he modeled those qualities in his public life as well as in his work at �ֲ���ý. There is not a day that goes by at the Harward Center when I don’t hear Jim’s booming voice joyfully singing, brimming with hope and possibility, and there is not a day at the State House when I don’t feel his presence and hear his voice, reminding me to be just a little more patient or try a little harder to find common ground with those on the other side of the aisle.

People often ask me what got me started in public service. I tell the story of being invited twenty-five years ago to serve on a committee the Lewiston School Board put together to try to figure out why we had such a high dropout rate, and a conversation I had in connection with that work with a Longley School kindergarten teacher named Lynne Adams. During my interview with Lynne, she told me that within a few weeks of the start of every school year, she could pick out those kindergartens who would probably not make it to high school graduation. In other words, for many of these five year olds, the race had already been run in their lives.

It was the injustice of this that motivated me to run for office—first for the School Committee and then for the State Legislature. And it is this injustice that continues to motivate me every day as I have worked with others in the State House to push not only for equitable educational opportunities for all Maine children, but for all those other things that those children and Maine families need in their lives to thrive: affordable and safe housing, livable wages, access to health care, clean air to breathe and safe water to drink. . . the list goes on and on.

When I worked in Career Services at �ֲ���ý, I encouraged students to look at patterns in their lives to give them direction as to what they might want to do in life. I would urge them to think about how they might build a life around their values and their interests. We never called it “purposeful work,” but that’s what we were encouraging students to think about. I have lead a charmed life because I have had the privilege of living what for me has been a very purposeful life—working to advance those values that give my life profound meaning; opening doors for others and helping them find and develop the strength and gifts that lie within them. I have had the opportunity to work with wonderful colleagues and students within an institution whose mission since its founding has been to open doors for all. I have had the opportunity to work with dedicated and talented community partners and legislators whose focus has been to enrich the lives of all who live in Maine. And I have had the honor, as an elected official, to be the voice of people I care deeply about, like the children in Lynne Adams’ kindergarten class.

I have a legislative colleague, Rep Craig Hickman from Winthrop, who once said on the floor of the house, that his purpose in serving in the legislature was to be a voice for those who cry in the night. I, too, have had the privilege of being a voice for those who cry in the night. And I have been the beneficiary of the generosity of others who were there to open doors for me. My life has been filled with a series of opportunities created by others in the many different communities in which I have lived during my life—people who loved and nurtured me, taught me, sacrificed for me. . . teachers, mentors, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and of course, family. Thank you, Danny! I feel profound gratitude to all, and many of you are sitting in this room today, because without you, without these opportunities, my life would have been very different.

For me, this reflection has been an important reminder of the preciousness of community and the role we all play in the lives of one another.

Today as we celebrate the magnificent work that has been done by �ֲ���ý students, faculty, staff, and community partners, let us remember our interconnectedness and the critical role each of us plays in the lives of everyone in this community. Our celebration today is our opportunity to recommit ourselves to the work of strengthening the lives of our neighbors. While there are extraordinary challenges we face in our work, we can’t walk away because the work is hard. We must support each other, for we are the voice of the children in Lynne Adams’ class, and we are the voice of those who cry in the night. They are depending upon us. We must never give up. We must live with infinite hope.

Thank you again for this extraordinary honor.

What It Means To Be Human: “Question of the Animal”

Sam Boss, Assistant Director of Community-Engaged Learning and Research

What do animals mean to us, and how have views of animals changed over time? How do people who work with animals relate to the creatures they rely on for food, companionship, and labor? To answer these questions, students in Professor Jane Costlow’s “Question of the Animal” class met with farmers, veterinarians, hunting guides, game wardens, and conservationists in Lewiston-Auburn and around Androscoggin County. By talking and working with individuals who depend on animals for their livelihood, the students gained a greater understanding of the ethical and practical considerations that determine how societies define what it means to be human. They also developed an appreciation for the joys and challenges of working with animals, day in and day out, from birth to death.

Reflecting on their experiences and conversations with community partners, students in the class commented on the lifelong memories and relationships they forged while visiting and helping out on farms. Stephanie Jones ’16, recounted witnessing the birth of a lamb on Double Z’s Land and Livestock farm in Turner after receiving an early morning text message from farm co-owner Kate Abbruzzese:

“Kate greeted me with afterbirth- and-iodine-soaked knees and a bright smile, though she had only slept two hours the previous night due to other births. When I got there, the first newborn lamb was trying to stand, wobbling a little less with each attempt. Eventually though, the lamb was stable enough to learn to suckle. Amid this process, the second lamb was on its way. The ewe, Rose, lay down and with the first few pushes the front hooves became visible, and with the next few, the nose, and then suddenly, a pure white lamb slid out, still encased in the amniotic sac. Rose almost immediately got up to inspect her new baby, while her first was already nudging for more milk. Alternating between babies, Rose licked and licked them clean. When all was said and done, both babies were likely exhausted, but healthy with stomachs full of warm milk. I also got to help Kate feed a few bottles to a set of twins whose mother only had one functioning teat, ensuring that they were getting enough milk. Using a low stool and an upturned bucket, we sat in the pen and held the two lambs on our lap to drink from the bottle. Overall, it was a wonderful experience, one that I will not soon forget. I am grateful to Kate who was so willing and enthusiastic to include �ֲ���ý students in this part of her life.”

Not all of the animals the students worked with during the course were of the cute and cuddly variety. Sadie Mae Pelletier traveled to Happy Hive Farms in Hartford to meet with Al Borzelli, who sells honey and a range of other apiary products, as well as furs and skulls. Sadie said of Mr. Borzelli:

“I was astounded by how many things that man could do with his hands! Not only does he build his hives, his own honey-extracting device, and make his own bee-feed, but he also raises different animals from year to year, hunts, and cooks. He has thoroughly and diligently adopted the mentality that if it can be built or made on your own, there is no reason to buy it. Seeing this mantra practiced in all facets of living but especially in honey production was very grounding to me. I appreciated that he got involved in the honey business just out of curiosity and interest and then stayed with the practice after recognizing that he could make a small contribution to the pollinator decline by doing what he does best, building things and diligently watching over them. I was so pleased at the opportunity to experience local people making local products.”

Allie Armstrong was similarly impressed by Steve Burger, co-owner of Winter Hill Farm in Freeport, which produces milk and cheese from rare Randall cows, and pork from Berkshire pigs. She was surprised to learn of the ethical considerations that drove him to enter the dairy and meat business:

“To my surprise, he told me that before he owned his own farm, he was actually a vegetarian. He didn’t want to eat meat unless he knew exactly where his food was coming from, which is why he started raising his own animals to eat. This allowed him to be fully aware of the process it takes to bring a piece of meat onto the plate, which he said was the only way that he would feel okay about eating meat again. This concept interested me because before I would have thought that participating in the meat-raising industry would have the opposite effect. I am so glad that I was able to have this discussion with a farmer in the community because it made me think about animal ethics issues in an entirely different light than I had before.”

These accounts from the field reflect the powerful impact students’ conversations with community partners had, not only in advancing their understanding of animals, but in giving them an appreciation for the complex motivations of people who work with animals for a living. Students in the course blogged about their experiences, and as part of their final project for the course, they developed educational materials that drew on their readings and their conversations in the community, in order to promote awareness about the role of animals in Maine society.

Community-Engaged Research Blitz: The 2016 Short Term Action/Research Team

Ellen Alcorn, Associate Director of Community-Engaged Learning and Research

The Harward Center closed out the 2015-2016 academic year with the 6th iteration of our Short-Term Action/Research Team (STA/RT). This year, we were fortunate to work with eleven talented �ֲ���ý students (selected from a competitive pool) who brought their diverse research skills to bear on a wide range of projects designed to meet the needs of our community partners. Students spent about twenty hours per week working individually with their community partners on projects, and also worked as a group to host three “Aspirations Days” on the �ֲ���ý campus for 400 graduating 8th graders from Lewiston Middle School. In addition to these Friday “Aspirations Days,” STA/RT projects included:

• The analysis and dissemination of survey information collected by the Maine Health Needs Assessment & Planning Process (SHNAPP), a collaborative of several health care agencies formed to better understand the health needs of individual communities in Maine.
• The development of a conversation tool aimed at helping education providers better understand the barriers to parent engagement.
• A study of the impact of public preschool attendance on rates of misbehavior in the Lewiston Public Schools.
• A �ֲ���ý alumni survey measuring the impact of community-engaged work during college on post-graduate work and life.
• A study of Lewiston residents’ current recycling practices, as well as the development of proposals to improve recycling rates.
• The creation of cultural competency materials, including an annotated bibliography, to be housed on the Harward Center website for use by the �ֲ���ý and Lewiston communities.
• The creation and dissemination of a survey on behalf of “We the People,” an initiative of the Rural Community Action Ministry aimed at increasing the number of people from poor and marginalized communities in Maine interested in running for public office.
• A two-part project that involved the collection of data to help health officials better understand the means by which new Mainers (immigrant and refugees) access health information, as well as the gathering of information aimed at helping health care providers create more welcoming décor for patients.
• The cataloguing of approximately 170 silk screens once used in the Lewiston mills to create bedspreads and other textiles, as well as recommendations about how best to store the silk screens.
• The development of a proposal for an alternative suspension program appropriate for immigrant and refugee youth.

In The News

• �ֲ���ý’ 2016 Projects for Peace tackle food security, arts education
• Lewiston-Auburn groups receive $8,500 in grants from Harward Center’s Carignan Fund
• 4 reasons that �ֲ���ý is again a Fulbright ‘Top Producer’ in 2016

Want to know more about something in this newsletter, or have questions about the Harward Center or the civic mission of �ֲ���ý College? Please contact Kristen Cloutier or visit us online.

In This Issue

• Renowned Speakers Featured in Civic Forum Series
• Coordinating Gulf of Maine Research and Monitoring: NSF Planning Grant Update
• Tieken Named Lynton Finalist by the New England Resource Center for Higher Education and the Center for Engaged Democracy
• New Course Taught by Harward Center Staff
• �ֲ���ý Partnership Brings Politically Active Art to Maine
• �ֲ���ý Hosts 2015 Project Pericles Conference
• Shortridge Summer Residencies Provide Students an Engaging Place to Call Home for the Summer
• In The News

Dear Friends,

As the fall semester comes to an end, Harward Center staff are closing the books on one of our busiest seasons to date. �ֲ���ý faculty from a dozen different departments and programs offered twenty-four community-engaged learning courses this fall, enrolling nearly 500 students. Among the dozens of projects undertaken by students in partnership with off-campus community members were a polar climate expo for middle school students, dam re-licensing research and recommendations for the City of Auburn, summer learning loss research with a local elementary school, and presentations to statewide legislators of student research into climate change’s probable impacts on Maine industries like farming, skiing, maple syrup, and lobster. In the co-curricular sphere, the new Community Liaison program helped mobilize student clubs and varsity athletic teams for a wide range of community-engaged projects, from sports clinics to theater workshops. Meanwhile, under the able leadership of Laura Sewall, director of the �ֲ���ý-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and Shortridge Coastal Center, �ֲ���ý took the lead on a National Science Foundation planning grant aimed at the creation of a network of field stations in the Gulf of Maine, one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on earth.

Even as we celebrate the unparalleled collaborative spirit of the Paris climate change agreement and the many ways our students are learning to work constructively across differences, we grieve the Islamophobia and political polarization that increasingly pit neighbor against neighbor and community against community. Here in Lewiston/Auburn, we are emerging from a bruising local election season in which �ֲ���ý students participated with passion and maturity, and we are working to forge new and stronger partnerships with immigrant-led organizations. The new year will no doubt bring its share of challenges and disappointments, but it will also be filled with fresh opportunities to work with diverse others toward shared goals and the public good. We look forward to those opportunities!

As always, we welcome your feedback, partnership, and support.

Darby

Renowned Speakers Featured in Civic Forum Series

Peggy Rotundo, Director of Strategic and Policy Initiatives

The Harward Center’s Civic Forum series explores civic, political, and policy issues of significance to the �ֲ���ý community, Maine, and beyond. During the Fall semester, an impressive group of speakers engaged students, faculty, staff, and off-campus community members in learning and reflection on some of today’s most pressing issues.

Maine’s U.S. Senator, Angus King, kicked the series off in October with an entertaining and timely talk on the reasons for Congress’s current dysfunction. In a presentation that reached back to ancient Greek philosophy and into the halls of today’s Capitol, Senator King argued that while fierce disagreement, hard-won negotiation, and a healthy skepticism toward governmental overreach have been hallmarks of the American political system since its inception, the unrelenting polarization and contempt toward government that characterize much political discourse and behavior today are a dramatic departure from, and a threat to, democracy itself.

Cuban popular educator and author, Ariel Dacal Diaz, also visited �ֲ���ý in October, sharing his perspective on the importance of preserving the Cuban revolution during this period of normalization with the United States. In addition to his formal presentation, Diaz engaged students in a lively discussion during an informal dinner sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Education at �ֲ���ý.

In a partnership with the Center for Wisdom’s Women in Lewiston, the Harward Center hosted Becca Stevens, acclaimed speaker, writer, and founder of the social enterprise, Thistle Farms. In a Civic Forum entitled, “Burning Desire: Our Longing for Justice and Hope for Healing,” Becca shared the story of her journey to secure safety, healing, and opportunity for women who have survived addiction, trafficking, and incarceration. She and two Thistle Farms graduates spoke powerfully about the “housing first” model of bringing hope and healing to women. They also met with students interested in social enterprise as a response to social injustice.

In the final Civic Forum talk of the year, former president of the Conversation Law Foundation, Phil Warburg, spoke compellingly about the prospects and benefits of solar power. Based on his most recent book, Harness the Sun, Wartburg’s presentation highlighted the stories of diverse people and projects from across the country who are part of today’s solar revolution.

Coordinating Gulf of Maine Research and Monitoring: NSF Planning Grant Update

Laura Sewall, Director of BMMCA & the Shortridge Coastal Center

The combined assets of �ֲ���ý-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and the Shortridge Coastal Center offer opportunities to do coastal research, student training, and community outreach—and to claim a place in the vibrant resurrection of field stations in the United States. An element of rebuilding our research infrastructure for the natural sciences is the National Research Council’s encouragement to network across stations, habitats and disciplines. A National Science Foundation FSML (field station and marine lab) planning grant was awarded to �ֲ���ý College (in partnership with the Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership) in early August to do just that, and to establish BMMCA + Shortridge as a contributing member of the nation’s active field stations.

One month later, and after a lively two-day discussion on Hurricane Island, a new network of Gulf of Maine field station directors and researchers agreed to forge ahead with efforts to track environmental change in the coastal zone. Our consensus was to focus efforts on monitoring “sentinels” that point to climate change impacts; that are do-able for our band of twelve small stations; and that would produce data that can be meaningfully shared and linked to the work of larger Gulf of Maine field stations and marine labs.

A second meeting took place at the �ֲ���ý College Coastal Center at Shortridge in November to work toward the identification of specific protocols and equipment needed to develop a data base that is both place-based and spans the regional extent of the Gulf of Maine. Discussions also centered on a strategic plan and a proposal for a National Science Foundation implementation grant. The proposal will ask for what we need to implement a 10 year plan to explore and determine regional patterns of change; to train students to engage in coastal research; and to do effective outreach in coastal communities, and by extension, to enable managers and decision-makers to facilitate adaptation in the coastal zone.

There is no doubt that the Gulf of Maine is changing rapidly. A recent study conducted by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute claims that our semi-enclosed coastal waters are warming faster than 99% of all planetary marine water bodies. This finding alone has served as a “call to action” for many coastal researchers and managers. As director of the Shortridge Coastal Center and recipient of the initial funding to engage a network of committed individuals and stations, I am delighted that �ֲ���ý is contributing to such purposeful work on the Maine coast.

Tieken Named Lynton Finalist by the New England Resource Center for Higher Education and the Center for Engaged Democracy

Darby Ray, Director

Mara Casey Tieken, assistant professor of Education at �ֲ���ý, was recognized this fall for her outstanding publicly-engaged teaching and scholarship by the New England Resource Center for Higher Education and the Center for Engaged Democracy. Named one of eight national finalists for the Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty, Mara was the only finalist from a small liberal arts college.

At �ֲ���ý, Mara is a much loved and respected teacher of classes on school reform, racial equity, and community organizing. Through fieldwork, her students partner with local teachers and after-school providers to expand educational opportunity in the Lewiston/Auburn community. She has worked with a number of local organizations to provide professional development and build public awareness on relevant educational issues such as college access and rural schooling, and she also serves on the boards of several community organizations and foundations. Mara’s research focuses on racial and educational equity in rural schools and communities. In her book, Why Rural Schools Matter (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), Mara’s careful ethnographic work highlights the falsity of stereotypes of rural deficiency and decline and reveals the complexity and vibrancy of rural institutions and places. Mara is currently working on a multi-year project, supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation, that explores the college aspirations, transitions, and persistence of rural, first-generation students. Mara came to �ֲ���ý from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she earned her doctorate. Prior to that, she taught third grade at a public elementary school in rural Tennessee. Mara is a highly regarded partner of the Harward Center and a valued member of college and community.

New Course Taught by Harward Center Staff

Darby Ray, Director

This fall, the Harward Center offered a new community-engaged First-Year Seminar, “Identity: Self and Community.” Originally developed by Sherry Russell in 2012, this seminar was modified and taught by the Harward Center’s Ellen Alcorn. In the course, students explored the concept of identity and its implications for how we live as individuals and as members of communities. The central question of the course was, “How do we live in community in ways that support well-being for self, other, and the community as a whole?” One of the course assignments was a semester-long scavenger hunt in which students completed a range of activities, such as volunteering for various organizations, frequenting downtown shops, getting a library card from the Lewiston Public Library, and visiting significant landmarks. This and other class experiences, wrote one student in a culminating reflective essay, “changed my perspective to appreciate Lewiston in an entirely new light. I [now] view it as a place of integration, an opportunity for civic engagement, and a city with a multi­faceted history of many cultures. This change in perspective…was the beginning of a drastic shift, ­ one of many small alterations in how I see the world around me.”

�ֲ���ý Partnership Brings Politically Active Art to Maine

Rachel Boggia, Assistant Professor of Dance

San Fransisco-based choreographer Sean Dorsey brought his special brand of politically active art to �ֲ���ý, Lewiston and Portland thanks to a 2014-15 collaboration between���ֲ���ý College Department of Theater��and Dance, the �ֲ���ý Dance Festival, and the Harward Center for Community Partnerships. ��America’s first��acclaimed transgender choreographer, Dorsey’s recent works are based on oral histories of underrepresented groups.�� His evening-length quartet,��The Secret History Of Love,��reveals the underground ways that LGBT people managed to survive and find love in decades past, despite tremendous legal and social obstacles.��Sean Dorsey Dance performed��The Secret History of Love��in Schaeffer Theater for a diverse and appreciative audience. After the show, LGBT high school students and community leaders met privately with Dorsey’s company to discuss the work. Dorsey taught over 140 �ֲ���ý students from across the curriculum during his residencies, but worked most intensively with those in��Dance 253, Repertory and Performance. These students learned two excerpts of The Secret History of Love and performed them in the 2014 Fall Dance Concert.�� The performers were touched by the process. Said one, “Sean is out there making a difference and using dance as a platform to tell untold histories…being around [him]��reminds me that I am someone that matters and someone that can make a difference and be successful in the world.” Dorsey also met with LGBT elders in Portland to gather oral histories for his 2015 The Missing Generation, which gives voice to the longterm survivors of the early AIDS epidemic of the 1980’s and 90’s. The Missing Generation had its east coast premier at the 2015 �ֲ���ý Dance Festival.

�ֲ���ý Hosts 2015 Project Pericles Conference

Darby Ray, Director

Civic engagement faculty and staff from 28 colleges gathered at �ֲ���ý in November for the 2015 Project Pericles Program Directors’ Conference. Project Pericles is a national consortium that encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include education for social responsibility and participatory citizenship as an essential element of their educational programs. The two-day conference featured presentations and discussions of diverse topics, including social entrepreneurism/innovation, faculty development, student learning outcomes, and the integration of civic engagement priorities and practices across the institution. A highlight of the conference was a student-led walk through downtown Lewiston, followed by a locally-sourced lunch at St. Mary’s Nutrition Center and a panel discussion by a group of young �ֲ���ý alumni (Ben Chin, Nate Libby, Erin Reed, Craig Saddlemire, and Julia Sleeper) who have put down local roots and become important community leaders. During the past two years, support from Project Pericles has helped �ֲ���ý develop new curricular and co-curricular pathways for civic engagement and social responsibility, including the new General Education Concentration (Knowledge, Action and the Public Good) and the Community Liaison program.

Shortridge Summer Residencies Provide Students an Engaging Place to Call Home for the Summer

Madelyn Heart, Class of 2018

Hidden in the woods of Phippsburg, Maine, the Shortridge Coastal Center provided me with a truly special and engaging place to call home for the summer. On a typical day, the huge kitchen table was strewn with laptops opened to various excel spreadsheets, while on the living room couch there might be over 100 Ziploc bags painstakingly labeled for the next day’s marsh data collection. In the driveway, it was not uncommon to see a large Marine Mammals of Maine truck with an injured or dead seal inside. Most Shortridge residents did not work a typical nine-to-five workday; instead, scheduling was done around the arrival of low tide. And after the data were collected, and when the weather was warm, wetsuits drying on the picnic table were evidence of wild moments spent surf kayaking off Seawall Beach.

Working with geology professor Bev Johnson, students Cailene Gunn ’16 and Dana Cohen-Kaplan’16 conducted senior thesis research on carbon and methane emissions from nearby salt marshes. Their results will contribute to a relatively new and rapidly growing body of research and bolster arguments to protect the health of salt marshes in the context of climate change.

Nicole Cueli ’16 and Ian Hillenbrand ’17, working under the supervision of geology professor Mike Retelle, surveyed Seawall and Popham beaches to assess how seasonal processes and sea level rise effect erosion and accretion. Nicole described her work by saying, “Not only do I get to work in a great place, I am also able to inform residents of what’s happening along the beaches.” Jane Weinstock (Smith College, ’16) continued a similar and on-going research program based at Smith College by “profiling” the beach at Popham State Park.

Another summer resident, Nicole Dubois (University of Maine ’16), served as a technical assistant for the non-profit organization, Marine Mammals of Maine; her favorite part of the job was the opportunity to rescue seals. Another �ֲ���ý student, Nathan Stephansky ’17, worked as a gatekeeper for the �ֲ���ý Morse Mountain Conservation Area. His role was to help maintain the conservation goals of the area and, in his words, “meet the most interesting people in the world.” Lastly, I was Laura Sewall’s (director of the �ֲ���ý Morse Mountain Conservation Area and the Shortridge Coastal Center) assistant for the summer. I was privileged to help Laura on several projects related to a National Science Foundation grant designed to join twelve coastal research stations—ranging from Nova Scotia to Nantucket—in order to collectively assess climate-related changes in the Gulf of Maine. As part of those activities, I was able to spend two days on Hurricane Island to assist with the first meeting of the consortium of field stations.

It was exciting to live in a house filled with interesting individuals and to do meaningful work. Family dinners on Tuesday nights were full of stories ranging from what happened on the marsh that day to a study abroad experience in New Zealand. Interactions with the local community were inspiring and thought-provoking, too. The Shortridge Summer Residency is a wonderful experience, and the Shortridge Coastal Center is a gem that �ֲ���ýies are lucky to have.

In The News

• Summer Student Work: LGBTQ nonprofit intern Jason DeFelice ’17

Want to know more about something in this newsletter, or have questions about the Harward Center or the civic mission of �ֲ���ý College? Please contact Kristen Cloutier or visit us online.

In This Issue

• Exchanging Personal Stories and Perspectives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Place, Community and Transformation in Kingston, Jamaica: A Study of Space
• News from the Coast: Picking up the Pace in Phippsburg
• Notes from the Field: Community Engagement in the Shetland Islands
• Short Term Action/Research Team Completes Fifth Successful Year
• Community-Engaged Research Fellows Program Fosters Interdisciplinary Peer Community
• In The News

Dear Friends,

As we shift into summer mode at �ֲ���ý, it is time to bring closure to the just-finished academic year. For Harward Center staff, that means documenting the year’s activities and analyzing survey responses, focus group notes, observer reports, and other assessment data to try to understand what worked well and what needs improvement. It also means pausing to ask fundamental questions about the goals, methods, and impacts of our work.

One thing that has distinguished community-engaged work at �ֲ���ý for decades is the degree to which that work is integrated into the academic program. Rather than being relegated to the “extra” curricular realm, civic engagement at �ֲ���ý is at the heart of the teaching and learning enterprise. Even as �ֲ���ý faculty members distinguish themselves as top-notch scholars in their respective fields, they are also superb and caring teachers, many of whom find community-engaged pedagogies to be highly effective means of motivating student engagement with course content while developing important academic and life skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration across differences, and ethical reasoning.

To grow faculty members’ understanding of and appetite for community-engaged work, Harward Center staff offer a range of services and programs throughout the year. A highlight of our faculty development programming was last month’s progressive dinner event, made possible by a small grant from Project Pericles. Held in downtown Lewiston at the Nutrition Center of Maine, �ֲ���ý faculty members rotated from one table to the next. At each table, while enjoying part of a delicious, locally-sourced meal, faculty table hosts led their peers in small-group discussions of different dimensions or topics of civically-engaged work. For example, one table invited participants to consider projects in partnership with local schools, while another focused on food-access projects; one table featured a discussion of small-scale projects while another focused on larger or longer-term projects. After these focused dinner conversations, faculty walked across Kennedy Park to a local business for dessert and continued lively discussion of community-engaged projects, partners, and possibilities. The event was a lovely way both to highlight and celebrate past and current community-engaged work and to invite faculty who may not have undertaken such work to consider doing so.

In this newsletter, we feature a range of academically-based civic work, most of it from the college’s Short Term, which ended a few weeks ago. First are brief articles by two students who share experiences from community-engaged learning courses in Ethiopia and Jamaica, under the guidance, respectively, of education professor Patti Buck and anthropology professor Val Carnegie. Staying with the international theme, we have a short “note from the field” from history professor Gerry Bigelow, offering a window onto an oral history project in the Shetland Islands, UK that also included a partnership with a local elementary school. Closer to home is our own �ֲ���ý-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and Shortridge Coastal Center, where students and faculty engage in diverse research and learning projects, many of them linked to climate change and sea level rise. Finally, we have highlights from two Harward Center programs in which students cultivated and used their research skills in diverse publicly-engaged projects.

If you see something you like in this newsletter, or something that raises a question or prompts an idea, let us hear from you! We love to be in conversation about the college’s mission to cultivate “intellectual discovery and informed civic action.”

All my best,
Darby K. Ray
Director

Exchanging Personal Stories and Perspectives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Barbara Crespo, Class of 2015

“Ba! Ta! Ja! Ha! Da!”�� The room at B Street Community Center was filled with the sounds of the Somali alphabet letters. “Mahadsanid!” The class repeated after the charismatic Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services founder and instructor, Jama Mohamed. For five days, a total of fourteen �ֲ���ý College students, Professor Patricia Buck, and Teacher Assistant, Barbara Crespo gathered at the Center to learn the Somali alphabet, dozens of Somali vocabulary words, and phrases that they would utilize in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. While there are eighty individual languages of Ethiopia including Amharic, the official language, students were preparing to teach English in schools serving a Somali immigrant population.

Once in Addis the students worked in one of three school settings. They wrote daily journals about their experiences, developed and implemented lessons, and explored the rich and warm culture of Addis Ababa. Aware that they only had a short time in the city, students were quick to put the Somali phrases into use in vibrant lessons.

Everyday groups of students would make their way through the busy streets of Addis to their school sites. Some would walk through winding streets; others rode multiple mini buses through thick traffic. After a few days, students figured out the best shortcuts and claimed favorite restaurants. They taught talented and energetic Somali students who longed to learn as well as exchange personal stories and perspectives. Students faced the difficulties of time management, daily lesson planning, and adaptation to the challenges of teaching in under-resourced circumstances.

On days off the class visited an international training center for Ethiopia’s renowned marathon runners, climbed nearby Entoto Mountain taking in breathtaking views of the city, played football (soccer) with local youth, and went to national museums highlighting Ethiopian history and culture.

As their time abroad came to a close, some vowed to return to the rapidly developing country to continue the work they had started. All reported that they were deeply moved by the experience and came to understand poverty, privilege, the politics of teaching English as a foreign language, international aid work, and human resilience in new and, hopefully, enduring ways.

Place, Community and Transformation in Kingston, Jamaica: A Study of Space

Keenan Shields, Class of 2018

Place, Community and Transformation in Kingston, Jamaica was as broad as the title suggests. There were class meetings and activities, but no formal class. From the moment we woke up to the time we went to bed we were in class. Anthropology honors and studies everyday life; as budding anthropologists, existing was learning.

The focus of the course was on space: how people use space; why spaces affect people in the ways that they do; how space can be repurposed, reimagined and revitalized for social renewal. Although we considered all kinds of public space, we accorded special attention to green space and the potential it had for breaking down divides and bringing people together. Professor Carnegie laid out the course in flexible enough terms as to create a dynamic frame so that no matter what we studied and observed, we could fit it into the course.

We traveled to Kingston early on Monday, April 27, the first day of Short Term. A long day of flying, busing and lay-overing finally brought us to our homestay families’ homes late that night. For the next week and a half we moved around as a class, touring several downtown, economically disadvantaged communities, listening to a host of guest lecturers, and getting familiarized with the spaces and movements of our new home. The lecturers we heard from included community organizers, architects, engineers, urban planners and developers, social workers and professors, all of whom built upon the readings and studying we did in the months leading up to the course and laid a new foundation of what had already happened and was happening to create social renewal in Kingston.

After our orientation time, we broke into pairs to do ethnographic field work, a research technique practiced by anthropologists that involves learning cultures, communities and people through conversation, participation in daily life and observation. All seven pairs were assigned to different communities or public park spaces to conduct their research. In the spirit of experiential learning, Professor Carnegie gave very little instruction to how we would go about learning and being in these communities, giving us the freedom to develop our research and contributions as we saw fit.

A challenge we encountered early in our field work process was negotiating what exactly we would be doing for the people we were learning from–how would we reciprocate the time and knowledge they were giving us? This question became the driving force behind the community engaged learning aspect of the course, challenging us to redefine and reimagine our reciprocity. Each placement, whether in a community or park space, had different opportunities and organizations to engage with; some required more creativity to find ways to reciprocate the attention and care we received. Eventually, we��found ways to reciprocate, whether through participating in the local economy or creating time to listen to the stories of people who are often ignored.

News from the Coast: Picking up the Pace in Phippsburg

Laura Sewall, Director, �ֲ���ý-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and Shortridge Coastal Center

�ֲ���ý-Morse Mountain Conservation Area (BMMCA) served as both a study site and an opportunity for community engagement for Brett Huggett’s class, The North Woods, during Short Term. After learning about the Spruce-fir forest at Morse Mountain, the class led a tree walk for Phippsburg Elementary School students, beginning with spontaneous entertainment from Nathan Stephansky ’17, BMMCA’s gatekeeper for the summer. Huggett’s students also identified the presence of Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, an invasive insect that eventually kills hemlocks, and updated a brochure that allows visitors to take a self-guided nature walk. All of these activities support the environmental and educational missions of BMMCA, and are much appreciated by the Town of Phippsburg.

Short Term also provided the opportunity for Adam Auerbach ’16 and Nate Dana ’17 to map boundaries between vegetation zones in the Sprague Marsh. Their final map constitutes baseline data for tracking vegetation changes in response to sea level rise. In the future, this work may complement other on-going research, conducted by geology professors Bev Johnson and Mike Retelle, including measurements of sediment accretion, beach erosion, and carbon storage and emissions at BMMCA and area beaches.

By the time summer is underway, five geology students (Cailene Gunn ’16, Dana Cohen-Kaplan ’16, Nicole Cuelli ’16, Ian Hillenbran ’16, and a student from Smith College) will be continuing much of this research while living at the Shortridge Coastal Center. Other summer residents include Madeleine Hart ’18, Assistant to the BMMCA Director, two research technicians working for the Salt Marsh Habitat and Avian Research Project (SHARP), and Nicole Dubois, a technical assistant for Marine Mammals of Maine. Visiting researchers include Jim Tang and two graduate students from The Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. They will work with Bev Johnson to measure the flow of carbon through the Sprague Marsh over a two week period. This work contributes to our understanding of the role that coastal wetlands play in the carbon cycle–and consequently, in climate change. Tang’s work is also focused on “Bringing wetlands to market”, or monetarily valuing marshes for their capacity to store carbon.

All of this represents active involvement in both globally-relevant research and the life of a vibrant coastal community. Please contact Laura Sewall if you would like to be involved.

Notes from the Field: Community Engagement in the Shetland Islands

Gerald Bigelow, Lecturer in Archeology

Hi Darby,

This is just a fast note to say that our work in Shetland has been going very well, and that the students are having a great time with their activities. We just finished the first ‘internship’ type experience for Gary Kersbergen at the Dunrossness Primary School yesterday, and he and I will also be there on Thursday giving talks and working with the students and teachers. Tonight we will interview an elderly resident of our scientific project area for traditional ecological knowledge and much more, and on Thursday night I will give a public lecture on the research project at the Boddam Community Hall. Tomorrow morning I will be interviewed by BBC Shetland Radio. And along with all this we have been doing archaeological surveys out in a variety of sheep pastures, in a variety of weathers! Last Saturday we traveled to the UK’s northernmost inhabited island, and collected limpets that are part of a biology project that Will Ambrose in Biology has been doing as part of the larger research.

We are coming back on Saturday, and I wish we had a week longer, and I know the students feel that way too. I have attached some photos: the students conversing with members of the South Mainland Community History Group, Casey collecting limpets on the island of Unst, and Gary at the school yesterday.

Best regards,
Gerry

Short Term Action/Research Team Completes Fifth Successful Year

Holly Lasagna, Associate Director, Community-Engaged Learning Program

In its fifth year, the Harward Center’s Short Term Action/Research Team (STA/RT) program continues to collaborate with community partners in a unique way. �ֲ���ý College’s Short Term–a five-week spring term in which students take one intensive course instead of the usual four–allows for the exploration of subjects in a deeper and more sustained way than might be possible during the regular academic year. In addition, because virtually all �ֲ���ý students have some type of research experience thanks to a required senior capstone project or thesis, the STA/RT program matches students’ research skills to community-developed research needs during the focused five-week program. After a competitive application process, the small team of students works approximately 20 hours per week on community-engaged research projects and research-based action projects that are identified by staff at the Harward Center in consultation with community partners.

This year’s STA/RT program engaged eight students in diverse community-engaged projects that ranged from background research and initial data collection to data interpretation and project completion. These projects included:

• Final analysis of a three-year pilot program to assess the Outpatient Family Medicine Teaching project for the Central Maine Health Center Residency Program.
• Synthesis of existing literature on community paramedicine (CP) and the creation of a video and report on CP’s ability to reduce emergency department visits, developed in collaboration with the Muskie School and United Ambulance Community Paramedicine Program.
• Creation of an asset map of community resources and the continuation of community lead poisoning programming in conjunction with the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative.
• Development and implementation of an aspirations-themed day of programming for students from the 21st Century after-school program at Lewiston Middle School.
• Analysis of the impact on student reading levels of the Project Story Boost program at a local elementary school.
• Implementation of a parking study to compare the number of on-street parking spaces available in an area of downtown Lewiston with the number of cars actually utilizing those spaces–data that will inform city policy on parking requirements for downtown housing units.
• Research for the Lewiston superintendent of schools and the Lewiston School Committee on innovative approaches to public education in other communities.
• Assistance in the development of a database of employers willing to hire and train local youth for internships and potential future jobs. The resulting database will be used to develop a sustainable, long-term strategic plan for youth services in the city of Auburn.

Community-Engaged Research Fellows Program Fosters Interdisciplinary Peer Community

Darby Ray, Director

Community-engaged research–academic research that addresses public needs in dialogue with community partners–is an important part of a �ֲ���ý education and the College’s commitment to informed civic action. The Harward Center for Community Partnerships sponsors the Community-Engaged Research Fellows program to support students’ pursuits of significant research projects with the off-campus community. Through seminar readings and discussion, students are exposed to the history, methods, and ethics of community-engaged research across different disciplines. These discussions engage them in thinking about the distinctive values and challenges of community-engaged research while creating an interdisciplinary peer community for sharing their work. Among this year’s Fellows was senior Jess Nichols, who researched the process of building and sustaining mutually beneficial campus-community partnerships through interviews with community partners and students. Jess concludes that the key ingredients needed to building and sustaining effective partnerships are a deep understanding of local context, thoughtfully cultivated reciprocal relationships, and structural supports such as those provided by the Harward Center. Another CER Fellow, Senior Martha Schnee, used methods as diverse as historic discourse analysis, cultural ethnography, creative nonfiction, and photography to investigate the small desert town of Marfa, Texas. Martha researched the question of how a burgeoning arts community created by an “outsider” links past narratives of “going west” to present day experiences in the region. Reflecting on the program, Martha commented, “The Community- Engaged Research Fellowship is one of the best academic resources I have experienced in my time at �ֲ���ý. My year-long honors thesis project was an incredibly challenging project, and this seminar allowed me to feel heard and nurtured throughout the process.” Along with the STA/RT program, the CER Fellows has enjoyed the generous support of The Endeavor Foundation.

In The News

• For students, finding an invasive insect in Maine is yet another ‘useful’ �ֲ���ý experience
• College close to home meant best of both worlds for five local �ֲ���ý graduates
• In second major award, Tolosky ’15 receives Projects for Peace grant
• Life in the bike lane: A hands-on ride in the urban-planning world
• 50 years ago: Ali, Liston, Lewiston, �ֲ���ý��
• “Working Weekend” alumni say: Harmonize your interests, strengths

Want to know more about something in this newsletter, or have questions about the Harward Center or the civic mission of �ֲ���ý College? Please contact Kristen Cloutier or visit us online.