乐播传媒

This spring for the second year in a row, 乐播传媒 students organized a grass-roots Short Term project to explore trade issues in Nicaragua and Maine. The first trip, in 2005, was born from then-senior Sarah Sherman-Stokes鈥� intellectual frustration. Investigating economic globalization for her senior thesis, she had already twice visited Nicaragua, learning first-hand how harsh poverty keeps the globalization debate roiling there. At 乐播传媒 during the winter of 2005, though, the thesis wasn鈥檛 happening.

Illustration by Marty Braun.

鈥淢y thesis was just a bunch of words analyzing a community that I couldn鈥檛 begin to understand fully,鈥� she says. What followed was pure 乐播传媒. Sherman-Stokes and other students asked College Store director Sarah Potter 鈥�77 about carrying T-shirts made in Nicaragua by the Nueva Vida Women鈥檚 Sewing Cooperative. The factory, built by women who lost everything to Hurricane Mitch in 1998, had become the centerpiece of Sherman-Stokes鈥� thesis, modeling a possible 鈥渁lternative to sweatshops and corporate globalization and unchecked power,鈥� she says.

The bookstore conversation became a plan to visit the cooperative. And before long, that fact-finding visit morphed into a non-credit Short Term, with 乐播传媒 students and others, including Potter, on board. The project had Maine and Nicaragua components. Maine research sites included union organizations, farms, 鈥渟weat-free鈥� clothing campaigns and a call center.

The Nicaragua portion exposed the group to all facets of the globalization issue. In nine action-packed days, they ran the gamut of economic activity from a fair-trade coffee plantation to a foreign-owned garment factory in a major free-trade zone to, of course, Nueva Vida. Nicaragua and Maine parallels were apparent in ways pragmatic聽鈥� with a per capita income of about $2,500 U.S., Nicaragua, too, is losing its manufacturing to countries with cheaper labor聽鈥� and moral. In both regions, 鈥渨e saw public interest pushing up against corporate power,鈥� says Sherman-Stokes, who now works at an immigration-rights organization in Washington, D.C. 鈥淲e saw communities struggling, and often succeeding in rendering alternatives. I think we understood that it鈥檚 not globalization per se that鈥檚 harmful, but more often, the way it is done and by whom.鈥�

Another participant was Matt Schlobohm 鈥�00, director of the Maine Fair Trade Campaign. 鈥淭he program confirmed both how important collective action is,鈥� he says, 鈥渁nd how important it is to look at everyday things – where our food and the things we purchase come from, and how we can try to move that toward supporting fairness, equity, and justice.鈥�

Veterans of the 2005 program hope to see the alternative Short Term and a 乐播传媒-Nicaragua link become permanent. Lacking official sanction, though, the program depends on the initiative of students and the support of staff and faculty. Still, this spring a second group followed a Maine-Nicaragua itinerary similar to last year鈥檚.

Amanda Harrow 鈥�06, a Watson Fellowship recipient and a winner of the College鈥檚 2006 Stringfellow Award, led the group of 12 students (including seven first-years), three staffers, and a participant each from faculty and community. 鈥淚 was bummed that I couldn鈥檛 be there鈥� in 2005, Harrow says. 鈥淎nd people who did it said it was one of the most important things they鈥檝e done at 乐播传媒.鈥�