Brenna Callahan ’15 inspires a love of reading in young Montello School students with Project Story Boost.

Brenna Callahan works with a rising fifth grader at Montello School. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Name: Brenna Callahan

Hometown: Milton, Mass.

Major: Interdisciplinary studies, with a focus on education

Internship sponsor: Harward Center Summer Community Work-Study Fellowship.

1. What is Project Story Boost?

Basically, it’s an early literacy intervention program. We work one-on-one with kindergarteners, first- and second-graders in a comfortable environment. We want to replicate a nighttime reading session with parents, a setting where the kids can feel relaxed and develop a love of literacy with a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student — develop that relationship and read some great books. I started working at Montello in 2013.

2. School’s out, what do you do for the project during the summer?

During the school year, as a Student Volunteer Fellow I recruited and trained ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student volunteers, and worked one-on-one with Montello students. This summer I’ve been working with a summer class unrelated to Project Story Boost, but also looking at Project Story Boost’s evaluation program, redesigning and refining it to make sure we’re getting the information we want.

3. Tell me about that information.

We’re entering the data we collected over the entire school year after every single student session. After a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student reads with a Montello student, the volunteer fills out a form that tracks the Montello student’s behavior, which book they were reading, how responsive they were and what kinds of questions they asked.

This summer we’re inputting all the data to see if there any trends based on the level of book the pupil read. Then we’re going to take a step back and look at the evaluation forms to see if there are different questions we want to ask to solicit new information.

4. What specific details did you focus on?

We’re trying to see if there are changes over time — if a child’s behavior is different at the beginning of a semester than at the end, if they’re understanding more of the story at the end of the semester than at the beginning. We’re looking for concrete changes that show that the program’s making a difference.

5. What do you like about this work?

I love working in the schools, it’s my favorite environment to work with kids. I’m a very structured person, and schools give me that structure. I’ve never worked with such young kids before, that was something new for me — I love it. I love getting to see Montello students experience the same books that I loved reading as a child.

6. Do they have ?

They do! There are some good ones in there, like .

7. How does Project Story Boost relate to your studies at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ or your career plans?

I know I want to go into education, but I don’t know exactly how I want to do it yet. I don’t know if I want to do curriculum development, if I want to write books, work one-on-one with students or work in the classroom. Getting into the Lewiston schools has been a great opportunity to explore the different career paths I may want to pursue. I’ve gotten to try a variety of things, which has been really eye-opening. I’ve been very lucky to have these opportunities.

8. Any thoughts on how your liberal arts education impacted your experience?

One thing that I’ve loved about my ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ experience is that I’m an interdisciplinary major. I’ve been able to combine classes in education, sociology, psychology and politics, see the connections and see how it plays out in the real world.

9. Do you have any concluding thoughts you’d like to share?

Lewiston is the reason I came to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Through the Harward Center and through Project Story Boost I’ve been able to take advantage of that, to live in this community and be a part of it in a way I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. It’s my favorite part of going to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

I’m really excited to be here for the summer, and to be a part of the community 12 months out of the year, to work with these kids and develop meaningful relationships. They’ve grown, and that’s really fun to see.

This year’s William Stringfellow Awards for Justice and Peace will be presented to Kate Doria, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College senior active in community service, and Outright L/A, a sex and gender support group. An awards ceremony and potluck supper will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 14, in the Benjamin Mays Center, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College, 95 Russell St.

The ceremony is open to the public. For more information, please contact 207-786-8272 or this aberard@bates.edu.

The Office of the Multifaith Chaplain at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ celebrates the 10th anniversary of the William Stringfellow Awards for Peace and Justice this year. The program includes a presentation by former Stringfellow recipients highlighting the work they have done and insights developed since receiving the award.

The awards recognize people or organizations that have dedicated their lives and work to the promotion of justice and peace, particularly through a courageous and sustained commitment to redressing systemic causes of violence and social injustice.

Doria’s award follows years of community service in Lewiston and beyond. This resident of Middlebury, Vt., traces her interest in good works to childhood. She recalls watching her parents, who were market gardeners, share vegetables with neighbors and senior citizens at church.

“They encouraged me to be generous and share everything I had with others,” she says.

Doria has been involved with Lewiston’s Trinity Jubilee Center for a year and a half, first as a tutor in the afterschool program and later as a coordinator of that program, recruiting other ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students to serve as homework helpers with Lewiston youth. Also in Lewiston, she has worked with the Lewiston High School Teen Parenting Center and Lots to Gardens.

“I like to focus on an attitude of sharing, because it evokes a sense of mutuality,” Doria says. “Just as I show a student how to find the area of a triangle” in her afterschool work at Trinity, “the student teaches me new things, too.”

Her overseas service work outside the United States has included volunteering at summer camps and nonprofits in Romania and Uganda. Doria is majoring in an interdisciplinary program that she designed to explore the reciprocal relationship between the environment and human behavior.

At the March 14 event, previous Stringfellow recipients include , represented by Ari Rosenberg ’06 , youth programs coordinator of this St. Mary’s Health Systems program; the , represented by Erin Reed ’08; the , represented by immigration and federal issues organizer Ben Chin ’07; and Margot Fine ’03, a social justice educator

has worked since 1996 to create affirming environments for youth, ages 22 and under, who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or questioning. Dedicated to a philosophy of collaboration that encourages young people to be involved with every aspect of the program, the organization provides social, cultural and educational events that include weekly drop-ins, gay-straight alliance projects at local high schools, and training in intersecting oppressions and increasing safety for LGBTQ youth.

William Stringfellow, a member of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ class of 1949, is known as a formidable critic of the social, military and economic policies of our country and as a tireless advocate for racial and social justice — justice, he insisted, that could be realized only if it were pursued spiritually.

His career of activism can be traced to his junior year at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, when he organized a sit-in at a local Maine restaurant that refused to serve people of color. It was his first foray into social activism, and he never looked back. A gay white lawyer, he lived and practiced law in Harlem a decade before the “war on poverty.”

Stringfellow’s experiences there deepened both his legal and religious thought and shaped the message of his widely influential books, pleading the sustaining relevance of a universal ethic of human rights.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Harward Center for Community Partnerships, in coordination with the college’s Student Volunteer Fellows, will hold a Community Partnerships Day from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, May 12.

Partnering with 10 local organizations to build community and address local needs, more than 75 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student volunteers will work together with local organizations throughout the day and conclude with a celebration, including a nature walk, live music and a barbecue. “We are thinking about this as a day of partnerships,” says student coordinator Katie Seamon, a senior from Leverett, Mass.

The Harward Center is working with the following area organizations for Community Partnerships Day: the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project, the Good Shepherd Food Pantry, Lots to Gardens, Rural Community Action Ministries, New Beginnings, Androscoggin Land Trust, Lewiston Housing Authority, Seniors Plus, River Valley Estates and the Stanton Bird Club.

Registration for the day takes place from 9 to 10:30 a.m. in Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave., ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College. Project work will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and include a 2006 senior class project, where 45 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ seniors are scheduled to repaint apartments from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Meadowview Housing Development, on Spoffard Street, behind the Sabbatus Street Friendly’s.

A Stanton Bird Club-led community nature walk will leave from the Festival Plaza in Auburn at 4 p.m. and follow the River Walk, returning to Festival Plaza.  There will be live music there from 4 to 5 p.m., followed by a community barbecue. In case of rain, the barbecue will be held in the Ronj Coffee House, 32 Frye St., ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

According to its organizers, the event will occur rain or shine, but torrential downpours may change the schedule somewhat. Most of the projects have rain alternatives.
For more information, please call 207-786-6202.

The Harward Center links the college’s academic mission with its commitment to service and partnerships. It aims to work with community partners to meet community needs and, in the process, to integrate civic engagement with the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ educational experience.  The Harward Center provides an institutional structure and resource for collaborations with the community.

The four Student Volunteer Fellows work with community agencies to develop volunteer opportunities in the Lewiston-Auburn area and to match fellow ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students appropriately

For the third year, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College students are leading a program to match fellow students with volunteer opportunities in Lewiston, Auburn and nearby communities.

The four Student Volunteer Fellows at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ during the 2004-05 academic year are Ryan Conrad, a senior from Middletown, R.I.; Sara Gips, a sophomore from Cape Elizabeth; Brooke Miller, a sophomore from Anacortes, Wash.; and Meghan Thornton, a senior from Shaker Heights, Ohio.

Administered by the Center for Service-Learning, the volunteer program has involved hundreds of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students in dozens of projects — projects as diverse as reading with elementary-school students, tutoring seniors in computer use at Blake Street Towers and helping rehabilitate seven local residences with the Rebuilding Together program, whose local chapter was established by a recent ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ graduate, John Scott Johnson.

“It means more to the community that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students, rather than professors or administrators, are creating opportunities to volunteer,” says Gips, whose role on the team is to promote volunteerism among student organizations and sports teams. “I’m really proud of that.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students will have a chance to learn more about community volunteer opportunities on Sept. 20, when the volunteer fellows bring community organizations to campus for the annual Volunteer Fair. Organizations represented this year will include the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project, Auburn Land Lab, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Good Shepherd Food Bank, Maine Public Broadcasting, New Beginnings, the Rural Community Action Ministry and Lots to Gardens.

Conrad focuses on volunteer orientation and developing volunteer opportunities for students. Thornton administers children’s programming, such as the Longley Elementary School Mentoring Program. Miller concentrates on producing monthly events for all-campus participation, such as the annual Make-a-Difference Day and the Martin Luther King Day Read-in at Martel School, Lewiston.

“If you get people interested in helping even just once,” says Miller, “that makes a huge difference.”