91ֱ�� Opera Brings “Jack and the Beanstalk” to Schools Across Northeast Ohio for Winter Term</h1> <article> <h1>91ֱ�� Opera Brings “Jack and the Beanstalk” to Schools Across Northeast Ohio for Winter Term</h1> <p>srasmuss — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 18:24:48 +0000</p> <span>91ֱ�� Opera Brings “Jack and the Beanstalk” to Schools Across Northeast Ohio for Winter Term</span> <span><span>srasmuss</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-10T14:24:48-04:00" title="Monday, March 10, 2025 - 14:24">Mon, 03/10/2025 - 14:24</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This January, 91ֱ�� voice students had a unique opportunity to rehearse and tour the opera rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk in just one month. This experience included a total of ten performances, allowing 91ֱ�� students to connect with hundreds of enthusiastic elementary and middle school students across Northeast Ohio, providing invaluable exposure to classical singing bound to inspire.</p> <p>"With it going on during Winter Term," said second-year voice major Ella Vaughn, who played the roles of Jack’s Mother and the Giant’s Wife, "it was really nice to be able to focus on the production without classes.” During Winter Term, 91ֱ�� students pursue a unique project outside of regular course offerings, which can be done across the U.S., around the world, or, in the case of Jack and the Beanstalk, on campus. Directed by Associate Professor of Opera <a href="/stephanie-havey">Stephanie Havey</a> and Associate Professor of Opera Coaching <a href="/kyung-eun-na">Kyung-Eun Na</a>, students had only a mere one-and-a-half weeks of rehearsal to prepare the entire production, during which they were also responsible for setting up the stage and moving props. Vaughn commented on how even though the show was, at times, comedic and lighthearted, “our director, Stephanie Havey, put thought and effort into the staging and overall purpose of the show, which is important when thinking about our characters and the message we want the kids to go home with.”</p> <p> “I’m really glad I had this opportunity,” Vaughn said about the tour, “and I hope they continue doing these tours because it's really important for us performers and for the community.” Jack and the Beanstalk marks the beginning of <a href="/opera-theater">91ֱ�� Opera’s</a> ongoing commitment to community engagement. Havey intends for 91ֱ��’s Opera program to offer a community-facing opera as a Winter Term project each January moving forward—in addition to two full-length productions each semester—ultimately providing numerous performance opportunities and chances to explore cities beyond 91ֱ��. “I've only been in productions where we perform three or four times, so having a lot of performances was both fun and tiring. It was exciting to see how we could make different choices by interacting with other people in the cast and the kids in the audience.”</p> <p> Opera Tour Director Stephanie Havey also shed light on the purpose of the tour: “Our hope with this tour is to inspire children to love music and learn more about it. We hope to set the stage for future opera lovers.” With engaging and lighthearted study guides—provided to each school in advance—behind-the-scenes insights, interactive chase scenes, and enthusiastic Q&A sessions after each performance, young students experienced a dynamic and immersive introduction to opera. “The young audiences at the Elementary Schools were completely enthralled with seeing a live theatrical performance,” she said, “I saw that as a desire to connect with the performers—to see themselves in the performers.”</p> <p> The experience was not only transformative for children in the audience but also professionally informative for students in the cast. As Vaughn noted, “Learning how to quickly get a show on its feet, performing at early hours in the morning, having multiple performances a day, interacting with different audiences—these are all things that are common in a professional opera career.” The Winter Term project provided a variety of real-world opera experiences that are essential for emerging performers. “Additionally, a lot of young artist programs at opera houses do a school tour similar to this, so there's a good chance I'll be doing this in my future as well.”</p> <p> </p> <p> Through this project, 91ֱ�� Opera not only enriched the local community but also equipped its students with essential professional experiences and skills. With plans to continue these performances in future Winter Terms, 91ֱ��’s commitment to community engagement and professional-level exposure ensures that opera remains a vibrant, accessible art form for generations to come.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-10T12:00:00Z">Mon, 03/10/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">George Rogers</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3878">Conservatory of Music</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3873">91ֱ�� Opera Theater</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3319">Community Engagement</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=32971">Opera Theater</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/vocal-studies" hreflang="und">Vocal Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Genevieve Dilan '24</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Philosophy in the Schools: Learning Through Teaching</h1> <p>eulrich — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 19:46:09 +0000</p> <span>Philosophy in the Schools: Learning Through Teaching</span> <span><span>eulrich</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-04-10T15:46:09-04:00" title="Wednesday, April 10, 2019 - 15:46">Wed, 04/10/2019 - 15:46</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The course, taught by Associate Professor of Philosophy <a href="/node/6126" target="_blank">Katherine Thomson-Jones</a>, is a community-based learning course. Students improve their philosophical skills and comprehension through outreach, by visiting neighboring Eastwood Elementary twice a week and leading discussions with first and second graders. The aims of the course are wide-reaching, from building essential philosophical skills at an early age to allowing college students to apply what they’re learning in a practical manner, even with something as abstract as philosophy.</p> <p>The PHITS Practicum is structured in several layers throughout a given week. First, the college students meet in the <a href="/node/41991" target="_blank">91ֱ�� Center for Convergence (StudiOC)</a> for seminar discussions of particular philosophical topics and readings. After having digested the topics, the students prepare to translate complex ideas for the elementary school kids, in order to guide them through the same philosophical issues. Then, at Eastwood, the college students are divided into small groups per classroom, where they lead discussions that result in questions, reflections, and written work.</p> <p>“Essentially, the college students are learning by teaching, but it’s a very student-centered type of teaching,” says Thomson-Jones. “The college students are just trying to be facilitators, while allowing the elementary school kids to have their own discussions and practice certain skill sets, such as listening well, giving reasons for things, and thinking critically when they agree or disagree.”</p> <div class="obj-center"> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Associate Professor of Philosophy Katherine Thomson-Jones with Philosophy in the Schools students<br> Photo credit: Michael Hartman</figcaption> </figure> </div> <p>Thomson-Jones, now in her second year of teaching the course, notes that both college and elementary school students have much to learn from each other. “It struck me that kids are natural philosophers, and they love to think about big questions. Some questions—such as, <em>Where are numbers? Are they written down on a page, or are they in my head?</em>—might sound weird to an older student. But to the younger students, everything’s open and new for them. I think that college students can harness that curiosity and openness in their own studies.”</p> <p>Creative writing and visual arts major Jack McMillin ’20, who took the course last year and is now a teaching assistant for it this semester, expresses how PHITS has impacted the ways he thinks about education.</p> <p>“It consistently challenges students and myself to reevaluate how we learn, and then use this as a basis for facilitating meaningful discussions. The course has really helped solidify different approaches to pedagogy by teaching how to communicate coherently and fluidly, while moving back and forth between different educational settings.”</p> <p>The course is also enriched by StudiOC, as PHITS is a part of the Art of Teaching and Learning cluster, along with two other courses taught by Associate Director of Bonner Center Curricular Initiatives <a href="/node/30426" target="_blank">Tania Boster</a> and Professor of Music Education <a href="/node/6816" target="_blank">Jody Kerchner</a>. StudiOC allows for cross- and interdisciplinary programming that includes lectures, group projects, and collaborative research. One of the advantages of interdisciplinary programming is how it generates fresh perspectives and approaches to shared themes across studies.</p> <p>“There’s a historical research-based approach, an education theory approach, and a philosophical approach,” says Thomson-Jones. “It’s inspiring to see what people of different disciplines are all doing with the same themes of education and learning through teaching.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-07-11T12:00:00Z">Thu, 07/11/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Phoebe Pan ’20</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Among the hundreds of offerings in the spring 2019 catalog, one course in particular has proved to be a demanding yet richly rewarding undertaking: Philosophy in the Schools Practicum, or PHITS Practicum for short.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2385">Community</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2410">Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25406">Philosophy</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/katherine-thomson-jones" hreflang="und">Katherine Thomson-Jones</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jody-kerchner" hreflang="und">Jody Kerchner</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/philosophy" hreflang="und">Philosophy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/pace" hreflang="und">Pedagogy, Advocacy, and Community Engagement</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Philosophy in the Schools classroom in StudiOC.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Michael Hartman</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Environmental Studies Students Connect with Urban Farms in Cleveland</h1> <p>eulrich — Fri, 31 May 2019 14:13:52 +0000</p> <span>Environmental Studies Students Connect with Urban Farms in Cleveland</span> <span><span>eulrich</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-05-31T10:13:52-04:00" title="Friday, May 31, 2019 - 10:13">Fri, 05/31/2019 - 10:13</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In recent years, Fiskio and her students have taken field trips to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VelsPurpleOasisGarden/" target="_blank">Vel’s Purple Oasis</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> , a grassroots urban farm located in Cleveland’s University Circle. Cleveland-based wellness advocate Vel Scott founded the Oasis in 2008, which serves as a hub for healthy food in the neighborhood. Scott has since expanded its reach by partnering with schools and organizations in Northeast Ohio. The Oasis was also a site in this past year’s Connect Cleveland program for incoming first-years.</p> <p>Fiskio, associate professor of environmental studies and comparative American studies, was introduced to Scott in 2010 through 91ֱ�� alum Brad Masi ’93, founder of the <a href="https://serve.oberlin.edu/agency/detail/?agency_id=35497" target="_blank">New Agrarian Center</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span>. Fiskio, whose scholarship focuses on environmental justice and agrarianism and food justice says that her work with Scott has significantly influenced the course of her research and teaching.</p> <p>“I feel like when you start studying the histories of Black agrarianism and immigrant labor, you recognize that, ethically, you’re compelled to make some kind of change,” Fiskio says. “Students are often saying, ‘I never knew this history. Now, I’m going to have to think about agriculture differently.’”</p> <p>Scott and Fiskio have collaborated and supported each other in myriad ways. Fiskio’s students have supported the Oasis through grant writing, garden and building upkeep, and by working as summer interns. In 2015, Fiskio and Scott were awarded backing by 91ֱ��’s <a href="https://www.greenedgefund.com" target="_blank">Green Edge Fund</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> to rehabilitate the Don Scott House, a community food center named in honor of Scott’s late husband. Along with environmental studies professor <a href="/node/5706" target="_blank">Rumi Shammin</a>, they also jointly authored ‘‘Cultivating Community: Black Agrarianism in Cleveland, Ohio” <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> in <em>Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies</em> in 2016.</p>  <figure class="captioned-image obj-right"> <figcaption>Students in Janet Fiskio's class.<br> Photo credit: Michael Hartman</figcaption> </figure> <p>By learning the histories of economically prosperous African American neighborhoods in Cleveland, students gain perspective on the origins of contemporary urban Black agrarianism. In addition to the Oasis, American Agricultures students also visit <a href="https://www.chateauhough.com/" target="_blank">Chateau Hough</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> , a Cleveland vineyard and winery founded by Cleveland native Mansfield Frazier.</p> <p>Third-year environmental studies and comparative American studies double major Nathan Carpenter says the class trip to Chateau Hough enriched his learning in the course. ‘‘It was really valuable to talk with [Frazier], who is actively engaged in the world of urban farming and to hear about the different tradeoffs that must be balanced in that work,’’ he says. “I found the experiential elements of the class extraordinarily helpful in expanding my understanding of the topics we were learning about.”</p> <p>When American Agriculture students have visited the Oasis in previous years, they spend the day gardening and lending a hand, but they also hear Scott’s story firsthand. Oftentimes, the trip sparks in students a continued interest in food justice. Throughout the years, Scott has mentored numerous 91ֱ�� students and alumni who have supported the Oasis through grant writing and by conducting research.</p> <p>“I think the course is self-selecting in that students who come to the class are already really committed to working in agriculture and food justice and want to learn more,” Fiskio says.</p> <p>Scott says that the continuation of the 91ֱ��-Oasis relationship will support the longevity of the Oasis’ mission.</p> <p>“91ֱ�� students and faculty can help us by continuing to share their vast knowledge of food justice and grant writing, and by bringing busloads of enthused, knowledgeable students to share their unique gifts and talents in helping us to continue to build and maintain the Oasis,” she says.</p> <p>Biology and environmental studies double major Juan Contreras ’19 says the field trip to Chateau Hough gave him a real-world look at the concepts he studied in class. “It’s in moments like these where I can see my liberal arts experiences at work, my majors informing each other, and all of that contributing to a productive and active classroom.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-05-31T12:00:00Z">Fri, 05/31/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Erin Ulrich ’18</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>For nearly a decade, <a href="/node/5661" target="_blank">Janet Fiskio</a> and her students have been studying and visiting urban farms in Cleveland. Students in Fiskio’s American Agricultures course, which is cross-listed in <a href="/node/25351">environmental studies</a> and <a href="/node/25311">comparative American studies</a>, contextualize the history of black agrarianism in the Rust Belt. They are immersed in this history firsthand through field trips to Cleveland.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2569">Alumni-Student Connections</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25351">Environmental Studies and Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25311">Comparative American Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jay-fiskio" hreflang="und">Jay Fiskio</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/md-rumi-shammin" hreflang="und">Md Rumi Shammin</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/environmental-studies" hreflang="und">Environmental Studies and Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/comparative-american-studies" hreflang="und">Comparative American Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Comparative American Studies Janet Fiskio with a student in her course, American Agricultures</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Michael Hartman</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Traveling Exhibit Examines 91ֱ��’s Social Justice Legacy in World War II</h1> <p>tsloan — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 19:30:48 +0000</p> <span>Traveling Exhibit Examines 91ֱ��’s Social Justice Legacy in World War II</span> <span><span>tsloan</span></span> <span><time datetime="2018-02-02T14:30:48-05:00" title="Friday, February 2, 2018 - 14:30">Fri, 02/02/2018 - 14:30</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p dir="ltr">91ֱ��’s history of embodying leadership and empathy in times of political and social turmoil makes the title of the upcoming traveling exhibit, <em><a href="/events/special-events/courage-and-compassion?utm_source=go.oberlin.edu&utm_campaign=Special%20Events&utm_medium=Multiple%20Media&utm_content=Courage-and-Compassion">Courage and Compassion</a></em>, especially fitting. The show, which explores the lived experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II — including Pearl Harbor, removal and incarceration, life in internment camps, and Japanese American veterans’ post-war struggle for redress — opens Saturday, February 17 in the Richard D. Baron ’64 Art Gallery.</p> <p>The interactive exhibit has been touring since July 2017 and will eventually be displayed in 10 cities. Each pit stop was selected for the specific role it played in supporting Japanese people during the 1940s. Planned by the Go for Broke Foundation, organizers asked 91ֱ�� to participate because of the <a href="http://www2.oberlin.edu/alummag/fall2013/internmentstudents.html">school’s decision</a> to recruit and admit nearly 40 Japanese American students during the war, and for <em>Nisei</em> (second-generation Japanese American) students’ activism. The local iteration of <em>Courage and Compassion</em> features permanent fixtures from the national show interlaced with pieces of 91ֱ��-centric history.</p> <p>“This exhibit reminds us of a history that is extraordinarily relevant today,” says Renee Romano, the Robert. S. Danforth professor of history at 91ֱ�� College and project co-director. “It offers us stories of local people who rejected wartime hysteria about Japanese Americans and who insisted that the United States live up to its democratic ideals. Today, as the nation again debates issues of immigration, citizenship, and belonging, it is vital that we grapple with America’s checkered history of exclusion.”</p> <p>Romano is spearheading the project with Julie Min, an 91ֱ�� resident and former exhibit developer who previously worked on public history projects about Japanese American internment. The two have arranged for an <a href="/events/special-events/courage-and-compassion/programming-schedule">event series</a> consisting of academic lectures, documentary film screenings, a performance by San Jose Taiko, and talks by internment survivors, including Alice Takemoto ’47, to accompany the show. Alumni from the Network of 91ֱ�� Asian Alumni are also gathering to visit the exhibit on March 10.</p> <p>“We thought about 91ֱ��’s particular history, both in its activism and its engagement with political issues of the day, but also its history of offering sanctuary to people who are vulnerable,” Romano says of how she and Min approached the exhibit. “It’s not like everyone at the time agreed or that these students came here and didn’t face any issues, but they did find that most people at both the college and in the town supported them, which is what makes this place very powerful. People stand up for each other in very interesting ways.”</p> <p>Romano has prioritized making the exhibit accessible not just to the college community, but to local schools. All of 91ֱ��’s eighth graders will take field trips to the exhibit, and thanks to careful coordination and grant funding, each of the 18 fifth-grade classes from Lorain County will visit as well. Since there are so many classes coming from Lorain, these students will split into smaller groups upon arrival with one class spending an hour at Courage and Compassion and the other going to the Allen Memorial Art Museum, then vice versa. Afterward, the classes will congregate for lunch at <a href="/studioc">StudiOC</a>, where they will buddy up with 91ֱ�� students to learn more about college life.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It's been a point for us to make the field trip engaging,” says Ava Prince ’18, the exhibit’s field trip coordinator. “We’re doing an activity where students have to ‘pack a bag’ according to the restrictions placed on incarcerated Japanese Americans — no pets, no cameras, and so on. With the 91ֱ�� students, I think it will be especially interesting to see our community portion of the exhibit, and for them to have a geographic connection to the past and take pride in their community.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The first event associated with Courage and Compassion will take place Monday, February 12, when professors from the classics, comparative American studies, history, and Africana studies departments host the panel, “What is Sanctuary? From International Historical Concept to 91ֱ��’s Present.” Transforming the project’s lofty vision into a reality also required dedicated assistance from student researchers, faculty members from several academic departments, the deans offices, the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs, the 91ֱ�� College Library, the Office of Communications, 91ֱ�� College Taiko, the 91ֱ�� Heritage Center, and 91ֱ�� Shansi.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2018-02-02T12:00:00Z">Fri, 02/02/2018 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tyler Sloan '17</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p><em>Courage and Compassion: Our Shared Story of the Japanese American World War II Experience</em> explores 91ֱ��’s role in providing sanctuary for Japanese American students during a tumultuous period of United States history.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2575">Activism</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2578">Art Exhibition</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2354">Campus Life</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2366">Guest Artists & Speakers</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25336">East Asian Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/east-asian-studies" hreflang="und">East Asian Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/comparative-american-studies" hreflang="und">Comparative American Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Kenji Okuda (back row, second from left), a University of Washington student who arrived here from an incarceration camp, was elected student body president of 91ֱ�� in 1943.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Courtesy of 91ֱ�� College Archives</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Javanese Gamelan Course Makes Welcoming Space for Lorain County Youth</h1> <p>anagy — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 15:54:31 +0000</p> <span>Javanese Gamelan Course Makes Welcoming Space for Lorain County Youth</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2017-12-07T10:54:31-05:00" title="Thursday, December 7, 2017 - 10:54">Thu, 12/07/2017 - 10:54</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p dir="ltr">For five weeks this fall, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Anthropology <a href="/jennifer-fraser">Jennifer Fraser</a> and students in her Gamelan as Community Engagement class joined the Salvation Army Learning Zone in Lorain to facilitate an after-school community music program for students in kindergarten through seventh grade.</p> <p dir="ltr">Fraser oversees 91ֱ��’s Javanese <em>gamelan</em> collection, which includes gongs and bronze keyed instruments.</p> <p dir="ltr">The course, part of the Conservatory of Music’s new <a href="/conservatory/divisions/pace">Pedagogy, Advocacy, and Community Engagement (PACE)</a> division, provides students with focused and rigorous curricular and cocurricular opportunities to imagine, research, and practice how their musical work will impact communities beyond 91ֱ��.</p> <p dir="ltr">Although the partnership with the Salvation Army after-school program came together at the last minute, Fraser says it was her intention to focus her efforts in Lorain County beyond 91ֱ��.</p> <p dir="ltr">“We designed this music intensive to be deeply collaborative and inclusive,” says Fraser, who teaches courses in gamelan and has directed 91ֱ��’s ensemble since 2007. “We made it a welcoming space to get greater participation and a sense of ownership.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The beauty of using Javanese gamelan with children is that they don’t need any previous musical experience or musical literacy to participate. The nature of gamelan—an ensemble from Indonesia that mostly consists of percussion instruments, including varying sizes of gongs and drums—makes learning accessible because participants can easily produce sounds.</p> <p dir="ltr">The music intensive was held on campus for one hour per week. 91ֱ�� students took turns facilitating musical concepts, such as rhythm, call and response, collaboration, and theme and variation. The music is not designed to feature the contributions of any individual, but rather a collective, group effort.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Not a lot of people know what gamelan is,” Fraser says. “The music was new to everyone, which made it more democratic and equalizing in that regard. The kids were very excited to see us. They’ve been a pleasure to work with.”</p> <p dir="ltr">At the end of the five-week intensive, the Lorain students performed at the Salvation Army’s Thanksgiving Dinner on November 21. They returned to campus December 3 to perform in “Gong Fest,” a collaborative concert with students of 91ֱ�� College Gamelan.</p> <p dir="ltr">Peter Ogbuji, an independent grantwriting consultant who helped connect Fraser's class to the after-school program, says he received positive feedback from parents. He says the youth were eager to learn because of the curiosity and enthusiasm from the 91ֱ�� student facilitators. </p> <p dir="ltr">The students enrolled in the fall PACE course each had some familiarity with gamelan. They also had a desire to teach and work with children. Second-year Momo Suzuki, a comparative literature major, says the class has been transformative because it has shaped her interest in teaching and using music to build community.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I got to see how malleable and un-elitist music could be, and how much music could influence one’s self-esteem and mood,” said Suzuki, who is from Ridgewood, New Jersey. “There was one instance where one of the students was very upset and unresponsive, but was smiling so widely and laughing after just 30 seconds of playing the drums in the ensemble. I want to make more spaces for people to experiment with that.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Fraser will teach the course again in the spring, and she plans to continue the partnership with the Salvation Army Learning Zone. She is currently looking for a new group of students to enroll in the course, and she hopes that two of her current students will return as senior facilitators in the spring.</p> <p> </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2017-12-11T12:00:00Z">Mon, 12/11/2017 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Amanda Nagy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=35766">Ethnomusicology</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jennifer-fraser" hreflang="und">Jennifer Fraser</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/musicology" hreflang="und">Musicology</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Students from the Salvation Army Learning Zone, an after-school program in Lorain, Ohio, play with 91ֱ�� College Gamelan on December 3.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Doug Menefee</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Pedagogy That’s Out of SITE(S)</h1> <p>tsloan — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 15:50:21 +0000</p> <span>Pedagogy That’s Out of SITE(S)</span> <span><span>tsloan</span></span> <span><time datetime="2017-10-27T11:50:21-04:00" title="Friday, October 27, 2017 - 11:50">Fri, 10/27/2017 - 11:50</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p dir="ltr">If you were to pinpoint the most necessary words to communicate with a group of young children in another language, you may find that knowing how to talk about loose teeth and common injuries are of particular importance.</p> <p>So in the Spanish in the Elementary School (<a href="https://www.oberlinsites.org/" target="_blank">91ֱ�� SITES</a>) program, it is precisely this vocabulary, and other words that are meaningful to the students, that the curriculum is built around.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Your students need to see the point of what you’re doing,” says senior Leah Martin-Rosenthal, who is in her sixth semester of teaching in the SITES program. “SITES does a really good job of making its lessons very centered on students and what they care about, and giving them an urgency to communicate.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Under the direction of Kim Faber, instructor of Spanish and SITES program founding director, students teach introductory Spanish in grades K-2 at Eastwood Elementary school using an immersive and interactive form of language pedagogy. They get students up and out of their seats, teaching in a circle so every student participates and keeping everyone, teachers included, learning as they go.</p> <p dir="ltr">“A lot of language teachers across the world think kids can’t learn a new language quickly, but they can do it if you get out of their way and provide the meaningful chunks of language that they need to put the puzzle together,” Faber says.</p> <p dir="ltr">The strength and importance of the SITES program isn’t just that it teaches children a new language—it also gives the aspiring teachers invaluable tools, providing them with guidance while allowing them the freedom to explore and hone their own pedagogical styles.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The learning curve was really steep my first semester,” says Martin-Rosenthal. “But what’s great about the program is that everyone teaches in pairs, so I had an amazing co-teacher who was a great mentor to me my first semester.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Instructors have weekly meetings with student grade level coordinators, where they collaboratively reflect on the classroom experiences of the past week, and also discuss how to continue improving.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I really like how much independence there is within the program,” says Amanda Medendorp, a third-year Hispanic studies and law and society double-major in her third year with the program. “Being able to teach in your own classroom space and be such an influential person in these kids’ lives has translated into me building confidence in myself and developing my communication skills.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Lilah Drafts-Johnson, a fourth-year politics and Latin American studies double-major, took Faber’s Spanish class, which uses the same interactive and practical method as SITES, fell in love with it, and shortly thereafter began teaching with SITES.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I took French in high school but could barely speak with anyone after six years of it,” says Drafts-Johnson. “The SITES method is how I learned Spanish, and in teaching it as well, I feel I’ve become more certain in my own Spanish, and more confident and able to go abroad to Chile as a result of it.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The benefits of students teaching within the program are manifold, from giving them the space to develop a real love of teaching to preparing them for related careers.</p> <p dir="ltr">For Caitlyn Pineault, a 2016 91ֱ�� graduate, SITES has marked her experience before, during, and after her time as a college student. First hearing of the program as a prospective student walking through Peters Hall, she signed up to be involved in her first semester. Now she is back at 91ֱ�� as an adjunct instructor of English as a second language and as a liaison between SITES and the Spanish program at Eastwood Elementary. Before returning, Pineault was teaching English in Mexico as a Fulbright fellow. She credits SITES for being well prepared for her Fulbright experience.</p> <p dir="ltr">“A lot of my fellow TAs had no idea where to begin, but SITES gave me the tools to be able to deal with the challenges of planning curriculum, and planning lessons that were engaging,” Pineault says. “I can’t imagine my life without SITES.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2017-10-27T12:00:00Z">Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Chloe Vassot</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Through the 91ֱ�� SITES program, college students are able to design and practice their own pedagogy while engaging with students in the community.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2416">Education</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/kim-faber" hreflang="und">Kim Faber</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/latin-american-studies" hreflang="und">Latin American Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/hispanic-studies" hreflang="und">Hispanic Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Caitlyn Pineault ’16 at the 2014 91ֱ�� Community and Cultural Festival in Tappan Square.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Dale Preston ’83</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Community Partnership Focuses on Accessibility in Science</h1> <p>tsloan — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 20:11:08 +0000</p> <span>Community Partnership Focuses on Accessibility in Science</span> <span><span>tsloan</span></span> <span><time datetime="2017-08-07T16:11:08-04:00" title="Monday, August 7, 2017 - 16:11">Mon, 08/07/2017 - 16:11</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Building popsicle-stick boats may not seem like physics at first, but the activity is just one way to make science more creative and accessible — an effort that Associate Professor of Biology Taylor Allen and the Harrison Cultural Community Centre are undertaking together.</p> <p>As part of a two-day camp last week, Allen and several of his students facilitated approachable workshops for visiting children from Lorain County. Along with constructing boats in Allen’s lab, students from five to 12-years old made paper, explored the Adam Joseph Lewis Center’s greenhouse, and toured the Allen Memorial Art Museum.</p> <p>“As a center, we want to make sure the kids are developing academically, socially, and otherwise,” says Peter Ogbuji, executive director of the Harrison Centre and former assistant director of the Bonner Center for Service and Learning. “We want to give them hands-on experience to get to know the world beyond the city of Lorain.”</p> <p>The project, conceived by Ogbuji, was made possible through a Bonner Center mini grant. Audrey Webster, a rising sophomore who helped supervise the camp, drafted the grant proposal after speaking with Allen, Ogbuji, and Tania Boster of the Bonner Center to assess Harrison’s specific organizational needs. Boster called Webster’s proposal an exemplary model of community engagement, reflecting both Ogbuji’s pedagogical perspective and her own research.</p> <p>Webster’s 91ֱ��-based research focuses on increasing accessibility to science, technology, engineering, and math, particularly at the introductory level. She says that taking a more creative approach and stepping away from memorization-based learning can encourage people who would otherwise be deterred from studying science to try it out.</p> <p>“The kids really had a chance to explore their creativity with the different assignments,” Webster says. “We really tried to emphasize if you don’t get it right away, you can start over and learn from what you did wrong. We want to inspire that love for science by making it more about using the creative process versus memorization.”</p> <p>Moving into the fall semester, both Webster and Allen said they hope to continue working with kids from the Harrison Centre. One idea Allen has for incorporating the partnership is for students in his design-thinking course to create activities that they can then teach to the Harrison youth. Other possibilities include developing relationships between the organization and different groups on campus, such as the engineering club.</p> <p>“We’re trying to encourage others to see a potential future in engineering and science,” says Allen. “They’re approachable activities that can engage munchkins and even adults.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2017-08-07T12:00:00Z">Mon, 08/07/2017 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tyler Sloan</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A collaboration between 91ֱ�� College and the Harrison Cultural Community Centre is geared toward making science more approachable — and fun — for young students from Lorain County.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2381">Bonner Center</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2563">Grants</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2367">Science & Math</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taylor-allen" hreflang="und">Taylor Allen</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/biology" hreflang="und">Biology</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Students from the Harrison Cultural Community Centre and 91ֱ�� build paper towers outside of the Science Center last week as part of a two-day camp.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Dale Preston '83</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Helping Kids Think Like Scientists</h1> <p>awillia2 — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 21:34:29 +0000</p> <span>Helping Kids Think Like Scientists</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2018-03-14T17:34:29-04:00" title="Wednesday, March 14, 2018 - 17:34">Wed, 03/14/2018 - 17:34</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Poised in front of an audience in Wright Lecture Hall, Assistant Professor <a href="/node/6176" target="_blank">Robert Owen</a> sprinkles sand on a vibrating plate. But instead of presenting to his usual audience of college students, 51 children under the age of 10 fill the seats.</p> <p>As Owen changes the resonant frequency, the plate vibrates and the sand scatters. In areas where the plate vibrates strongly, sand grains bounce away. But where the plate does not vibrate, interesting spatial patterns form. As each new shape emerges, squeals of delight echo throughout the hall.</p> <p>These young onlookers not typically seen on the 91ֱ�� College campus are participants in a day-long camp facilitated by <a href="http://www.gwtp.us/" target="_blank">Get with the Program</a>, a nonprofit organization created by Jason Williams ’05, that promotes and reinforces literacy in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).</p> <p>On this Presidents’ Day holiday, in addition to observing science demonstrations in Wright Hall, the children also visited the <a href="/node/36" target="_blank">Conservatory of Music</a>. There the group toured the Technology in Music and Related Arts (TIMARA) studio and created instruments from materials such as straws and bananas.</p> <p>Since its inception, Get with the Program has been connecting with 91ֱ�� College in various ways, from using donated classroom space to working with professors, like Owen, who offer their time to work with the children. And while the nonprofit conducts programs during both the summer and holidays when many schools are not in session, it also partners with local schools to provide after-school STEM programs.</p> <p>For Williams, the concept for the nonprofit formed when he wanted to teach his children computer programming skills.</p> <p>“I wanted to be able to teach my kids how to code,” says Williams. “But I wasn’t adept enough to teach them in-depth principles. But I knew I could teach the thought process behind it.” That’s when Williams had the idea to create an educational, STEM-focused book called <em>Awesome Adventures of Amina and Amir</em>, based on two of his children. His wife, Arisa Williams ’06, designed and illustrated the book.</p> <p>Funded in part by the 91ֱ�� College <a href="/innovation-and-impact/launchu" http: oclaunchu.com target="_blank">LaunchU program</a>, the nonprofit’s concept originally included the book as the sole educational tool. However, the scope of the organization's work evolved and now includes day camps and afterschool programs that help educate all K-12 kids in STEM subjects.</p> <p>“I’m what you’d call a latent scientist,” Williams laughs. “Math and science were always things I was interested in as a kid. However, I wasn’t really pushed in that direction. In college I was actually going to major in math, but I kind of got deterred. It’s something that has always been a part of me but never nurtured. Starting Get with the Program is kind of my second chance on science.”</p> <p>One of Williams’ primary goals is that children understand the real-world application of STEM subjects. “Growing up, I didn’t always see the relevance. In high school I took a calculus class, but I didn’t see how it applied to work in the real world. That’s a big part of Get with the Program—demonstrating that relevance to kids.”</p> <p>For Brian Hider, investment analyst at 91ֱ�� College and father of a participant in a recent camp, the value of the program is clear. “I think Get with the Program provides my son with a basic understanding of the real-world possibilities and applications of a STEM education,” says Hider. “By using his hands and seeing experiments, he gains a different understanding of the possibilities and opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math.”</p> <p>When it comes to Get with the Program’s partnership with the college, Owen believes that there is significance in holding the program on campus. “It gives young students, of many different backgrounds, an opportunity to experience aspects of higher education directly and in a welcoming environment. This in itself can be fun, but I think there's a deeper value than that. Every child, regardless of socioeconomic background or any other factor, should feel welcome in the setting of higher education.”</p> <p>Owen also praises the hands-on experimentation that the program encourages. “Another value, I think especially with a STEM camp like this one, is to instill in young students the awareness that science is not about a listing of facts and figures to be found in a textbook. Science is fundamentally about direct, hands-on observation by regular people, just like these children.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2017-02-24T12:00:00Z">Fri, 02/24/2017 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Hillary Hempstead</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2395">Entrepreneurship</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25411">Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=33031">TIMARA</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/robert-owen" hreflang="und">Robert Owen</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/physics-and-astronomy" hreflang="und">Physics and Astronomy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/contemporary-music" hreflang="und">Contemporary Music</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Assistant Professor Robert Owen demonstrates scientific concepts to an audience of 51 children during a day-long STEM camp facilitated by the nonprofit Get With The Program.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yevhen Gulenko</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="photo-gallery__slides"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">Children work on a “Banana Piano” project inside the Conservatory of Music.</span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">Inside the Conservatory, children in the nonprofit day camp get ready for a tour of TIMARA studio.</span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">On the steps of the Conservatory, participants explore the intersection of science and music by creating “do-it-yourself” straw instruments.</span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">Program participants enter Wright Laboratory of Physics.</span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__navbar"> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>An Invitation to Write</h1> <p>anagy — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 21:10:52 +0000</p> <span>An Invitation to Write</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2017-02-10T16:10:52-05:00" title="Friday, February 10, 2017 - 16:10">Fri, 02/10/2017 - 16:10</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>On the day after election day, senior Rob Jamner awoke at 5 a.m. feeling anxious and unsettled. He sat down at his kitchen table and wrote the following four lines:</p> <p><blokquote><em>If you wake up feeling broken, open the shades.</em><br> <em>Let in as much light as you can take.</em><br> <em>Let it fill the places that are missing.</em><br> <em>We are always breaking into being.</em></blokquote></p> <p>That same day, Jamner used the poem as an introduction to his writing lesson for eighth-graders in 91ֱ��’s Langston Middle School.</p> <p>“I didn’t know how the eighth graders would be feeling that day,” says Jamner, a creative writing major from Louisville, Kentucky, enrolled in 91ֱ��’s Teaching Imaginative Writing course. “I imagined that they would be feeling a variety of ways, and I wanted to give them the opportunity to express themselves in their writing, whether it had to do with the lesson or not. So I decided to show them my notebook. I told them that I use it for all sorts of things: journal entries, poems, doodles, songs.</p> <p>“I added, ‘Sometimes I write because there is something that I need to write. This morning I needed to write.’ Then I shared the four lines that I had written in response to the election.”</p> <p>Jamner continued with his original lesson, which he had previously workshopped and practiced with Director of 91ֱ��’s Writers-in-the-Schools Program Lynn Powell, using the poem "Stone" by Charles Simic. At the end, when he gave the students a writing prompt modeled after "Stone," he reminded them about the poem he had written earlier in the morning. “I said, ‘If there is anything that you need to write, even if it does not follow the prompt, I encourage you to write it.’”</p> <p>When Powell’s students are delivering poetry lessons to sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade language arts classes at Langston, the preferred terminology is “invitation to write,” because <em>prompt</em> sounds too much like homework.</p> <p>“It’s an American cultural phenomenon that people generally don’t have much experience with contemporary poetry, and they carry around impressions that poetry is either really sappy or really difficult and obscure,” explains Powell, the award-winning author of two books of poetry and a book of nonfiction, <em>Framing Innocence: A Mother’s Photographs, A Prosecutor’s Zeal, and a Small Town’s Response.</em> “In our work in the schools, we try to break through those misconceptions and cliched notions of poetry. We do that by immersing students in the experience of writing poems, with lessons that stimulate their imagination and give them both freedom and guidance.”</p> <p>Teaching Imaginative Writing, which Powell instructs every fall in the creative writing program, is the centerpiece of 91ֱ�� WITS (Writers-in the-Schools), a recently expanded program that allows 91ֱ�� students to continue working in the local schools in the spring and receive practicum credit for their additional teaching. This spring will be the third year of the practicum.</p> <p>In the course, students create and workshop their own lesson plans and participate in seven-day residencies with Powell in Langston’s classrooms. Powell’s class publishes anthologies of the middle schoolers’ writing and holds a celebration and book launch at the Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse, where the young poets recite their work.</p> <p>The course, which meets each week for three hours in the evening, is based on an apprenticeship model. Starting in the summer, Powell’s students read 200 pages of lesson plans that Powell’s past students have written since the course began in 2010. Once the semester begins, the students engage in The Great Poem Hunt to find other poems with potential to jumpstart good lessons. “Essentially, we’re trying to hit that sweet spot where the poem will matter to the middle school kids, but also be a strong poem on its own terms, full of imagination and insight. We don’t want to condescend to the middle school students, ever,” Powell says. By the third week, college students are ready to start workshopping their own new lessons.</p> <p>Before teaching at 91ֱ��, Powell worked for 20 years as a Writer-in-the-Schools for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and then for the Ohio Arts Council. She worked with students in grades K-12, in urban, suburban, and rural schools, and in residencies that spanned in length from one day to one year.</p> <p>“The 91ֱ�� students and I go into the school as visiting artists. We’re speaking as writers who practice the art we are inviting the middle schoolers into. I tell my students that good teaching is when you go into the classroom as passionate and prepared as you can be, knowing the poems you are going to teach inside and out, and knowing where you want the lesson to go. And then you put your lesson to the side and have an authentic conversation with the students about the work you’ve brought to share with them.”</p> <p>In course evaluations, many 91ֱ�� students have said the experience is transformative.</p> <p>Milena Williamson, a senior majoring in English and creative writing, taught in a sixth-grade residency last fall. She returned to the program this fall as Powell’s teaching assistant, participating in class discussions and providing the other college students with insight about teaching middle schoolers. She also did her own residency in a seventh-grade class, where she designed two new lesson plans.</p> <p>“I think poetry is an often overlooked art form, and in an age of ever-increasing emphasis on standardized tests, any opportunity for students to write creatively is valuable,” says Williamson, who is from Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.</p> <p>The class has also changed her perspective on writing. “As a creative writing major who is used to laboring over a single line or word in a poem, it's really refreshing to sit down and write something quickly. I feel like I have rediscovered my natural poetical voice by responding to these ‘invitations to write.’ Even though I still labor over a single line or word in my poetry capstone, I try to bring the spontaneity from this kind of writing into my other poetry.”</p> <p>Powell says Langston’s teachers have been the program’s biggest supporters. “The teachers always say, ‘I wish you could teach all my classes.’ And we wish we could, too. Our work in the schools influences the teachers. Their attitude and openness to poetry changes. The seventh-grade Language Arts teacher, excited by the poems she was writing during our residencies, recently earned a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from Ashland University.”</p> <p>But probably the biggest testament to the program’s success is the published anthology and Cat in the Cream reading. On the Monday evening after Thanksgiving, over 40 Langston students voluntarily took to the stage and read their poems in the spotlight for 200 guests.</p> <p>“They always read with incredible passion,” Powell says. “The parents come up to me afterward and thank me over and over. It opens the eyes of adults. They realize how imaginative and smart and witty these kids are, how they suffer, how they grapple with deep metaphysical questions. And it gives kids amazing confidence to speak so powerfully in their own voices.”</p> <p>In all her years of doing this work, Powell has never had a student who wasn’t represented in the book. “The dignity of being a published writer, and what that can do for engagement in literacy and reading, is profound.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2016-12-15T12:00:00Z">Thu, 12/15/2016 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Amanda Nagy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25326">Creative Writing</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/creative-writing" hreflang="und">Creative Writing</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Philippa Brandt, a sixth-grader in Mrs. Hickerson's advanced language arts class at Langston Middle School, reads one of her original poems in front of family and friends at the Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse. </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Photo By Dale Preston</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Zoe Martens '16 Receives Fulbright Grant to Mexico</h1> <p>Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:01:35 +0000</p> <span>Zoe Martens '16 Receives Fulbright Grant to Mexico</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:01:35-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:01">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:01</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Zoe Martens ’16 has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to Mexico. She will depart for Mexico in August.</p> <p>At 91ֱ��, Martens majored in comparative American studies and minored in dance and gender, sexuality, and feminist studies. She served as an instructor and mentor for elementary- and middle school-aged girls as part of <a href="/node/12341">Girls in Motion</a>, helped teach Spanish to kindergarten and first-grade students as part of the <a href="https://www.oberlinsites.org" target="_blank">Spanish in the Elementary Schools (SITES) program</a>, and assisted with youth after-school programming at El Centro, a Lorain County social services provider. She also danced with contact improvisation groups, 91ֱ�� Dance Company, and 91ֱ��’s hip hop fusion dance troupe, Koreo.</p> <p>“I applied for this fellowship because I want to deepen my understanding of U.S.-Mexico relations and the effects on youth of such asymmetry between two proximate countries,” Martens says. “Because I want to be an educator in the future and work with migrant student populations, I hope my time in Mexico will give me more knowledge I can use to enter into dialogue with my students. I aspire to be an educator that explicitly values students’ lived experiences and uses personal experiences as the lens to critically interrogate larger societal structures and patterns.”</p> <p>Martens attended a Spanish language school and lived with a host family in Oaxaca for one month during summer 2014 and participated in the Border Studies Program (BSP) in Tucson, Arizona, in spring 2015. “During my time with BSP, I had the opportunity to learn about the political, social, and economic roots of migration and to travel to border towns, including in the Sonoran region of Mexico,” she says. “I also traveled to the Southern region of Chiapas to learn about contemporary Zapatista resistance to foreign investment projects and to compare the Southern Mexico-Guatemala border with the U.S.-Mexico border.”</p> <p>She says she hopes to travel to southern Mexico to visit several migrant justice organizations she was introduced to through BSP during her fellowship. She adds she would also like to visit Mexico City.</p> <p>Martens says several winter-term teaching experiences helped prepare her for this fellowship. She additionally credits her fellow 91ֱ�� students. “My peers at 91ֱ�� have challenged me to consistently educate myself and think critically about the work I want to do at 91ֱ�� and beyond, which prepares me to have honest conversations with the people I will meet while abroad.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2016-05-09T12:00:00Z">Mon, 05/09/2016 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Lisa Gulasy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2391">Languages & Literatures</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25361">Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25331">Dance</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25311">Comparative American Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/dance" hreflang="und">Dance</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/comparative-american-studies" hreflang="und">Comparative American Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Zoe Martens</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jennifer Manna</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> </main></body></html>