TLS Brochure 2011

TLS 2011

Trustee Leader Scholar Program

Community Engagement and Social Action

Bard College

At 5:30 in the morning, when we start walking, the heat will exhaust me. The young woman’s words echo, “I like working with the people—if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t do it.” The professor in Matagalpa, walking out the door, turns to say, “Don’t give up!” and Elysia snaps back, “Oh, never!” Then we speed home in the pitch black on a remote highway and I can just make out tiny wrecked structures tucked away on either side of the highway. I think of my host sister sleeping in the room next to me—how she had looked at a painting of a woman, her arms spread wide, broken pieces of chain around her wrists—wearing a shirt that says “por la paz y la vida.” And I think of the 15-year-old student from Managua showing around her camera with photos of people searching through a dump and her understanding that these people are not a far-off reality, but a reality that is here and close, and she understands, too, that she can change it.

—Chelsea Whealdon, Nicaragua Education Initiative 2

The Trustee Leader Scholar Program of Bard College supports undergraduate and leadership development in the context of hands-on, student-initiated community engagement projects.

Founded in 1860, Bard offers a four-year bachelor of arts in the liberal arts and sciences through approximately 50 academic programs. It also offers a five-year dual degree in economics and finance (B.A./B.S.) and a five-year dual-degree program through The Bard College Conservatory of Music (B.A./B.Music). For more information about Bard College, visit www.bard.edu.

Front cover: New Orleans Project Back cover: Astor Home for Children Theater Group inside.bard.edu/tls | 3

Theme for the Year: The Importance of Meaning Making The student-led projects in this booklet represent thousands of hours of planning, lifting, teaching, building, weeding, tutoring, singing, writing, cleaning, and counseling. Bard students run literacy programs in New Orleans and children’s camps in the West Bank; they build libraries in Nicaragua and schools in Africa. Here in the Mid Hudson Valley, they teach ESL classes to migrant workers, give music lessons for those who cannot afford private instruction, and hold tolerance sessions in a local high school struggling with racial tension. Locally, nationally, and internationally, we make substantial, real-world contributions, but all this good work, alone, is not enough. In keeping with the liberal arts mission of promoting informed citizens, TLS students examine the motivations, ethics, and implications of their work.

They must come to terms with the meaning of their efforts.

We take seriously the building of ethical and sustainable models of human endeavor. We recognize that way too much action in the world is driven by critique and reactivity, which only makes the turntables of defensiveness spin faster, or by common sense, which is often simply a way of protecting entrenched injustice. We are committed to critical analysis of theory, questioning our own beliefs and assumptions, and constructing positive social structures that reconcile personal and collective interests. We ask: Do our projects matter? To whom? What is the history of the places we travel to?

What are the politics and economics and gender roles there? Whom does our work affect? How? And why do we care? At times in this process we confirm that our actions come from graceful, reasonably informed understanding of the world. Other times we find that our values, our precious “truths” and personal grand narratives, are not born from the kindest of circumstances, are not supportable by evidence, and do not result in the most life-affirming, thoughtful choices possible.

Meaning happens at the intersection of data, analysis, and personal interest.

Meaning is not simply good theory. Meaning is analysis infused with a sense of why it matters. It is theoretically rich and nuanced thinking combined with gut response and personal history.

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TLS Meaning-Making Sequence Every TLS student, along with project responsibilities, undertakes a selfreflective, meaning-making process that extends over a semester, sometimes over the course of a school year. It is based on a research model of personal inquiry that begins and ends with question asking. It goes this way: Generate topics relevant to your project. For example, the students who worked in a small West Bank village last summer produced this list: gender roles; Occupation; fear as it relates to anger and hatred; power dynamics; government vs. personal responsibility; isolation, both personal and collective; man-made poverty; the absence of recognizable governance; gender separation; and family relationships.

Choose one topic from the list. Think like a social scientist and generate questions on that topic. For example, the student who chose “power dynamics” from the list above asked about power: Who has it? Who doesn’t? How does a person get some? What are its benefits? What are its detractions?

What are the consequences of power on individuals? The land? The architecture? The resources?

Answer these questions about your project. Consider family life, government, housing, transportation, play, schools and education, eating and food production, religion and ritual practices, communication patterns, music, clothes, touch, eye contact, and so on.

Answer the same questions about your own life. Write about your nuclear and extended family life, early education, play and sports, religious practices, family vacations, transitions, the life of your body, your mind, injuries,

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relationship to authority figures. Think metaphorically. The questions came from you and speak of you in crucial ways.

Study the answers from both your project and your life and identify the intersections. Write about the similarities and disjunctures between your project and your life experience.

Give names to the intersecting themes that you identify. Create a book title and make these themes chapters of your book. For example, a student from the Palestinian project lives in a Vermont town so close to a Canadian town that the two communities share a main street. After 9/11, a concrete barrier was erected across the central road, making it nearly impossible for neighbors to visit each other. She titled her book Living on the Border, and the chapters were headed: Crossing/Ignoring/Transcending Borders, Family Is First, Grandma Knows, Boundaries Can Make Strong Bonds.

Which of the chapters evokes particularly strong reactions in you?

Write about your feelings.

Write the introduction or a chapter of your book.

Reflect back through this meaning-making sequence, formulate a new set of questions, and begin the cycle again.

The point of this process is to make conscious what and why things matter to each of us, to identify why we are attracted to particular sorts of suffering and work, and to take some emotional distance from the site of our project.

We can then consider the people and places we affect, and perhaps, if we are particularly insightful, add to the body of knowledge that human beings look to for guidance and solace. Of course, negotiating the narrow chasm between navel-gazing and navel-erasing is tricky. If we erase ourselves, we dry up. If we do not consider others, we risk demagoguery. Truth is, TLS is a program full of zealots. Zealots are the people who get things done. Zealots are the ones who tell the stories that matter. But we want thoughtful and informed zealots who know how to question themselves and the world, and then act with fury or restraint based on their informed reflections.

Paul Marienthal, Director

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Trustee Leader Scholar Program What is TLS?

The Trustee Leader Scholar Program is the formal civic engagement and leadership development program for undergraduate students at Bard College.

TLS supports the liberal arts mission of enlightened citizenship: personal development in the context of community building.

Who is in TLS?

Every Bard student is eligible to apply to TLS, and TLS students come from every academic discipline on campus. Approximately 50 undergraduates participate in the program at any given time, and most TLS students remain actively involved in the program throughout their college careers.

What do TLS students do?

TLS students design and implement engagement projects based on their own compelling interests. For example, they participate in the redevelopment of New Orleans; run poetry writing programs in local prisons; build biodiesel processors on campus; run summer camps for Palestinian children in the West Bank; provide music lessons for economically challenged teenagers in local middle schools; and build houses in hurricane-ravaged Nicaragua. TLS students write extensive proposals, budgets, and personal accounts of their activities. They meet one-on-one with program administrators and attend workshops to explore issues in social action, public speaking, and facilitation.

TLS students also raise their own funds, and many become proficient letterwriting campaign organizers.

What makes TLS special?

Many colleges provide volunteer and community engagement opportunities. Bard is one of the few that puts substantial resources and trust behind student-led initiatives. Students must initiate the work. The fundamental criterion for accepting a project is that it must contribute positively to the world and challenge the student—organizationally, ethically, politically, and emotionally.

What are some key values in TLS?

TLS addresses the issues of paternalism and privilege that are stirred up by the notion of “helping others.” Students are encouraged to read widely about oppression, identify their own motivations and needs, and experiment with

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ways of organizing that treat other people as partners, not passive recipients.

We try hard to strike a balance between inward reflection, societal awareness, and compassionate action. TLS considers this life training.

What is the ultimate goal of TLS?

TLS strives to put into the world capable, sensitive adults who have the ability to generate, plan, fund, and implement large-scale projects that matter and that influence environments humanely. Many TLS students leave Bard capable of creating their own nonprofit organizations. A number of important College initiatives began as student projects in the TLS program, including the Bard Prison Initiative, Bard Urban Studies in New Orleans, and the award-winning Spanish-language magazine La Voz. How does TLS differ from similar programs?

TLS is a leadership development program, not a community engagement office. TLS students do not earn academic credit for their efforts; for their participation, TLS program members receive stipends and transcript recognition. Separating TLS work from academics allows participating students to design and implement ambitious civic engagement projects spanning multiple years. TLS recognizes that organizing a major project while completing Bard’s rigorous academic requirements is a demanding load, and is not for everyone. It is worth noting, however, that many TLS students have said, “My project was the most important thing I did in college.”

How do you apply to the TLS program?

TLS applications are considered on a rolling, year-round basis. The best way to start the process is to talk with TLS staff members, who are always open to hearing the words, “I have a TLS project.” Students are encouraged to consider TLS from the moment they arrive on campus.

How can you help if you are not a Bard student?

Making contacts and building networks are crucial to every project’s success. TLS flourishes because of the enthusiasm of Bard students, faculty, and administrators, as well as community members outside of the academic environment who generously give their time, creative energy, and financial support.

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Current Projects Astor Home for Children Bard Volunteers

The Astor Home for Children in Rhinebeck, New York, is a residential school for emotionally challenged children. Bard students volunteer for a semester at a time, leading a range of activities for one to two hours each week. Activities are usually taught one-on-one, and range from knitting, cooking, arts and crafts, and drama, to guitar lessons; the activities depend on the interest of the Bard volunteer and Astor student. The goal is to help a child develop a skill or hobby, and ultimately learn that she or he is worth others’ time and energy.

Student Leader: Isabelle Coler Astor Home for Children Theater Group

The theater group provides a unique opportunity for the children at the Astor Home to participate in a theater ensemble. Bard student mentors lead games that use imagination, improvisation, physical comedy, and word play.

The program allows the children to be part of a fun, safe environment in which they can learn, create theater, and form bonds with enthusiastic Bard volunteers. The children at Astor are all overcoming obstacles in their lives, and this program helps them feel appreciated, listened to, and acknowledged.

Student Leader: Morgan Green

Join a TLS project Every project needs volunteers. A TLS student initiated and facilitates each of these projects, but the success of the work always depends on widespread participation. Please get involved.

Contact the student leader listed in this booklet.

Have your own idea for a project?

Meet with us to discuss how to make your project come to life— even if your idea is still in formation. We are always available.

Paul Marienthal, Director Susanna Armbruster, Assistant Director Room 213, Campus Center 845-758-7056 service@bard.edu

Current Projects | 9

Before rehearsal for Shams wa Qamar [The Sun and the Moon], I catch a group of girls playing around with the puppets, deep into a fantastical world of ghouls and dancing trees. From the hall I hear their imaginative growls and gargles. When I open the door, they freeze as if I cannot see them. It delights me that their passion for the play and the puppets matches my own. One of the girls who does not speak English mimes to me that she is nervous to perform. Either she is having a stroke or has been shot in the heart. I cannot tell which one it is.

—Morgan Green, Bard Palestinian Connection

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AWARE: Guatemala

The Guatemalan chapter of AWARE (Activists Worldwide AIDS/HIV and Reproductive Education) seeks to ensure reproductive self-determination by raising awareness in rural high schools on HIV/AIDS prevention and contraceptive use. During the summer of 2011, pregnancy prevention and HIV/AIDS awareness workshops will be offered to students ages 13 to 15.

By partnering with CIESAR (Centro de Investigación Epidemiológica en Salud Sexual y Reproductiva/Epidemiologial), AWARE volunteers will be able to identify and go into those communities where high teen pregnancy rates are occurring. Numerous studies have shown low levels of accurate knowledge concerning modern or natural family planning methods.

AWARE: Guatemala hopes to reach and support women living in rural areas so they can make informed decisions.

Student Leader: Stephanie Urugutia Bard Biodiesel Cooperative

The Bard Biodiesel Cooperative makes environmentally friendly fuel from community waste. The co-op works with Chartwells, our dining hall operator, and local restaurants to acquire waste vegetable oil. The oil is made into biodiesel in our on-campus processor and can be used in place of petrodiesel in vehicles, home furnaces, and farm equipment. Biodiesel is virtually carbon neutral and emits fewer particulate emissions than petrodiesel. Members of the cooperative not only receive a share of the fuel, but also a hands-on education in biodiesel processing. The co-op makes alternative energy a reality.

Student Leaders: Claire Martin and Ian Busher Bard College Community Garden

Since 1997 the Community Garden has been a haven for agricultural enthusiasts from Bard and beyond. During the growing season, people from the College and surrounding communities meet in the garden for potluck suppers and work parties, helping to maintain the garden’s abundant fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The garden is a favorite year-round gathering spot for students: a place for conversation, campfires, and drumming. Last year we rebuilt the benches surrounding the fire pit, and next year we will build a hay shed. There is always work to do, and you are encouraged to participate in every aspect of the garden.

Contact: Paul Marienthal

Current Projects | 11

Bard Leprosy Relief Project

The Bard Leprosy Relief Project is dedicated to the global efforts of eradicating the ancient yet curable disease, leprosy. We participate by supporting eco-villages in Kathmandu, Nepal, where people suffering from leprosy seek refuge and medical attention. The Kevin Rohan Memorial EcoFoundation (KRMEF, the newly constructed eco-village in Nepal) serves not only as a place for lepers to recover, but also supports a vibrant community of conscientious thinkers and activists. All buildings have low environmental impact: solar cookers are used to prepare meals, organic gardens take the place of empty government lots, Waldorf-trained teachers fill the run-down schools, jewelry from soap nuts and other handicrafts are carefully crafted by people with leprosy, and a clinic provides free biomedical and alternative treatments for the whole community. Although members of this project participate directly in development in Nepal (many members come from Nepal), the Bard Leprosy Relief Project primarily operates from afar.

Students sell handicrafts made by lepers from the village on campus to raise funds as well as educate fellow students about leprosy and its implications in Nepal. Education events held by the Bard Leprosy Relief Project awaken Bard members to the reality that leprosy still exists in the world, and that creative ways to eradicate it also exist.

Student Leader: Daniela Anderson Bard Math Circle

The Bard Math Circle is a math outreach program for local elementary, middle, and high school students. Its aim is to provide entertaining and stimulating experiences that encourage critical and creative thinking. For the Bard students who lead the sessions, the Math Circle is an opportunity to experience math outside the world of academia and to face the difficult question of why the math world is so insular. Through cooperative exploration and hands-on activities, participants aspire to cross the barrier that so often exists between math teacher and math student. The Bard Math Circle thus actively challenges the separation between math as a discipline and math as it exists in society at large.

Student Leader: Jacqueline Stone Bard Palestinian Connection (BPC)

The Bard Palestinian Connection (formerly the Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative) is founded upon the belief that constructive civil engagement, cultural exchange, and education are fundamental means to changing the situation on the ground in Palestine. Every year, 20 Bard College students

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travel to Mas-ha, a small village in the West Bank where, in partnership with the local community, we run children’s summer camps and community engagement projects, teach English classes, and join in cultural discourse.

In 2011, the BPC will also bring a group of Palestinian teenagers to Bard for a two-week English language and cultural exchange intensive.

Student Leaders: Rosana Zarza Canova, Mujahid Sarsur, Lauren Blaxter, Kasra Sarikhani Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) Volunteers

The BPI is a major college initiative that offers degree-bearing programs in New York State prisons. The Initiative began as a student project, and the Trustee Leader Scholar Program continues to support BPI in several ways, by assisting professors, working one-on-one with inmates on GED test preparation, and/or tutoring in other subjects. The Beacon Correctional Facility, a minimum-security women’s prison, offers a creative writing workshop that is led by several Bard students and covers poetry, memoir, and fiction. Class time is spent critically examining selected texts and working on personal writing projects. An anthology of the participants’ final written work is published at the end of each year. BPI also sponsors speakers, workshops, and conferences at Bard on topics relevant to prison life and the prison industry in New York.

Student Leader: Sofia Bonami Bard West Indies Exchange Program

St. Vincent and the Grenadines, like much of the Caribbean, is suffering the corrosion of its own heritage and culture as development models from the industrialized north have destroyed traditional values and activities. This project addresses the dislocation of the Vincentian spirit from its traditional land-based culture. Reconnecting with the land has the potential to provide a sustainable means for alleviating the social and economic challenges brought on by climate change. The project demonstrates natural farming/sustainable livelihoods, natural building, water harvesting, alternative energy systems, community outreach (programs for youth groups, primary schools), how the

We began the year with a roomful of shy kids speaking a gibberish hybrid of their own devising. We ended with a group of confident, proudly bilingual students beginning to read in English. —Thea Piltzecker, Young Rhinebeck Life, Learning, and Language Current Projects | 13

arts create possibilities for addressing ecological crises, and how elders can connect with youth to foster sustainable development.

Student Leader: Aiko Roudette Community Expressive Arts Project (CEAP)

The Community Expressive Arts Project focuses on community art making and the process of finding a personal, creative, and empowering voice of expression through visual arts, movement, theater, music, poetry, and play.

CEAP members may find themselves building forts or painting murals with children; they may also find themselves sitting with adult community members who struggle with personal challenges and emotional life. The project involves Expressive Arts training led by professional practitioners. CEAP works locally at the Astor Home for Children in Rhinebeck, New York, a residential school for emotionally at-risk children; the Center for Spectrum Services in Kingston, New York, a school for children with autism; and Red Hook Residential Center, in Upper Red Hook, New York, a minimum-security juvenile detention center for boys ages 12–18. In the spring of 2011, CEAP will begin working at the Ferncliff Nursing Home for the elderly in Rhinebeck, New York. Since 2008, CEAP has collaborated with the Bard New Orleans Project in creating a summer camp for children in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. CEAP members have also traveled to work with children in Myanmar (Burma), Ghana, South Africa, Thailand, Colombia, India, and Sri Lanka.

Student Leaders: Abigail Lazarowski and Malka Roth Germantown Tutoring Program

In the Bard Germantown Project, college students work closely with teachers in third-, fifth-, and sixth-grade classrooms at the Germantown Central School District. Tutoring in a variety of subjects with diverse teachers allows Bard students to engage in classrooms of all shapes and sizes. The Bard Germantown Project is ideal for students interested in teaching because it allows students to observe and engage in elementary school classrooms on a weekly basis. For the Germantown students, our project presents an opportunity to build relationships with college students who can inspire them to be interested in higher education and learning. Germantown, New York, is an area with an incredible amount of need. The high dropout rate at the school motivates Bard students to lend a hand to the local community. The impassioned and hardworking teachers also continually motivate us to give our time to the amazing Germantown kids.

Student Leader: Jessica Wiseman

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Grace Smith House Project

The Grace Smith House is a nonprofit domestic violence agency whose goal is to empower women to live free from domestic violence. By providing shelter, court advocacy, support groups, children’s programs, and many other essential resources to women in need, the Grace Smith House remains a vital organization in Dutchess County. Students receive extensive volunteer training and have the opportunity to work directly with women in the shelters. Volunteers experience every aspect of shelter work, from office duties to accompanying women to court, and they are encouraged to act on their own ideas for programs within the agency. These might include anything from cooking dinner once a week for women in the shelter, to planting a community garden, to setting up a movie night with the children. Project participants engage in raising awareness about the issues surrounding violence on global, local, and campus-wide levels. Through their work, students play an important role in combating the cycle of violence.

Student Leader: Zoe Hickox Hudson Basketball Clinic

The Hudson Basketball Clinic brings together members of the Bard College men’s and women’s basketball teams and children at the Hudson Middle School Afterschool Program in Hudson, New York. The volunteers help with homework, provide tutoring, and run a weekly basketball clinic. The clinic is both fun and instructional in nature, with basic concepts that are meant to carry over into the classroom. Many of the attributes a successful athlete needs—discipline and hard work—are also necessary for success in most areas of life. The hope is that by stressing these qualities in both athletic and educational settings, the Hudson students begin to control their everyday lives and consider higher education. By showing the kids options and bringing them to Bard as often as possible, the program broadens the horizon for young people who are often left out of educational opportunity.

Student Leader: Yonah Greenstein Hudson Project: Students for Students

Students for Students fosters a sense of community at the high school in Hudson, New York, by creating a space for students to openly explore common beliefs, qualities, and goals and to examine and embrace their differences. Bard College students help provide resources and ideas, but all discussions and activities are led by Hudson students as they strive to better understand identity and the issues that swirl around fundamental differences among people.

Student Leaders: Kat Anderson and Catherine Coursen Current Projects | 15

Hudson Valley Tutoring Project

One-on-one tutorials are offered to elementary, middle, and high school students in Hudson, New York, who aspire to higher education experience. Hudson Valley Tutoring is a long-term, relationship-building program geared toward helping students expand their personal academic interests and achieve higher academic goals. Many of the students who tutor for this program show strong interest in tutoring and working with the youth who live in the economically challenged Hudson area. The Bard student tutors who take part in this project desire to contribute to the community and make a difference in the life of young people.

Student Leaders: Brandon LaBord and Buyong Kim La Voz

La Voz is a Spanish-language magazine, distributed monthly throughout New York’s Dutchess, Ulster, and Orange Counties, which elevates the discourse and news coverage available to the Spanish-speaking population of the Hudson Valley. This project involves continual dialogue with the communities served by the magazine. La Voz is a critical source of information on immigration law, available health services, legal rights and resources, educational opportunities, and local events relevant to the more than 100,000 Hispanic/Latino area residents. Bard students work directly with editor Mariel Fiori ’05 on all aspects of the magazine’s production, from graphic design to editing to reporting. Mariel began the magazine with Emily Schmall ’05 as a TLS project while an undergraduate at Bard. After graduation, Mariel was hired by the College to publish La Voz on a permanent basis. In 2007, 2008, and 2009, the magazine received the Ippie Award for best overall design from the New York Community Media Alliance (formerly the Independent Press Association of New York). In 2008, La Voz was recognized by A.H.O.R.A. (Association for Hispanics to Obtain Resources & Assistance), a Poughkeepsie-based organization focused on aiding Hispanic residents. In 2010, La Voz was awarded a Special Citation from the Dutchess County Executive Arts Awards. Since August 2008, a bilingual version of La Voz magazine has been produced for and distributed quarterly in the lower Central Valley area of California.

Student Leader: Lara Merling Administrative Contact: Mariel Fiori

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Merry Time Museum Project

The Merry Time Museum Project works closely with Kingston High School ESL students and the Hudson River Maritime Museum to develop a bilingual museum guide for self-guided museum tours. The high school ESL students and Bard volunteers are currently translating museum captioning and labeling into a parallel Spanish format. As a result, the high school students are not only enhancing the museum’s setting and effectiveness but also improving their English language skills. The project also provides a positive environment for young people from high-risk neighborhoods. Their participation allows them to present insights into the region’s Hispanic culture and attracts diverse cultures to the museum.

Student Leader: Liz Honorato Migrant Labor Project

We are a student-based organization that works to improve the conditions of migrant laborers and their families in New York State, particularly the Hudson Valley, through community and campus education, direct engagement, research, and advocacy work. Additionally, we work with local agencies and organizations dedicated to serving the migrant community. In doing so, the project helps spread awareness of services available to migrant workers and promotes student involvement in the expansion of these services.

Student Leader: Chloe Ravel New Old Gym Project

The Old Gym is Bard’s only multipurpose, student-run arts space. While Bard fully supports the arts, it can be hard for students of the performing and visual arts (majors or nonmajors) to find space for experimenting and taking risks. The Old Gym, which has the technical capabilities of a blackbox theater, is open to any student who wants to explore performance or alternative installation projects. The space is run by a committee of students from every artistic discipline—theater, dance, studio arts, photography, and music.

Student Leaders: Eva Steinmetz and Mike Porter

Sitting in a circle eating, taking a break from the hard work of translating, one of the girls holds her quesadilla in her mouth and keeps writing. It is shocking to see how engaged she is.

—Liz Honorato, Merry Time Museum Project

Current Projects | 17

During Ramadan we had dinner with a different household every night. Everyone was an aunt or cousin of some sort; the whole village was two or three big families, and all the girls at our camp had the same last names! It made the whole town feel like family, which was wonderful. People went to incredible efforts to welcome us and give us their attention; it felt like the sort of unconditional love you get from family. So I loved talking with my new aunts and uncles and cousins—especially when they were related to our coteachers, the girls who ran the camp with us.

I thought,”Oh, that’s where she gets her humor from, and that’s where she gets her smile.”

—Paige Milligan, Bard Palestinian Connection

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New Orleans Project

Bard’s New Orleans Project joins the heads and hands of two communities: Bard College students and the population of the Broadmoor neighborhood in New Orleans. Since 2005, Bard students have sought out the needs of the community through close contact with the Broadmoor Improvement Association—a grassroots revitalization network that immediately began responding to the crisis of the neighborhood after Hurricane Katrina. Over the past five years, Bard students have exercised a commitment to Broadmoor that has taken many forms. Student volunteers have gutted buildings; biannually surveyed existing property damage; created geographic information system (GIS) maps of available resources in relation to spatial concentrations of specific needs; facilitated therapeutic, Expressive Arts workshops for children coping with the trauma of displacement; worked at Andrew H. Wilson School as teachers’ aides; and have started and continue to operate a summer enrichment program for students of the recently rehabilitated Wilson School. The Summer Enrichment Program serves as an internship for Bard students interested in engaging with a progressive education model in both a theoretical and practical context. In addition, upwards of 20 Bard graduates have moved to New Orleans after their senior year to continue the work they encountered through this project.

Student Leaders: Amelia Marini, Kaycee Filson, Farah Akhtar Nicaragua Education Initiative

The Nicaragua Education Initiative focuses on specific educational projects that empower youth and community members in the town of Chacraseca, a rural community in western Nicaragua. It began as a student-led group nine years ago in response to Hurricane Mitch, when students raised money to build houses and fund small scholarships for children to attend school.

Since then, Bard students have returned to Chacraseca every winter break and have developed strong ties with the families living there. Our ongoing goal is to focus on educational projects that empower the community and promote self-sustainability. We have established a tutoring program, built a community library with which we continue ongoing work, provide scholarships for elementary through university-level students to attend school, and hope to organize a teacher-training seminar in the future. We believe in solidarity when working with communities and focusing on projects that will have lasting effects.

Student Leaders: Chelsea Whealdon and Benji Marx

Current Projects | 19

Red Hook English as a Second Language (ESL) Center

The Red Hook ESL Center brings English-speaking and immigrant community members together in Red Hook, New York, through free drop-in English classes. Organized and staffed by Bard students and local community volunteers, the center serves a diverse and emerging population in the Hudson Valley. The project seeks to create a comfortable learning environment for community members who might feel isolated by their limited English proficiency. By providing them with language skills, we support their efforts to participate in both the local community and the larger American society with greater confidence and knowledge. At the same time, the center creates a space in which students and tutors build relationships with members of their community whom they otherwise might not meet.

Student Leader: Maya Perlmann R.I.S.E. (Respect, Integrity, Service, Education)

R.I.S.E. is a safe and inclusive support group that focuses on issues of identity, diversity, and the role of students of color at the College and in the wider community. R.I.S.E. fosters leadership, community, and intercollegiate networking.

Student Leader: Carlos Apostle Surrealist Training Circus

The Surrealist Training Circus is a workforce for creative disruption of the public spaces in a private institution. Members believe that academic and rational training falls short in preparing students for the absurdities of today’s world; in response they pursue public theater, circus arts, and even the collection of refuse as modes of training for our futures. Through the presentation of the chaotic, emotional, sometimes frightening, sarcastic, and bizarre, the Circus suggests that the irrational is to be honored. The Surrealist Training Circus welcomes the participation of any and all students, and sees spectators as ensemble members. The group’s year culminates each spring in a grand spectacle that, ironically, has become a school tradition.

Student Leader: Dylan Hanback The Upbeats: Bard Music Mentoring Program

The Upbeats is dedicated to bringing the joy of music making to children from local communities. Bard music mentors have a passion for music and, more important, for sharing the gift of playing music with others. Lessons are provided to children for whom private instruction would otherwise cause their families financial strain. Children are given individual lessons and the

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opportunity to participate in music theory workshops. The semester culminates in a small recital put on by the children.

Student Leader: Lindsay Stanley Vermont Harmony Project

Music is a constructive, nonconfrontational way of bridging cultural divides and creating harmony in communities. The Vermont Harmony Project is working to build cross-cultural understanding through music by sharing, preserving, and celebrating the singing traditions of immigrants new to Vermont. Project volunteers interview immigrants about the role music plays in their lives, and organize singing workshops and performances in schools and other community venues to promote cultural awareness. They are also creating an audio archive of both the vocal traditions and experiences of first-generation immigrants that will serve as a resource for generations to come. In 2011, the Harmony Project hopes to do similar work in the area surrounding Bard College.

Student Leader: Jeremy Carter-Gordon Young Rhinebeck Youth Programs

Life, Learning, and Language: Young Rhinebeck’s Life, Learning, and Language program provides a local support network for immigrant children and their families. Rhinebeck, New York, is home to a large population of ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers, whose academic and social needs are not always met by the school district alone. Young Rhinebeck strives to meet this need. Tutors from Bard work individually with elementaryschool students to act as homework support, mentors, and models of higher academic goals. The program provides local family advocates and translation services to help maintain steady contact between the families and the school district. As advocates, mentors, and tutors, we are in constant contact with the Hispanic community in the Hudson Valley, and seek to raise social awareness of immigration and education issues.

Student Leader: Thea Piltzecker Young Artists of Rhinebeck: Rhinebeck middle school students learn artistic

techniques and find ways of integrating the art that they make with social or community awareness. This year, students will learn the fabric-dyeing technique of batik and sell some of the art that we make to support the Javanese artists who still preserve the technique. The participants of the workshop make the decisions about how to raise awareness or donate funds, and this collaborative artistic and social space is a wonderful opportunity for the students and teachers involved.

Student Leader: Allison Brainard

Current Projects | 21

Selected Project Archive Academic Advancement Program Activists Worldwide AIDS/HIV and

Linden Avenue Middle School Drama Project

Reproductive Education (AWARE):

Media Analysis Project (MAP)

Russia

Mexico Solidarity Network Delegation

Bard Health Initiative (BHI)

Migrant Labor Project

Bard High School Early College

“One Year Later” (academic conference

Play/Mentoring Program Bard Permaculture Initiative

on the anti–Iraq War outpouring in 2003)

Bard Space Program

Palestine Awareness Project

Bard–Sri Lanka Project

Project for the Awareness of Resource

Bhopal Memory Project Chiapas Solidarity Project Children’s Gardening Program Children’s Rights Are Human Rights, Amnesty International Conference

Consumption (PARC) Red Hook Residential Reciprocal Education Project Register to Vote [in 2000 a Bard student successfully sued the state of New

Coalition for Peru Relief

York for the right to vote in Dutchess

Conversations on Education

County]

Diamondz Hudson Young Women’s Group

Rhinebeck Connections Homework Help Program

Eco-Discoverers (Eco-D)

Senior Citizen Writing Project

Flying Fiddlers Mentoring Program

SSTOP (Students Stopping Trafficking of

Free Press Ghana Project Great River Sweep

Persons) STD of the Week Campus Education Project

Habitat for Humanity at Bard

Student Labor Dialogue

Human Rights Film Series

Thailand Project

Intercollegiate Energy Audit

Trans-Action Initiative

International Tuberculosis Relief Project

Understanding Arabs and Muslims

Iraq Watch

Visible and Invisible Disabilities

Kosher/Halal Kitchen and Multipurpose

Awareness Project

Prayer Space

For the entire project archive, visit the TLS website: http://inside.bard.edu/tls

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We Need Your Support!

Volunteer Volunteers are the backbone of TLS projects: whether you are a Bard student or a community member, we need your help. Join the Astor Home project in Rhinebeck, build homes in Nicaragua, teach outdoor education to middle schoolers from Red Hook, offer arts workshops in New Orleans . . .

Contribute Funds Leadership includes fund-raising. Many TLS projects require thousands of dollars. The TLS office can only provide seed money, so many projects rely on the generous financial support of people who want to make a difference in the world. With your support, TLS students have built schools in Africa and houses in Nicaragua; run tutoring programs in Hudson, New York; taught violin to economically challenged children in Kingston, New York; and recorded the indigenous music of the Sudan. These are projects that link people of all ages and needs with valuable assistance. Your willingness to support our work is crucial.

Making a charitable contribution to Bard College, the Trustee Leader Scholar Program, or a specific TLS project is easy. Many of our projects also benefit from donations of goods and professional services, such as books and bikes for raffles, printing services, and well-maintained cars.

Making a Gift by Check Checks can be made payable to Bard College. Please note TLS and a project name on your check if you would like your donation to go toward a particular project. Checks and other correspondence should be sent to: Trustee Leader Scholar Program Bard College PO Box 5000 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000 service@bard.edu Making a Gift by Credit Card Bard College accepts VISA, MasterCard, and AMEX. To make a contribution over the telephone, please contact the Office of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs at 845-758-7315 or 1-800-BARDCOL.

© 2011 Bard College. All rights reserved. All photographs by TLS students.

inside.bard.edu/tls | 23

Bard College, PO Box 5000, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000 845-758-7056, service@bard.edu, http://inside.bard.edu/tls