TLS Brochure 2017

TLS 2017 Trustee Leader Scholar Program

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND SOCIAL ACTION

Bard

In order to plan logistics, Abdullah and I walk the damp rocky street to the girls’ house for a mostly taboo visit between genders. The girls are hidden inside an enclosed garden, smoking furiously. “Enough,” screams Muntaha. “I’ve had it, I can’t live behind a wall, it’s going to kill me, and no one came today because it’s raining? I’m packing up.” Muntaha, from Ramallah, has never been to the rural West Bank.

Females in the village do not go outside if it is raining. She’s been in Mas’ha less than one day. She drives away.

Abdullah translates all 20 of the prompted writing responses for the high school boys on the “meaning of home.” They list parts of their village, their family members, traditional foods, and holidays. Abdullah reads his own response, “Home is a paradox. Home is the people on the street who call me slurs.

Home is the café where Foucault becomes my ally breaking down the binaries that crush our souls. It makes me sad when people on the street mock my voice and the way I dress.”

The boys from Mas’ha are confused what this is about, but still nod approval of Abdullah’s intense interpretation of the prompt. They want to hear more of his city accent.

Soon after this Abdullah comes out as gay in a piece published

by This Week in Palestine, elaborating on his experience in a culture that recoils from him. I think of the rapport Abdullah had with the young men of Mas’ha, his wonderful capacity for listening without judgment, his sense of verbal play, and his ability to switch roles from university student to mentor of youth from a conservative rural village. I tear up thinking about Abdullah having to navigate the daunting places he calls home.

SAM SHAPIRO ’13, FORMER BARD PALESTINIAN YOUTH INITIATIVE STUDENT, CURRENT DIRECTOR OF THE STUDENT-LED INITIATIVES PROGRAM, AL-QUDS BARD

Front cover image: CultureConnect: Life, Learning, and Language project 2

Theme for the Year: Showing Up A SHORT SERMON ON SHOWING UP Verse 1 TRUE PRACTICES are hard. Everyone can raise and lower their ring finger.

The trained pianist does it at precise moments with exquisite subtlety. And this is key: When we do something over and over, developing muscle memory and expanding our sense of self, we begin to create a practice. Practices are based on skills, reflection, development, and time.

PRACTICES are important because they strip away distraction, undo resistance, open us to moments of ecstatic expression, and grow bonds with other human beings. It is through practices that we intensify our awareness of the complex matrix of buzzing life in which we are all embedded. It is through practices that we mobilize our passion, will, energy, and stamina.

And it is through practices that we change the world. Everybody knows this, but sometimes we forget, get busy, or are distracted.

Verse 2 WE KNOW there is no substitute for energy, will, and stamina. These are all sourced in the body, and true practices start with the body. In TLS we pay attention to our bones and muscles, tune in to our nervous systems, and actually put our hands on the world around us.

WE URGE everyone to run down mountain trails, to meditate, play ball, teach, make theater, swim, dance, write, sing, garden, march, sew, knit, cook, drill, wash, paint, jump, spin, build, throw, catch, skate, ski, dive, blow a horn, hammer, weld, sweep, climb. Each one of these actions is a complex expression of muscle, fluids, and nerves firing in sequence. Every one of these has the potential to be a practice.

Verse 3 SHOWING UP is the heart of the matter. In TLS we consider specific language strategies, group facilitation approaches, pedagogy and curriculum building, evidence-based research methodologies, budget calculation, and interpersonal communication. We remember that these are all essential components of successful civic engagement campaigns. We also remember that they are not the fuel that drives things. Showing up over and over, especially when the going gets rough, when there is a lot at stake, when it’s

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hard and exhausting, perhaps even boring, that is the heart of the matter.

Showing up is the primary practice.

We have a world-class percussion ensemble at Bard called SŌ Percussion. The SŌ musicians are developing arts-based civic engagement projects as part of their work at the College. Yesterday one of them said to me on the phone, “Artists know they need to put in their 10,000 hours alone in a small room, but it’s not enough; we also need to participate in democratizing the world.” Ten thousand hours alone in a room and knowing citizen participation is required:–this is the beginning of showing up.

Verse 4 EACH OF US mobilizes for different reasons. It’s important not to oversimplify this. Our personal histories and early family experiences greatly influence our motivation and capacity for passionate action. Some of us act out of love, some out of fear, some out of anger, some out of shame. There can be dark sides to practice. We are also aware that there are many different ways to contribute to the collective—from building homes to making art to teaching children to maintaining a garden. No matter what our histories, no matter what our grand personal narratives, no matter what our physical capacities, I believe we can all develop practices that generate positive energy and make it possible to mobilize for good. We all have the opportunity, though challenging for many, to locate, exercise, and refresh our stamina and will. I believe we can all show up.

I wish I had the magic formula for undoing distraction. I would love to have a magic wand and sweep away the psychic dust of apathy. I wish I knew the secret for why some people can stand the world roaring unreasonably around them and still mobilize with generosity. As I write this morning I am looking out the window of my office where I have a full view of the walkway into our campus center. I see my student Liz Boyd with an arm full of papers moving with purpose at 7 o’clock on a cold morning. Liz is a senior who runs a wonderful ESL program in town for the migrant community. She has not missed a Thursday night of teaching in four years. Treating people well is a practice for Liz. Verse 5 MATTERING FLOWS from passion. Passion has gravity and pulls in the uncertain. Passion generates friction and raises the bar for everyone. In TLS we are regularly astonished, floored, and flabbergasted by the passion in our students. We “ooo” and “ahh” all the time.

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Verse 6 IT’S GOOD to be exhausted regularly. Passion requires we give everything we have. We work and breathe and sweat. We don’t always want to do it.

No one does. But we find and refind our energy, and we work until there is nothing left in us. Then we rest well and deeply. And we know this is crucial to practices too. We all need a moment of silence and stasis. Our bodies are both durable and fragile.

I take a 20-minute nap every afternoon sometime between 2 and 3:30. If I don’t, I will sit in a stupor staring at the computer screen, pondering, somewhere deep in the back of my hazy head, how to find the energy to write the next sentence. After my 20 minutes of sleep I rise with vigor and write my essay.

Verse 7 HERE IS the sober moment in this sermon. We live in a world enamored of promises delivered as slick performance. Surfaces and images and digital fakery intrude on us from every direction. It is the age of disinformation and demagoguery. But photoshopped “digita” is not the world, and notoriety has very limited value. The world that matters to me is soil and air and bone and blood. You either nurture it or you don’t. There is no amount of talk that will cool the atmosphere. No language powerful enough to stop bullets. No amount of fame translates into generosity. No empty claims alive enough to overcome hatred. The world requires thoughtful, precise, disciplined, compassionate action.

Verse 8 WHAT DOES your practice look like when it expresses itself as civic engagement? What are the practicalities? What are the resistances? What encourages them? What makes it possible? Whose help do you need?

What cultural messages stop you cold? What compels you? What are the sources of your fear? What is the source of your expansion? What makes you tick? What do you really care about? What gives you a thrill? These questions start our practice.

Verse 9 HERE IS the hopeful ending to this sermon. I have incredible faith in my students, and deep faith in so many people around me. I see people showing up for each other all the time. The depth of goodness in people is astonishing.

I strongly believe that generosity will triumph over everything else.

Paul Marienthal Director, Trustee Leader Scholar Program

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6 Students signing up to volunteer with TLS projects

Trustee Leader Scholar Program Bard College's Trustee Leader Scholar Program (TLS) supports leadership development in the context of hands-on, student-initiated community engagement projects.

What is TLS? The Trustee Leader Scholar Program is the formal civic engagement and leadership development program for undergraduate students at Bard College and is deeply rooted in the mission and outreach efforts of the Bard Center for Civic Engagement. 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 45 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 social action projects based on their own compelling interests. For example, they run poetry-writing programs in local youth detention centers; build biodiesel processors on campus; run summer camps for Palestinian children in the West Bank; provide regular ESL sessions to non-English speakers who live locally; mentor young men of color from underserved communities in the Hudson Valley; and act as teachers’ aides in rebuilding New Orleans. 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 letter-writing campaign organizers.

What makes TLS special?

Many colleges provide volunteer and community service 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.

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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 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 passionate action. TLS projects are hard. They force students to reflect critically about participation in the world, and develop beliefs based on real-world engagement with others. TLS considers this life training. We also say “yes” a lot.

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 positively. 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 Early College 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 service 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 the academic calendar 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 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 Services for Children and Families Astor Services for Children and Families in Rhinebeck, New York, functions as a school and residential space of rehabilitation, providing mental health services to children who have experienced emotional and/or physical trauma. Bard students become mentors and positive role models for these children, leading a range of activities for two hours each week. Activities are taught in a one-on-one or group setting, and range from theater and cooking to pottery and science projects; the activities depend on the shared interest of each Bard volunteer and Astor student. After working with the children, we meet with the art therapist at Astor for half an hour to discuss the sessions, hold additional trainings, and ask questions. The project serves as an opportunity for children to be part of a safe, fun environment in which they can develop their passions and learn skills. This program helps children who are overcoming obstacles in their lives to feel appreciated, listened to, and acknowledged.

Student Leaders: Sophie Green and Riley Griffin Bard Biodiesel Cooperative The Bard Biodiesel Cooperative makes environmentally friendly fuel from community waste. The co-op works with Chartwells (Bard’s 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. We also provide vegetable oil to the Victory Bus Project, which offers transportation to New York City families to visit members in prison upstate.

Student Leader: Henry O’Donnell BardBuilds BardBuilds is an architecture and urban planning group dedicated to opening discussions about the built environment at Bard. BardBuilds was founded as a club and TLS project in the spring of 2014. We offer two weekly volunteer practicums and workshops for students and have held guest speaker events and public forums for Bard and its surrounding communities. BardBuilds aims to foster a connection between Bard students, Bard administration, and their campus environment. Our goal is to have this dialogue lead to long-term, community-driven design, construction,

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Thirty of us travel through the afternoon heat on our way to the zoo in Qalqilya. Two hours of bus riding in August. Enough said. We crack the windows but it’s no help against the sun’s blast. We sing in Arabic. We sing in English. We laugh about the puppet show we put on earlier. The soldiers at the checkpoint search us. They walk slowly up the aisle. They walk slowly down the aisle. They look in our bags. They pass us on. I smell za’atar bread.

I hear the crackle of the radio searching for a song.

There’s a tickle on my arm. I turn. A camper is taking hold of my hand. I return the gesture and touch her little palm to my own.

JORDANA RUBENSTEIN-EDBERG ’17 BARD PALESTINIAN YOUTH INITIATIVE

and care for space on campus. In the past, the architecture practicum has worked weekly with College officials for administration and campus operations to organize a student-led renovation of the Stone Row courtyard.

We have had a long-standing relationship with the Kingston, New York, Planning Department, where students interested in urban planning meet weekly with the city planner. BardBuilds invited a Bard graduate working for the New York City Department of City Planning, who spoke about post– Hurricane Sandy coastal risk planning in that city. We also organized a public forum on the future of Montgomery Place with Bard President Leon Botstein. A full house of concerned students, faculty, and local residents voiced their concerns about this recent addition to the campus.

Student Leaders: Nicolas Shannon and Carol Miranda West Bard Math Circle The Bard Math Circle is an enrichment program for upper elementary, middle, and high school students; families; and teachers. Our main programs are monthly library Math Circle events in Kingston and Tivoli, competitions and prep sessions hosted at Bard College, a weeklong summer day program, and a Rubik’s Cube Club. We expose students to math from beyond

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their school curriculum, foster interaction between students and Bard undergraduate volunteers, and build enthusiasm for further study. Learn more at: bardmathcircle.org.

Student Leader: Rachel Nalecz Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative The Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative (BPYI) is founded upon the belief that constructive civil engagement, cultural exchange, and education create an environment conducive to self-expression. We are excited to say that BPYI is the only entirely student-run Palestinian engagement program in the United States. We believe deeply in the idea that open dialogue is crucial in areas of conflict. Twice a year, a group of students from Bard College programs in New York, Berlin, Russia, and East Jerusalem travel to Mas’ha, Zawyah, and Bidya, small villages in the West Bank. In partnership with the local communities, we run children’s summer camps, organize community engagement projects, teach English and writing classes, and participate in cultural activities. Throughout the year, we cocreate a Language and Thinking–based curriculum with Al-Quds Bard students for our winter and summer programs and facilitate on-campus events to engage a diversity of students in conversation around this area of the world.

Student Leaders: Renad Bdair and Jordana Rubenstein-Edberg Bard Prison Initiative Volunteers The Bard Prison Initiative Volunteers serve as the link between the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) and student body on the Annandale campus. We support BPI in its goal of providing college education to inmates in six correctional facilities in New York State by recruiting and coordinating undergraduate tutors. We work closely with BPI administrators in facilitating the training of our tutors and in establishing a BPI support community on campus. Our on-campus work includes alumni/ae panels, a speaker series, film screenings, and social events.

Student Leader: Leo Santoso Bard Science Outreach Bard Science Outreach (BSO) is a student-run project that promotes science education among middle school and high school students in the Hudson Valley. Every year we invite students from Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, New York, to our campus to perform scientific experiments; we also mentor them in their independent science projects. BSO helps develop community projects, which go on to become part of the Citizen Science program. We cooperate with other TLS projects such as

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A Brothers At Bard session with high school students in Kingston, New York

the Bard Math Circle, and are always looking for ways to collaborate with other groups and events in the community. We welcome involvement from both science majors and people who are simply interested in science.

Student Leader: Madeleine Breshears Bard Senegal Project Lacking financial and educational opportunities, girls as young as 9 years old from Sandiara, Senegal, are sent to distant cities to work as domestic servants, or they are married off into virtual servitude. The Bard Senegal Project provides training in practical tailoring and textile manufacturing for the purpose of giving young women an economic role in village life. In the summer of 2016, the project received a Davis Projects for Peace grant and began creating a long-term educational program to provide economic status to many young women in the near future.

Student Leader: Julia Tinneny

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Brothers At Bard A character development, peer-mediation mentorship program for young men of color from underserved backgrounds, Brothers At Bard (BAB) is currently working with 15 high school students in 9th through 12th grades in Kingston, New York. The Bard members of the project play the role of “big brothers,” or mentors, to the young men in the cohort. Brothers At Bard has the unique ability to empower young men by exposing them not only to successful men of color but to men of color currently attending a highly selective four-year college. The mentors run a series of character development workshops and team-building activities with the cohort to promote academic excellence and college readiness. Our most important objective is to create a safe space and brotherhood circle among the students to generate a supportive atmosphere for character and identity development.

BAB measures each mentee’s growth on a case-by-case basis by tracking improvements in attendance, behavior, and in the classroom. As a mentoring program, we make sure our mentees are making positive life choices to ensure they continue to live a healthy, successful life they can define for themselves.

Student Leaders: Elisha Odinga, Orlando Riley, Dariel Vasquez, and Tabias Wimby Building Up Hudson Students in Building Up Hudson tutor and mentor high school students in Hudson, New York. We lead workshops catering to career development, college preparation, and college admissions, personal skill building, and positive personal expression. We also raise funds for Building Up Hudson scholarships for eligible high school seniors who could not otherwise afford college. The Building Up Hudson staff, consisting of the college mentor team, publicity squad, and fund-raising committee, is dedicated to the personal and academic growth of the young scholars we work with. We hope to instill values that will foster confidence for impacting the world.

Student Leaders: Helen Aracena and Tayler Butler Community Engagement Arts Project The Community Engagement Arts Project (CEAP) focuses on community art making that supports the process of finding a personal, creative, and empowering voice of expression through visual arts, movement, theater, music, poetry, and play. CEAP members use the arts to interact with children, teens, and adult community members to explore the emotional content of their lives and overcome personal challenges. Members attend on-campus arts workshops led by professional practitioners and educators to equip themselves with the knowledge and confidence to design and

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Cuerdas para Cali

implement their own workshops at sites such as Coarc in Mellenville, New York; Camphill Ghent in Chatham, New York; and the Red Hook (New York) and Tivoli (New York) Public Libraries. In addition to engaging in arts programs with communities outside Bard, CEAP seeks to use the arts to build stronger community at Bard.

Student Leaders: Madison Emond, Mia Lotan, and Nell Ostow Cuerdas para Cali The members of Cuerdas para Cali (Strings for Cali) are classically trained musicians who inspire young students and celebrate cultural exchange through music education. Each summer, they travel to Cali, Colombia, to work with the Orquesta de Siloé to collaborate with young musicians. Siloé is one of the poorest slums in the Americas, yet music making there exhibits potent vibrancy. The project involves teaching and performing along with intense interpersonal engagement and exchange.

Student Leaders: Julian Lampert, Lili Sarayrah, and Omar Shelly

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CultureConnect: Life, Learning, and Language CultureConnect’s Life, Learning, and Language program provides a local support network for immigrant children and their families. The area around Bard is the home of a large population of young ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers, whose academic and social needs are not always met by their school district alone. CultureConnect strives to close this gap.

Tutors from Bard make twice-weekly visits to Mill Road Elementary School in Red Hook and Chancellor Livingston Elementary School in Rhinebeck.

There they meet individually with students, providing homework support, mentorship, and a model for higher academic goals. The program offers local family advocates and translation services to help maintain interactiont between 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 Leaders: Nora Cady and Ivan Ditmars Germantown Tutoring Program Tutors from Bard College go to Germantown Central School to work with 3rd and 6th graders on English and math schoolwork. Many Germantown students need extra help to meet Common Core standards, and Bard tutors have the opportunity to work with them in the back of the classrooms, going over homework, guiding them through classwork, and helping them understand difficult concepts. Bard tutors are patient and kind, build students’ confidence, and make them feel comfortable asking for help with their work. Since Bard tutors are closer in age to these students than their teachers, students often have an easier time talking to their tutors.

Student Leader: Jeffrey Daugherty

One day returning from León, the traffic was very heavy, and we were very late for the afternoon session. As we pulled up, we could see that all 40 students had arranged the tables and chairs for us and were waiting patiently for us to begin the lesson.

SARA SUCH ’18 NICARAGUA EDUCATION INITIATIVE

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Members of Harvesting Justice work on a local organic farm.

Harvesting Justice Harvesting Justice is a student-run collective that helps up-and-coming farms in the Hudson Valley in tandem with the Freedom Food Alliance and other initiatives to fight institutionalized racism and social injustices. We provide support for small-scale local farms while engaging in conversations around class, race, gender, ability, status, and other aspects of our identity in order to break down stigma around agriculture and work against institutional barriers of access that are present in the modern food system. We provide weekly opportunities for students to volunteer on and learn from local farms that could use our assistance. We glean food donations for the Victory Bus, a project of the Freedom Food Alliance, which supplies affordable transportation to New York residents who wish to visit their families in prisons upstate while providing complimentary shares of fresh produce for the incarcerated and their families.

Student Leaders: Giulia Bambara and Amelia Leeya Goldstein

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La Voz La Voz is a Spanish-language magazine, distributed monthly throughout New York’s Dutchess, Ulster, Orange, and Columbia counties, that elevates the discourse and news coverage accessible 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 120,000 Hispanic/Latino area residents (about 90,000 of whom prefer to speak Spanish at home). First-generation Hispanic immigrants depend on La Voz not only for its informative aspects but also for its artistic attributes. Language barriers can be quite difficult to overcome, especially for individuals living in small towns or rural areas. We introduce readers, who are isolated not only by geography but also by language, to a world of arts and information. La Voz is the only publication of its kind in the area.

Bard students work directly with editor Mariel Fiori ’05 on all aspects of the magazine’s production, from illustration and reporting to community outreach and distribution (5,000 copies to almost 400 locations in about 20 towns every month). Fiori began the magazine with Emily Schmall ’05 as a TLS project while an undergraduate at Bard. After graduation, Fiori was hired by the College to publish La Voz on a permanent basis. In 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011, 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’s Arts Awards. In 2014, when the magazine turned a decade old, Fiori was recognized as Woman Entrepreneur of the Year by GET Hudson Valley. In 2015, La Voz received an Ippie Award for Best Small Circulation publication. lavoz.bard.edu Administrative Contact: Mariel Fiori

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Early in my time at Project Why, one of the students decides I need to eat with my hands the way Muslims do. Putting in my contacts, I discover that chili oil is hard to wash off. I am jumping up and down with tears stinging my eyes. The students double over in hysterical giggles and call me pagle hai, or “crazy.” For drama’s sake I fall to the floor and press my face into the cold stone—which actually helps—and I throw in a little limb flailing for effect. As they laugh harder and harder at me they begin to see me as another human being and less as an authority figure. That day I am given the title of didi, or “sister,” and I have been didi ever since. I can’t change that pale-skinned people are the heroes in Indian movies or that children learn that Americans are better, smarter, faster than they are. But I can show up and be a human being.

After a lifetime of being told they are inferior to the higher classes of Indian society and even more inferior to white people, learning that they are powerful, good, and equal is a great benefit I can provide to the Project Why students.

EMILY FOX ’18 PROJECT WHY: BARD

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Mid-Hudson Refugee Solidarity Alliance In conjunction with Vassar, Marist, Dutchess Community College, SUNY New Paltz, and many local nonprofits, faith-based congregations, and individuals, we are resettling refugee families in our region. There are currently an estimated 65 million displaced people on the planet. The alliance works closely with Church World Services (CWS), an organization authorized by the U.S. government to resettle fully vetted families from challenged global locations. We develop welcoming teams to help families make the transition to living in the Hudson Valley.

Administrative Contact: Paul Marienthal The New Old Gym Project The Old Gym is Bard’s only student-run performance venue. Centrally located on the Annandale campus, it is a converted gymnasium that now functions as a black-box space with all the amenities of a fine amateur theater. We focus on presenting original student work to showcase the abundance of creativity and talent at Bard. The Old Gym’s mission is to provide a safe, multipurpose space for anyone (dancers, actors, directors, musicians, photographers, visual artists, filmmakers; both majors and nonmajors) to create radical, visionary work and share that work with the Bard community.

Student Leaders: Kate Brashear, Shane Crowley, and Annie Garret-Larsen New Orleans Exchange Since 2005, the New Orleans Exchange has strived to empower New Orleanians working to rebuild their city as a more just, equitable, and sustainable place. An entirely student-run program, the Bard New Orleans project’s members have traveled to New Orleans each year since Hurricane Katrina. More than 800 Bard students have worked to meet the needs of local communities through close partnerships with organizations such as the Broadmoor Improvement Association, McDonogh 35 High School, Andrew H. Wilson Charter School, and Bard Early College in New Orleans.

Students have gutted buildings and provided summer remediation programs for high school students striving to make up for class time lost to the storm; biannually surveyed existing property damage in the Broadmoor neighborhood and created geographic information system (GIS) maps of spatial concentrations of specific needs; provided tutoring and facilitated arts workshops for children in elementary and middle schools; worked at Andrew H. Wilson school as teachers’ aides and begun a yearlong dialogue between Bard and Wilson students that promotes literacy and cultural exchange. This year, the exchange has begun working with criminal justice

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New Orleans Exchange members push for legislation to restore voting rights for the formerly incarcerated.

reform. We support VOTE (Voices of the Experienced, an organization fighting for voting rights for the formerly incarcerated), and assist them with community outreach, day-to-day operations, and research. In addition, upwards of 50 Bard graduates have moved to New Orleans following commencement to continue the work of the New Orleans Exchange.

Student Leaders: Kate Bickhardt and Leigh Taylor Nicaragua Education Initiative The Nicaragua Education Initiative facilitates educational projects that empower community members in Chacraseca, a rural town in western Nicaragua. For the past 14 years, Bard students have traveled to Chacraseca for three weeks in January and live with host families there. The initiative has evolved from hurricane relief to sustainable education. We provide English, science, and math lessons to community members, ranging from age 5 to adult. We also implement art projects as a means of encouraging creative expression. We maintain a presence in Chacraseca throughout the year by funding an English teacher and a number of academic scholarships. While our project provides community members with eclectic lessons, it also fosters a valuable educational and multicultural exchange.

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The Nicaragua Education Initiative values learning both inside and outside of the classroom. The connections and relationships we build cannot be learned at a desk, and this multicultural exchange widens the perspectives of each individual involved in the project.

Student Leaders: Wilmary Rodriguez and Sara Such Project Why: Bard Project Why: Bard is an annual trip to New Delhi, India, to work with Project Why, a school for more than a thousand slum children in that devastatingly complex city. The corrupt public school system in India leaves children who cannot afford private schooling without adequate— or often any—education. We augment the curriculum, working with fulltime teachers in subjects they are less familiar with; this includes spoken English, the arts, technology, and life skills such as first aid. We also run teacher trainings, which improve spoken English and equip teachers with pedagogical skills.

Student Leader: Emily Fox Red Hook English as a Second Language Center The Red Hook English as a Second Language (ESL) Center is a biweekly ESL class in which nonnative English speakers work with Bard students in a one-on-one relationship. Originally started to address migrant workers’ needs to learn English in order to advocate for themselves and become part of the Hudson Valley community, the center has opened its doors to other students while maintaining migrants from Latin America as the core of our student population. As leaders, we seek to create a comfortable learning environment for community members who might feel isolated by limited English proficiency, while allowing Bard students the opportunity to build relationships with members of our community who may otherwise be overlooked.

Student Leaders: Liz Boyd and Isabella Martinez Red Hook Residential Tutoring Program A group of Bard student volunteers holds weekly tutoring sessions with youthful offenders incarcerated at the Red Hook Residential Center (RHRC) in Upper Red Hook, New York. Subject areas include reading, writing, math, and social studies, as well as GED/SAT prep. With the assistance of the RHRC administration, we tailor specific materials to fit the needs and interests of each student in order to align with their class curricula. Through this project, we hope to offer students at RHRC the opportunity to meet or exceed their grade level, to enhance their understanding of fundamental

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I sit down with Mo, an older blind woman who’s holding the piece of pottery she’d shaped inside her squeezed fists. We’re glazing. I help her get the color she wants on the brush and help her hand guide the brush around the piece of hardened clay. I continuously describe the piece to her. She imagines it clearly and explains it to me. We work that way for a long time. She turns the piece over slowly in her hand, paints, and waits. Slowly we talk and make. What strikes me is Mo’s patience and honesty. She is not trying to get something right. She is making connection with her piece. The notion of someone who can’t see picking a color is so poignant to me. Mo cares what others will perceive. Mo’s way of “seeing” is a metaphor for what CEAP strives to do, and what I strive to do on a personal level. It’s a “seeing” that is beyond the visual world. It’s a way of approaching an artistic process or another person that is ready for whatever connection arises.

NELL OSTOW ’17 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ARTS PROJECT (CEAP)

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Sail Forward after-school enrichment in a local school

academic material, and, most of all, to foster in them an appreciation for continued education.

Student Leader: Stella Frank Sail Forward Sail Forward is an after-school enrichment program in the Germantown Central School District. Based in the elementary school, Bard students create unique programs rooted in their own interests and skills. The curriculum serves the needs of the classroom and spans various disciplines including creative writing, art, debate, and the performing arts. The projects are intended as collaborations between students, faculty members, and administrative staff.

Student Leader: Kerri Anne Bigornia

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Surrealist Training Circus performing on campus

Surrealist Training Circus The Surrealist Training Circus (STC) is a creative forum at Bard College that gives students the opportunity to learn unique skills such as acrobatics, fire breathing, juggling, and poi spinning. These are taught directly to Bard students by other Bard students or Bard alumni/ae, and every skill level is welcome to join. STC members believe that academic and rational training fall short in preparing students for today’s world; in response, they pursue public theater and circus arts, and favor postapocalyptic lifestyles as modes of training for the future. STC is a complex organizational puzzle, and through questioning and critique, the Circus performs a crucial civic engagement function. STC puts on a show at the end of every May that is one of Bard’s most attended events; students—who have worked hard all year to learn and perfect their skills—perform for their peers and community members in a show completely designed by them.

Student Leader: Hannah Conley Tuimarishane Tuimarishane provides sex education to teens and young adults in Africa.

By providing a safe place for this population to learn about sexual health, misconceptions will be cleared up and safe sex practices, including condom distribution, encouraged. In addition to informing youth about HIV/ AIDs, goals are to provide community screenings and combat the stigma associated with the virus. The program is confidential, allowing the youth to speak about sexual health and sexuality freely and without judgment.

Leaders and volunteers work with True Vision Ghana (truevisionghana.org) to continue supporting these communities by providing information on HIV/AIDs counseling and treatment.

Student Leader: Shila Bayor WRITE ON! WRITE ON! offers books and free creative writing workshops for adults experiencing homelessness and women recovering from domestic violence.

Believing in the power of the written word to transport people, WRITE ON! encourages and empowers our individual voices and the strength of our stories in a safe, nonjudgmental environment. We provide reading and writing materials for our workshop participants through book-collection drives and donations. Bard students volunteer to collect and distribute books, transcribe workshop participants’ writing, and assist in workshops.

Student Leader: LaVonne Roberts

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Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative in the West Bank village of Mas’ha

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 Micki Strawinski, Administrative Assistant Bianka Bell ’16, TLS Fellow Room 213, Bertelsmann Campus Center 845-758-7056 tls@bard.edu

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Selected Project Archive Activists Worldwide AIDS/HIV and Reproductive Education (AWARE): Russia Bard Branches Community Center Bard College Community Garden Bard Food Initiative Bard Health Initiative (BHI) Bard Model United Nations Initiative Bard Permaculture Initiative Bard Space Program Bard–Sri Lanka Project Bhopal Memory Project Chiapas Solidarity Project Child to Child Nepal Children’s Gardening Program Children’s Rights Are Human Rights, Amnesty International Conference Coalition for Peru Relief Conversations on Education Dream To Achieve Ghana Project Global Cultural Outreach Habitat for Humanity at Bard Hope in Devereux International Tuberculosis Relief Project Media Analysis Project (MAP) Mexico Solidarity Network Delegation Migrant Labor Project Senior Citizen Writing Project Sounds of Social Change SSTOP (Students Stopping Trafficking of Persons) Thailand Project Trans-Action Initiative Understanding Arabs and Muslims Visible and Invisible Disabilities Awareness Project

For the entire project archive, visit the TLS website: bard.edu/civicengagement/tls Photos by Bard students

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We’re outside the Student Success Center at Kingston (New York) High School looking at curious faces passing by, searching for one of ours. I make eye contact with a BAB (Brothers At Bard) mentee. “You coming to tutoring today?” We both know the answer, but I still ask. “Where else I’ma go?” he replies with a screwed-up face. We laugh. I step aside to make room for our boy. When everyone is there we close the door and get to work. The student I spoke to earlier exclaims, “No way I can focus on my work, no way.” We turn to the stressed student, sitting low in his chair, head bent over. “My mother doesn’t believe I’m working hard to improve my grades.”

He hasn’t missed a tutoring session, but his grades haven’t caught up yet to the grind he’s putting in. All his fellow mentees offer words of encouragement. “You gotta keep grinding, bro. It’ll pay off,” and “You are gonna make her proud.” This is the moment that everyone in the group comes together to show love and support for one another in a time of need. I fill with joy.

ELISHA ODINGA ’19 BROTHERS AT BARD

Bard College PO Box 5000 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000 845-758-7056 tls@bard.edu | bard.edu/civicengagement/tls