WILLIAMS COLLEGE ChronicleOF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 2019-2020 WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO The Center for Learning in Action (CLiA) cultivates and sustains experiential learning opportunities, curricular and extracurricular, in service of the teaching goals of our faculty, the civic aspirations of our students, and the needs of the wider community. The Center's programming and pilot projects include support for fieldwork courses, volunteer and paid work opportunities, summer internships, and research fellowships. We also support the community engagement work of many other campus entities. Our team of two full-time and ten part-time staff1 takes a collaborative and continuous learning approach, working with faculty and a wide range of community organizations, student groups, and campus partners to provide students hands-on learning opportunities to address pressing civic problems. CENTER FOR LEARNING IN ACTION STAFF AND CONTRACTORS Paula Consolini, Ph.D. Molly Polk, MA (until July 2020) Adam Falk Director North Adams Coordinator for Williams Elementary Outreach Colin Ovitsky, BA Administrative Coordinator Tracy Baker-White, MIS Williamstown Elementary School Coordinator, Jennifer Swoap, BS Science Associate Director, Elementary Education and Director of Elementary Outreach Shaina Adams-El Guabli, M.Ed. Williamstown Elementary School Coordinator, Kaatje White, BA Classroom Support Assistant Director, Local High School Education, and Director, Williams Center at Amy Sosne, MD, M.S.Ed. (beginning Mount Greylock October 2019) Adventures in Learning Coordinator Anne Valk, Ph.D. (until January 2020) Associate Director for Public Humanities & Jessica S. Dils, MFA Lecturer in History Williams Fellows Program Coordinator for the Williams Center at Mount Greylock Sharif Rosen, BA Assistant Director, Community Engagement & Melody Blass Fisher, Ph.D (until November Muslim Chaplain 2019) Adventures in Learning Co-Coordinator Tracy Finnegan, MA, MAT Assistant Director, Poverty, Food Insecurity & NYC Renee Schiek, BS Education Lanesborough Elementary School Coordinator 1 This comprehensive list includes staff who’ve been with CLiA for any part of the 2019-2020 year, whether beginning or ending their time on the CLiA team. NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR 2019-20 was certainly a year like no other. From an experiential learning standpoint, it began in a very promising way. In the summer of 2019, we hosted student community outreach training and innovative work and we later co-organized a very well received K-12 educator institute on teaching diversity and social justice. After classes started in the fall, we continued with our regular programs of robust engagement with schools and other community partners through courses and extracurricular efforts. And then came COVID. We had been traveling by our regular routes, and the pandemic tore them up. We faced two options: take to the air and go virtual; or grab a mask and make our way through the rubble. Not surprisingly, the Williams community did both. As faculty scrambled to teach over Zoom, Williams students created interactive online science lessons and read-aloud videos, moved their mentoring online, and stepped up their efforts to advance racial justice. Faculty, staff, and students also stepped up to deliver food, raise funds, sew masks, and share messages of care to those hardest hit. COVID forced us to pivot, but critically needed community work continued. The stories and reports in this year’s Chronicle show both the pain and the possibility: the pandemic diminished in-person engagement but a surge of online efforts and problem-solving began. I’m pleased to report that this year, Center for Learning in Action staff supported (and in some cases, taught or co-taught) 21 of the 130+ courses involving experiential learning. Members of our team also directed 32 of the 50+ extracurricular community engagement programs and projects available to students. In addition, we supported more than two dozen offerings by student organizations and other campus offices, helping with funding, strategy, transportation, and other logistical issues. A few 2019-20 highlights: ● Two new “inside-out” courses offered at the Berkshire County House of Correction: Prof. Bernie Rhie’s “Meditation and Modern American Life” and Prof. Laura Ephraim’s “Politics of Waste.” ● The student organization Ephvotes conducted a Fall semester voter registration drive and organized joint primary debate-watching parties, which engaged hundreds of students. ● Williams students taught, tutored, mentored, or gave workshops or presentations to more than 2000 students in some fifteen K-12 schools in our region, New York City, and internationally before shifting to create online lessons and read-aloud videos. ● CLiA staff and student leaders collaborated with the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to offer professional development workshops for Williams students working in K-12 education. ● Before the pandemic struck, volunteers created over 1000 frozen meals from unserved dining hall food, then packaged and delivered them to local nonprofits for distribution to families in need. ● Volunteer Income Tax Assistance volunteers secured over $395,000 of Federal and state income tax refunds for 159 clients. ● Three new student groups tackled pandemic-related problems head on: Williams4Williamstown gathered donations to purchase local restaurant food for frontline healthcare workers, while the Williams Mask Initiative and Mask Moovers obtained donations and drafted people to sew facemasks for emergency distribution to frontline workers. ● CLiA created evolving lists of virtual community engagement possibilities for Williams students, featuring volunteer opportunities for semester and summer work and a list of resources for racial justice research and advocacy work. ● An informal COVID move-out donation process netted two truckloads of donations to local community resale programs. My staff and I deeply appreciate all the uplifting efforts of faculty, students, and staff--including other campus offices such as the Davis Center-- this year. Of course, we all depended on a host of dedicated and generous community partners who welcomed us, and especially our students, to join them in their work. Nicky Wu ’22 and Gavin McGough ’22 created a wonderful music video, linked here, which conveys our gratitude beautifully. We thank President Mandel and now retired Vice President Steve Klass for their inspiring video remarks in June and for championing engaged learning and CLiA. Our heartfelt gratitude also goes to departing CLiA staff members Annie Valk and Molly Polk, whose contributions to our programs in North Adams will enlighten Williams students for years to come. With respect to this edition of the Chronicle, thanks go to the entire CLiA team for their contributions and editing help, to those who contributed essays for the Spotlight section, and to graphic artist Nicky Wu ’22 for her beautiful front and back cover designs. While COVID-19 may have ripped up the road, it could not dampen our energy and resolve to keep moving forward. Thank you for the honor of supporting the work the world so desperately needs. On behalf of CLiA, Paula Consolini, Ph.D. Adam Falk Director 2019 Summer Community Outreach Fellows host President Mandel for a dorm-made meal. TABLE OF CONTENTS Spotlight Page 1-1 Building Community through BFAIR 1-1 Why I Miss WES 1-2 Berkshire County Schools: Before, During, and After Williams 1-3 Let's Dance! 1-4 Addressing Food Insecurity: The Work of WRAPS 1-6 Adventures in Learning 1-7 Hopkins Memorial Forest 1-8 Senior Spotlight: Astrid DuBois 1-10 Embodying Creativity: A Winter Study Experience 1-12 Research with an Impact: Four Fall '19 Students Share Their Williams-Mystic Maring Policy Research Projects 1-14 Curricular Experiential Education Page 2-1 Examples of Semester Courses 2-2 Examples of Winter Study Courses 2-7 Extracurricular Experiential Learning Page 3-1 Staff Run: Williams Elementary Outreach 3-1 High School Outreach & Williams Center at Mt. Greylock 3-18 Break Out Trips (BOTs) 3-24 Community Outreach Training Program 3-25 Food Insecurity Work 3-26 Give It Up! 3-27 Positive Pathways Partnership (P3) 3-28 Public Humanities at Williams 3-29 Purple Valley Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) 3-30 Sentinels Summer Research Fellowship 3-31 Student-Led 3-32 Campus & Community Partners & Allies Page 4-1 Berkshire K-12 Educator Diversity and Social Justice Training Institute 4-1 Campus Partners and Allies 4-3 Community Partners and Allies 4-4 Appendices Page 5-1 A: Key Elements of Effective Experiential Pedagogy & Glossary 5-1 B: 2019-20 Courses Involving Experiential Learning 5-5 C: Program Participants 5-8 SPOTLIGHT STORIES OF ENGAGED LEARNING Here’s an eclectic selection of the many small and large ways Williams students are learning by doing in the Berkshires and beyond. Building Community through BFAIR By Regina Fink ’22 I have been so grateful to run BFAIR Buddies with my inspiring and dedicated co-leader Eva Castagna ‘22, for our second year. BFAIR Buddies is a student-run organization whose members work with adults with special needs who are associated with Berkshire Individual and Family Resources (BFAIR). We hold weekly trips to different BFAIR homes, where we do seasonally themed crafts, have dance parties, enjoy spa days, and play eclectic board games. Students at Williams have a tendency to remain on campus, holed up in the library or their rooms poring over textbooks and staring anxiously at screens. For a long time, I was one of those students — the Fall of my first year I spent more time doing homework than anything else on campus. My workload skewed my worldview, placing my own goals and assignments in the center of the universe, above friendships, service, and fun. Thankfully during last Winter Study, I was given time to reflect on how I was spending my time in college. The pace of my world slowed down, enough for me to finally realize the absurdity of putting my homework above everything else in life, and gave me the space to envision who I wanted to be outside of work.