"We all have different journeys"

April 26, 2007

After a semester of interviews, journals, and visits over tea, Dr. Vi Dutcher's Advanced Writing students presented their memoirs to partnering residents at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, Wednesday, April 25. For the first time, thirty-five students have worked with seventeen VMRC residents to reflect glimpses of their lives in unique memoir projects.

Students found that they were more committed to this project than many assignments. "If it would have been just for a teacher and grade, I wouldn't have cared nearly as much," said a student. Instead, as they invested themselves in the project, the audience became personal to them and the writing took on a far greater importance.

Before presenting the memoirs to residents, each student took a moment to share the lessons they learned throughout the project. One resident broke stereotypes as "an older teenager;" another's remarkable life achievements inspired students; for still others it was a lesson of faith and faithfulness or a resident's genuine hospitality that impacted students.

One pair of students shared how they struggled to find an appropriate title for the memoir. Eventually they chose a line from a poem that had unique meaning to them: "We all have different journeys." To them, this represented how their life experiences have a variety of parallels and differences, yet through this project, their lives have become intertwined in new and unexpected relationships.

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Ex-Bracero and Immigrant Worker's Speaking Tour

Lessons from the Field for Today's Immigration Policy

Saturday, April 21
7:00 p.m.
Science Center 106

Including speakers representing...

Mexico Solidarity Network: A representative will talk about the economic and social context of migration between the US and Mexico with special focus on the effects of guest worker programs, using the Bracero Program as an example.

Asamblea Nacional de Braceros: An Ex-Bracero will offer first-hand testimony on guest worker programs, and will discuss their struggle to win payment of their retirement funds.

Mexicanos Sin Fronteras: A migrant day laborer will discuss the problems migrant workers confront on a daily basis in the US.

Sponsored by SGA and Community Learning

Read more...

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Community Learning Expressed

March 30, 2007

Take a look at student work reflecting their community engagement! Congratulations to our Expressions Contest winners:

Donovan Tann, 1st place (a poem from an interview with a Sunnyside Retirement Community resident remembering the Great Depression)

Melanie Pritchard, 2nd place (her various Community Learning experiences and lessons told through cartoon panels)

Heather Nyce, 3rd place (an essay reflecting on an experience with a student that she has worked with through her internship in D.C.)

Thanks again to all who participated!

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A Symbolic U.S./Mexico Border Wall

March 28, 2007

The area along the border especially provokes difficult questions about the underlying tensions that are dividing communities. Relationships between the North and Latin Americans are being compromised. How can we get beyond sound bites to the complex web of social, political and economics realities?

Our hope is that this wall, built by SGA and the Community Learning Program, which will be built in front of the Campus Center will encourage dialogue, reflection, and action related to the current questions, tensions and issues related to immigration in our local, regional, national and international communities.