Category: Community Engagement & Service
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LUFA*
“That’s too long of a name for such a little baby,” my grandmother remarked when she learned my name was Elizabeth. I think my grandmother would sympathize with the urge many people have to refer to our office – renamed last year to W&M Civic & Community Engagement – as CCE. Long names can be…
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A Penguin in a Rainstorm Enjoys Some Charcuterie
An egg, initially new and unaware but cracked open and slowly understanding what’s around me A squirrel, running around campus seeking new opportunities A mirror, allowing me to reflect and learn more about my leadership A rainstorm, one really deep experience that I wasn’t expecting completely flooded me with new information A puppy, hard to…
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Eras (Elizabeth’s Version)
The Office of Community Engagement just concluded our “Year of Transformation” focused on discerning how we want to evolve our approach to partnerships, relationships, and our work as a whole. Transformation can come in big ways (more to be announced soon!), but it can also unfold in smaller forms. As we begin to unveil the…
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Activist – it’s complicated
Recently I asked ten students to reflect on their relationship to the word activism. Here’s a glimpse into their thoughts. ACTIVIST – it’s complicated The word “activist” carries a lot of weight. When I was younger, it maybe looked more “clean cut.” Now I see how activism is, can be, should be, as part of…
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Accessing Active Citizenship
Two years ago, I wrote about the member mentality and the Active Citizens Continuum which describes how our perspective on community engagement can change. When I was first introduced to active citizenship, I thought of it as “The Active Citizen” who collected all the badges for responsibility, justice, service, and social change. Becoming “The Active…
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Skills of Freedom
A year ago, I gave this assignment to students in my community engagement course: Select and practice one skill that you believe will support your own growth and freedom and/or your work for the freedom of others. Over the course of the semester, you will make a plan for practicing the skills, seek feedback from…
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What I Learned from “Teaching Race”
Continuing our commitment to anti-racist learning and action, Office of Community Engagement staff recently finished reading Teaching Race: Helping Students Unmask and Challenge Racism, by Stephen Brookfield and Assoc. (2018). This was our second shared reading after Teaching to Transgress. One of the tools I gleaned from the book was Coggle, an online mind-mapping tool.…
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Fall 2020 Book Report
Those who know me personally know I love to read. I once created a Facebook album (back when those were a thing) just of photos of me reading. Early in the pandemic, I even recreated some classic book covers with whatever I could find around my house. So when we decided that one of OCE’s…
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Learning to Transgress
How do I tell the story of five Office of Community Engagement colleagues reading bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress? I can tell you that the setting was a weekly Zoom discussion, sometimes infiltrated by the sounds of air conditioners and flashes of ‘UNSTABLE INTERNET CONNECTION.’ The story takes place in 2020 in the midst of…
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Money Matters
For the last five months I have been working to make sustainable anti-racism changes in my life. Having read a lot of internet lists about actions to take, one item that stood out was banking locally and with Black-owned banks. Here was something I could do to put my financial power to good use, and…
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What I (Don’t) Know
About a month ago, I was on what felt like the tenth Zoom call in a row centered on the statement, “there’s so much we don’t know.” At the time, that sentiment was mostly in reference to COVID-19 and the uncertainty of what service-learning, community-engagement, university life, and life in general would look like in…
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The Third William & Mary
Years ago, I shared my reflections to the graduating Class of 2013 about their connection to the two William & Marys: Close your eyes and picture this campus. The William & Mary you see is the one you’ve built over the last however many years it has taken you to get to this point. You’ve…
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Celebrating Active Citizenship
Closing her letter to students this year, Melody Porter, Director of The Office of Community Engagement, wrote: Your actions this year and throughout your lives are powerful. We are so impressed and glad to be community with so many people who have done the daily work of care and advocacy. You know that it has…
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Because of Community: Professor Jennifer Bickham Mendez
This post is written by Caitlyn Whitesell ’20, who serves as the communication intern for OCE. She interviewed Professor Jennifer Bickham-Mendez in Fall 2019. Professor Bickham-Mendez researches Latinx studies, race, class gender, social movements, and more in William & Mary’s sociology department. Through her research, she engages directly with the Williamsburg community to serve the…
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Living Our Values
With Daily Work of Justice in full swing, The Active Citizens Conference fast approaching, and my weekly meetings with Aim 4 students, my mind and attention are pulled in many directions. Enter the trusty to-do list. Each time I cross off an item, I celebrate what has been accomplished and also why it matters. In…