CCE News

This week, I had the opportunity to sit in on a Bard summer class on civic engagement. It was truly an eye opening experience. At an online meeting, students voiced their views on what civic engagement meant to them. Michele Pierre-Louis, the former Prime Minister of Haiti, Michele Pierre-Louis, joined as the guest speaker for the latter half of the meeting.

Students were asked to propose solutions on how to improve civic engagement in their respective countries, based on assorted articles and videos they had analyzed. They presented ideas like including extracurricular classes on civic engagement in middle and high schools, implementing more social organizations in schools, and encouraging motivation and a community-driven society. 

Following the discussion, Pierre-Louis expanded on the theme by recounting what she did to enhance civic engagement in Haiti during her tenure. What I found particularly interesting were the similarities between her ideas and the solutions that the students had proposed. She emphasized the fact that civic engagement does not always have to be a huge political action led by the government, but rather involvement at the local level. She explained a real-life example: when she visited a school in Haiti where a teacher had engaged their students to create solar panels and for use in other schools that had no electricity. This was not overseen by the government or any other large organization, but was nevertheless a significant service that aided communities in need, which is the main objective of civic engagement. 

As a current high school student, this meeting gave me a glimpse into a real college course and expanded my knowledge on a subject I have not learned much about in school. I am grateful to have had this opportunity to listen to such impactful voices and to educate myself more about civic engagement in other countries.

Mia Berger is from New York City and is currently a student at the Taft School, a boarding high school in Connecticut. Mia enjoys studing English and French and hopes to intitiate a civic engagement club at school, where she can share what she's learned this summer and further explore the topic with her friends.

Smoke from large wildfires burning in the western United States and Canada led to potentially dangerous air quality conditions in the Hudson Valley in late July, according to the Kingston Air Quality Initiative (KAQI), a collaboration between the Bard Center for the Study of Land, Air, and Water and the City of Kingston. Sensors on the roof of the Andy Murphy Neighborhood Center on Broadway in Kingston—and confirmed by street-level monitoring in Kingston and on the Bard campus—showed significantly elevated levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for several hours on July 20 and July 26. Although the levels didn’t exceed the 24-hour EPA standard of 35 ug/m^3 (micrograms per cubic meter of air), readings were found to be as high as 70 ug/m^3 for several hours at multiple locations. New York State issued air quality warnings for the entire state that week.

“Being able to track real-time effects of climate change-related disasters on local air quality is a powerful tool supporting Kingston's efforts to become a sustainable and climate-adapted community,” said M. Elias Dueker, assistant professor of environmental and urban studies at Bard College and director of the Bard Center for the Study of Land, Air, and Water. “While wildfires are predicted to continue in the West, and we may not be able to prevent the smoke heading our way, we can do work to limit our own contributions to poor air quality locally, including car exhaust and wood burning. These actions are not just good for the planet, but good for ourselves and our neighbors. Our Hudson Valley air is precious and we must protect it.”

PM2.5 is made up of microscopic particles that are the products of burning fuel, and is released into the air through exhausts from oil burners, gas burners, automobiles, cooking, grilling, and both indoor and outdoor woodburning. PM2.5 particles are so tiny they stay suspended in the air for long periods of time, allowing them to travel long distances before depositing. When these particles are inhaled, they can enter the bloodstream through the lungs, creating or exacerbating health issues. Several studies have shown that PM2.5 produced by wildfires or by burning wood is more dangerous to human health than that produced, for example, by vehicle emissions. A study from UC San Diego Scripps Institute was released very recently showing the PM2.5 emitted by wildfire smoke results in up to 10 percent more respiratory admissions to hospitals than other sources of PM2.5.

KAQI’s monitoring efforts over the past year and a half have focused on a regional assessment of air pollution from fine particulate matter (PM2.5), as measured from the roof of the Andy Murphy Neighborhood Center on Broadway in Kingston. While KAQI’s first year of monitoring found that levels of PM2.5 rarely reached dangerous thresholds as regulated by the EPA, this summer has been a different story, going beyond local fuel combustion. Smoke plumes from the fires raging out west have been travelling across the continent over the past few weeks, resulting in hazy skies and prompting several air quality alerts in the midwest and northeast. As wind and temperatures pick up out west and worsen fire conditions, the effects will likely continue to be felt in the Hudson Valley as air packets over burning areas travel east and eventually deposit from the upper to lower troposphere, affecting the air quality at ground level. Dueker said that wider-scale community and neighborhood-level monitoring are on the horizon.

The Kingston Air Quality Initiative began in January 2020 as a partnership between Bard’s Community Science Lab and the City of Kingston Conservation Advisory Council’s Air Quality Subcommittee to conduct a first-ever Kingston-centered air quality study. Since then, Kingston residents and Bard College students, staff, and faculty have conducted air quality monitoring in both indoor and outdoor environments. Bard’s air quality monitoring program is supported by the Open Society University Network Community Science Coalition, which works to bridge the gaps between climate-adapting communities and academic institutions. For more information on KAQI and specific details on the wildfire monitoring, please visit landairwater.bard.edu/projects/kaqi or kingston-ny.gov/wildfires. To get involved, please contact Eli Dueker at edueker@bard.edu.

About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 11 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 161-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.(8/3/21)

By Miriam Roday '18

When you’re starting your career, people will often say, “getting a job is all about who you know.” 

For students fresh out of college, this may sound impossible. You have probably been consumed with schoolwork for the past four years or your resumé consists of babysitting gigs you took to earn extra money. You likely didn’t have the time to get to know a lot of people and network for a job. 

The first step is simple: start talking. 

Your top priority should be setting up informational interviews. Your goal is to find out exactly what a job entails by asking targeted questions. Use these “informationals” as a way to collect insights other people have gleaned that you can integrate into your planning for the future. When hearing about another person’s experience, you’ll naturally begin to reflect on your own. You may realize—I like the idea of working a 9–5 job, or I wouldn’t mind disrupting my routine for a monthly business trip.

Treat it like a job interview: Take it seriously, but don’t go into it thinking that it’s a test and if you pass, you’ll leave with a job offer (of course, that has happened before, so bring your A-game). Instead, you should note the decisions another person made that helped them succeed. The lessons they share will inform your thinking as you determine the job you’re best suited for right now.
Here are five steps to get started. 
 

1. Pick on friends and acquaintances first 

Think of trusted professors, mentors, or friends who would be willing to introduce you to someone in their network. Instead of reaching out to a stranger on LinkedIn, first leverage connections that people in your life have already built.
 

2. Prep for the informational 

Every interview will vary based on who you’re talking to, but you still need to come up with an elevator pitch. This means, rehearse a succinct explanation that tells the interviewee who you are. Next, state why you’re talking to them. For example, “I’m looking for a job and I’m curious about what it's like working at a consulting firm. I was hoping to discuss your experience in that field, so I can figure out if it’s the right path for me.”
 

3. Ask questions and engage

People love talking about themselves. Use this to your advantage! Be an active listener by writing down any insights they share and stay present. After your elevator pitch, you might ask:

• How did you enter this field? 
• What was your job interview like and how did you prep for it?
• Can you describe a typical work day? 
• What is the most rewarding or challenging part of this work? 
• What previous experience do you have that helped you succeed?

If you get stuck, go for the classic: What is something you know now that you wish you knew at the beginning of your career?
 

4. Keep track of your contacts

Write down the person’s name, contact information, when you met, and what you discussed at the meeting. As you get better at this and do more informationals, you’ll forget the details of each interaction. Don’t miss an opportunity to reconnect with someone because you can’t remember what they care about (see pro-networking tip below).
 

5. Follow up

After the meeting, always send a thank you note. You want to acknowledge that your new contact took time out of their day to talk with a stranger. Also, they may have offered to put you in touch with someone from their network with whom you share mutual interests; in your note, reiterate your desire to talk with that person. To expand your own network, you must act on every one of these opportunities. If you wait too long, the offer will get stale.
Pro networking tip: Keep the conversation going! Check-in with your contacts periodically. If you have an exciting life update—you were published or got into grad school—tell them about it. This will keep you fresh in their minds and hopefully invest them in your professional growth.
When you interview for a job, you still need to demonstrate that you’re the right fit for an organization. But if you’ve done your networking, when a job comes along, people in a position of power will remember you. They’ll tell the hiring manager to pull your resumé out of the pile. They’ll vouch for your intellect, your value, and your potential to contribute because they know you and what you’re capable of. 

It’s all about who you know

Getting a job requires a lot of research, patience, and hard work. When people say “it’s all about who you know,” what they mean is, it’s all about putting in the work to get to know others and letting them get to know you. At the end of the day, those who cultivate robust professional networks do so by actively creating opportunities to connect with others. 

Miriam Roday is a researcher with the Joint Advanced Warfighting Division of the Institute for Defense Analyses. She is a fellowship editor for Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. She began her career at 19 in the U.S. Senate and has since held positions across the public and private sectors including with non-profit organizations, congressional committees, political campaigns, and research institutions. 
The opinions expressed here should not be construed as representing the official position of the Institute for Defense Analyses, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

Miriam graduated from Bard in December 2018. She was part of the first class to graduate as a Global and International Studies major and wrote her Senior Project on Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. She also participated in BGIA, where she secured a paid internship at the International Crisis Group working in their legal department. 

Miriam co-organized the Student World Affairs Conference in 2017 and presented on a panel about "Global Citizenship" at the Smolny Student Conference in St. Petersburg. That same year, she applied for and won a Community Action Award for her internship on Capitol Hill and received another Award for her internship at Stanford University the following summer. As a freshman, Miriam co-founded a TLS project, Sail Forward, and taught Speech & Debate and Civics at Germantown Middle School. During her time at Bard, she also worked at the Learning Commons as an ESL tutor. 
 

On Thursday July 15, 2021, Bard College President Leon Botstein joined with the student-led voting rights initiative Election@Bard and staff and students of the College to file a lawsuit against the Dutchess County Board of Elections for violating the voting rights of students. The lawsuit, filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in Dutchess County, follows yearslong efforts by Bard students to establish an on-campus polling location. This comes after the October 2020 court ruling that the campus voting site would be open to all District 5 voters for the last presidential election.

The Bard College community comprises the overwhelming majority of the district’s eligible voting population at nearly 70%. The alternate polling site, St. John’s Episcopal in Barrytown, proposed by Republican Commissioner Eric Haight, is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Haight refuses to abide by state law mandating an accurate survey of the site. St. John’s is inaccessible by public transportation in clear violation of New York State Election Law, and is situated on an unsafe route that lacks sidewalks and adequate street lighting. The route creates a significant hardship for voters with disabilities and the majority of students who don’t have cars. The lawsuit challenges the ongoing failure of the Dutchess County Board of Elections to comply with the New York Constitution and state laws by discriminating against youth voters and refusing to open a polling location on the Bard College campus where the vast majority of voters in the district live, work and study.

This lawsuit follows an agreement just prior to the 2020 election after Supreme Court Judge Maria Rosa found Haight’s representations on the record for failure to situate an on-campus polling site to be “simply untrue.” Judge Maria Rosa ordered that there be polling sites at both Bard College Bertelsmann Campus Center in addition to St. John the Evangelist. The Campus Center is nearly three times larger than St. Johns, is ADA compliant, and is within walking distance of most voters in the district. This change proved to be a success in the presidential election of 2020. With nearly 85% of Bard students registered to vote, there was a line outside the Campus Center early that Tuesday morning awaiting the opening of the polls. Students and other residents of District 5 were all able to vote in the Campus Center safely and conveniently, all while maintaining the protocols of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the resounding success of the last Election Day in providing a safe and convenient space for voters and poll workers across political parties, the Town of Red Hook Board reaffirmed its previous, unanimously approved resolutions supporting the Campus Center as the District 5 polling location on February 9, 2021. Nonetheless, the Board of Elections has taken the extraordinary measure to refuse to certify a District 5 polling location for the November 2, 2021 General Election. This current lawsuit is in response to the BOE’s attempt to flagrantly disregard its statutory obligations to designate a polling location by the state deadline, and to erroneously presume that the status quo may apply as a substitute. Conveniently, the BOE has presumed that the status quo mandates that only the Church may serve as the polling location for District 5 voters – even though both the Church and the on-campus location served voters in 2020.

“Bard College is committed to the link between education and democracy,” said Bard College President Leon Botstein. “Our efforts to fight the suppression of youth voters is central to this commitment. We believe that colleges should not simply offer rhetorical support for students, but act in the public interest. That is why I have joined students as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.”

“Voting, and encouraging others to do the same, is arguably the most impactful way people can influence our democratic processes. Government–at all levels–has a fundamental obligation to ensure accessible, safe, and equitable access to the ballot. Historically and presently, federal, state, and local agencies– as well as those who administered them in their official capacities– have leveraged their power to directly suppress and restrict the vote of young people, communities of color, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups,” said student plaintiff Tomas Forman. “The case here in Dutchess County District 5 is unique, but is also in many ways a reflection of what has, and is, happening elsewhere. This litigation is about more than simply ensuring a polling place on the Bard campus. It's also about sending a clear message, undergirded by the legitimacy of adjudication, that election boards across this country can no longer suppress voting by placing polling places in arbitrary, inaccessible, and frankly unjustifiable locations.”

“I feel that this lawsuit is one of the first steps that must be accomplished in order to combat voter suppression in our district,” said student plaintiff Sarina Culaj. “As a Bard student, I feel the direct impact of youth voter suppression through the actions that Commissioner Haight has taken to block the addition of a polling place on campus. Through the lawsuit, I hope that we can not only create a permanent polling place on the Bard campus, but also show that youth voting can and will be uplifted in our district.”

“Bard has been fighting student voting rights in court for 22 years now,” said student plaintiff Alejandra Rodriguez Ortiz. “That is a long period of time for students to not have voting rights in the 21st century. This lawsuit will hopefully bring voting rights for students and new opportunities for the Dutchess County community.”

“The Board of Elections, particularly Commissioner Haight, is continuing its efforts to suppress the youth vote in this, the 50th anniversary of the 26th amendment which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18,” said Jonathan Becker, Bard’s Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs. “The Board has failed to assign a polling site, misled voters in the district, and blatantly ignored rules pertaining to the Americans with Disabilities Act. What is going on in Dutchess County with the suppression of the youth vote is a microcosm of what is taking place across the country with underrepresented communities. It is shameful and it is shameful that political leaders, through their complicity and silence, condone such repressive measures.”

“Fifty years ago, this nation came together across partisan lines to support the expansion of the ballot free of age discrimination through the ratification of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment,” said Yael Bromberg, co-counsel for the Plaintiffs, and legal scholar of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment. “The principles that drove the ratification of that Amendment continue to be true today: young people are critical to the practice of democracy. We must remove obstacles to the ballot—and that includes bringing polling places on campus. The Dutchess County Board of Elections has made its intentions clear: it simply does not want Bard College students to vote—counter to the values of our democracy, which are beyond partisanship.”

“My colleagues at Stris & Maher and I are honored to represent Bard, its faculty, staff, students, families, and neighbors and humbled by their longstanding dedication to making the Bertelsmann Center available as a safe, convenient polling location for the voters of Red Hook’s District 5,” said Michael Donofrio, co-counsel for the Plaintiffs. “We look forward to vindicating their rights in the course of this litigation.”

This is the fifth instance since 2000 where Bard students have resorted to litigation or the threat thereof over schemes aimed at limiting their voting rights. The courts ruled in favor of the students in all preceding legal actions. The current lawsuit follows years of advocacy by Bard College students, including Andrew Goodman Student Ambassadors and their peers, for an on-campus polling site.

The lawsuit is brought on behalf of Bard students Sarina Culaj, Tomas Forman, and Alejendra Rodriguez Ortiz; Bard College President Leon Botstein; Bard College Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Civic Engagement Erin Cannan; Bard College Assistant Director of Student Activities Cynthia Cunningham; and Election@Bard.

Counsel on the lawsuit are Yael Bromberg of Bromberg Law LLC, and Michael Donofrio of Stris & Maher LLP.

The full lawsuit can be read here: https://tools.bard.edu/wwwmedia/files/8850342/87/Bard-CourtDocs.pdf

For further information on the fight for a polling site at Bard, go here: https://cce.bard.edu/community/election/voting-rights/

About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1000 park-like acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 11 programs; nine early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 161-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal education. Bard is known for its academic excellence and emphasis on the arts and civic engagement, and is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.7/19/21

Bard students Gwen Stearns ’21 and Pascal O'Neill ’23 represented the Bard Debate Union in the 2021 World Universities Debating Championship (July 6–13), an annual event that draws nearly 400 students from over 50 countries. While generally hosted in person (the Bard Debate Union has attended this event in Greece, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand), this year’s tournament was held online, hosted by Debate Korea (South Korea). 

Gwen and Pascal debated teams from across the globe, including winning rounds against Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, the London School of Economics, and University of Toronto. After nine grueling preliminary rounds, they made Bard history by becoming the first Bard team to advance to elimination rounds at the world championship. Some of the motions they debated included: “This house opposes the academization of social justice movements,” “This house prefers environmental movements heavily prioritizing a local agenda over a global one (e.g., focusing on local pollution rather than climate change),” and “This house, as South Korea, would aim to significantly increase its cross-border economic cooperation with North Korea.” Ultimately, Gwen and Pascal ended the tournament in 13th place.

For more information about the Bard Debate Union, visit debate.bard.edu.

Bard students Gwen Stearns ’21 and Pascal O'Neill ’23 represented the Bard Debate Union in the 2021 World Universities Debating Championship (July 6–13), an annual event that draws nearly 400 students from over 50 countries. While generally hosted in person (the Bard Debate Union has attended this event in Greece, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand), this year’s tournament was held online, hosted by Debate Korea (South Korea). 

Gwen and Pascal debated teams from across the globe, including winning rounds against Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, the London School of Economics, and University of Toronto. After nine grueling preliminary rounds, they made Bard history by becoming the first Bard team to advance to elimination rounds at the world championship. Some of the motions they debated included: “This house opposes the academization of social justice movements,” “This house prefers environmental movements heavily prioritizing a local agenda over a global one (e.g., focusing on local pollution rather than climate change),” and “This house, as South Korea, would aim to significantly increase its cross-border economic cooperation with North Korea.” Ultimately, Gwen and Pascal ended the tournament in 13th place.

For more information about the Bard Debate Union, visit debate.bard.edu.

“Programs that marry education access and engagement with issues of social justice explicitly for the benefit of those who have been impacted by incarceration are few and far between, but that mission is at the heart of a new tuition-free program hosted by the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI),” writes Tamar Sarai Davis of the new Microcollege in Harlem.
 

Rising junior Sonita Alizada’s music and global activism to end child marriage has inspired her friends on campus. Some have joined Sonita’s organization, Arezo, which raises money to support impoverished children in Herat, Afghanistan, Sonita’s hometown.

The Open Society University Network (OSUN) Civic Engagement program is pleased to welcome a new cohort of Global Engagement Fellows for the 2021–22 academic year.

Global Engagement Fellows are undergraduate students from across the network who are selected for their interest in and commitment to civic engagement. Fellows promote and coordinate civic engagement projects with other students on their campus, lead workshops in project management and development, and help to coordinate the annual Get Engaged: Student Action and Youth Leadership Conference.

This talented and ambitious set of fellows was chosen based upon their leadership skills and the development of their own community-based projects. 

Welcome to the new Global Fellows:
Ahmed Omar Abdi (Dadaab Refugee Camp, Kenya)
Amina Ahmed (American University of Central Asia ’23)
Sundus Al Fararja (Al Quds Bard College ’23) 
Abdul Walid Azizi (American University of Central Asia ’22)
Nelo Dlamini (Central European University ’25)
Mohamed Omar Farah (Dadaab Refugee Camp, Kenya)
Wisdom Tochi Kalu (Ashesi University ’22)
Lorraine Makuyana (Ashesi University ’22)

Several of the outgoing Global Engagement Fellows shared words of wisdom for the incoming class. Most discussed how the program helped them to elicit and nurture the skills needed to transform their aspirations into actions benefiting their communities. Their guidance centered on meeting inevitable challenges by remaining flexible and drawing on the support of their fellow travelers.   

Viktar Filipenka (European Humanities University ’21):
“I'll quote Samuel Beckett: ‘Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better.’ Communicate and cooperate; that's the way.” 

Oceanne Fry (Bard College Berlin ’21): 
“Take your time planning, budgeting, and scheduling before diving in. At the same time, once your project or event gets going, don't be afraid of last minute changes and necessary adaptations to unexpected factors.”

Adeeb Hadi (Bard College Berlin ’21): 
“My advice is to remember that the limit of creativity is the sky and the road is long. Do not expect your path to be easy, but your persistence will lift you up.”

Wisdom Tochi Kalu (Ashesi University ’22): 
“The journey of civic engagement will not be smooth and there will be times when you'll doubt everything. Don't be scared when those days come because resilience, like an anchor, will hold you firm.”

Shadin Nassar (Al Quds Bard College ’21): 
“In a world where the issues are clear but the solutions are not, my advice to this diverse group of leaders is to see challenges as opportunities. Strive to establish an environment of continuous improvement by putting new ideas into action and working together to empower others so they can cultivate civic engagement projects that are crucial for societal development.”

Our thanks and congratulations go out to all of the 2020–21 Global Engagement Fellows, who exhibited unwavering determination and commitment to civic engagement during a very challenging year. Not only did their efforts produce real community impact, but they set the bar high and inspired a new group of Fellows who will build their own impressive collaborations.

St. Petersburg State University and Bard College have had a joint-degree program since 1999.

Bard College, which has worked to spread liberal-arts education around the globe, has been designated as an “undesirable” organization by the Russian government, prevented from all activity and operations in the country. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office announced the blacklisting on June 21, saying that Bard’s work “threatens the constitutional order and security of Russia.” Anyone in the country who is affiliated with the College could face fines or imprisonment.

The Chronicle of Higher Education spoke with Bard’s longtime president, Leon Botstein, about the designation. Visit chronicle.com for his complete remarks.

Zarlasht Sarmast is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and 2020 graduate of the American University of Central Asia. She has previously served as the spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul and communications specialist for GIZ in Central Asia. She is currently pursuing a masters degree in International Relations and Security at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

As a Global Fellow, I want to help youth living in orphanages in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan gain access to higher education and any other opportunities they need to succeed. My project, “Helping Hands,” aims to help those who cannot afford to study at an international school or with a private English tutor in academic or social areas. Students chosen from a Bishkek orphanage are assisted in developing and polishing their English and behavioral skills over a period of five weeks.

With my project, “Womenity Club,” I aspire to reach out to Palestinian women, especially marginalized women, and to make them aware of their social, economic, and political rights, helping them achieve intellectual empowerment. In two years, I aim to mobilize a group of youth who can effectively dialogue on women's rights under Palestinian legislation.

On Friday June 25, author, educator, classicist, tattooer, and Bard College alumnus Phuc Tran ’95 will give a book talk in honor of World Refugee Day. Tran’s talk is presented by Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement, the Office of the President, and Alumni/ae Affairs, along with the OSUN Hubs for Connected Learning Initiatives. This special event, which takes place at 5 p.m. EDT, will be moderated by James Romm, James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics and director of the Classical Studies Program. Join via Zoom link.

Phuc Tran ’95, who migrated with his family from Vietnam in 1975, has been a high school Latin teacher for more than 20 years while simultaneously establishing himself as a highly sought-after tattooer in the Northeast. Tran graduated from Bard College in 1995 with a BA in Classics and received the Callanan Classics Prize. He taught Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit in New York at the Collegiate School and was an instructor at Brooklyn College’s Summer Latin Institute. Most recently, he taught Latin, Greek, and German at the Waynflete School in Portland, Maine.

Tran’s 2012 TEDx talk “Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive” was featured on NPR’s TED Radio Hour. His acclaimed memoir, SIGH, GONE: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In, received the 2020 New England Book Award for Nonfiction. He tattoos and lives with his family in Portland, Maine.

Bard College has a deep and longstanding history as a sanctuary and refuge for vulnerable populations. Beginning in the mid-1930s and throughout the war years, Bard gave refuge to distinguished writers, artists, intellectuals, and scientists fleeing Nazi Europe. Since the 1980s, Bard has brought scholars at risk from Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East to teach and do research in Annandale-on-Hudson, and continued its strong commitment to refugees directly through initiatives such as the Bard Sanctuary Fund, which supports undocumented students and refugees by providing scholarship, living, legal, and other necessary support while they are enrolled at Bard.

Bard’s global work to support refugees and advance human rights was strengthened profoundly in 2020 when the College cofounded the Open Society University Network (OSUN) with Central European University and support from the Open Society Foundations. Providing access to students from communities that have faced barriers and exclusion, including incarcerated people, the Roma, refugees, and other displaced groups is a central part of OSUN’s work to make higher education more inclusive and accessible worldwide. Supporting that work, OSUN was elected cochair in 2020 of the Taskforce on Third Country Education Pathways, launched by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. The task force is charged with developing best practices for higher education pathways that respond to the needs of refugees, internally displaced individuals, and others displaced by crises across the globe.

About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 11 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 161-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.
 

As a Global Fellow, I aim to assist OSUN students so they can engage with their communities as active and responsible citizens. In my role coordinating the Monthly Civic Engagement Workshops, I plan on communicating and working with young leaders throughout the network, helping them to organize effective community-building projects. 

My goal as a Global Fellow is to encourage students to get involved civically, whether it means starting their own projects or volunteering for existing ones. I look forward to working with and learning from like-minded students who share my passion for civic engagement so I can build my own project. In taking on this role, I expect to grow as both an activist and a leader.

I am a teacher in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya and my goal is to serve as an advocate for refugee children who need access to schooling. I look forward to interacting with other Global Fellows this year so I can gain from their experience. This will help me in my project “Children Out of School,” which promotes civic engagement activities that support vulnerable children in refugee camps or elsewhere who need schooling.

I am the founder and program director of Your Unique Understanding, a youth-led nonprofit organization that supports sustainable development in Vietnam by empowering ethnic minority youth through education, career education, soft skills training, and leadership programs. As a Lead Global Fellow, the goal of my projects, “Youth Engagement Training Initiative” and “Global Fellows Magazine,” is to build up civic engagement among student leaders by amplifying their voices, providing intensive training programs, and supporting collaboration on the institutional level.

Bard has designed and launched Camden Reach, a partnership with Camden, New Jersey's public school system. In this pilot project, juniors from five Camden high schools take a college class each semester in addition to their regular coursework. The goal is to offer classes to students who might not consider college, allow them to earn free credits, and, perhaps most importantly, let them prove to themselves that they can handle college-level work. Camden Reach is a growing consortium of colleges and universities, soon to provide an early college curriculum to students in any Camden public high school. “We always say the best way to prepare for college is to do college,” says Stephen Tremaine, vice president for early colleges at Bard.

 

I am the founder of My Scholarship Info, a social initiative that seeks to connect African students with vulnerable backgrounds to higher educational opportunities. Specifically, we coach students as they apply to academic programs. As a Lead Global Fellow, I want to promote civic engagement activities within and outside my campus and network and collaborate with global fellows on their projects.

Brian Mateo, associate dean of civic engagement and director of strategic partnerships at the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program, has been selected for the 2021 Out Leaders List in National Security and Foreign Policy. Sponsored by Out in National Security and New America, the list spotlights the work of 40 LGBTQIA+ leaders serving in government, the military, think tanks, academia, and nongovernmental organizations. New America will host a virtual celebration on June 17 to celebrate this year’s Out in National Security Leaders and New Voices.

I am the Founder and President of My Vision Initiative, an organization that empowers young women and girls in Zimbabwe in the areas of personal and professional development, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Being a Global Fellow grants me the chance to expand my project within Zimbabwe and across the network, allowing students who are passionate about gender equality and the empowerment of women to launch their own impactful projects.

Dariel Vasquez '17

More than seven years ago, my brothers and I formed Brothers@ in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. We were 18, college freshmen trying to make sense of all that had happened. Our collective confusion, alienation, and pain became the bedrock for our work, and continues to be the heart of our mission: to foster and grow the opportunity for young men of color to thrive in this country.

This year, we hosted our first-ever national event just a day after a defining moment in our country’s history, when former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd.

Closing Opportunity Gaps for Young Men of color: The state of mentorship & youth development post-2020 took place on April 22 at a time when young men of color are experiencing isolation not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a chronic isolation that comes from living in an America in which a seemingly endless parade of police brutality and racial injustices continues to march. During our panel discuss, we devoted ourselves to confronting the questions that have long driven Brothers@: How will our young people find support? How will they heal? Who can they talk to? 

Angel Obergh ‘23, our resident expert on navigating school and home life during these times, shared his story. Brandon Michael-Hall, Michael Blake, and Wes Moore discussed the emotional dichotomy of Black Americans: the hurt and fatigue of today, the passion and hopes of tomorrow. We discussed how George Floyd got what Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, and so many others did not. We reflected on tragedies and triumphs and talked about the urgent need for systemic and policy-level changes that directly impact our communities.

Moderating the panel was a full-circle-moment for me. I got to share the (virtual) stage alongside the most prominent leader and architect of the movement for Black Male Achievement, Shawn Dove. I am a product of the movement, having spent much of my youth in development and mentoring programs for young men of color in New York City, For me, this event was a passing of the baton, a transition from being an object of the work, to a leader of the work. 

Brothers@ is grateful to many individuals and organizations for their support and participation in this event, including: MENTOR National, The JPMorgan Chase Fellowship Initiative, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), The Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBKA), The NYC Mayor’s Office Young Men’s Initiative (YMI), and many others.
 

Learn more about the work of Brothers@ 

The Fountain Film Festival, a student-led project sponsored by Bard College Berlin and OSUN, has announced audience awards that were selected from over fifteen short student films screened online May 8 and 9.
 
The Best Film Award went to “Sirens” by Alina Asylbekova from American University of Central Asia and the Audience Award went to “8 de Marzo” by Ariela Madera from Bard College Annandale.

“Sirens” is a graphic retelling of the Greek myth about the supernatural creatures with bewitching voices whose vanity led to their downfall.  “8 de Marzo” is an experimental documentary combining footage of the March 8, 2021 Women’s March in Quito, Ecuador with commentary from various women describing experiences where they felt most vulnerable and most empowered.
 
Filmmakers had the opportunity to screen their films for a broad international audience and hailed from several OSUN partner campuses, including American University of Central Asia, European Humanities University, and American University in Bulgaria. All of the films can be viewed here. 
 
A small team of students from Bard College Berlin organized the festival, including Adeeb Hadi, who served as festival director; Maya Abdulqader as festival coordinator; Khalil Hamood as communications director; and Shana Shabazz as social media manager.

By Macy Jenks '23

In celebration of Earth day, I had the pleasure of organizing a Bard campus clean up in association with the Red Hook village clean up taking place that same day. Joined by the women’s soccer team, Bard students, and community members, we aimed to make campus the cleanest it possibly could be, paying special attention to small pieces of trash like cigarette butts that could easily be hidden. We worked our way from North to South campus, primarily staying around Annandale Road, but we had so many volunteers that we were able to spread out and cover more ground. As a group, we filled up a total of 10 mason jars full of cigarette butts along with several bags of trash. Though our campus is well looked after by our Environmental Services department, and is quite clean, I tried to focus on areas that were hidden away from general view. The amount of trash we collected was staggering.

After a year of covid restrictions, I found it so refreshing to be able to work with a group of volunteers (masked and socially distanced)  to keep our community clean. I have participated in online forms of volunteering over the past year, but this effort was a reminder that nothing is better than in-person involvement and engagement. I think everyone felt this way.

One particular aspect stood out as my favorite: watching Bard community members interact. Having a group of people physically working together toward a common goal was something that I had not experienced in a long time. It was wonderful to experience the shared enthusiasm and excitement.
 

This week our What's Your Why podcast host Erin invites Megumi Kivuva who shares her stories about her passion for civic engagement and education outreach. Tune in and find out how you can leverage your academic interest as a CCE fellow to engage with larger communities!

Max Kenner ’01, founder and executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the program. BPI was profiled in a four-part PBS documentary, College Behind Bars. Kenner talks about the origins of the program, what students experience, and the injustice he sees in both the criminal justice system and the educational system in the United States.

“When natural disasters and other emergencies hit, resources become scarce, and, too often, people with disabilities cannot access them,” writes Mateo in Just Security. “As global warming continues to drive up temperatures and sea levels around the world, discussions of climate resilience and adaptation must do better to include these communities.”

Alizada, Afghan rapper and international advocate to end forced marriage, was selected by more than 5,000 young voters worldwide.

Bard College student Sonita Alizada has been awarded the 2021 Freedom Prize in recognition of her international advocacy to end forced marriage. Alizada is a 24-year-old rapper and human rights activist from Afghanistan and a sophomore at Bard College. She was chosen by 5,683 young people from 86 countries to receive the prize, which carries an award of €25,000 to support her work. The Freedom Prize, organized by the Normandy for Peace Initiative in the Normandy Region of France, recognizes an inspiring young person committed to an exemplary fight for freedom. Alizada is the third Freedom Prize laureate. The prize was awarded in 2019 to Greta Thunberg for her fight for climate justice and to Loujain Al Hathloul in 2020 for her fight for women's rights in Saudi Arabia. Normandy for Peace will present the award at the Normandy World Peace Forum in Abbaye-aux-Dames in Caen, Normandy, June 3–4, 2021.

An international panel of judges selected three Freedom Prize finalists from 251 applications in February. The panel comprised 30 young people of 17 different nationalities. Alizada was selected in addition to Agnes Chow, Hong Kong pro-democracy leader, and Omar Radi, a Moroccan investigative journalist. The Freedom Prize then invited young people aged 15 to 25 to vote for their favorite finalist by April 25. 

Sonita Alizada is a rapper who was born in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. At the age of 10, her family sold her into forced marriage, but the contract fell through. Her family fled the war in Afghanistan for Iran, where they lived as undocumented refugees. In Tehran, an NGO provided Alizada with access to education and a cleaning job. Her family tried again to sell her when she was 16, but she resisted. When Alizada stumbled upon a song by the rapper Eminem, she had an artistic breakthrough. She began writing to tell her story and to speak out against forced marriage and the plight of millions of children around the world. Her first single, “Daughters for Sale,” garnered worldwide attention. Having moved to the United States, she is now a Human Rights major studying law at Bard College. She plans to become a lawyer and to return to her country to defend Afghan women and children.

Alizada’s story is the subject of the award-winning documentary Sonita, directed by Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016.  Alizada has addressed the United Nations and other global forums to advocate against the practice of forced child marriage. She has be named as one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s Global Thinkers of 2015, the BBC’s 100 Women of 2015, an Asia Societies Game Changer of 2017, a 2018 MTV Generation Change Award recipient, Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2019, and has been featured by CNN, NPR, BBC, Buzzfeed and over 150 publications in 20 countries.

About the Freedom Prize
The Freedom Prize is an educational initiative that aims to raise awareness of freedom, peace, and human rights, inspired by the values of the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944 in Normandy, France.   

The Freedom Prize invites young people aged 15 to 25 from France and around the world to choose an inspiring person or organization committed to an exemplary fight for freedom.   What makes the prize unique is that it involves young people at each stage: from the proposals submitted to the international panel of judges to the final selection of the winner.  

Organized by the Normandy for Peace Initiative, implemented with the International Institute of Human Rights and Peace, in partnership with the academic authorities of Normandy and the Canopé network, the Freedom Prize pays tribute to all those who have fought and continue to fight for this ideal.

About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 11 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 161-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.

The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) has announced the launch of its third tuition-free microcollege, which will open in Harlem this fall. Culminating in associate degrees from Bard College, the Bard Microcollege for Just Community Leadership will enroll students who are formerly incarcerated or directly impacted by the justice system and others who aspire to careers in advocacy, community building, or social justice. Admission for the inaugural cohort begins in May.

What Is Your Why is a podcast series hosted by Erin Cannan, the Vice President for Civic Engagement. This project invites speakers within the Bard global network to share their “why” stories. This week, we are lucky to be joined by Sonita Alizada who is a current Bard student and one of the nominees for the Freedom Prize.

When natural disasters and other emergencies hit, resources become scarce, and, too often, people with disabilities cannot access them. As global warming continues to drive up temperatures and sea levels around the world, discussions of climate resilience and adaptation must do better to include these communities.

Read the whole article on Just Security

Last spring, Bardians studying abroad rushed home to the United States or sheltered in place on campus until travel became possible. By the fall, student mobility had crawled to a near standstill, but creative solutions allowed students far and wide to stay connected. Bard College Berlin hosted a handful of European students who weren’t able to return to campus in the U.S. while Bard partnered with institutions in China and Vietnam to provide in-person campus experiences for students taking Annandale online classes. Network classes and virtual courses offered through the Open Society University Network brought students from Asia, Europe, North America, Africa, and South America into shared classrooms. 

Now that vaccines are helping reopen international travel, two students, a political studies major and a sociology major, are the first Bardians to live in residence in Vienna while taking classes at Central European University. Several Annandale juniors are enrolled at Bard College Berlin, and intrepid Bardians are learning about life and culture in Paris, Dublin, Copenhagen, Barcelona, and Tokyo. 

Resiliency is one of the “soft” skills students develop while venturing outside of their comfort zones and being strangers in strange lands. And the pandemic has made this a particularly strange time to travel. They will be stronger for the journey.

Back at Bard Annandale, some pleasures have withstood the hardships of quarantining: sunset at Blithewood; snowball fights outside of Kline; intimate chats in the Parliament of Reality. Three exchange students have been able to have these kinds of experiences: a photo major from Kyoto Seika University in Japan, an international studies major from Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Korea, and an arts and aesthetics major from BCB.

Summer 2021 marks the sixth anniversary of the Bard Summer Theater Intensive hosted at Bard College Berlin in June, and the fourth offering of the Berlin Summer Studio program “Transmissions.” German and French language faculty plan to travel with students for four weeks of immersive language training and cultural exploration in Berlin and Tours, respectively.

Student exchange, study abroad, and international opportunities will continue to open up and expand. The Bard Globalization and International Affairs program will be in-person in New York City and plans to welcome students from CEU and other network partners. Applications are now being accepted for the Program in International Education (PIE) for the next academic year, and about two dozen Annandale students are making plans to be abroad next fall. New partners to the Open Society University Network will open more possibilities for study abroad and student exchange. We’re looking forward to welcoming new cohorts of students to Annandale over the next academic year.

Imagine hiking a trail from the Red Hook Village down to the Bard campus, then on to Tivoli. Thanks to a new trailways system recently installed in the Town of Red Hook, it’s not only possible to embark upon this grand adventure, but along the way, you’re soon likely to encounter some unexpected creativity. 

A series of special housings for art installations is planned along the network of paths that links villages and the Annandale campus. These structures are being crafted locally and feature rotating works of art, signage, and informational brochures. They are the start of a storytelling tradition that will bind the values of the area with sustainability as part of a plan by community members to certify Red Hook as an Audubon Sustainable Community.

The Audubon International Sustainable Communities Program is an international, science-based, third-party certification program in which communities work to align their sustainability efforts with Audubon’s themes: healthy environment, quality of life, and economic vitality. 

The Audubon Committee is a group of volunteers from Red Hook Together, a community group that includes representatives from nonprofits, businesses, educational institutions, and sustainability committees, as well as members of Bard CCE and the Office of Sustainability. The committee works to coordinate outreach activities with the goal of realizing sustainability goals that honor Red Hook’s unique character.  For two years, and through the pandemic, the Audubon Committee has listened, interviewed, brainstormed, and surveyed community members to identify community needs, like housing, safety, resources, public health, and more.  

Members of the working group include Laurie Husted of the Red Hook Conservation Advisory Council, Dawn Jardine of the Red Hook Library, Sara Ugolini of the Red Hook Community Center, Nick Ascienzo of the Ascienzo Family Foundation, Kim McGrath Gomez of the Red Hook Chamber of Commerce, Erin Cannan and Sarah deVeer of the Bard Center for Civic Engagement, Sarah Imboden (volunteer, Tivoli), and Anna Dolen (volunteer, Red Hook High School alumna).  The group has met on a weekly basis as it moves through the various phases of the Audubon certification.

“As a student studying the environment, community and international development, and green building and community design,” said Anna Dolen, “working with Audubon International and this inspiring group of volunteers has been an incredible peek into each of these topics within the community that I grew up in... I’ve grown an understanding of how complex and interconnected Red Hook truly is.” 

For the final step in the certification process, the Audubon committee focused on two major economic drivers for the town of Red Hook: agriculture and education, set within the values that represent Red Hook’s history, such as the preservation of green space; preservation of historic sites as public spaces; and the close relationship between the Hudson Valley and the arts. 

Enter the Art Box Project, which combines reverence for the sanctity of the local environment with an appreciation for the artisanship and creativity of community members, including those from the Bard College community. 

“This project has provided a real opportunity for learning about all the ways Red Hook -- including the villages of Red Hook and Tivoli, and Bard, all the parts of the town -- has worked to build a sustainable community,” said Sarah Imboden. “Not just environmental policies and projects, but a variety of community-building work.

“[T]here is still a lot to work on,” Imboden said, “and that's exciting.”

BardEATS is paving the way for more equitable and sustainable food systems on campus. Leading the program are Bard senior Melina Roise and junior Olivia Tencer, with help from fellow students, management from Bard Dining, and support from Bard faculty and staff. 

BardEATS promotes food security and accessibility on campus, as well as throughout the greater Dutchess County community, with a particular focus on racial equity. The program recently concluded an Earth Week lecture series titled “A Start to Healing through Land, Food, and Seed,” which brought more than 100 members of the greater Bard community together to learn about local initiatives toward food sovereignty.

The program’s commitment to antiracism and food sovereignty centers on supporting farms owned by people of color. BardEATS has partnered  with the Bard Office of Sustainability, Bard TLS, the Center for Civic Engagement, the Red Hook Community Center, and the Kingston Land Trust on a mask fundraiser called “Land In Black Hands.”  This initiative aims to raise $3,000 for farms owned by people of color by selling handmade masks. The masks are sold using a sliding scale system, which allows buyers to purchase masks by paying any amount; with a suggested price of  $10 to $20. Join the fundraiser here.

BardEATS is also forming a campus working group focused on antiracism and food sovereignty with the goal of learning, unlearning, and relearning in order to better serve the campus and community. Each week, the group will learn from the work of experts and engage with reflection questions. Once a month, we will gather to reflect as a group and discuss how to take what we learned into our work on campus. Learn more and sign-up here. Come for one meeting or join for them all! 

By Maya Aga ’21
 
What does it mean to be civically engaged? At the beginning of the eighth annual Get Engaged: Student Action and Youth Leadership Conference last weekend, Jonathan Becker, director of the Center for Civic Engagement, posed this simple yet powerful question to more than 150 undergraduate students from 16 institutions.
 
Over two days, student leaders explored this question through workshops, presentations, and activities designed to develop their community leadership skills. Attendees from all over the world, from Annandale to Berlin to Taiwan, participated in the conference, sponsored by CCE and the Open Society University Network (OSUN).
 
This year’s theme, “Learning Resiliency and Unity Beyond Borders,” was particularly apt, as the conference took place remotely for the second year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite interactions being limited to Zoom sessions, student leaders and innovators still managed to strengthen connections among their colleagues, all of whom work with community partners to develop solutions to local and international challenges. 
 
In the past, Get Engaged has been open to student leaders already immersed in their projects, but this year marked the first time the conference accepted attendees who were still developing ideas for their community- or socially-based engagement projects and who sought to enhance their leadership skills. 

Abdul Walid Azizi from American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan spoke about his project, Camp Afghanistan, which enables students in Ghazni to engage in English language studies and leadership-building courses.
 
Nguyen Thanh Phuong from Fulbright University Vietnam presented on Mathlish, which promotes youth engagement in Bac Lieu Province, Vietnam, to support the education and mental wellness of more than 100 formerly homeless children now living in orphanages. Phuong discussed the struggles of organizing during COVID-19 and taught students how to advocate for their project’s future.

Ahmad Denno from Bard College Berlin presented her work with “Go Vote: Mobilizing Refugees and New Germans for the German Elections 2021,” which provides an information and activation platform to support broader participation in federal elections.
 
Dariel Vasquez ’17, a Bard College graduate and conference alum, led a workshop on making projects more sustainable. The cofounder and executive director of Brothers@, an organization that seeks to mentor young men of color, Vasquez shared details of developing a successful project, including the importance of keeping records and building long-lasting relationships. He challenged his students by asking “If you were to leave your project tomorrow, would your project succeed without you?”
 
At the conference’s conclusion, Becker displayed a word cloud made up of the diverse set of participant responses to his initial question. It illustrated the varied definitions of civic engagement that arise in a broad community network. While each student had a different interpretation of what it meant to be civically engaged, the graphic conveyed the fact that all benefited from coming together to learn from one another’s experiences.

In the midst of the 2020 global pandemic, waves of nationwide protests prompted urgent and frank conversations about race and social justice in this country. As COVID-19 exacerbated systemic inequalities, the opportunity gaps faced by young people across the country widened at an alarming rate—and yet, 2020 also gave rise to creative problem solving and nimble decision-making like never before. To explore the unique position of youth development and mentorship in communities of color in a post-COVID world, Brothers@ is hosting Closing Opportunity Gaps for Young Men of Color: The State of Mentorship & Youth Development Post-2020, a nationwide virtual event and panel discussion on April 22 from 5:30–6:45 p.m. EST. Panelists will explore, among other issues, how the growing movement in defense of Black lives is affecting inclusion amongst young people trying to successfully navigate and thrive in predominantly white institutions and spaces.

Moderated by Shawn Dove, founder, Corporation for Black Male Achievement, and Brothers@ Cofounder and CEO Dariel Vasquez ’17, panelists for the event include Michael Blake, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee; Brandon Micheal Hall, Activist and star of God Friended Me and HBO’s Search Party; Wes Moore, chief executive officer of Robin Hood Foundation; and Angel Obergh ’23, Brothers@ mentor and campus leader, Bard College. For more information and to register, please click HERE. 

“The opportunity gaps our young people of color face are only widening,” said Vasquez. “This conversation and Brothers@'s work—now happening on a national stage for the first time—are more important than ever.”

“It has been gratifying to see Brothers@ flourish at Bard, home to their flagship program,” said Bard College President Leon Botstein. “The group’s achievements over the past six years on the Bard campus and at neighboring Kingston High School, which include mentoring students and helping to increase graduation rates among young men of color, demonstrate an impressive sense dedication and an innovative spirit,” he said. “We look forward to helping this important program expand to campuses across the country.”

Founded in 2014 at Bard College, Brothers@ is a dual-beneficiary high school retention and college persistence organization with the mission of improving the outcomes of young men of color (YMOC) in both secondary and post-secondary education. Brothers@ improves the outcomes of men of color at Bard College by recruiting, training, and hiring them to be mentors for high schoolers in the local community. Brothers@ mentors form a support system, encouraging each other as they navigate life at Bard and pursue their scholarly, extracurricular, and professional goals. The brotherhood forged through meaningful work is used as a vehicle to provide vital social-emotional, academic and financial support for YMOC at Bard. Through comprehensive mentorship and leadership development, Brothers@ taps into the unique potential of male collegians of color, promoting their ability to provide support and guidance to each other and their high school peers. Ultimately, Brothers@ encourages male collegians of color to “pay it forward,” multiplying the impact of the College’s effort to advance the life outcomes of YMOC throughout the Hudson Valley. Today, Brothers@ works with nearly 200 YMOC annually—recruiting, training, and hiring collegiate men of color to become mentors to YMOC in high school. For information, click here.

About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 11 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 161-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.(4/09/21)
 

The Bard College Center for Civic Engagement wishes to express its grief and anger at the murder of eight people in Georgia last week, six of whom were Asian women, and to unambiguously condemn the racism, xenophobia, scapegoating, and misogyny that are at the root of these murders. We mourn the losses and stand in solidarity with the Asian and Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) communities at Bard, their families, and with those who are working towards a just and equitable country—especially students, staff, faculty, and alumni/ae of the Bard community and network. 

We recognize that what has occurred is consistent with the history of racial and anti-immigrant violence that has stained the United States and that, as the country continues to experience a long-overdue racial reckoning, we need to ensure that the lives and concerns of Asian and AAPI communities find their rightful place in this conversation. We also affirm that we should be centering the voices and experiences of migrants, particularly migrant women, in our work and study. 

We wish to express our deepest condolences to the victims and their loved ones as we say their names:

• 冯道友 Daoyou Feng, 44
• 김현정 Hyun Jung Grant, 51
• 김순자 Suncha Kim, 69
• Paul Andre Michels, 54 
• 박순정 Soon Chung Park, 74 
• 谭小洁 Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49
• Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33
• 유영애 Yong Ae Yue, 63

Since the establishment of the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) nearly a decade ago, we have worked to develop programs that enhance understanding and contribute to civic life locally, nationally, and globally. We will continue to work with our students, faculty, and staff in the Bard College network to promote social justice and address discrimination and inequity. We intend to do so on Bard’s main campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, in close cooperation with Bard’s Council for Inclusive Excellence, in local communities, and with our national and global networks.
 
We recognize our privileged position within the communities in which we operate and are committed to collaborating with and mobilizing students, faculty, and staff across the Bard network to work with citizens, community organizations, and leaders to develop meaningful approaches to mitigating racism, xenophobia, and inequality within society. We welcome partners in these efforts. The Center for Civic Engagement will continue to help realize Bard’s mission as a private institution acting in the public interest by enhancing efforts to meet the needs of this important time.

Lastly, we wanted to offer a few resources you can use to take action:

• Donate
• Stop AAPI Hate
• Anti-racism Resources
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice
• #HateIsAVirus
• Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Voting Rights: An Asian American Perspective

Bard College Center for Civic Engagement

This grant award will allow Reed and her team to spend the summer traveling across New York State on a “racial justice fundraising tour through the sale of used clothing.” Their pop-up fundraising thrift sales will raise money “to support racial justice initiatives, facilitate community engagement with antiracism activism and education provide an opportunity for environmentally and socially sustainable shopping.” Thrift 2 Fight’s mission is to fuel social change and racial justice work with the profits of a dynamic thrifting movement.

Despite the challenges of the coronavirus outbreak, artist-in-residence Beka Goedde, ‘04 and ‘12, adapted her Print II: Silkscreening course to remote learning and used experiential learning to show students how they could use art to engage with the community while staying safe at the same time. 

To prepare for the first full semester in the pandemic, Beka created videos of herself modelling silkscreening techniques and pivoted toward remote teaching via Zoom. But as all things ELAS, the focus wasn’t just on the practice of silkscreening, but how students could apply their coursework to community action. 

The Print II students collaborated with the Bard Cares team to create vibrant signs about social distancing and mask wearing. They also worked with Lisa Sanditz’s Painting II: Social Change course to design eye-catching signs urging Bardians to vote at the new on-campus polling place for the 2020 national election. 

"We passed those signs back and forth several times over a couple of months—painting and printing on them, cutting them, putting stakes on them, and repainting them,” said Beka. 

Beyond the techniques of silkscreening, the students also learned how to advocate for their own projects and build relationships with the community. Beka showed them how to navigate the paperwork for public installations and invited their help in making decisions with local partners. 

"As [their] instructor I [am their] guide and help do some of the work to put things in place—I hope I have shown them what the path is."

At the end of the semester silkscreening students gave digital images and stencils to local grassroots organization Rise Up Kingston to use in its community outreach. What this represented, said Beka, was the students giving away their creativity and their art. “To work as an artist who is an activist in a mode is generous and gifting.”

By Kathy Gaweda ‘21
In the four years that I’ve been a team member of Election@Bard, the topic of an on-campus polling place has been met with a knowing giggle and a sigh. Previous generations of Election@Bard leaders had fought so hard to make sure that Bard voters had their right to vote protected. They battled against voter suppression that came in the form of student residency questionnaires and argued for the right of Bard students to use the 30 Campus Road address. Yet, an on-campus polling place remained out of reach. 

When I joined the team, we continued this good work by writing Op-Eds to build public support, sending letters of support to the Board of Elections, and meeting with previous Election Commissioners. But time and again we were either ignored or told we had no chance. 

We were ignored or outright rejected despite the fact that the vast majority of voters in the district live on campus and that a space in the Campus Center, the Multi-Purpose Room, is more appropriately sized than the current polling place. 

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, social distancing guidance made it impossible for the issue to be ignored any longer. In trying to imagine the line of voters out the door maintaining six feet of distance, or the multiple shuttles we would have to organize to ensure that no more than four people would be transported at a time. This was not only a major logistical challenge but a threat to the campus community’s health and safety. 

Supported by the Center for Civic Engagement, the Bard Administration, and the Andrew Goodman Foundation, we advanced litigation arguing that the MPR was the only option to ensure a safe Election Day. 

I was so excited to see the support from the campus community as well as from outside sources. It’s not every day that you get to be on the radio or that your team member is quoted in the New York Times. But despite the case  and all of the excitement surrounding it, we couldn’t let it get in the way of our day-to-day responsibilities. We had to continue making sure that students were registered, requesting absentee ballots, and voting early if possible. Finally, after months of legal back and forth, we won! 

Election Day 2020 began and finished with a consistent flow of students entering the Campus Center intent on making their voices heard. After generations of organizing and an election season like no other, Bard students were able to vote safely and easily on their own campus at last. 

Thinking back to that day, it seemed so calm. We had grown accustomed to the hustle and bustle of anticipating student schedules and arranging their shuttles to the old, off-campus polling site. But this time our efforts were paying off right in front of us. 

However, our work is not done yet. Thanks to the inner workings of county politics, our campus polling place is not guaranteed for future elections. So Election@Bard is going to continue the fight.  We look forward to continuing our work to ensure that on-campus voting at Bard College is protected and ensured for generations to come.
 

While the COVID-19 pandemic ground many academic debate programs to a halt, the Bard Debate Union took it as an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to debate outreach and service to the community. 

When we lost the ability to gather socially and engage in extra curricular activities with local high school students, the Bard Debate Union created a Zoom-based “Community Debate Practice.” Weekly, we’d gather with local high school debate clubs, staging and judging full practice debates. The Union also offered lectures and workshops to help the high schoolers develop their debating skills. 

On Saturday, March 6, the Debate Union hosted a virtual version of the 10th Annual High School Debate Tournament at Bard, with students from 6 local school districts – Red Hook, Rhinebeck, Poughkeepsie, Arlington, Haldane, and Dover. The students competed in three full debates on topics of minimum wage, environmental justice, and popular art. The event culminated in an awards ceremony at which the top-placing teams and speakers were recognized with all the pomp and circumstance possible in our present situation. 

At the Bard Debate Union, we are proud of our ten-year effort to work with local high school students to instill a love for vigorous, open, public debate. And despite a yearlong pandemic, which has challenged us in ways we never imagined, we are thrilled to see that debate remains a way to connect people and enliven our community.

At the top of a small hill at the end of a dark, winding, and unlit path in Red Hook, N.Y., sits the only voting location for all of Bard College. For decades, the 750-square-foot building, called St. John’s Episcopal Church, has been the only place for those living on and around Bard’s campus to cast their vote in local, state, and national elections.

There are no sidewalks on the road to the church. You can’t get to it by public transportation. For years, it lacked an adequate ramp, handicap restroom, and designated parking for disabled voters. The incline leading up to the church makes it impossible to access if you are elderly, disabled, or walking with a stroller.

Read Najwa's Article at The Nation

“Advocates, like Jule Hall, argue that educating students with life sentences doesn’t just benefit them but their entire prison populations because lifers serve as a unique support system for other students,” writes Sara Weissman in Diverse Issues in Higher Education. “Hall was sentenced to life in prison and served 22 years before his parole and release in 2015. Now he’s a program officer of post-secondary education in prison at Ascendium Education Group.”
 

Tayler Butler ’17 is a Bard alumna, a Posse Scholar, and a future lawyer. As a Bard student, she worked as a tutor for incarcerated students in the Bard Prison Initiative. The experience inspired her to continue work in the field. Now she's pursuing her law degree at Cornell.

Dariel Vasquez ’17 cofounded Brothers at Bard with Harry Johnson ’17 to provide peer support for men of color on campus. What began in 2014 as a Bard Trustee Leader Scholar project expanded to include a successful mentoring program for high school students in Kingston, New York, and has grown into the larger Brothers@ organization, which supports students across the country. Vasquez talks to NY1 News about his upbringing in Harlem, transition to college life, and his commitment to providing positive role models to other young men of color.

Brian Mateo, associate dean of civic engagement and director of strategic partnerships for the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program, has been elected to the board of directors of BYkids. Started in 2007, BYkids is a global movement that uses storytelling through film to inform, engage, and inspire action. BYkids provides kids around the world with the training and the video cameras to make short documentaries about their lives. Renowned filmmakers mentor these young people in the art of filmmaking.

“I am very excited to join the Board of extraordinary talented individuals and help the BYkids organization strategize their goals for the next ten years and also the next generation of young filmmakers and its viewers,” says Mateo.

Brian Mateo also serves on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and as a term member on the Council on Foreign Relations, a security fellow for the Truman National Security Project and a climate reality leader trained by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore through the Climate Reality Project.

“We are honored to have Brian’s international and educational expertise and welcome him as we expand our impact of this powerful films as a way to promote cross-cultural conversations,” says Holly Carter, BYkids founder and executive director. “We have done a number of screening and conversation events with his students and Bard colleagues, and it is always a rich experience.”

BYkids is a non-profit organization pairing master filmmakers, including Albert Maysles and Ric Burns, with youth (ages 8-21) from around the world to create short documentaries that educate Americans about globally relevant issues. By giving kids the tools and mentoring to make documentary films about their lives and packaging those films for a wide American audience, BYkids gives voice to youth from diverse cultures, and encourages international understanding and engagement by giving viewers concrete ways to respond.

BYkids films air on PBS with a supporting curriculum for students and teachers and are distributed through PBS LearningMedia, Discovery Education, and PenPal Schools. The organizations holds film screenings and panel discussions at schools, film festivals, Lincoln Center, the United Nations, and SXSW. We engage on social media. Each of our young filmmakers creates empathy touching 248.6 million viewers. Our instructional webinar, hosted by WNET and accessible to all educators, is promoted to more than 170,000 educators worldwide, including middle, junior, and high school librarians, social studies, and world history teachers. To learn more about BYkids, please click here.(2/15/21)
 

“Expanding prison education opportunities through TAP restoration would have an exponentially beneficial outcome and substantially improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers,” writes Burnett. “My education allows me to remain financially secure at a time many people are struggling. . . . My education has made me an empathetic, diligent and highly efficient professional. Bard Prison Initiative sets high expectations for its students, and when we return to our communities, we bring those lessons home with us.”

First-year instrumentalists Sophia Jackson '25, cello, and Aleksandar Vitanov '25, trumpet, have launched a new program called the Music Mentorship Initiative (MMI). The program offers tutoring and free private lessons to music students who otherwise cannot afford them, while allowing mentors—current Conservatory students who have completed a pedagogical training seminar—to gain teaching experience.

The Musical Mentorship Initiative, created in the fall of 2020 even as COVID-19 affected us all, has successfully grown into a program for local youth pursuing music education. MMI now has 33 Bard student mentors and 10 mentees from Red Hook. The young music students receive free private lessons from members of the Bard Conservatory. The Bard students receive teacher training from professionals, and they are dedicated to offering first-rate instruction. The feedback is very positive! MMI is looking forward to recruiting more mentors and young people who want to learn. Please join us if you are interested in being a music instructor. In addition to offering private instruction, MMI is beginning to collaborate with a number of local organizations including the Red Hook Residential Center for incarcerated youth, Hudson Music Teachers, and Musicians for the World. MMI is now looking forward to expanding the outreach of the organization nationally as well as internationally through organizations such as Musicians for the World. An MMI website is being constructed for the purpose of establishing an efficient communication channel for the members of our organization, as well as making it more convenient for future mentors and mentees to contact us. In 2021 we plan to recruit music schools around the United States and encourage musicians to start their own Musical Mentorship Initiative. We hope to help organize this national music instruction initiative while at the same time continuing with our local outreach.
 
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