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Major: Sociology

Nexus Track: Sustainable Development

Thesis:

Study Abroad:

Advanced Degrees:

My Nexus minor in Sustainable Development and Community Based Learning fellowship helped me reframe my early interest in international education into the skills and knowledge I needed to engage authentically with my local community as a global citizen. In my Mount Holyoke sociology and nexus courses I learned to analyze the socio-political context of spaces, and how to take that analysis to inform the content and approach of educational programs I implemented.

With Nexus/Community-Based Learning, I refined my skill in building reciprocal community-based partnerships, seeing them as a tool for sustainable community development. During my Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in the Brazilian Amazon, I shared these partnership building skills with my colleagues and students. We practiced listening to our local community’s expressed needs, developing a place-based programmatic response, and allowing our community partner to then shape it to fit their needs. With my partners and students, we built two partnerships with local youth-serving agencies that have continued now for over three years.

I continued building community partnerships in my work with youth as a comprehensive sexuality educator in Holyoke, MA. I’ve learned that in order to improve the health of communities, a diverse group of individuals and ideas must be involved. It is in this collaborative space that my global/local experiences from Nexus are most useful.

This fall, I will continue to explore ideas of how the wellbeing of our community is affected by the space around us by pursuing an MPH/MCRP dual-degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. I am the TA for a “Techniques in Community Development” course where I will support the community partnerships for a service-learning project.