A new school year brings excitement, anticipation, nervous energy, and a whole lot of start-up events. We’re not professional photographers, but we did our best to capture some of the activities that helped launch the new year, including these:
Move-in for most students took place on Thursday morning, and by that night they were in full Orientation mode. For our part, Harward Center staff and students hosted a “Welcome to Your New Hometown” program in which the Class of 2030 enjoyed a welcome video from local leaders, competed for gift cards to local restaurants in a Lewiston Auburn trivia game, and learned how they could integrate off-campus involvement into their academic coursework, clubs and sports, work-study jobs, leadership development, summer internships, and extracurricular pursuits.
At Thursday night’s program, Harward Center staff members were thrilled to be joined by two amazing student leaders, Bonner Leader Feray-Thea Karaismailoglu ’28, a Neuroscience and Chemistry major originally from Cyprus, and Bates Votes Co-Coordinator Nikhil Chavda, a Politics and Economics major from Nottingham, New Hampshire. Together, we gave students an enthusiastic welcome to their new hometown.
Friday saw the Harward Center’s Ellen Alcorn and Morgan Kinney (pictured above), who lead the college’s Community-Engaged Learning and Research Program, at the Academic Fair, chatting it up with incoming students about their academic interests and how they can put theory into practice in collaboration with local partners.
On Saturday, new students who signed up for the “Community Engagement in L-A” AESOP trip, led this year by sophomores Abby Rudnitsky and Orla Maxcy, started their trip at the Harward Center with an orientation to Lewiston Auburn, followed by a walking tour of downtown Lewiston and a delicious meal at Naima restaurant, a Somali restaurant on Lisbon Street owned by the father of two Bates grads and one current Bates student.
Photo Credit: history.princeton.eduPhoto Credit: Emma Calabro/The Daily IowanPhoto Credit: Theophil Syslo/Bates CollegePhoto Credit: Theophil Syslo/Bates CollegePhoto Credit: Theophil Syslo/Bates CollegeMonday featured the first gathering of the Publicly-Engaged Pedagogy program, a semester-long community of practice for faculty who want to integrate high-quality community-engaged learning into one or more of the courses they teach at Bates. Among this year’s ten PEP cohort members are six faculty who are brand new to Bates this year: prof. Camille Borders, History and Africana; profs Emily and Josh Culbreath, Theater and Dance; prof. Arron Foster, Art and Visual Culture; prof. Angie Jo, Politics; and prof. Jasmine Mena, Psychology.
At Tuesday’s opening Convocation on the college’s historic quad, Ava Steinberger, student government co-president and Bates Votes co-coordinator, spoke about the importance of Lewiston to a Bates education and encouraged incoming students to make community engagement an integral part of their Bates experience.
Maybe it was the lovely weather, or the promise of sambusas, but Friday’s Harward Center Open House attracted a slew of Batesies, who enjoyed beef and veggie sambusas, watermelon, and cookies while chatting about their community engagement questions, curiosities, and ideas with student and professional staff – identifiable by their green “I love downtown Lewiston” t-shirts.
On Saturday, Harward Center staffers Ellen Alcorn and Mohamed “Mo” Awil led Bonner Leaders and Community Outreach Fellows on a day-long retreat that included an exploration of the gorgeous new Maine Museum of Innovation Learning and Labor, directed by Bates alum Rachel Ferrante.
As of press time, Sunday’s Bates Votes retreat was well underway, facilitated by Associate Director of Democratic Engagement and Student Activism Jenna Dela Cruz Vendil, and featuring some serious planning for the upcoming election season by the non-partisan, student-led group.
Bates Votes students volunteered throughout Orientation, inviting new and returning students to be well-informed, active voters.
The next start-up event will be this Wednesday’s annual Volunteer Fair, featuring dozens of local organizations as well as our Community Outreach Fellows – all ready to help students learn about local issues and potential partners for volunteer, work-study, community-engaged learning, or summer internship experiences. For more information, email Mo Awil (mawil@bates.edu).
With the opening ceremonies nearly behind us, we’re looking forward to a wonderful new school year. We hope you’ll stay in touch!
