Adventure Learning Grant

Today I submitted my Adventure Learning Grant proposal.

As you may recall, way back in August I finished my first proposal draft. It has certainly been through quite a few changes since then, but I'm pretty happy with my final product. While I have, at times, become quite exasperated with my ongoing revisions to the grant, it has been an amazing process. I have been able to think through, in great depth, what kind of an experience I would like to have, explore contingencies, and more generally think about what I want to learn and why.

The why is important to Fairhaven (and life), and the process of not only working on my grant, but also my concentration, has helped me think about why I want to study democracy and rationalize those reasons. I am coming out of both processes with a better understanding of myself and the things that drive me.

The help I have received along the way – from professors and fellow students – has been invaluable in these processes. Even if I don’t get the grant – and there’s quite the competition, with subjects ranging from weaving in Latin America to fishing in the Balkans – the process has been completely worth it.

I realize I avoided what my proposal was about in the above, so I’ve pasted my abstract below (in case anyone is interested):

People power: Grassroots democracy and Ubuntu
I want to go to South Africa to become involved with grassroots democracy movements and gain a holistic understanding of why its democratic transition was successful. I want to explore the philosophical concept of Ubuntu – an existence premised on community - as it relates to these movements, the democratic transition, and to the larger theoretical foundation of South African democracy. I want to blog about my experiences and use them as a way not only to educate myself, but also others when I return to Fairhaven.

I Be Happy Today :D

Dear Blog Followers,
Today I feel super fantastically alive. I went to a potluck brunch at the Oasis in the morning where we enjoyed plenty of fall foods. I was invited by the Oasis community (an eco friendly, intentional living space off campus) as part of my Human Ecology class. It was literary a feast with apple butters, crisp, oatmeal, pumpkin waffles, fruit salad, banana and pumpkins breads, deviled eggs, coffee, tea, home pressed cider, and much more. Before serving ourselves we stood in a circle holding hands and chanted om several times together before breaking with a hand squeeze passed around the entire circle.

Afterwards, I walked over to the Outback, Western’s community garden to take part in the work party they have every Sunday from 11-midafternoon. Riding off of the positive energy of the food, I had the best time gardening ever. This summer I was supposed to do yard work for my parents and I dreaded it, but in the Outback it is fun and I get to live my values, working to live with the land. Projects that would take forever with one person take as little as an hour with many hands digging and moving. Plus we can talk, sing, and yell a celebratory cry whenever we toss another piece of cardboard into the pile, ready to be used for *sheet mulching. At the end of the work party I even got to take home some beautiful kale, chard, and carrots! I am going to take these vegetables over to my friend’s house to cook for another potluck in our 201 class: The Five Senses (this class is part of the Fairhaven core). I am really excited because this saves money I was anticipating spending on groceries and will provide a delicious and organic contribution to our class eating festivities. I am really starting to feel linked in to Fairhaven by growing, cooking, and eating food with my follow students and teachers. It is such a wonderful feeling because Western itself is very, very large.

Who I am

Sorry everybody, I realized that I started posting already and most of you don't even know who I am!

My name is Alekz and I am a Junior at Western Washington University and am a Fairhaven student making a concentration through the Law, Diversity and Justice program. I will be focusing my concentration, more than likely, around how race is involved in the law and legal issues.

I have been on the executive board for the Mixed Identity Student Organization for the past 2 years and am now currently the President. I am a coordinator for the Social Issues Resource Center which is located in VU 512. Overall, I am just a really passionate, and dedicated person who works really hard to educate himself on issues that people handle on a daily basis.

I chose Western because coming out of high school I really wanted to become a high school English teacher. Unfortunately, my dream was kind of crushed after taking the required English 101 class. So I started looking at other alternatives and through the Western Leadership Advantage program on campus, I came into contact with Fairhaven College. I immediately fell in love and decided that Fairhaven was for me. So I talked to my Woodring College of Education advisor and told him what I wanted to do and unfortunately he told me that because No Child Left Behind required teachers to be "highly qualified" I needed to have an approved/distinguished major from the University (i.e. English, Math, Science, Sociology, etc). So I had to make a decision, continue on the path to becoming a teacher or do something that I know I will enjoy and will make my learning experience more holistic? I chose Fairhaven and have been extremely satisfied with my decision ever since.

Blackface

I was surprised to see blackface make news headlines for the second time in the past two weeks, thinking that the first instance was an anomaly, a once in a blue moon kind of thing. Some Australian talent show showed white individuals who put on black face and fake afro wigs parading around as the "Jackson Jive" and now French Vogue is celebrating "super models" and parading them around in black face and 'culturally inspired dress' (when ironically enough no black models 'made the cut' as supermodels). Ironically enough, Japan has had performers sing in blackface and Mexico produced a national stamp that was honoring a comic book where the main character is an offensive, monkey looking, black youth and despite US pleas to not produce the stamp, they wre produced anyways. (all of these occurences are discussed in the CNN hyperlink posted below).

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/10/14/am.carroll.vogue.blackface.cnn

We know, most of us anyways, that in the US blackface is not something that is taken lightly AT ALL and I know that this part of our history probably isn't very well read or learned in other parts of the world so is it our responsibility to educate other communities as to why blackface is degrading? Is it our responsibility to say that it was used to portray the black community as idiots, buffoons, subservient, less human, etc. What do you all think? I know in the US a lot of people don’t take the histories of other communities seriously and a large part of that is ignorance. If people were to speak up and say, “Hey, that’s not right and this is why...” wouldn’t we listen? Maybe if we raised our voices collectively people would finally get the fact that blackface is simply NOT entertainment...

Introduction to Fairhaven College, Introduction to Me

Hey. I’m Jenna. I am a first year student at Fairhaven College and I’ve lived in Bellingham for most of my life. I ended up staying here after much initial resistance (little did I know that when I was little and told my parents I would go to Western “because I never wanted to move away from them,” the first part would be true).

I am SUPER happy with my decision. I love it here. The other day I was walking around campus and suddenly got the urge to have a big spoon to eat it all up: my excitement was that tangible! And at Fairhaven, I get the small class sizes and experience of a liberal arts education for a state school price. I can also spend a semester at any of their sister schools, which probably means I will spend some time at Hampshire College in MA. Right now, I am taking the Five Senses Critical and Inquiry class and Applied Human Ecology at Fairhaven, as well as Honors 103 [Major Cultural Traditions] on main campus.

I am interested in philosophy, art, finding patterns, asking questions, contrasting cultures, psychology, nutrition, wellness, forms of personal expression, yoga, hiking, sustainable living practices, dance parties, day dreaming, going to bookstores or the public library, parks, swings, and sunny days, writing, hugs, new experiences, stars, the universe, most social sciences, exploring and funny stories.

One thing that really screams Fairhaven to me is a sign I saw posted on one of the bulletin boards. It read:
FRESHMAN- if any of you are not reading your copy of The Omnivore’s Dilemma please give it to me. [phone number] P.S. We could be friends!!!

Fairhaven IS different… but in a good way. It is the difference we need! :)

School is around the corner

It's amazing that I have been on summer vacation for over two and a half months and still haven't done all the things I set out to do before school ended.

I was going to finish up this ISP from spring quarter that I was psyched about in March - before I realized that I wanted to devote more of my time to other projects - I postponed that.

I was going to go to the Olympics and backpack for a few days - before I realized at a two-day layover at Lake Phillips that I'd forgotten my sleeping pads and the food - I postponed that too.

I was going to read a whole host of academic books that I was really excited about - before I realized that I was really into science-fiction - You guessed it, I postponed that too (I did read a lot of science fiction though).

I was going to work on my Adventure Learning Grant proposal, and I did that, and I like what I have, despite only having finished a first draft.

I was going to go on a kayaking trip in the San Juans, and I'm still going to do that. As far as I know at least.

While I had some plans I didn't quite follow through on, I have had a really great summer in a lot of respects. Amazingly enough, I have yet to get really bored and wish for school to come. That said, I'm really excited for school to start in 24 days. There's just something about starting school again, people returning from their summers, and the beginning of fall.

Alex

Yesterday was full of genetically modified pets, extremely-cute goat-kids leaping from compost piles and lots and lots lettuce seedlings, because my Ecology of Eating class visited Galactic Organics, a local farm. The mizuna we sampled was sweet, thickly tender (well, for a leaf). I was dead on my feet without sleep, so I didn't help mix the concoction of cow-dung, nettles, egg shells and other special ingredients, but I wish I had. Guess this mystic compost is so potent just a pinch swirled clockwise counter clockwise, does wonders for plantlife. I'd love to see it in action.

To clarify: the GM pets were not on the farm (now that would be quite the contradiction...not that that's stopped anyone...). Actually, a biologist came and spoke in my Research for Creative Writer's class, talked about genetic modification (specifically of plants). It was a little frustrating because, while she tried to remain unbiased, she made sure to let us know that our bulging word-population cannot be fed sustainably (frustrating because I've heard the exact opposite from a trusted professor) and that a farm can't be productive, unless it has the added input of pesticides, fertilizers, etc. Hm...I've seen and read otherwise.


Still a great and vibrant speaker and person, though-- eg: I needed a logical explanation for blue goo leaking from a body and she gave me some ideas.

Onto the genetically modified pets. One of my classmates in RCW found this:

... ... ...

G e n p e t s !

... ... ... ...

And, to calm the masses:

... ... ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genpet

When in Doubt

College overall is a wonderful experience. You met new people, new groups, new challenges and new EVERYTHING. But like all new academic things that you are passionate about or interested in. They get hard!!! A week ago, I had a very tough week. Midterms, papers and readings to do. I was very stressed. To my surprise and luck it all changed with one little action. a Hug. A simple hug and " Hey Mario, I hope you feel better" made my day ten times better!!! In college life you get very stressed, thats very normal. Always remember, that when in doubt you are not alone!!! People are here to guide, love you and care about you. Who would of thought a simple hug can change the way a person feels and thinks. So the moral is, if your upset or blue. Know that people here in Fairhaven College will take care of you!!! With a smile, a chat, a laugh or even a hug. WE are all part of the same family.... Till next time.

All the best,
Mario

Wheatberries

Amazing, isn't it, how a single conversation can open up so much untrodden ground? In Ecology of Eating, we were plastering a classroom with all the food we eat (not literally...just written on paper) and I got to talking about rice milk vs. cow milk, which lead to a short, but amazing conversation on eating locally in Bellingham. This is how I discovered my idiocy (well, discovered it again-- these sort of discoveries seem to come in cycles...really, really repetitive ones).

This thing, this concept of eating locally is supposedly quite a basic one. But I've discovered that I'm sustainable within the sphere of my own knowledge. There's so much more I could and should be doing. But this wonderful, wonderful conversation opened my eyes, lead me to new horizons, to speak in cliche. One thing I learned about? Wheatberries.

See, I have this obsession with this cereal, specifically Heritage O's, of which I occasionally rave about on my other blog. There're the...the...epitome of delicious. They're are made of spelt, quinoa and kamut, I think. An extremely tasty cereal that stays crunchy to the last bite (and makes chewing so loud you can be heard from across the room).

They've reached cereal-nirvana...or maybe this makes more sense: when I eat them, I reach cereal-nirvana. So...that sounds a bit odd, coming from me, even. But in other words, they're really good. And relatively regional (produced in Richmond, BC, though the ingredients are far flung across Canada and the US). I don't ever actually buy them myself, but make sure a few of the so-called 'eco-bags' (I'd beg to differ) make their way into the grocery basket whenever I'm at home, shopping with my mother.

But I think I have a new beau of cereal: wheatberries. Er...well, I haven't actually tried them yet, but I know I'm going to love them. I swear, I can feel it. Feel it in my bones and all that. Can already imagine them with nutbutter and my grandmother's homemade pear honey (which isn't actually honey, but extremely excellent jam)...they're going to be wonderful. They're local, in bulk, can be cooked, eaten instead of rice and all sort of wondrous things. I haven't eaten them yet, but they're the best.

(I'm going to go into some sort of hyper-depressive stupor if they don't turn out to be all I've imagined them to be...)

Its Sunny in Fairhaven :D

When it rains in Fairhaven it is such a blessing. Our beautiful college is surrounded by green trees, plants AND well… NATURE! The problem with rain in Fairhaven is, it rains a lot! That is why having a sunny day with the light blue sky is wonderful! Today I experienced my first FULL DAY OF SUN at Fairhaven. Not only did the day seem bright and happy, Fairhaven kids were out and about. Take a wild guess on what you think they were doing. DANCING!!! Many of the Fairhaven College students play an instrument (drums, guitars, banjos, violins, pianos) and love to go out on the green and soft grass outside of Fairhaven and start playing. Not only were they playing an instrument, many of the students and teachers… THAT’S RIGHT TEACHERS were singing. I was bedazzled and so honored that a small liberal college was so unified. Let’s` just say I fell back in love with my college. So the moral is, when it’s sunny in Western Washington University, don’t go to main campus. Take a little walk to Fairhaven and join not only the singing and dancing, but our family.

All the best,
Mario

I want to cry.

Want to cry.

Over: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point

(it's a link-- you should click on it)

Why?

Let's do something. Today, try to do one thing that intentionally expresses benevolence to the earth. Leave the car at home: walk, bike. If you're out grocery shopping, buy some local veggies (and avoid all packaged goods), take a military show (wet, turn off water, sud/scrub, rinse), pick up some trash, unplug those devices you aren't using (you'll save a bit of money, too). Or just sit and think about this beautiful planet we live on (because who knows how much longer it'll actually be beautiful for).

I'd love to hear what you do. Please and thanks and pass it on!

Inkspeak!

I'm going to quote Anneliese on this--

"Just a reminder that submissions for InkSpeak are due this MONDAY the 23rd. You can submit pieces in the picnic basket across from the office, or electronically at InkSpeakmag@gmail.com. Directions for submission are on the FH website, under News/Events. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, Jenn, or Mary. Encourage anyone affiliated with the college-- students, staff, faculty, alumni, anyone-- to submit. Thanks!"

Monday the 23rd, by the way, is today.

For more information on Inkspeak, as well as an online version, click here! and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Please submit!

Concentrations pt.II

My dreams have been commandeered by insane Nordic musicians galvanizing stages across Seattle. Bass riffs storming the marrow of my bones, vocalists just a hairsbreadth from my face and singing so close I can feel the heat and wetness of their sweat, grasping hands with them for just a split second of forever...all these things have happened to me in the past few months, but not recently, and that’s the painful bit. I miss my Finnish bands, the Norsk and Swiss…

I’ve also been thinking about my concentration quite a bit. Some sort of triumvirate of earth, rhythm and words. The stringing-together of words to imitate—and, essentially, create—life; drumming and rhythm as evokers of emotion and energy. Humans and the planet we inhabit inspire me. A muse birthed from the chiseling of earth and nature by human hands. Inspiration driven by decay, the seasons, a mouse, slow supernovas. Stories written about the current suicide mission of homo sapiens and improv on the drum set that emulates the clicking of beetles. These are the emotions and images and thoughts I want to bring to my concentration.

I remember my writing transition from last quarter: I was so adamant that I’d be studying storytelling through creative writing and percussion . And before that, in spring quarter of my freshman year, I was sure I would use Tolkien as the focus of my drumming and writing concentration. I certainly haven’t lost interest in any of these sparks (I’m avidly following the The Hobbit movie blog and recently memorized Tolkien’s Shadow Bride for Poetry and Sound), but what I’ve come to realize is that I should focus on an idea rather than a singular project (such as putting Tolkien’s wildly complex Silmarillion to percussive song…which would still be awesome). I shouldn’t limit myself. I should become widely versed in a focused area of study (such as words, earth and rhythm) and from there, go crazy (I can probably check that last bit off the to-do list). Of course, come spring quarter, I’ll probably have stumbled upon another epiphany. Doubtless it will still involve words, rhythm and earth.

Even so, my plan is to take the concentration seminar next quarter, to expand my self and my passion. Ultimately, in my collegiate afterlife (and perhaps before), I’ll be an internal, self-sustaining cycle, feeding myself with my passion. My food will be my drumming and my writing (literally, if I manage to support myself with them). And at some point, I won’t be waiting for those Nordic musicians to come to me. I will go to them.

Blogging

I ran into my adviser as I left Fairhaven today. I feel like we sometimes have awkward interactions, despite the fact that he's my favorite professor.

"So, you're a blogger now," he said.

"I guess," I answered.

It's good to know that someone is reading this thing.

But seriously, thanks Niall.

Concentrated studies

School has begun to take over. It's not so much that I'm ridiculously busy, because I'm not. It's more just that I look at the work I have for next day of school and it's just so intimidating. Eventually I psych myself up for it and get it done in a reasonable amount of time, but until I do that I'm stuck thinking about how I have to do it - and that is certainly the worst part.

In any case, lately I've been spending time thinking about what I want to concentrate in. Over the past few months I have come to a conclusion, and so this quarter I am taking the Writing Portfolio and Transition conference, which is basicially Fairhaven's equivalent of writing proficiency. It also signifies moving out of exploratory studies and into concentrated studies. My studies have always been pretty concentrated though, as I came into college with a pretty good general idea of what I was interested in.

It's crazy to think that after less than two years of school I already have nearly 100 credits, when you only need 180 to graduate. Over the past week I have declared my majors (Political Science, and a Fairhaven Concentration). Next quarter I plan to take the concentration seminar, and design my concentration and I hardly feel like I've been in college that long.

I guess that's the sign of a good college experience - you hardly realize it's going by. That's easy for me to say right now though, as I sit at home. Hit me up in the middle of a lecture class and I might be telling a different story.

Poetry in the bathroom...

Sleeping nine hours on a school night is luxurious.

And probably not the smartest course of action for studying. Yet, after a point you learn that it’s less detrimental to go to bed at a decent hour and cram in an hour before class than to nod off over those inverted 7 chords. So that’s what I did—slept from 9:30 pm ‘til 6:30 am. But that’s not normal. This, rather, is my normality:

12:00 am-1:00 am (depends on the amount of torture my profs decided to allocate): bed
6:30 am: haul body from bed, eat (all in a groggy haze). If raining, don the clown suit (rain pants, reflective strips and a slightly-shredded-brilliant-orange-reflective-vest to go over my conveniently black rain jacket) and ride bike to school.
8:00 am- 5:00 pm: class/studying/grueling hours in the practice room/pretending I have important stuff to do on the internet (like blogging!) when I really should be doing the aforementioned things…

All my classes have proven themselves worthy of the exponentially diminishing amounts of sleep I'm currently getting. Intriguing discussions about menstruation and the clitoris in my Pregnancy and Childbirth class, instruction on the mind-boggling 7th chord (mind-boggling to me, the percussionist, who’s shamefully been able to avoid those collections of notes that create—I know, this is going to be stunning—melody!) in music theory.
Anything else? Ah, yes, two interesting conversations. One was with my poetry professor. We discussed the intricacies of nursery rhymes while washing our hands in the restroom facilities. The other was during Elements of Style, about how the simple placement of a comma can create two types of panda: benign or nearly-homicidal. Only in Fairhaven, dear readers, only in Fairhaven…


Feedback feeds me, so...don't let me starve?

(and in case anyone's wondering...the inability to make indentations to my paragraphs is really quite a nuisance...anyone have a solution, O computer savvy folk?)

The usefullness of Fairhaven's stairwells

Read poetry in one of Fairhaven’s many stairwells yesterday:

By flat tink
or tin, or thin
copper tong
brass clang
bronze bong*

...........

Where else but in Fairhaven could you sit in a dim and drafty stairwell and recite poetry? Put like that, it sounds dismal, but I honestly love those stairwells; the shadow of rain falling through window , the resonance and echoing acoustics …perfectly atmospheric for reciting poetry focused on sound. Every alliteration and assonance was amplified and accentuated by the stairwell’s hollow depths.

…so maybe I’m dramatizing the atmosphere of Fairhaven’s stairwells, but they served their purpose: a place to read, listen and feel the poetry.

Class began with a cookie. Let me explain—it’s not uncommon for Mary Cornish (an especially excellent poet, person and professor at Fairhaven College) to begin the first day of class by reading about the sweetness of learning. Of course, for any of us especially intelligent college-goers, such things need validation. Thus the cookie.

And with cookie in hand, we embarked upon the study—no, the experience—of Poetry and Sound (the title of the course). Started off with a video by Evelyn Glennie (an amazing solo percussionist) about the importance of listening. Later, we broke into small groups to read poems and discuss their play with sound.

And ever since class finished, I’ve been splashing in puddles, listening to the way my hair-in-the-wind sounds like the rustle of thin metal filaments and so on…after I made it to the house I share with five other girls, about 3.5 miles from campus, I practiced my drum set for two and a half-ish hours, listening to how the vibrations and the sound of the drums spoke, just playing them in weird ways.

It’s this that I love about Fairhaven. I’m not simply going to class, studying, sleeping eatingbreathingexisting during every insipid moment of the day. No. I’m living—my passions intersect with my academics and not in an overburdened, suffocated way. It’s more of a harmony.

.....

*Bell, by Valerie Worth

.....

...feedback is always a good way to get me to write more. Of course, if you don't want me to write more, you should still comment and tell me that...

Fairhaven classes build community

Finished up my first day of classes today. Well, class to be more accurate. As a Fairhaven student with interests in politics, I have taken a number of classes in the Political Science Department, and it’s always interesting to me how the dynamic shifts when I’m not in a Fairhaven class.

Instead of walking into a main campus class and maybe recognizing a face from another class, I consistently find myself in classes with people I have begun to get to know (and people I know very well) through the tighter knit Fairhaven community. Instead of eventually learning the name of the person who sits next to me, Fairhaven classes provide instant introductions and many teachers provide some kind of group activity or discussion that instantly gives you a sense of your fellow classmates. Instead of feeling like a number, I feel like a person.

That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy my classes on main campus, but most of them lack a sense of community. Even the seminar classes I have taken don’t really compare in terms of community to the “Fairhaven circles” I have become so accustomed to. The good classes come close, but I always end them with the sense that something is missing.

PS: This is the Fairhaven blog. I hope you enjoy and would love any comments.