Editorial StaffEarl Bloodworth, the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships’ 2022 Mentor in Residence for the Re-Imagining Justice Initiative, is committed to giving incarcerated people a second chance. The stark truth of his work is that for many individuals who have experienced the criminal legal system, they’ve never had a first chance. In an effort to correct what he sees as a real need in Connecticut, Bloodworth serves as the director of the Mayor’s Initiative for Reentry Affairs in Bridgeport. “You gain the trust and build up rapport with people who have been let down by a lot of folks in their…
Olivia DrakeThis April, the Office of Support, Healing, Activism, and Prevention Education (SHAPE) is encouraging the Wesleyan community to reflect, learn, and better show up for survivors of violence through a plethora of Survivor Solidarity Month activities. The 2022 theme is “Community Responsibility and Care," and the various events highlight ways to support survivors in a healing-centered way, particularly in line with restorative practices and even in line with transformative justice values. "It’s important of us as a community at Wesleyan to be having these conversations because a better world is possible—a world where we’re disrupting and challenging systems of oppression…
Girls who grow up in the patriarchal Massai community in Kenya are often impoverished, voiceless, and undermined by men. Although Kenya offers free public education, less than 5 percent of Kenyan women end up attending college. Diana Naiyanoi Kimojino '25, however, was determined to continue her education, even if it meant going against her family's wishes and her cultural norms. Now an economics major at Wesleyan, she's feels "an immense call of duty" to bring awareness to her Kenyan community about the benefits of college access for women. "Growing up, my education is always a point of contention with my…
In April 2019, Middlesex County EMT Livia Cox '22 recalls responding to a medical call where she encounters an unconscious and pale-faced patient. She eyes a pill bottle in the room, and although the man is dead, she begins chest compressions anyway "with every joule of energy and every compassionate bone in me," she says. Cox had met this patient before. They've discussed his comorbid chronic physical and mental pain and substance dependency at length. A former military man, he has frequent PTSD episodes. He's been prescribed opioids to ameliorate his joint pain, but help more with his insomnia. "On…
Svitlana Andrushchenko left her home in Kyiv, Ukraine, due to the Russian invasion, but she refuses to be deemed a "refugee." "I call myself a temporarily removed person. I want [to be] back home and just be in my country. I want to live in peace in Ukraine," Andrushchenko said during Wesleyan's third Ukraine-Russia Crisis Livestream Conversation series event. "I am not scared for myself. I am scared for my children. Really, we are responsible for them." Andrushchenko, who is currently displaced in the western Ukraine city of Ivano Frankivsk, is nine hours from her home where she works as…
Rachel Wachman '24Silence fell upon the crowd of students and staff assembled outside Usdan University Center as Ukrainian native Julia Kulchytska ’24 stepped up to the microphone. “The new norm is to live in a constant state of fear that I’m going to wake up and I’m going to get a message that my home was bombed,” Kulchytska said during a rally held March 4. She expressed feeling a deep sense of guilt that she is not in Ukraine with her family and described how numb and afraid she has been feeling since the war began. Kulchytska organized the Ukraine Rally for…
When Diane Goldstein Stein ’81, P’16,’21 traveled to Guatemala for the first time in 2018, she became acquainted with a non-profit that empowers indigenous female artisans. The organization, MayaWorks, helps girls, women, and their families achieve self-confidence and economic stability through various financial and educational initiatives. “Seeing the gorgeous and colorful tapestries and other items that they handcrafted wowed me,” Diane said. But so did their kind-hearted, warming personalities. “They're making lunch for us [while] we're meeting their friendly, polite, and affectionate children. They melted my heart. And that was just the start.” In 2020, Stein, who had befriended many…
Steve ScarpaKhaled, a child who recently came to the US from Syria, logs on to every English language tutoring session with Ben Levin ’23 with his face as close to the camera as possible, sporting a huge smile. “What’s up BRO!” Khaled says each time. “Khaled is a sweet, energetic, and enthusiastic eight-year-old who uses his bed as a bouncing-off spot for both his ideas and his body,” said Levin, Khaled’s tutor through Elizabeth Ann Hepford’s TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) class, held in Fall 2021. Levin had worked with children in a camp setting, but hadn’t had…
Wesleyan University has begun the process of constructing a new home for Neighborhood Preschool (NPS), located at 60 Long Lane near the softball fields. Work on the project, designed by Patriquin Architects of New Haven, began in December and should be complete by the end of 2022. The current facilities, located on Lawn Avenue and High Street, will be demolished to make way for the new science building. “Our new NPS is a significant upgrade on our current facilities and will accommodate 52 youngsters in multiple classrooms and outdoor play yards. The approximately 7,000-square-foot facility was designed in consultation with a committee…
When not teaching classes on agriculture, sustainability, and the environment, visiting assistant professor of environmental studies Rosemary Ostfeld ’10, MA ’12 can be found working on her sustainable food and farming startup Healthy PlanEat. Healthy PlanEat, based in Lyme, Conn., allows farmers who grow food in sustainable ways to sell their crops directly to both individuals and wholesale customers using an app and aims to increase access to healthy, local, and sustainably grown food. In November, Healthy PlanEat received a $52,000 grant through the Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) run by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). According to…
A couple of days before Thanksgiving, Diana Martinez and a few of her colleagues from the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships (JCCP) were up early at Usdan to fill their cars with 200 pies, destined for the Middletown Community Thanksgiving Project. The project, housed at Fellowship Baptist Church on Saybrook Road, distributes the trappings of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner to people across the community. “There is value in the communal aspects of coming together for a common cause. I think that is the feeling we are trying to imbue into all of our students,” Martinez said. While Martinez, the assistant…
Seventy-seven percent of Wesleyan students who were eligible voted in the 2020 presidential election, earning a Gold Seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, an increase of 10 percent from the previous presidential election. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a national, nonpartisan initiative of Civic Nation, which strives for a more inclusive democracy. While civic participation is embedded in Wesleyan’s DNA, this level of turnout is due to a sustained voter registration effort, said Diana Martinez, Assistant Director, Jewett Center for Community Partnerships. “We are always looking for ways to bring the students together,” Martinez said. In…