Other Community-Connected Courses at Middlebury

Developing Death Literacy
Death literacy goes beyond understanding the dying process—it is about fostering meaningful conversations, breaking the silence around illness and loss, and giving people the knowledge needed to make informed decisions. In this course, we will explore mortality awareness, end-of-life care options, and the effects of fear and aversion, through a respectful lens of cultural, spiritual, religious, and identity-based humility. We will also examine the power of storytelling as a tool for conveying complex concepts. For our two main projects will be drafting a community resource directory and holding a story-sharing event, during which students will apply what they have learned to gently enhance communal understanding. This course contains a community-connected component.

Francesca Lynn Arnoldy is a practicing community doula and the author of numerous titles related to death and grief. She is also a published researcher at the Vermont Conversation Lab with a focus on StoryListening.

Health Equity, Social Determinants, and Community Health
In this course students will acquire a conceptual and analytical foundation for understanding why community-based, mobile integrated care is necessary and how structural forces shape the health of vulnerable populations. We will draw on health equity frameworks, the epidemiology of rural health disparities, and Vermont-specific data to examine how poverty, housing instability, food insecurity, transportation barriers, and social isolation translate into the chronic disease burdens and patterns of Emergency Department overuse that mobile integrated health programs are designed to address. Students will work with social sector organizations to see how they seek to address the deficiencies in our public health system, often at the intersection of Medicaid and Medicare. This course contains a community-connected component.

Community Health & Power
In this course students will be introduced to the foundations of community health practice and power in a range of settings including interpersonal violence prevention and response, substance use and recovery, chronic disease, and sexual and relationship health in local Vermont communities and beyond. Through a series of dynamic readings and hands-on training sessions with visiting local physicians and peer-based recovery specialists, we will engage with current metrics and methods addressing community health needs with a focus on becoming more trauma-informed and culturally responsive. This course is designed with pre-health/med students in mind and will appeal to any students interested in community wellbeing and action. This course contains a community-connected component.

Anna holds a M.Ed. in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration on Trauma-informed Resiliency-based Practices from the University of Vermont. She has worked as an educator since 2007 in both public and private institutions and currently works as a health educator at Middlebury College where she supports students who are navigating the impact of power-based personal violence and challenges with their substance use.