Stories and Highlights
Read stories and testimonials from some of the students, faculty, and community partners involved in community engagement with the CCE!
Newman Civic Fellows
![Shivapriya Nair standing on a pebble beach wearing a jacket, pants and pink sneakers, smiling at the camera.](/sites/default/files/styles/1136x639/public/2024-03/Priya%20Photo%20%282%29_0.jpg?fv=ZeJnXqBQ&itok=6FRNK6Wh)
Shivapriya “Priya” Nair ’24
2023-2024 Newman Civic Fellow
Priya’s first experience with community engagement at Middlebury College was through the CCE’s Community Connected Learning course, where she helped run BIPOC affinity spaces at Mount Abraham Unified High School in Bristol, VT. Priya was also involved in Language in Motion, and was a Community Connected Project Assistant for an Environmental Studies course. She won a Public Service Leadership Award in 2022, and was named Middlebury College’s 2023-2024 Newman Civic Fellow.
“Throughout all these experiences, the real shining impact in my life was all the impressive and uplifting friends and mentors I was meeting. I had electrifying conversations about social, environmental, and health justice with people who became my best friends.”
![Patrick Kuruga wearing a white sweater, smiling at the camera.](/sites/default/files/styles/1136x639/public/2024-02/Patrick-Kuruga-Wachira_0.jpg?fv=0tHmbmRB&itok=qhNEGK70)
Patrick Kuruga Wachira ’23
2021-2022 Newman Civic Fellow
Patrick’s journey with the CCE started right with his first week on campus through his MiddView trip: Working Together to Effect Change. “I learned about Community Friends through my trip leader and I knew as soon as I heard about it that I would want to be a part of it.” After that, Patrick joined Community Friends as well as other CCE programs such as Language in Motion, Middlebury Alternative Break Trips, and Page One Literacy Project. Patrick was named Middlebury College’s Newman Civic Fellow in 2021-2022 and was awarded a Public Service Leadership Award in 2023 for his dedication to community engagement at Middlebury College.
“What I find most appealing to me about these programs is the opportunity to interact with people from the Middlebury community and beyond, particularly children and to spearhead and witness the wonderful results of celebrating diversity and increasing intercultural awareness.”
![Alondra Carmona wears a gray sweatshirt and smiles at the camera.](/sites/default/files/styles/1136x639/public/2024-02/Alondra.jpg?fv=9-_Rr3Qa&itok=AVFRxdXF)
Alondra Carmona ’21
2020-2021 Newman Civic Fellow
During her time at Middlebury College, Alondra advocated for immigrant rights and took on various leadership roles in community engagement. She was the lead coordinator of Juntos, a student-migrant solidarity group and in 2019 led ten students on a Middlebury Alternative Break Trip in partnership with RAICES to San Antonio, Texas where they worked with individuals who had recently crossed the US-Mexico border. Alondra was named Middlebury College’s Newman Civic Fellow in 2020-2021.
“Growing up in a community of predominantly migrant Latinos, I have seen firsthand the mistreatment of such a community and how it can immobilize not just the individual but the family as well.”
Privilege & Poverty
The Privilege & Poverty Academic Cluster (P&P) is a learning community that brings classrooms and communities together to address the causes and consequences of poverty and cultivate lifelong ethical participation in society. P&P students are placed in internships either locally in Addison County or nationally through the Shepherd Consortium.
What students are saying about the P&P internship experience:
Ellie Cady, Privilege & Poverty Intern
Privilege & Poverty intern, Ellie Cady, reflects on her summer internship with the Charter House.
Hello, my name is Ellie Katie, and I am an intern at the CC this fall. I also interned at the Privilege and Poverty Academic Cluster over the summer where I was placed at the Charter House, a low-barrier homeless shelter there. I worked on a variety of things, like supporting the shelter staff as well as the shelter guests. I also was able to sit in on some of the housing coalition meetings that different nonprofits across the county had, and this was really beneficial to gain a better understanding of some of the work that different nonprofits and service agencies are doing across the county to help support individuals who are housing insecure.
I am a psychology major with global health and Spanish minors, and this internship at the Charter House was something that I was initially interested in. I felt like it suited some of the skills that I already had, and I was in the process of exploring different potential careers that I might that I might have in the future. And that’s the beauty of the Privilege and poverty program because you were able to take some of the skills that you have and some of the interests that you have and find a job and an internship that really is suited for you. It really has provided a lot of guidance to me and what I want to do this fall. I’ve been able to continue some of that work as a CC intern and it connected me to so many different individuals across Addison County and in Middlebury. I felt much more connected to the town that I’m going to school in and even developed different relationships with people in the program.
When I first found out that I got the internship and I’d be in Middlebury, someone told me that living in Middlebury is during the summer is a magical time. And it really was. I was able to explore different areas of Vermont, get into open water, swimming. I’m a I used to swim and a swim team so I was able to start open water swimming at Lake Dunmore in the early mornings and explore different hiking trails and different swimming holes and also got to meet so many different people who are working here over the summer. There are so many people here over the summer, so it is wonderful. If that is something you’re worried about, don’t be. It has been such a lovely experience. It experience that I could not recommend it more. If you do have any questions about any part of the application process or even if you want to know more about the work of the Charter House where I worked over the summer, I created a comprehensive guide of the work that I did with different resources. I can pass it along if you want to review that before applying, but I’m also able to answer some more general questions as well. My email is e, o, c, a, d, y, and Middlebury dot edu. Again, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d be happy to have a meeting or just answer some of your questions over email.
Good luck applying.
![Emma Henry stands outside, smiling with two thumbs up, wearing a blue vest.](/sites/default/files/styles/300x400/public/2024-02/Emma%20Open%20Door%20Clinic%20pic_1.jpg?fv=mtkFNh4U&itok=uBot34rq)
Emma Henry ’25
P&P Intern with Open Door Clinic
Do it. It’s gonna be awesome. You’re gonna learn so much and you’re gonna be able to see parts of Middlebury that you’ve never seen before… It can be hard to get off campus and it sometimes feels like J term and the summer are the only times that you can do that… But it’s really valuable to stay in Middlebury during these times, working off campus with people who are not just 19 and 20-year-olds who are in your shoes.
![Picture of the bed of a pick-up truck packed with crates of farm-fresh food: cucumbers and summer squash.](/sites/default/files/styles/1136x639/public/2024-03/IMG_3991%20%282%29.jpg?fv=zmfCvEmD&itok=I8vjP57Y)
Leslie Ramirez ’25
P&P Intern with HOPE and Atria Collective
Working at HOPE definitely changed where I see myself in a few years and where I want to be after I graduate. I’m a global security major and so I thought I wanted to work at the UN, travel the world, work at an office, and tell people what to do for a living. I saw myself wearing business casual, being out and about in the world and maybe one day I will. Though this summer as I drove this truck around picking up and counting produce, talking to farmers, walking people through the food pantry, and organizing food deliveries [I realized] that I want to first-hand help people. I don’t want to be writing policies, deeming something right or wrong, vaguely condemning behavior and then hoping it’ll change people’s lives and solve all the greed in this world. Perhaps I’ll end up doing something along those lines, though for now I actually want to be on the ground working with these people that I care for and wish to help. I realized that to have change in this world (you) have to work with your local communities that are hurting. The answer is not leaving them, you know?
Community Partner Spotlight
The Center for Community Engagement is fortunate to partner with a network of more than 200 organizations. While some are internationally based, many of these organizations are located right here in Addison County.
![Pete Antos-Ketchum makes preparations in soil of a garden bed, one child in a face masks helps him. Another child plays with golden retriever while another man leans against a red truck watching them work. Foreground of mountains and blues skies.](/sites/default/files/styles/1136x639/public/2024-05/Pete%20Antos-Ketcham.jpg?fv=UwP5AS4Z&itok=tgLRX59o)
New Community Project
New Community Project (NCP) is one of our Community Partners with both a global and local presence working towards ecological healing and social justice. At the NCP’s Sustainable Living Center in Starksboro Vermont, a small but dedicated team of staff and many volunteers focus their efforts on finding local, sustainable solutions to address rural poverty, food insecurity, and energy poverty within the community. In the words of Pete Antos-Ketcham, the coordinator of the Starksboro Center, NCP is “a small organization with a big goal, which is to change the world.”
We had an opportunity to speak with Pete about the history of NCP, the work they do, and how Middlebury College students can help support their mission of creating a more peaceful world.
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Q: Can you share a bit about the New Community Project and your role?
A: NCP is a small nonprofit organization. It was founded in 2003 by David Radcliff, who was formerly with the Church of the Brethren in their World Programs Office in Elgin, Illinois. NCP works for social justice and ecological healing as a way of building a more peaceful and nonviolent world. So there are a lot of issues that tie into that, where social justice and the environment intersect.