Seeds of Service Newsletter Spring 2011 www.oberlin.

edu/bcsl

Oberlin College Bonner Center For Service & Learning, Spring 2011 Newsletter

Introduction
by Beth Blissman, Bonner CSL Director

Greetings of spring!
I thank you for taking the time to read our Seeds of Service
newsletter, and invite you to explore ways that you can connect with
our local community through the Bonner Center for Service and
Learning. This semester has been full of great achievements and
fantastic community service events! I would like to congratulate the
recipients of this year’s Bonner CSL awards (see below), all of who
dedicated their time and efforts to enhancing the College and
community with their own special talents.
In this issue you will learn about the great work completed by
Oberlin College’s new student organization, Oberlin Storm Water
Bonner CSL Director, Beth Management Project (OSWAMP), and also about Oberlin College’s
Blissman
new commitment to the President’s Interfaith and Community Service
Campus Challenge. We are all celebrating Oberlin’s selection for the
Carnegie Foundation’s 2010 Community Engagement Classification, plus we are impressed with the
amount of money saved by Ohio Benefit Bank through their free tax filing services to low and
moderate-income Ohioans in Lorain County. You will read about how dedicated Oberlin students are
to the global community in their fundraising work for Japanese earthquake and tsunami relief. As you
can see, it has been a busy and productive semester. We invite you to become involved in any of
these efforts, and we look forward to seeing you at the Daub House in the fall!

• Community-Based Learning Practitioner: Janet Fiskio
• Community-Based Learning Advocate: Joyce Babyak
• Community-Based Learning Engaged Department:
Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies
• Spirit of the BCSL: Booker Peek
• Charles J Ping Award: Erin Swenson-Klatt, OC ‘13
• Community Partner of the Year: Oberlin City Schools
• Outstanding Alumni: James Peake, OC ‘06
• Original Creative Contribution: Food Week Steering
Committee
• Outstanding Student Athlete: Syrea Thomas OC ‘11
• Bright Light: Corey Patrick Harkins OC ‘13
• Civic Engagement Entrepreneur: Green EDGE Fund
• Community Service Work-Study Program: Julie
Christensen OC ‘13
• Education Outreach: Oberlin Young Educators

Come Visit Us!

The Bonner Center for Service and Learning is located in Daub House
at 145 West Lorain Street. It’s situated south of the Science Center,
north of Mudd Library, and just west of Wilder Hall.
Office Hours: For more information please contact:
Mon-Fri: 9am - 5pm
145 West Lorain Street
Oberlin, OH 44074
Phone: 440.775.8055
Fax: 440.775.8754
www.oberlin.edu/bcsl
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 Seeds of Service Newsletter Spring 2011 www.oberlin.edu/bcsl

Oberlin College receives Carnegie Community Engagement Classification

by Walta Yoseph, OC ’12

made evident by our highly motivated students

and faculty who demonstrate their commitment to
public service and seek opportunities to be
The Carnegie Foundation for the thoughtful, concerned leaders, both locally and
Advancement of Teaching has selected Oberlin globally.”
College for its 2010 Community Engagement
Classification. Only 311 U.S. colleges and One example of Oberlin’s local
universities have achieved the classification since it engagement is a collaboration to assist individuals
was initiated in 2006, and Oberlin is one of only and families through the Ohio Benefit Bank (OBB),
27 baccalaureate colleges nationally to be a program designed to increase access to
awarded the classification. government benefits and free tax assistance. In
2009, Oberlin College partnered with the Second
The Carnegie Foundation for the Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio to host
Advancement of Teaching was founded by Andrew an AmeriCorps VISTA member as a community
Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an Act trainer for the OBB, engaging students, alumni
of Congress. The Carnegie Foundation for the and community members as volunteer counselors
Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy at Oberlin Community Services. During 2009-10,
and research center whose mission is to support the AmeriCorps VISTA member and student and
transformations in American education through alumni volunteers completed 72 benefits
connections between teaching practices, evidence applications and assisted 54 clients in completing
of student learning, communication and use of this their tax returns and filings, generating more than
evidence, and structured opportunities to build this $76,500 in refunds at three free tax clinics.
knowledge.
This year, 115 institutions – out of 305-
Carnegie Classifications comprise a leading earned classification as community engaged
framework for describing institutional diversity in institutions. In order to be classified as such,
U.S. higher education. The Community Engagement institutions had to provide descriptions and
Classification is an elective classification for which examples of community engagement that showed
institutions may voluntarily apply to be listed. alignment among mission, culture, leadership,
Carnegie defines Community Engagement as the resources, and practices.
collaboration between institutions of higher
education and their larger communities (local, “Through a classification that
regional/state, national, global) for the mutually acknowledges significant commitment to and
beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in demonstration of community engagement, the
a context of partnership and reciprocity. Carnegie Foundation encourages colleges and
universities to become more deeply engaged, to
“The Carnegie Classification in Community improve teaching and learning, and to generate
Engagement is one of the highest forms of socially responsive knowledge to benefit
recognition possible in our field,” said Beth communities,” said Carnegie President Anthony
Blissman, director of Oberlin’s Bonner Center for Bryk. “We are very pleased with the movement
Service and Learning. “This is a significant we are seeing in this direction.”
affirmation of the fine work that our students,
faculty members, staff, and community partners
undertake on a daily basis. In addition to our 13 For further reading visit:
existing programs, we continue to work with Oberlin College’s press release
nonprofit organizations to grow even more http://new.oberlin.edu/home/news-media/press
opportunities for engagement.”
“The Carnegie Foundation’s recognition is The Carnegie Foundation:
a testament to Oberlin’s legacy of social justice,” http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/
said Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov.
“Oberlin’s commitment to civic engagement is
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Big Fun With Taxes!

by Ondrea Keith, Bonner CSL Americorps VISTA, OC ’10

Even though I’ve graduated from Oberlin
College and now work for the Bonner Center for
Service and Learning (BCSL), I still had a Winter
Term project: filling out federal, state, and local
school district tax returns for free for local Lorain
County residents.  Everybody groans in sympathy
when I say my job is taxes, but it’s not as tedious
or mathematical as common knowledge would
imply.  Taxes are fun, especially when I can use
them as a tool to put money in the pockets of
Lorain County residents.  This year, taxes were big
fun when I helped bring back over $160,000 to
Lorain County in the form of tax refunds.  at least they did not have to pay a hefty fee to a
My job as a full-time Americorps*VISTA at
the BCSL is to work as a community trainer for the
Ohio Benefit Bank (OBB), an Internet-based
program that connects low and moderate-income
Ohioans with access to tax filing assistance and
work supports, such as food assistance and the
Home Energy Assistance Program. The OBB is a
As I write this tax season officially ends in
joint collaboration between the Ohio Association
of Second Harvest Foodbanks and the Governor’s
Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.    timelines of how to host a tax clinic need to made,
My focus as an OBB community trainer is Oberlin
and southern Lorain County.  I work very closely
with Oberlin Community Services to reach out to
community members who might find the OBB
services useful.  I do take all the appointments
myself; I am lucky to work with a core group of 8
extraordinary OBB student and community
member volunteers who have participated in a six-
hour training to learn how to use the Ohio Benefit
Bank software fill out tax and benefits forms.
This is the second year of the OBB project
at the BCSL. Claudine Brenner (OC ’09) started
the project and did an amazing job---for the 2010
tax season she and her volunteers filed 64
federal, state, and local school district returns to
bring back over $76,000 in tax returns to Lorain
County.  This year, people remembered what she
did for them, spread the word, and came back in
droves.  Over the course of 4 all-day tax clinics
and a few walk-in appointments, the 2011 Oberlin
OBB volunteers filed 87 tax returns that brought
back $161,760 to Lorain County residents.  Big
fun!  And a big service to the community.  That
money paid bills, bought playground equipment,
furnished homes with new furniture, and padded
savings accounts; even when a client owed taxes,
tax preparation service to learn how much was
owed.  But what I will remember most is the
people behind the tax returns.  I heard many life
stories; you learn a lot about someone in a short
time when they trust you enough to handle
sensitive financial information.
three days, but I am already looking ahead to
next year.  My replacement needs to be recruited,
and volunteers need to be recruited and trained.
Because next year?  Next year is going to be even
bigger fun.
If you would like to get involved, email
okeith@oberlin.edu or bcsl@oberlin.edu
to learn about new training opportunities
and look for the ExCo course in the 2011
fall semester called Poverty: Taking
Action. Winter Term opportunities are
also available.

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OSWAMP kicks off with Ohio Day of Service

by Corey Patrick Harkins, OC ’13 and Annika Sullivan, OC ’12
April 9th was the first official all-Ohio Day of Service.
In response, Annika Sullivan and her new organization
OSWAMP (Oberlin Storm Water Management Project), led
an invasive species removal along Plum Creek. OSWAMP is a
college-community group aimed at educating about the
importance of alternative storm water management, reducing
the storm water flux, through bioretention cells (natural areas
concentrated with native plants designed to capture and filter
rain water), and increasing the riparian zone along Plum
Creek. The student group has received guidance and
resources from the Bonner CSL.
On the day of the event, Annika and a group of ten
volunteers removed garlic mustard, periwinkle and buckthorn
plants in strategic spots along Plum Creek in the college’s
arboretum. This has been a great start to OSWAMP, and the
organization hopes to continue its success on April 24th in
conjunction with Earth Week and the City of Oberlin with a
Corey Patrick Harkins volunteering
tree planting event.
with OSWAMP

The Foundations of OSWAMP

Currently, contaminated storm water run-off

and sedimentation from the college and city flow
directly into Plum Creek, part of the West Branch of
the Black River watershed. Part of the Great Lakes
Oberlin needs to address its
region, which has also been hit with agricultural
environmental pollution of natural surface water,
run-off, Oberlin needs to prioritize water in its
specifically Plum Creek. In order to maintain its
green initiatives. Reducing storm water and
status as a leading “green” college, Oberlin
agricultural run-off is essential to the livelihood of
needs to commit to improving storm water
Oberlin’s ecology because storm water runoff that
management in the area, which will not only
is not managed properly carries pollutants into
make the campus and community “greener”; it
streams. Excess rainwater that is not soaked into
will also help control flooding—which causes
the ground is rerouted to streams via storm water
property damage—and improve riparian zone
drains. This has two problems: 1) the water running
health (increased habitat and decreased bank
off of pavement and other parts of the built
erosion) along Plum Creek.
environment can contain contaminants (e.g. oil,
fertilizer) which are dangerous to aquatic life; 2)
To achieve this goal “Oberlin Storm
stream water can overflow the banks, causing
Water Management Project” (OSWAMP) has
erosion. Large volumes of water also pick up more
been founded. Activities of this organization will
natural debris, large rocks, and rubble that provide
impact many stakeholders, including Oberlin
a foundation for stream diversity, both
College faculty, students, and community.
morphologically and for its living organisms.

Are you excited about OSWAMPs vision and

want to become involved?
Feel free to contact Annika Sullivan at
asulliva@oberlin.edu or oberlinswamp@gmail.com

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Seeds of Service Newsletter Spring 2011 www.oberlin.edu/bcsl

Embracing Interfaith Service

by Adah Hetko, OC ’13 
What is Interfaith Service? At its core, or dissonances between faith and service. Finally,
Interfaith Service-Learning strives to constructively all of the volunteers joined together for a mingle
engage with the diverse perspectives of passionate activity and a pizza celebration.
people in order to facilitate working towards
Interfaith Service Day was one step on
common goals. This semester, in organizing the
Oberlin’s path towards embracing Interfaith
Interfaith Service Day, I set out to discover what
Service. Oberlin has recently signed on to the
role Interfaith Service can play at Oberlin. In the
President’s Interfaith and Community Service
end, I witnessed Interfaith Service inspiring
Campus Challenge for the 2011-2011 academic
students and community members to constructively
year. That will mean building our interfaith service
discuss faith and care for their community.
programming, with a focus on interfaith
From its inception, Interfaith Service Day organizing for environmental action. Some have
sparked collaboration between a variety of already been bit by the bug; every volunteer for
perspectives. In planning, I worked with the Interfaith Service Day expressed that they would
Bonner Center for Service and Learning, the like to participate in interfaith service in the future!
Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, the Interfaith
Youth Core, and a group of students leaders, some
of whom represented campus religious
communities.
On April 17th, all of the preparation
culminated in success. About 40 volunteers,
including students and community members of a
variety of religious and secular identities, gathered
at the Multifaith Center, formed service groups
that went to seven sites (FAVA gallery, the George
Jones Farm, Oberlin Community Services, Zion
Community Development Corporation, the
Interfaith Hospitality Network, Invasive Species
Clean-up and Community Meals), and completed
service ranging from preparing garden beds to Adah and fellow volunteers helping out at
constructing a paper-mache cat head to be worn Firelands Association for the Visual Arts (FAVA)
at the Big Parade. After three hours of service, the
groups returned to the Multifaith Center. There,
the student site leaders engaged their groups in
insightful reflections centered around connections

Get Involved!
The Oberlin College BCSL is all about getting
involved in our community. If you are also
interested in being involved in the community
give us a visit! Our office is located in the
Daub House, 145 W. Lorain Street, right next
to Wilder Hall.

Interfaith Service Day volunteers taking a break for

a group photo

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Seeds of Service Newsletter Spring 2011 www.oberlin.edu/bcsl

Relief for Japan

by Rachel Ishikawa, OC ’14
Now, as a nineteen-year old student, I
The days that followed the earthquake
found a way that I could deal with my feeling of
and tsunami in Japan on March 11th were some
disconnect. The week after the earthquake I
of the hardest that I have experienced at Oberlin.
organized with Asian American Alliance members
I remember a three- day continuum of sleep
and other interested students several tabling
deprivation and depression. During the late hours
events to fundraise for effort relief in Japan.
of the night, I would tortuously force myself to
Tabling was a great success. Most of the students
look at photographs of the disaster and read the
(and staff) were very responsive to our efforts.
articles, which the NY Times was producing at
From fundraising, I realized that there is so much
rapid-fire speed. One night I called my parents in
support in the Oberlin Community. There were
New Jersey at 3:00AM. I could not stop thinking
even people at Oberlin Senior Center who wanted
about my cousins, uncle, aunt, and grandmother,
to contribute to effort relief. I am still in awe by
who all live in Tokyo. I was sobbing as my mother
the kindness I find in this community. Even though
reminded me in a sleep-heavy voice that my
I am thrilled that the Oberlin community was so
family in Japan was okay. Yet, how could they be
supportive, I still feel deeply saddened by the
okay? How could anyone be okay after such a
disaster. The effects of disaster have not yet
disaster? I had felt this way before. In 2001 I was
dissipated, even thought the news may not talk
living in Tokyo, Japan. I remember waking up
about the earthquake as frequently. Japan is still
early one morning for school, finding my mother
in need of our support.
uninhibitedly crying while watching the news.
Images of two towers falling were playing on
repeat. My young 10-year old self could not
comprehend how the 9/11 attacks could occur. I
felt helpless and utterly confused. Although the
circumstances of the 9/11 attacks and the
earthquake disaster are prodigiously different, I
experienced a similar feeling of destitution after
each event. I felt disconnected during both
disasters because I was not there to support my
friends and family who were affected.

You Can Help Too!

There are many organizations through which
your support can also reach Japan. Here are
just a few places to look for ways of aiding in
the relief effort.
•Donate to The Red Cross by visiting
www.redcross.org or text REDCROSS to •Pop/rock group, The Morning Benders,
90999 to donate $10 from your phone. recently put out a Japan relief record called
“Japan Echo EP” which you can get off of their
•UNICEF is coordinating efforts to help the
website if you make a donation to the Japan
children of Japan. Visit www.unicefusa.org or
Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund. Check them
text JAPAN to 864233 to donate $10
out at www.themorningbenders.com
•The Salvation Army is accepting donations to
•The NY Times website has a list of credible
support Japan by texting 'JAPAN' or 'QUAKE'
organizations that are helping Japanese
to 80888 to make a $10 donation or visit
efforts.
SalvationArmyUSA.org.

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Adamah v’Adam Corps: Bridging Communities, Building Justice

by David Fisher, OC ’12 
I am now deep into my semester in
southern Israel, studying environmental peace-
building. Here, diverse students come together
around a common commitment to environment
and justice: Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, and
internationals. The core of the program is a
required Peace-building and Evironmental
Leadership Seminar, meeting an average of 5-6
hours/ week. As I approach the end of my second
month here, I am excited to formalize plans that
turn my education abroad into action at home.
As I was packing to leave Oberlin this
past December, I didn’t realize that I was going to
be packing the seed of entrepreneurial aspirations David Fisher
in my bag as well. When I return to America in
June, I will begin to build the Adamah v’Adam weatherized homes, painted a house, installed
Corps, Hebrew for Earth and Humanity Corps. siding, and helped to build a roof. Students and
The AAC is a new Jewish and interfaith service community members found deep satisfaction in
corps that will organize volunteer opportunities working across cultural differences, energizing
for youth to serve in Appalachia. I have secured everyone’s dedication to the work at hand.
generous seed-funding from the Davis Projects for Students also gained a deeper understanding of
Peace, and look forward to turning my idea into a the connections amongst environmental and
reality. economic conditions that divide the community,
The Appalachia region has a rich cultural coming to see direct material aid as a promotion of
heritage, sustained amidst political and ecological peace and fellowship.
challenges. The long coal mining history has The AAC has a three-part mission that aims
inspired its own music, novels, poetry, films and to create deep impacts for both participants and
more. Recently, a shift toward mechanization and the communities they visit: offering material
mountaintop removal mining (MTR) has decreased assistance, fostering pluralism, and teaching
the number of jobs available while increasing the ecological awareness. This mission is a response to
local ecological impact of mining operations. Coal the needs identified by Heritage Ministries,
is a powerful industry which offers some including aging infrastructure, few jobs, inadequate
employment, but the region remains one of the health care, and an absence of government
most impoverished in America. Furthermore, coal assistance. While these challenges demand long
poses problems of environmental justice at each term, system-level solutions, the director of Heritage
stage of its lifecycle: from the communities where Ministries explains that direct service is absolutely
it is mined, to the plants where it is burned, to the necessary to immediately relieve stress.
carbon emissions that it contributes to the
With generous seed-funding from Davis
greenhouse effect. These dueling economic and
Projects for Peace, I will continue to build the
environmental forces divide communities of the
foundation for future volunteer service trips,
region, calling for a renewed dedication to peace-
bringing more participants to the Appalachia
making and direct aid.
region. Immediately after landing in Boston on June
The complexity of the challenges facing 29th, I will make a four-day trip to Appalachia for
Appalachia became clear to me when I facilitated preliminary planning. Through mid-July, I will meet
an alternative break program there this past with leaders and teachers of Jewish and interfaith
October. Our group was the first delegation of communities in the northeast, building connections
Oberlin volunteers to work with Heritage with potential participant organizers (e.g. high
Ministries of Lynch, Kentucky; we distributed food, school principals, Rabbis, ministers, etc.) and hiring
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 Seeds of Service Newsletter Spring 2011 www.oberlin.edu/bcsl

experts for assistance in writing a curriculum for later service trips. When I return to Appalachia for
four weeks, I will volunteer with at least four organizations (identified with assistance from Heritage
Ministries and other partners in Kentucky and West Virginia), in order to establish lasting partnerships.
I will be one of one hundred students/groups executing Projects for Peace across the planet,
and am designing the AAC as a local response to the world-wide challenges of our time. In an era of
global climate change, geographical and temporal distance masks the impact of energy use and
consumer decisions on not only the environment, but also the human beings who occupy it. Bridging
the physical distance between host and participant communities fosters compassion, helping individuals
to navigate a complex world where daily choices have deep ethical implications. As climate change
and rising seas threaten global stability, the AAC seeks to train civic leaders who engage with diverse
communities to help bring about a more compassionate world. Economic conditions in Appalachia call
for a humanitarian response, and the region’s ecology teaches global environmental lessons.

Winter Term
by Catherine Wright, OC ’13 

According to Oberlin College’s Official

Winter Term website, Winter Term “enables
students to pursue academic interests outside of
Oberlin’s regular course offerings,” Some
examples of projects are, “Pursue a subject
related to a first- semester course, work with a
faculty member, study a musical instrument, learn
a language,” intern, volunteer, act, or pursue a
hobby or physical skill.” While all of this is true, I
find Winter Term to be more than that.

While I have spent both of my Winter Scenic Tappan Square during the winter months
Terms on campus, I know many people who stay
at home, travel abroad, or go somewhere in
students who create and find community service
between. This past Winter Term a group went to
projects to do for winter term.
Brazil to study Capoeria, while some stayed and
took intensive classes in Tai Chi and Broadway With so many options and recources
Dance. People have traveled to France, Japan available for Winter Term here at Oberlin College,
and China, done internships at hospitals with students are able to be more in control of their
doctors and specialists like gynecologists. Some educational experience. It’s a time where students
have done community service and education can choose to do something to that enriches their
work both locally and at home, as well as in educational experience throught whatever means
countries all over the world. winter Term is an possible. Whether it’s going half way around the
opportunity to engage with and strengthen skills world doing service, taking on a high profile
that a busy academic schedule usually prevents. internship, or staying in Oberlin enjoying the
winter weather, Winter Term can be one of the
Some winter term opportunities are pre- most enriching times of the year.
established and run through many of the offices
and departments of the college, but many winter
term projects are created by the students and
sponsored by a faculty or staff member. The Learn more about Winter Term at
Bonner CSL in particular offers a number of http://new.oberlin.edu/office/winter-term
winter term community service opportunities
every year. The Bonner CSL also sponsors

Oberlin College Bonner Center for Service & Learning page 8 bcsl@oberlin.edu