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About the Alumni Network
Welcome to the The Rural Life Center's Alumni Network! We created this network of alumni who worked with the RLC during their time as a student at Kenyon in order to connect current students with RLC alumni who share interests in rural life. The Alumni Network includes testimonials from alumni about their work with the RLC and present-day undertakings, important contact information (which can be accessed upon request), and a blog that allows students to network with alumni and foster a greater dialogue about future pursuits. To join the Alumni Network, please contact us at [email protected] or post to our blog.
RLC Alumni Testimonials
RACHEL BALKOM (1995)
I participated in the first year of the Family Farm Project.
My work with the Rural Life Center changed how I see the world, the potential I see in ameliorative social action, and how I teach. It taught me that the best education is immediately applicable and doesn’t only create in students a zeal to change their communities, but it provides opportunities for them to do so while they are still students. These habits exercised and skills honed then inform life choices. My teaching is also leadership development, is also change maker creation. I teach nothing—if I can help it—without my students understanding and demonstrating in their communities the potential in the knowledge to augment societal, economic, and ecological systems. My career has been marked by significant student-led community projects that complement classroom learning.
More relevant to Farm Project content, I have trained many other teachers to teach for sustainability and social justice with a particular focus on food systems. My students successfully lobbied the Santa Fe School Board to pass an ordinance requiring sustainability measures at Santa Fe schools, including stipulations for both the school food systems and curricular content. I’ve been involved in garden creation and food system reform at every institution of which I’ve been a part. In my personal life, I’ve dug more deeply (ha ha) over time into issues of local food security, participating in multiple urban gardens initiatives. In April, my partner and I plan to finally get chickens—my first farm animal!—and we live in the middle of Denver on a busy street in a business district.
It is true that the Family Farm Project led me to recognize many of my latent inherent interests. But it’s also true that I can’t imagine another way I would have happened upon them. The Project—and Howard’s classes in general—was the single most influential experience in determining the choices and actions of my life.
REBECCA BRADBURY (ANDERSON) (1999)
I worked on the Family Farm Project website and interviewed farmers. It has had a huge impact. While in college I worked on an organic farm, because of the interest I developed through the Family Farm Project. Since graduation, my goal has been to have my own farm (still working on it!). Also, I try to support local farmers. In a less direct way, my interest in counseling is centered around an interest in narrative therapy, which is result of my time speaking with farmers and understanding their stories.
LEAH SOKOLOFSKI BURNSTEIN (2001)
During my senior year at Kenyon, I took the year-long Rural Sociology class and contributed to the "Foodways" publication. I returned to campus after graduation to help with the Community Food Security Coalition's conference that was hosted at Kenyon.
My involvement was pretty monumental in motivating my career path. It gave me first-hand experience with sociological research, community projects, and food systems work. This led me to pursue a Master's degree at Iowa State University in Rural Sociology, with a focus on food systems, the environment, and social inequality. My Master's thesis focused on CSAs and their impact on women's work and community - topics which I had been exposed to at Kenyon through the Rural Life Center. From there, I wanted to share food systems knowledge and empower community connections, so I began exploring school gardens and agricultural education. I now work with a garden-based nutrition education program that strives to teach students where their food comes from, and to provide a school-based solution to growing food for the community. I'd say that the work I do now was spurred by much of what I learned from the "Foodways" project I worked on with the Rural Life Center.
KATERINA CLAIBORNE (BOVES) (1995)
I was involved with the Family Farm Project in 1995, before the Rural Life Center existed. Our class interviewed local family farmers, and ultimately we created a tape (yes, a TAPE) of our interviews that was played on NPR. My project was slightly different than the rest of the class, as I was working with a family that did not farm, but which ran a bed and breakfast from an old farmhouse. The home was also on the site of an archaeological excavation (by Kenyon student), as there was evidence of Native Americans living on the same land. Our discussion centered around how the use of land had changed, but that the new owners of the bed-and-breakfast looked to preserve the heritage of the property.
The Family Farm Project opened my eyes to organic farming. In 1995, the label "organic" was not widespread like it is today. The discussions that my classmates had with the family farmers directed my future life of purchasing quality foods (local, organic, unprocessed) for my family.
SARAH CLEETON (2009)
I worked on a local farm during the summer of 2008, and took coursework for certification in Ecological Agriculture. While I don't study agriculture, I do have a fellowship from the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois to study wildlife ecology and conservation biology in the department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences.
CHARMAYNE COOLEY (2006)
During my senior year, I took the "Fieldwork" seminar with Professor Howard Sacks. In exploring the local food system, I conducted several interviews with various people affiliated with Knox County restaurants, examining where they purchased their food. This culminated with a class exhibit on Ransom Lawn at Kenyon College, which included my comparison of a fast-food chain restaurant and a local restaurant's menus with the subsequent distance required for transportation of the respective ingredients.
My involvement with the Rural Life Center directly impacted my food purchasing habits after graduation. I continued to be a citizen of Knox County for three years following commencement, and my knowledge of the Saturday Farmer's Market and area orchards/farms/etc. helped me utilize local products. I imagine this is a practice I'll continue to seek out no matter where I am. Currently, I'm living in a very tiny village in Africa and getting a first-hand glimpse at subsistence farming and dangerous (as well as positive) agricultural practices. Plus, I see the preservation/abandonment of local culture. Additionally, I have become increasingly interested in the issue of Food Security - especially as it relates to nutrition (and often, unfortunately, malnutrition).
LAUREN GREENE (2007)
I took the year-long rural life course in which we looked at local food systems in Knox County and created an interactive exhibit on "where does your food come from?"
It really opened my eyes to interview and investigation into social systems and communities and helped me to think critically about where my food originates.
ERIN HATTON (1996)
My cohort developed a series of web pages (back when the Internet was shiny and new). I created the web page on organic farming.
The work I did for that project really spoke to me. At Kenyon, I was an English major. But, although I loved my English classes, I knew that English literature was not my future. After college I joined the Peace Corps where I wanted to work in agriculture. The Peace Corps had other things in mind for me, however, so I became a high school English teacher in West Africa. Nonetheless, that experience further developed my interest in rural community development and, after the Peace Corps, I went to graduate school in rural sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Today, although my research is in quite a different field (work and labor), I continue to see my professional life and research interests as stemming (at least in part) from the work I did with Professor Sacks.
KRISTIN KVERNLAND (2007)
I took the Rural Life Seminar class my senior year which was very amazing! I also was involved in making a brief video project in addition to this class. I spent long hours working there transcribing and have some of my fondest paper writing all-nighter memories in that house!
I think that my involvement in agriculture in general at Kenyon has deeply shaped my life and career choices. The Rural Life Center helped me further these interests and skills sets such by getting me out into the community and introducing me to participatory research skills and project based learning.
I think this would be a great tool for Kenyon and I feel that those of us still interested in all that the RLC promotes, teaches and stands for should have a forum to help mentor new students and reconnect with other alumni interested in this field/working on projects in various communities throughout the country and the world.
JENNY LAWTON (2001)
As part of the 2000-2001 Fieldwork course, I was part of the "Foodways" project, studying local food systems and writing an article about gardening. Before I was a participant, I encountered the work of the Rural Life Center as a consumer. In the summer of 2000, I used the guide to local farms a previous class had produced to chase down some of my favorite food: berries. I was surprised to pull up onto an Amish Farm -- I came away with 4 pints of of blackberries I'll never forget.
My experiences with the Rural Life Center have influenced me significantly! Little did I know that my trips to interview local farmers were preparation for a career as a reporter. Although the product of my work these days is a bit different, the fundamentals are the same: careful observation, sensitivity and adaptability to a new environment, interviewing techniques, a sense of a larger narrative, technical skill, ethics, diligence... Much of my work now had its roots in my experiences with the Rural Life Center.
ALEXANDER (SASHA) LOURIE (2000)
I worked on an Oral History Driving Tour. Our oral history project really helped me develop confidence in speaking to people about their experiences in their personal and professional lives. Part of my job involves speaking to contractors and artisans working on historic structures, object conservators who work on collection objects, and potential donors. I do not think that I necessarily realized the connections until I thought about my experiences in the course, but it is clear that I benefited from having the opportunity to work independently on oral histories. Speaking with people about their experiences, and leading them to talk about topics of that are of interest or relevant to you, is a true art that can only be learned through experience. Although I did not pursue a field with many direct connections to rural life or sociology, I have no doubt that I draw upon the knowledge gained from my Rural Life Center experiences on a regular basis
ROBERT MILT (1998)
I worked on the Family Farm Project. Also studied minstrelsy in Knox County. It taught me how listen and learn from and about everyone I work with.
TAMARA PARSON (1993)
I participated in the "Community Within" project for the Senior Seminar 1992-93, both as an African-American resident of Knox County and as a student at Kenyon.
I have always wanted to take the experience of finding out what other "untold stories" exist. In the years since I graduated from Kenyon, I have traveled extensively around the world and have worked for many years in both education and social work, specifically with women from underrepresented communities, and have encouraged several of the people I have met to find ways to share their stories. I will be creating a family project soon, interviewing the women in my own family and designing something to share as a legacy to pass on to my daughter and son.
I have a sincere passion and desire to promote and continue the opportunities for growth that are associated with the seeds we have planted. I am extremely proud of what Kenyon has done thus far, and feel blessed to have been a part of it.
ADAM SAPP (2002)
I participated in the Rural Life Center Seminar my sophomore year and helped produce a booklet/CD piece about Life Along the Kokosing. My particular part involved a spot on the founding of Greer, Ohio and the importance of railway development in eastern Knox County. First off, it has made me a devoted NPR supporter and lover of all things Wendell Berry. Second, I think it allowed me to examine my community with an intellectual distance that I had never done before. I came to appreciate the richness of a community that I had been an integral part of for a long time--that was one of the most personally eye opening experiences I had in college. I realized that I still love the topic when in graduate school last year I wrote a significant paper on rural education policy and rediscovered my interest in the topic. I would have been ill-prepared to produce such a great paper had I NOT had my experience with the Rural Life Center. I actually re-read a little of Wes Jackson for that paper and though I didn't end up giving him a direct cite because I didn't use the research, I still found myself drawn to his ideas in my writing process.
BRENT SHANK (2001)
I participated in the Life Along the Kokosing project.
I don't know if there's a direct connection, but intuitively I feel one. Many of the things I'm passionate about now—like local food and open spaces—I feel have some root in my experience at Kenyon. My experience with the RLC introduced me to ideas like sustainability and local food that simply weren't in my consciousness. While my occupation has nothing to do with those passions, my wife is a teacher-naturalist at an organic farm and wilderness preserve, so I'm again part of a community that cares about those things.
I also care deeply about family farms and compassionate animal husbandry, and I trace at least some of that ethic back to my experience working with a family farm on the Life Along the Kokosing project. Seeing how they ran their farm, learning of their struggles, and contrasting that way of farming with the grotesque, mega factory farms in the Central Valley just east of where I live reinforces the value choices I've made.
MIKE SHELTON (1997)
I was a member of the Family Farm Project in '96-'97. We built grade school curriculum to be utilized by teachers to help incorporate lessons on where food comes from.
Professionally, my career has been based in natural resource and agricultural public policy following my experience with the Rural Life Center Family Farm Project. I worked for the Ohio Senate following graduation, The Nature Conservancy for nearly a decade and then the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Through each position, I have interacted with rural communities to develop public policy solutions to help lead to better rural planning and more sustainable land management practices. One example would be the inclusion of the farmland preservation component of the Clean Ohio Fund, when I led a large coalition of organizations to pass the bond measure statewide in 2000. That portion of Clean Ohio has protected thousands of acres of farmland from future development, stabilized rural economies, and provided security to countless agricultural land owners. (Kenyon's own Philander Chase Corporation has utilized the Clean Ohio Fund to great benefit.)
Personally, my experienced with RLC/FFP greatly enhanced my knowledge of modern food production and passion for seeking out locally (and sustainably) raised foods. Given that experience, my family regularly supports local weekly farmer markets for many of our stock grocery needs, and patronize restaurants that specialize or provide local food options (such as Northstar Cafe and Jeni's Ice Cream).
REBECCA LYN CHAMBERLIN WIGHAM (2002)
I was a student in the field work class (my favorite class at Kenyon). I also was the first year to intern on a farm (there were 2 of us!). The Helts are still dear close friends. When I found the experience to be poignant and powerful, I made a point to lobby to make it a regular program at Kenyon. It is now. I also was actively involved in the BFEC and always wanted there to be more collaboration between the two entities. I am thrilled to learn that there will be! There should be sustainable agriculture going on at the BFEC. Hello permaculture!
My experiences with the Rural Life Center influenced me greatly, although it is still a bit more theoretical at this point than reality. I just finished my teacher certification so that I can work on an agrarian schedule. Fortunately in PA education is still that way. Now I just need to find regular work so that I can afford to buy a small parcel of land and do some farming. I have been involved in Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture. I continue to work on my family's farm on a small scale and my parents tolerated me raising my own pastured poultry this summer for my wedding. It was a great experience, and I learned a ton!
CHRISTINA LESTAGE (1999)
I had the pleasure of working on a project called Rural Diversity. My partner, Michelle Demjen, and I chose to study the Jewish population.
The Rural Diversity project was one of the most enlightening experiences I had at Kenyon. It was a class which truly lived up to the promise of a liberal arts education in that it taught me important skills for my major, such as interviewing, transcribing, and approaching subjects, while at the same time challenging my fundamental assumptions about the world around me. Ultimately, I learned how diversity in rural areas is invisible, and what some differences are between a rural and urban mind-set. After I graduated, I went on to live in San Diego, California, and spend time in New York City. The lessons I learned in the class about myself, a person with a rural, small town upbringing, equipped me very well to understand my own limits and challenges in an urban setting. It made things easier for me, and I knew myself better, which is the great hope of college, after all.
CHRISTINA KIRSTIN YOGG (1999)
I was involved as a student in the Family Farm Project in its 3rd year.
Whenever people ask me how it is I got into farming I always start with my interest in environmental stewardship combined the powerful influence of the Family Farm Project as my introduction into the world of agriculture. The social, political and experiential learning that took place in the classroom and in the field was the inception of the values, ideas and passion that has guided my career and my life.
I participated in the first year of the Family Farm Project.
My work with the Rural Life Center changed how I see the world, the potential I see in ameliorative social action, and how I teach. It taught me that the best education is immediately applicable and doesn’t only create in students a zeal to change their communities, but it provides opportunities for them to do so while they are still students. These habits exercised and skills honed then inform life choices. My teaching is also leadership development, is also change maker creation. I teach nothing—if I can help it—without my students understanding and demonstrating in their communities the potential in the knowledge to augment societal, economic, and ecological systems. My career has been marked by significant student-led community projects that complement classroom learning.
More relevant to Farm Project content, I have trained many other teachers to teach for sustainability and social justice with a particular focus on food systems. My students successfully lobbied the Santa Fe School Board to pass an ordinance requiring sustainability measures at Santa Fe schools, including stipulations for both the school food systems and curricular content. I’ve been involved in garden creation and food system reform at every institution of which I’ve been a part. In my personal life, I’ve dug more deeply (ha ha) over time into issues of local food security, participating in multiple urban gardens initiatives. In April, my partner and I plan to finally get chickens—my first farm animal!—and we live in the middle of Denver on a busy street in a business district.
It is true that the Family Farm Project led me to recognize many of my latent inherent interests. But it’s also true that I can’t imagine another way I would have happened upon them. The Project—and Howard’s classes in general—was the single most influential experience in determining the choices and actions of my life.
REBECCA BRADBURY (ANDERSON) (1999)
I worked on the Family Farm Project website and interviewed farmers. It has had a huge impact. While in college I worked on an organic farm, because of the interest I developed through the Family Farm Project. Since graduation, my goal has been to have my own farm (still working on it!). Also, I try to support local farmers. In a less direct way, my interest in counseling is centered around an interest in narrative therapy, which is result of my time speaking with farmers and understanding their stories.
LEAH SOKOLOFSKI BURNSTEIN (2001)
During my senior year at Kenyon, I took the year-long Rural Sociology class and contributed to the "Foodways" publication. I returned to campus after graduation to help with the Community Food Security Coalition's conference that was hosted at Kenyon.
My involvement was pretty monumental in motivating my career path. It gave me first-hand experience with sociological research, community projects, and food systems work. This led me to pursue a Master's degree at Iowa State University in Rural Sociology, with a focus on food systems, the environment, and social inequality. My Master's thesis focused on CSAs and their impact on women's work and community - topics which I had been exposed to at Kenyon through the Rural Life Center. From there, I wanted to share food systems knowledge and empower community connections, so I began exploring school gardens and agricultural education. I now work with a garden-based nutrition education program that strives to teach students where their food comes from, and to provide a school-based solution to growing food for the community. I'd say that the work I do now was spurred by much of what I learned from the "Foodways" project I worked on with the Rural Life Center.
KATERINA CLAIBORNE (BOVES) (1995)
I was involved with the Family Farm Project in 1995, before the Rural Life Center existed. Our class interviewed local family farmers, and ultimately we created a tape (yes, a TAPE) of our interviews that was played on NPR. My project was slightly different than the rest of the class, as I was working with a family that did not farm, but which ran a bed and breakfast from an old farmhouse. The home was also on the site of an archaeological excavation (by Kenyon student), as there was evidence of Native Americans living on the same land. Our discussion centered around how the use of land had changed, but that the new owners of the bed-and-breakfast looked to preserve the heritage of the property.
The Family Farm Project opened my eyes to organic farming. In 1995, the label "organic" was not widespread like it is today. The discussions that my classmates had with the family farmers directed my future life of purchasing quality foods (local, organic, unprocessed) for my family.
SARAH CLEETON (2009)
I worked on a local farm during the summer of 2008, and took coursework for certification in Ecological Agriculture. While I don't study agriculture, I do have a fellowship from the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois to study wildlife ecology and conservation biology in the department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences.
CHARMAYNE COOLEY (2006)
During my senior year, I took the "Fieldwork" seminar with Professor Howard Sacks. In exploring the local food system, I conducted several interviews with various people affiliated with Knox County restaurants, examining where they purchased their food. This culminated with a class exhibit on Ransom Lawn at Kenyon College, which included my comparison of a fast-food chain restaurant and a local restaurant's menus with the subsequent distance required for transportation of the respective ingredients.
My involvement with the Rural Life Center directly impacted my food purchasing habits after graduation. I continued to be a citizen of Knox County for three years following commencement, and my knowledge of the Saturday Farmer's Market and area orchards/farms/etc. helped me utilize local products. I imagine this is a practice I'll continue to seek out no matter where I am. Currently, I'm living in a very tiny village in Africa and getting a first-hand glimpse at subsistence farming and dangerous (as well as positive) agricultural practices. Plus, I see the preservation/abandonment of local culture. Additionally, I have become increasingly interested in the issue of Food Security - especially as it relates to nutrition (and often, unfortunately, malnutrition).
LAUREN GREENE (2007)
I took the year-long rural life course in which we looked at local food systems in Knox County and created an interactive exhibit on "where does your food come from?"
It really opened my eyes to interview and investigation into social systems and communities and helped me to think critically about where my food originates.
ERIN HATTON (1996)
My cohort developed a series of web pages (back when the Internet was shiny and new). I created the web page on organic farming.
The work I did for that project really spoke to me. At Kenyon, I was an English major. But, although I loved my English classes, I knew that English literature was not my future. After college I joined the Peace Corps where I wanted to work in agriculture. The Peace Corps had other things in mind for me, however, so I became a high school English teacher in West Africa. Nonetheless, that experience further developed my interest in rural community development and, after the Peace Corps, I went to graduate school in rural sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Today, although my research is in quite a different field (work and labor), I continue to see my professional life and research interests as stemming (at least in part) from the work I did with Professor Sacks.
KRISTIN KVERNLAND (2007)
I took the Rural Life Seminar class my senior year which was very amazing! I also was involved in making a brief video project in addition to this class. I spent long hours working there transcribing and have some of my fondest paper writing all-nighter memories in that house!
I think that my involvement in agriculture in general at Kenyon has deeply shaped my life and career choices. The Rural Life Center helped me further these interests and skills sets such by getting me out into the community and introducing me to participatory research skills and project based learning.
I think this would be a great tool for Kenyon and I feel that those of us still interested in all that the RLC promotes, teaches and stands for should have a forum to help mentor new students and reconnect with other alumni interested in this field/working on projects in various communities throughout the country and the world.
JENNY LAWTON (2001)
As part of the 2000-2001 Fieldwork course, I was part of the "Foodways" project, studying local food systems and writing an article about gardening. Before I was a participant, I encountered the work of the Rural Life Center as a consumer. In the summer of 2000, I used the guide to local farms a previous class had produced to chase down some of my favorite food: berries. I was surprised to pull up onto an Amish Farm -- I came away with 4 pints of of blackberries I'll never forget.
My experiences with the Rural Life Center have influenced me significantly! Little did I know that my trips to interview local farmers were preparation for a career as a reporter. Although the product of my work these days is a bit different, the fundamentals are the same: careful observation, sensitivity and adaptability to a new environment, interviewing techniques, a sense of a larger narrative, technical skill, ethics, diligence... Much of my work now had its roots in my experiences with the Rural Life Center.
ALEXANDER (SASHA) LOURIE (2000)
I worked on an Oral History Driving Tour. Our oral history project really helped me develop confidence in speaking to people about their experiences in their personal and professional lives. Part of my job involves speaking to contractors and artisans working on historic structures, object conservators who work on collection objects, and potential donors. I do not think that I necessarily realized the connections until I thought about my experiences in the course, but it is clear that I benefited from having the opportunity to work independently on oral histories. Speaking with people about their experiences, and leading them to talk about topics of that are of interest or relevant to you, is a true art that can only be learned through experience. Although I did not pursue a field with many direct connections to rural life or sociology, I have no doubt that I draw upon the knowledge gained from my Rural Life Center experiences on a regular basis
ROBERT MILT (1998)
I worked on the Family Farm Project. Also studied minstrelsy in Knox County. It taught me how listen and learn from and about everyone I work with.
TAMARA PARSON (1993)
I participated in the "Community Within" project for the Senior Seminar 1992-93, both as an African-American resident of Knox County and as a student at Kenyon.
I have always wanted to take the experience of finding out what other "untold stories" exist. In the years since I graduated from Kenyon, I have traveled extensively around the world and have worked for many years in both education and social work, specifically with women from underrepresented communities, and have encouraged several of the people I have met to find ways to share their stories. I will be creating a family project soon, interviewing the women in my own family and designing something to share as a legacy to pass on to my daughter and son.
I have a sincere passion and desire to promote and continue the opportunities for growth that are associated with the seeds we have planted. I am extremely proud of what Kenyon has done thus far, and feel blessed to have been a part of it.
ADAM SAPP (2002)
I participated in the Rural Life Center Seminar my sophomore year and helped produce a booklet/CD piece about Life Along the Kokosing. My particular part involved a spot on the founding of Greer, Ohio and the importance of railway development in eastern Knox County. First off, it has made me a devoted NPR supporter and lover of all things Wendell Berry. Second, I think it allowed me to examine my community with an intellectual distance that I had never done before. I came to appreciate the richness of a community that I had been an integral part of for a long time--that was one of the most personally eye opening experiences I had in college. I realized that I still love the topic when in graduate school last year I wrote a significant paper on rural education policy and rediscovered my interest in the topic. I would have been ill-prepared to produce such a great paper had I NOT had my experience with the Rural Life Center. I actually re-read a little of Wes Jackson for that paper and though I didn't end up giving him a direct cite because I didn't use the research, I still found myself drawn to his ideas in my writing process.
BRENT SHANK (2001)
I participated in the Life Along the Kokosing project.
I don't know if there's a direct connection, but intuitively I feel one. Many of the things I'm passionate about now—like local food and open spaces—I feel have some root in my experience at Kenyon. My experience with the RLC introduced me to ideas like sustainability and local food that simply weren't in my consciousness. While my occupation has nothing to do with those passions, my wife is a teacher-naturalist at an organic farm and wilderness preserve, so I'm again part of a community that cares about those things.
I also care deeply about family farms and compassionate animal husbandry, and I trace at least some of that ethic back to my experience working with a family farm on the Life Along the Kokosing project. Seeing how they ran their farm, learning of their struggles, and contrasting that way of farming with the grotesque, mega factory farms in the Central Valley just east of where I live reinforces the value choices I've made.
MIKE SHELTON (1997)
I was a member of the Family Farm Project in '96-'97. We built grade school curriculum to be utilized by teachers to help incorporate lessons on where food comes from.
Professionally, my career has been based in natural resource and agricultural public policy following my experience with the Rural Life Center Family Farm Project. I worked for the Ohio Senate following graduation, The Nature Conservancy for nearly a decade and then the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Through each position, I have interacted with rural communities to develop public policy solutions to help lead to better rural planning and more sustainable land management practices. One example would be the inclusion of the farmland preservation component of the Clean Ohio Fund, when I led a large coalition of organizations to pass the bond measure statewide in 2000. That portion of Clean Ohio has protected thousands of acres of farmland from future development, stabilized rural economies, and provided security to countless agricultural land owners. (Kenyon's own Philander Chase Corporation has utilized the Clean Ohio Fund to great benefit.)
Personally, my experienced with RLC/FFP greatly enhanced my knowledge of modern food production and passion for seeking out locally (and sustainably) raised foods. Given that experience, my family regularly supports local weekly farmer markets for many of our stock grocery needs, and patronize restaurants that specialize or provide local food options (such as Northstar Cafe and Jeni's Ice Cream).
REBECCA LYN CHAMBERLIN WIGHAM (2002)
I was a student in the field work class (my favorite class at Kenyon). I also was the first year to intern on a farm (there were 2 of us!). The Helts are still dear close friends. When I found the experience to be poignant and powerful, I made a point to lobby to make it a regular program at Kenyon. It is now. I also was actively involved in the BFEC and always wanted there to be more collaboration between the two entities. I am thrilled to learn that there will be! There should be sustainable agriculture going on at the BFEC. Hello permaculture!
My experiences with the Rural Life Center influenced me greatly, although it is still a bit more theoretical at this point than reality. I just finished my teacher certification so that I can work on an agrarian schedule. Fortunately in PA education is still that way. Now I just need to find regular work so that I can afford to buy a small parcel of land and do some farming. I have been involved in Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture. I continue to work on my family's farm on a small scale and my parents tolerated me raising my own pastured poultry this summer for my wedding. It was a great experience, and I learned a ton!
CHRISTINA LESTAGE (1999)
I had the pleasure of working on a project called Rural Diversity. My partner, Michelle Demjen, and I chose to study the Jewish population.
The Rural Diversity project was one of the most enlightening experiences I had at Kenyon. It was a class which truly lived up to the promise of a liberal arts education in that it taught me important skills for my major, such as interviewing, transcribing, and approaching subjects, while at the same time challenging my fundamental assumptions about the world around me. Ultimately, I learned how diversity in rural areas is invisible, and what some differences are between a rural and urban mind-set. After I graduated, I went on to live in San Diego, California, and spend time in New York City. The lessons I learned in the class about myself, a person with a rural, small town upbringing, equipped me very well to understand my own limits and challenges in an urban setting. It made things easier for me, and I knew myself better, which is the great hope of college, after all.
CHRISTINA KIRSTIN YOGG (1999)
I was involved as a student in the Family Farm Project in its 3rd year.
Whenever people ask me how it is I got into farming I always start with my interest in environmental stewardship combined the powerful influence of the Family Farm Project as my introduction into the world of agriculture. The social, political and experiential learning that took place in the classroom and in the field was the inception of the values, ideas and passion that has guided my career and my life.
