"It's actually facilitation," Jenney Stringer '08 (Manlius, N.Y.) said of her summer fellowship work. "I'm facilitating a garden." Rising senior Stringer has been awarded the Community Service Fellowship, one of the two Levitt Summer Civic Engagement Fellowships. She will be working with Judith Owens-Manley, associate director for community research, on a project to create and facilitate a community garden in Utica.
This service work, so specific to Utica, begins in Thailand, where Stringer spent part of the year on a program sponsored by CIEE (the Council on International Education Exchange). The program concentrated on issues of globalization and grass-roots development and Stringer spent her time learning about organic farming and working on community gardens.
Back at Hamilton, Stringer toured the F.X. Matt Apartments, one of the refugee housing units in Utica, and began considering how much work it would take to create a community garden on the Matt property. Farming, Stringer explained, is very important to the refugees. "It's a part of their identity."
In Thailand, Stringer saw first-hand the advantages of community farming. She feels that a common area such as a shared garden is key to the situation in refugee housing blocks like the Matt Apartments, where families live with strangers from other countries and cultures. It is a diverse group, and there are both isolated residents and those who are in conflict with their neighbors.
The garden, Stringer hopes, will function as a communal project and as a social place, a common experience and responsibility founded in spite of linguistic and cultural difference. As Stringer put it, she is "bringing people together through gardening."
The first difficulty with this plan was that the Utica Municipal Housing Authority (UMHA) has previously not allowed the tenants of its apartments to have gardens. Stringer, however, has been in frequent contact with the UMHA, and has finally received permission to create a garden in the Matt Apartments.
For the next few weeks, Stringer's work will concentrate on getting the garden off the ground. She will circulate a survey to the residents to judge interest, then divide the land into portions for each family. As the summer progresses, Stringer will obtain supplies, organize volunteers and work with the residents to decide regulations for the garden.
During the year Stringer works on Fair Trade justice issues, volunteers at the Underground Café and is an active member of the International Students Association. A pre-med women's studies major, Stringer plans to pursue post-graduate work in alternative medicine.
Stringer's work this summer is funded by a Summer Civic Engagement Fellowship from the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center. It is community service-based, and focuses on providing support to initiatives in the Utica area.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
This service work, so specific to Utica, begins in Thailand, where Stringer spent part of the year on a program sponsored by CIEE (the Council on International Education Exchange). The program concentrated on issues of globalization and grass-roots development and Stringer spent her time learning about organic farming and working on community gardens.
Back at Hamilton, Stringer toured the F.X. Matt Apartments, one of the refugee housing units in Utica, and began considering how much work it would take to create a community garden on the Matt property. Farming, Stringer explained, is very important to the refugees. "It's a part of their identity."
In Thailand, Stringer saw first-hand the advantages of community farming. She feels that a common area such as a shared garden is key to the situation in refugee housing blocks like the Matt Apartments, where families live with strangers from other countries and cultures. It is a diverse group, and there are both isolated residents and those who are in conflict with their neighbors.
The garden, Stringer hopes, will function as a communal project and as a social place, a common experience and responsibility founded in spite of linguistic and cultural difference. As Stringer put it, she is "bringing people together through gardening."
The first difficulty with this plan was that the Utica Municipal Housing Authority (UMHA) has previously not allowed the tenants of its apartments to have gardens. Stringer, however, has been in frequent contact with the UMHA, and has finally received permission to create a garden in the Matt Apartments.
For the next few weeks, Stringer's work will concentrate on getting the garden off the ground. She will circulate a survey to the residents to judge interest, then divide the land into portions for each family. As the summer progresses, Stringer will obtain supplies, organize volunteers and work with the residents to decide regulations for the garden.
During the year Stringer works on Fair Trade justice issues, volunteers at the Underground Café and is an active member of the International Students Association. A pre-med women's studies major, Stringer plans to pursue post-graduate work in alternative medicine.
Stringer's work this summer is funded by a Summer Civic Engagement Fellowship from the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center. It is community service-based, and focuses on providing support to initiatives in the Utica area.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
