With the rising concern of climate change and social injustice, Keene State College Student Empowerment and Activism course encourages students to make a difference.
“If you want something to change for the better, it has to start with somebody,” KSC senior Taylor Asher said.
The class covers the history of student involvement and activism and requires an in-depth and comprehensive activism project. According to the syllabus, students are required to spend fifteen hours outside of class practicing activism in an area that they are interested in. At the end of the semester each student must hand in a 10-12 page paper about their experience and must provide the class with a twenty minute presentation.
From working with animals at the Monadnock Humane Society to participating in high-profile activist events, students in the class are doing their part to help out the community.
“I’m hoping that not only I, but other people in the class will make a difference with something that they care about,” Asher said. Asher is a member of the executive board for the Campus Ecology Club and was one of the students responsible for organizing a trip to take 28 KSC students to New York City for the People’s Climate March on Sept. 21. Asher said that the march, attended by an estimated 400,000 people, was intended to spread awareness of climate change.
“I knew immediately, because I am so passionate about spreading awareness of climate change, that it would be perfect for my project,” Asher said.
Incorporated in the fifteen hours required for the project was time Asher spent putting up posters, contacting bussing and travel companies and marching through the streets of New York. She said that it was one of the most memorable things that she has ever been a part of.
Olivia Schiaffo / Equinox Staff
“I’ll never forget it and I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of such a monumental movement and be able to write about it for my project,” Asher said.
Lindsay Rose, another KSC student in the Student Empowerment and Activism class, is working for the Child Advocacy Center for her project.
“It provides children who have been abused with a neutral environment where justice, healing, equity and prevention are fostered through the high quality and sustaining collaboration of community partners,” Rose said.
Rose said that in October there are two festivals she will be attending where she will be handing out pamphlets and stickers about abuse and how to read signs that it might be going on.
Aubrey Lambert is doing her project with the Monadnock Humane Society. She is working with animals in the “smalls room,” a place where baby animals are kept, and visits with lonely canines.
“I felt as though I should do my part to help animals that are left out in the cold,” Lambert said.
According to Lambert, visiting the animals helps her from missing her dog back home and to escape the stress that her classes provide. “In order for our community to achieve the qualities of a healthy and stable environment, we all as community members need to take initiative,” Rose said.
Rose said that change at any level has a positive impact on her school and the community it functions within.
According to the syllabus, Student Empowerment and Activism emphasises the need for student involvement in the Keene State College community.
“Keene State is connected with the environment it is surrounded by,” Lambert said. She said that activism is her way of bridging the gap between the town and the school. Another student in the class, Bobby Graham, is doing a project specifically dealing with college-community relations; the need to unite the town and college populations.
There has been a lot of great feedback about the class and its professor, Elizabeth Dubois.
“I like the class a lot. Mrs. Dubois is really passionate about getting involved which makes us want to as well,” Rose said. Asher said that she is extremely engaged by what she is being taught. She said that she has been loving to learn about activism and activists from the 1960s like Jonathan Daniels, who was a Keene native who made a pilgrimage to Alabama to do Civil Rights work.
“I think it is important to be involved on campus, and not only encourage positive change, but also to make it a place where everyone feels like they have a voice,” Rose said.
Asher said that students in the class are learning how great making a difference makes them feel and that it is something many will continue to do outside of class. Lambert continued, “For my project I have to put in a certain number of volunteer hours, but I plan on volunteering a lot more.”
Roger Weeks can be contacted at rweeks@keene-equinox.com
