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Giving Thanks for Second Chances

Nov 22, 2022 | Stories

In this season of giving thanks, sophomore Mame Diarra (Mumjahdah) AbdurRahman reflects on her gratitude for Mitchell College.

“Mitchell College has given me the second chance to have an educational experience. It accommodates my learning style and that eases my anxiety. I love to connect with staff on campus, mostly because they remind me that you can have a pleasant experience in school, be acknowledged for things you have accomplished and be recognized for where you are as a person,” she said.

“Two things drew me to Mitchell. I loved how President Espy is African American and looks like me, and it’s a college with learning accommodations.”

Mame Diarra, 27, was recently diagnosed with autism.

“I knew there was something going on with me,” she said. “But I didn’t know what. I felt like a misunderstood person.”

She attended two other colleges before Mitchell, where she first enrolled early in the pandemic, when classes were on Zoom. After less than a semester, she decided to take a break from school.

“I wasn’t going to come back at all,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’m kind of done. I don’t want to do school anymore. I’m over it.’”

Mame Diarra went back home to Oakland, Calif., where she said she started working on herself by working out and eating right.

“I saw what the worst possibility was, and I saw what the best possibility was,” she said.

She returned to an organization – Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA) – where she has been involved since 2013, both as a volunteer and an employee. An interfaith art jobs and job training program for homeless and low-income youth in the San Francisco Bay area, the organization focuses on giving youth the skills, experience and self-confidence to empower and transform their lives.

Mame Diarra went back to work as a resident assistant in the organization’s Tiny House Empowerment Village, transitional youth housing.

“Tiny House Village changed my life. It allowed me the space and time to work on myself mentally and physically while helping low-income and at-risk youth. It was my home and community that I stay connected with,” she said.

“I’ve had the opportunity to do many things for YSA – doing art and writing poetry, learning how to run a nonprofit and speaking at rallies and council meetings on behalf of the organization. It has grown me personally and professionally over the years.”

Mame Diarra, a singer since childhood, also discovered that she has a talent for poetry when poet Charles Blackwell visited YSA in 2015.

“He said I was a talented writer and started mentoring me. It was intense, but it shaped my poetry. My past traumas and stuff I never got the chance to say inspires my poetry. My dad died when I was 16. My family would do things to honor him but wouldn’t talk about how I was in pain. Putting my feelings on paper was therapy for me.”

Mame Diarra said her poetry also comes from laughter; she can make anyone laugh and sees laughter as medicine. She likes that “grammar doesn’t count” in poetry and ideas can be expressed in any way.

“My poetry comes to me when it comes to me. Most of my deeper poetry is God-directed because it’s something outside of me. It’s within my human experience, but something outside of me – an unknown source – directs me to do it. I write it down and it’s beautiful. It’s a stream. I don’t craft it.”

Her poetry has been published in several periodicals and is now in a newly published book, “It Takes a Village: Tiny Houses, Big Voices” (Youth Spirit Artworks).

A psychology major and criminal justice minor, Mame Diarra has a goal of opening up a restorative justice organization to give kids who are looked at as rebellious a chance to reform in elementary school or even college.

“I want to be that person to advocate for an African American kid in an all-white setting who needs more guidance. When I hear about rebellious kids, I say a secret prayer and wish them the best, but I want to be the person who says to them, ‘Where does this come from, how can you help yourself?’ and help bring something positive to them.’”

For now, Mame Diarra is grateful to have returned to Mitchell after her almost two-year hiatus.

“I was at home on my balcony one night and said, ‘God, I want my education again. Should I go back to New London?’ I woke up with the sudden urge to go back,” she said.

“I think it’s very important to practice gratitude. It is what makes the forces that we can’t see balanced.”

 

To read one of Mame Diarra’s poems, click here.

Taino Chief Shares Indigenous Caribbean History

Nov 10, 2022 | News

At a recent program sponsored by Mitchell College’s Multicultural Student Union, Chief Jorge Baracutei Estevez spoke about the history, spirituality and culture of the indigenous Higuayagua Taino people of the Caribbean in celebration of Native American Heritage Month.

A lifelong researcher and investigator of Caribbean indigenity, Chief Estevez worked for 25 years for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. He continues his research through Higuayagua: Taino of the Caribbean, a non-profit organization established in 2011 to provide educational, cultural and linguistic resources to anyone wanting to connect with their Indigenous Caribbean ancestry.

“Today we are reliving and reviving our culture,” he said. The Higuayagua Taino tribe currently has more than 2,000 members.

Chief Estevez told the audience that Taino were the tribe encountered by Christopher Columbus in 1492.

“We discovered Columbus,” he said, noting that Columbus and his crew were lost and wound up on the island — “our home” — populated by Taino.

He said that after 1565, the Spanish proclaimed the Taino people extinct, a notion that is untrue. Although the Taino people disappeared from paper, Chief Estevez said family histories kept Taino alive. As he was growing up in the Dominican Republic, he said that his mother and others in his community identified as “Indian.”

“The Taino language left a deep imprint” on the Spanish language and the English language, with many words deriving from the Taino language, such as canoe, hammock, maize and tobacco.

Through his work with the Smithsonian, Chief Estevez spent eight years visiting several countries in the Caribbean to research indigenity, studying eight markers — identity, oral tradition, material culture, customs/traditions, agricultural practices, language, spirituality and DNA/Genetics — and countering the myth of extinction.

Retelling the history of the Taino indigenous people helps dispel that myth.

“Instead of creating a narrative, let people decide it for themselves,” he said.

 

AmeriCorps VISTA Helps Build Service-Learning Program

Oct 26, 2022 | News

Megan Griffin, Mitchell College’s AmeriCorps VISTA, has a wealth of organizing and community development experience from across the United States and beyond. When she had the opportunity to bring her skills to Mitchell – which she describes as a “hidden gem” – she took it. During her one-year term of service (through August 2023), she is charged with building the architecture of a service-learning program for Mitchell.

“This particular project really piqued my interest,” she said. “As someone with experiences in community organizing, as well as academic research, the notion of helping students to feel more embedded in the local community and helping them discover and develop their potential as agents of change really resonated with me,” she said.

Megan cites several reasons for why it is important for students to connect to the larger community.

“As one of my professors used to say: Mentis vita pro vita mundi—the life of the mind for the life of the world. Mitchell is all about developing the power of unique minds, and I think each student here has particular experiences, skills and understandings of the world that are important to share with the community,” she said.

“I also think this experiential learning opportunity will complement students’ education, and help them to think creatively, systemically and independently about social, environmental and economic challenges and help them explore how to apply their education to meet any challenge, be it professional, personal or social.”

“Lastly,” she said, “I think it’s a wonderful way for students to learn more about themselves, and to develop their interests, values and commitments.”

To better understand the current interests of students in service-learning, Megan created a brief online survey for them to complete and has been doing other outreach.

“So far, a little over 100 respondents have taken the survey. That gives us some helpful insight into what issues, organizations and service-based activities interest them. I’ve also been tabling, visiting classrooms and speaking one-on-one with students about this new opportunity,” she said.

She said that she has begun to develop a rapport with some students and feels inspired by their interest in a diversity of issues and how they conceive of community work and their role in the community.

Although it can be challenging to appeal to busy students, Megan said, “the novelty of this project also provides more opportunity for students to give meaningful input in shaping what service-learning at Mitchell will become.”

After completing her time in the AmeriCorps VISTA program, Megan, who will receive her master’s degree in rural sociology from Penn State in December, said that she would like to pursue a career in higher education, “ideally in a position that engages with the public good. Colleges and universities are such a hub for self-discovery, self-exploration and the creation of new knowledge. These are things that could be applied to address the ‘wicked problems,’ inequities and injustices facing our world.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trustee-Alum Comes Full Circle

Oct 5, 2022 | Stories

Mitchell College Trustee Cornell Yarbrough ’01 fondly remembers words of wisdom imparted to him as a student by one of his Mitchell professors: “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

“I love that line,” Cornell said.

Living your unique story – not trying to live someone else’s – is an ingredient for living a joyful life, and Cornell’s Mitchell experience was one part of his recipe.

“When I arrived on the Mitchell campus,” he said, “my intention was just to attend college and live on a campus while I figured everything out. I didn’t have a specific plan. I was drawn to the school for its campus, the individual attention a smaller college like Mitchell can provide and the amazing teachers. Mitchell was beautiful, transformative and fun.”

Cornell began his Mitchell career as a sport management major before changing to liberal arts. He earned his associate degree in 2001 and went on to Hofstra University to earn his bachelor’s degree in communications in 2004.

“I learned discipline and how to focus at Mitchell College, which helped me tremendously in my success at Hofstra,” he said.

Today, he excels in the communications field as an on-air personality and DJ for iHeart Radio in New York and Boston. He also pays his success forward as CEO of Whutever it takes DJ Academy – an innovative afterschool program that exposes students in grades 4 through 12 to a unique form of learning music, communication and improvisation, all which can be the foundation for future careers.

A soon-to-be-author, he is also working on a line of children’s books to inspire youth through music.

“I’m excited because the storyline will show that all children are created equal and can overcome any obstacle in life, whether they have disabilities or not.”

As a Mitchell student, Cornell involved himself in many activities.

“I was on the baseball team, in the multicultural club and worked in the campus bookstore. I was also a resident assistant for Matteson Hall. Some of my favorite memories at Mitchell were family weekends, on-campus parties in the club room, talent shows in Clarke Center Auditorium and laughing with friends in the lobby of Matteson Hall.”

As a Mitchell trustee and an alumnus, Cornell is in a unique position to help move the college forward.

“Being an alumnus informs my work as a trustee by allowing me to have a similar perspective of a future, current or past Mitchell student. I can bring information to my fellow trustees about events and other ideas that can enrich the student experience at Mitchell.”

Helping Mitchell and Its Students Flourish

Oct 5, 2022 | Stories

Having worked for 17 years at Mitchell College in various roles, Kim Hodges ’03 recently returned to the school after a 10-year hiatus. Now the director of development, she is eager to do her part to help both her alma mater and its students flourish and thrive.

“I feel an affinity to Mitchell for helping me accomplish my educational goals, earning my bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies. More than that, I have seen students accomplish more than they ever thought possible. When I speak to someone that Mitchell has made a profound impact on or impacted their child, it makes me feel great. We each have a role in helping our students learn, grow and discover their bright futures and their best selves,” she said.

Kim was a non-traditional student who went back to school after her son was born.

“The family-owned business I had worked at since high school closed. I knew I wanted to go back to college, so I visited several in the area. None of the programs seemed to be a good fit for me. My best friend had attended Mitchell, loved it and thought it would be great for me. I saw that there was a part-time opening in the registrar’s office, so I applied for the job, started working at Mitchell and taking classes. My best friend was right. Mitchell was the perfect fit for me!” Kim said.

As a college student, Kim said she was an intelligent person but a non-confident learner, especially in the areas of math and writing. She credits her professors with changing that.

“Ann Keating, my statistics professor, took me to lunch and helped bolster my confidence. And the best academic day of my life was having Dr. Don Helms, my psychology professor, tell me I was a good writer. He also nurtured my desire to speak and encouraged me to attend the Connecticut Storytelling Conference at Connecticut College,” she said.

Kim said that after attending that conference, she became one of the storytellers at the Psychology Department’s Halloween Festival and also told stories at other events.

“I truly believe that without the support of the Mitchell community, I would not have had the courage to pursue something that has made such a positive impact on my life and has led me to meet people all over the United States,” she said.

In addition to using her newfound skills for the benefit of the Mitchell community, Kim has also presented and written professionally on topics related to both secondary and higher education, ranging from “Thirty Questions You Should Ask Before Sending Your LD Child to College” to “Preparing for College Through Military Service.”

Kim said, “Without the Mitchell faculty’s encouragement and support, I would not have had the courage to pitch stories to magazines or present at national and regional conferences. Not only did the faculty support me in these efforts, Kevin Mayne, my supervisor at the time, provided additional coaching and opportunities to grow in this area.”