Summer Construction

Hey guys! Samantha here, I am working in the admissions office all summer. It is great to be on the crew.

Anyways, it is a slow day at the Admissions Office, but we have so many exciting things happening on campus! Construction is happening in many places around the school, updating buildings and such. Part of the library is being worked on, Gladfelter, the basement of Sunderland (next week’s edition), Shepard, and the WPO/College Press cabin. Everyone on campus is working hard to prepare the school for next year, and for our incoming students.

The most exciting one is Gladfelter, our main cafeteria. It is looking completely different than it did just a few months ago, and I am super excited to see the finished project. Gladfelter is the larger of our two cafeterias on campus and it always has vegetarian and vegan options. This updated cafeteria will have more choices than our previous set-up. (A pizza station, a more permanent action station, desert bar, breakfast bar, etc.) These updates and editions are super exciting, and I am happy they have added options that are more permanent. We also have completely new flooring and lighting (which both look awesome). The students voted on the flooring during last semester where they set out different tiles and you could vote on the one you liked the most.

The lighting is also a lot different, as you can see in some of these pictures. All together, the cafeteria is coming along nicely. The workers that have been here everyday are the nicest people and I thank them for it looking so nice. I am truly excited to see the difference in the cafeteria and the finished project. I guess all we have to do now is wait to see the big unveiling.

This will be soon, hopefully.
 Hope all is well,
Samantha

Westward Philosophy

Two weeks ago I spent a weekend in and around Portland, Oregon. I was in the region to present a paper in philosophy at the 16th Annual Pacific University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference in Forest Grove, Oregon. My trip westward was incredible and wouldn’t have happened without the support of the Warren Wilson College community.

I first heard about this conference while enrolled in a modern philosophy course. My professor sent out an e-mail with a few fellowship and conference opportunities, and I thought this one was particularly interesting. I knew I couldn’t afford it, but just being accepted would have been enough for me; it would have been an indicator that I’m doing something right.

A few weeks after submitting my paper, I received confirmation that I was accepted into the conference in the category of social and political philosophy. I was thrilled, but never even considered the possibility of heading out there. I simply didn’t have the money. By some odd twist of fate, in a meeting with my political science advisor later that week, in an entirely different conversation, I was made aware of undergraduate research grants. The gears in my head went haywire as I considered the possibility of heading out to Oregon. Still, I knew I would need to ask for a pretty penny and refused to get my hopes up yet.

Despite my skepticism, I applied for the grant and submitted it to the Dean of Teaching, Gary Hawkins, with my modern philosophy professor, Matt Whitt, serving as my sponsor—essentially, he would vouch for me when the grant was being considered for acceptance. Only a few weeks after submitting my application, I found out that my grant was accepted. I was shocked. In a few weeks I went from considering the trip impossible to having the financial wherewithal to make it happen.
It was only two weeks ago, but I still have fond memories of Portland. The conference was great and I was granted the opportunity to speak for an hour-and-a-half when the presentation before mine cancelled. I was able to experience a new city and amazing people, network within my field of study and gain insight into what philosophy can be outside the classroom.

All in all, this experience was an indicator of what I love about Warren Wilson. I had a strong support network that presented me with this opportunity to represent the college and to advance my own studies. I was able to escape the college during the end of the semester crunch, which has been a tremendous help as I blast through these last few weeks of the academic year. Most importantly, traveling to a new place offered a reminder of what life is like outside the college.

As I stress out over final exams, cumulative papers, quizzes, tests, and the like, I have clarity and perspective and remember why I’m doing this. Sometimes, when my eyes are bloodshot from writing for hours and hours, or I struggle to stay awake to finish my night’s reading assignments, it can be a daunting task to try and recall what all of this is for. When the college supports me to the degree it did in this experience, and hints at what life can be like after graduation, I’m grounded and can carry on with my work with peace of mind.

Slooooow

Today happens to be a slow day in the Admissions office. There are only six visitors today, compared to twenty-six per day we had a few weeks ago. The majority of accept-packets have been mailed out, so there aren’t any huge mailings to do, just a few stragglers that I took care of already. So I figured I'd write you all a blog post! I’m not really sure what it’s going to be about yet, though, so I’m just going to ramble and hope that it sounds good! I’m really excited about this project that I’m doing for my Dance, Culture, and Identity class, which is an upper level anthropology class. For our final project, we get to pick any kind of dance we want, study it, observe it, participate in it, and write a paper called an ethnography about it. An ethnography is a fancy name for a paper written by anthropologists, in short. Some people in my class are doing fire-spinning, Zumba fitness classes, burlesque classes, etc. I'm studying African dance. There’s an African dance class off campus that happens every Tuesday at 7:30 that I went to the last two weeks. I got to borrow a friends car to get there, which was a lot of fun to go a little too fast on the highway and get off campus. There were drummers there and lots of dancers. I had loads of fun, and the more I stopped caring about what I looked like, the better I felt and the more fun I had. I’m going to conduct interviews this week with a few of the participants and with the instructor.

I’m thinking I'm going to write about how this African dance class is a form of community, and maybe even a form of escape, maybe how it’s a “sacred” event… not sure yet. That’s the tricky thing in anthropology: you have to let your informants form your thesis for you. I love anthropology, but sometimes it’s hard to let go of control like that. I'm really happy that I picked anthropology as my major. When I got to school, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to study. Well, that’s not entirely true… I knew I wanted to do something that had to do with people, not anything science-y with cells and chemicals and stuff. So I just took a lot of intro classes, starting with Intro to Psych my first semester. Psych felt too narrow for what I was interested in. I moved on to Intro to Anthropology the following semester and it just totally clicked. I related to it and it made sense and my mind wondered to all of these wonderful academic places every class period. I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket, though, so I didn’t declare anthro as my major yet, but rather took Intro to Sociology the next semester. Again, I daydreamed and let my mind wonder, but I could just tell that Anthro was where I really wanted to be. And then this semester I declared! And it's perfect and it’s great and I love it…

I have no idea what I'm going to do with my major or what I want to be when I grow up, but I find Anthropology fascinating. It looks like this blog post turned into "A History of Hannah's Academic Journey at Warren Wilson."

Maybe next time I'll tell you about my work history...

I just switched to Admissions Crew at the beginning of this semester. I used to work at Cow Pie, the vegan cafeteria on campus, and was ready for a change of work crews. I spoke with Ian Robertson, our Dean of Work, several times and he helped me with the process of picking a new crew. And here I am on Admission!

Last week, Keri, one of the Admissions Counselors here in the office, asked me to write a letter to prospective students. She wanted me to tell the students what I liked about Warren Wilson, the things that drew me here, and the things that make me feel at home here. We then printed out my letter and sent it to the students who have been accepted but are still deciding which school to go to. Below if the final draft of the letter.

Dear Student,
Yeah, I get it, it’s stressful, all this college stuff.

There is pressure from every angle imaginable to decide which college to attend. The last thing you probably want is another piece of mail from a college. I get that. This isn’t one of those advertisements, praising a school for its high national ranking. I’m not going to tell you statistics or tuition costs. This letter is just me, telling you about Warren Wilson College from a student’s perspective. I hope that this letter, my perspective, will help make your decision a littler easier.

I’ve come to love Warren Wilson. I love the small class sizes; I love that I get to know my professors; I love that almost everyone eats outside when the temperature reaches seventy degrees; I love that I learn not only through my classes and text books, but also through my work crew and service adventures; I love that there are compost bins in every dorm; I love that I stayed ten minutes after class today to chat with my adviser; I love that I’m a person, not a number; I love that there are a myriad of opportunities to make personal connections.

I love that we don’t all fit the Warren Wilson stereotype.

We don’t all have dreads, hair on our arms, and in our armpits. We aren’t all vegans. We don’t all love being outside all the time. We’re not all Environmental Science majors. And the best thing is that there is a place for all those different types of people here. There are students who love mixing chemicals and running through chemistry problems, and others who learn the craft of analyzing literature or study the effects of globalization. There are people who love being on forestry crew and people who would much rather work in an office. There are people who wouldn’t dream of eating cheese or even honey, and there are people who eat meat at every meal. There are people who go on trail runs every day, and there are people who would much rather play video games. There are Buddhist, Quaker, Pagan, Jewish, and Christian groups on campus. There are a myriad of different interests at Warren Wilson. And they’re all accepted here, and they all exist here.

I’m not going to lie, even though I visited campus in my junior year of college, Warren Wilson was a really overwhelming and unfamiliar place at first. It took me a while to get used to this culture, this place, so different than my hometown, a rather homogenous place. So it took me a while, but I’ve found my niche, too. I’ve fallen in love with Anthropology and enjoy my small class sizes, and how close I am with my professors. I’ve been on three different crews: Chapel Crew, Cow Pie Café, and now Admissions Crew. I’ve finally found my niche in service, focusing mainly on food insecurity and working in community and school gardens and food banks. I’ve taken up knitting again since I’ve been here, and enjoy meeting other young knitters on campus and at a yarn shop in downtown Asheville. I try to go on a hike once a week on one of the beautiful trails on campus, and jump in the river when it’s warmer out. And the best thing: I’m comfortable here at Warren Wilson.

The take away message: come as you are. Enjoy all that Warren Wilson has to offer. It’s an amazing place, something to be experienced.

I hope you’ll join us for the fall semester!

Peace,
Hannah

I Love

I love my professors.

This morning I awoke to an e-mail from a professor in philosophy that contained a thrash-punk EP themed to philosopher Theodor Adorno’s text Minima Moralia.Earlier this week, Robert Nozick’s concept of entitlement theory was discussed in an ethics class. As I became more and more heated about my disdain towards Nozick’s notion of libertarianism, my professor jokingly added, “you should try to be more passionate.”

A few weeks ago my advisor in history and political science e-mailed me a slideshow coupling characters from two of my favorite television shows: Downton Abbey and Mad Men. Before class we often gush over details of the latest episode of each program.Two semesters ago, when Bayard Rustin was introduced during a lecture on civil rights in my Grassroots Politics course, the professor added an aside in my direction along the lines of, “He’s a gay, African-American socialist, you’ll love him!”It’s personal touches like these that assure me I’m in the right place. But I wasn’t always so certain of my decision to come to Warren Wilson College.

I transferred into Warren Wilson College in the fall of 2010. In the first few weeks something felt off and I began questioning whether or not I had made the right choice. I had twice attempted to transfer prior to coming here, and it seemed that once again I had failed. In my disquiet, I sent a lengthy and panicked e-mail to a former professor of mine at community college. After several e-mails back and forth I was encouraged to see the semester out and decide what to do from there.

Now in my fourth semester at Warren Wilson, I’m glad I stuck through the initial disconcertion.The eccentricities of professors are worn on their sleeves. Conversations in and out of the classroom assure me of my professors' humanity. Their passion is contagious and their accessibility abundant.

The ease with which communicate, either about comprehension of course material or personal interests, is indicative of their commitment to students. Without them, I would still be figuring out what I want to study and where.Often, discussions about Warren Wilson wither down to work and service, with academics shoved to the side. As great as my job is, and as much as I enjoy service, they just don't match up to my experience with academics.

I love my professors.