magazine

Recommendations

Info

Student Spotlight 24 Carmen Piedad ’16 — a Passion for Action Scholar from Jamaica Plain, MA, with an American Studies major and a Political Science minor — is a passionate traveler. Her father is from Mexico, and though she traveled there frequently as a young child to visit family, her fervor truly began when she was 12 years old and visited Australia and New Zealand with the Boston City Singers, a youth choir based in Boston with a mission “to provide the highest level of musical training and wide-ranging performance opportunities to young people ages 4 to 18, inspire personal development, celebrate diversity, and foster good will.” This was her first trip outside of the country without her parents. With the Boston City Singers, Carmen has also traveled to South Africa; Newfoundland, Canada; Toronto, Canada; and Costa Rica. Since graduating high school, she has worked for the organization on Saturdays as a youth developer. Carmen’s first excursion through Wheelock was a service-learning trip to New Orleans with Dr. Barbara “Bobbi” Rosenquest, associate professor of Early Childhood Education, when she was a sophomore. Paired with an AmeriCorps leader, she worked in a group to tile bathrooms, sand wood, paint, and put shelving in closets. The completion of tasks was rewarding, she says, as was becoming close with her group members. She had For Carmen Piedad ’16, Life Is a Journey never traveled before for the purpose of service, and she found serving people in her own country to be a poignant experience. Her most important lessons arose from conversations she had with people in the city who actually experienced Hurricane Katrina and from witnessing the destruction that, after 10 years, remained. Carmen says: “There are still houses and schools demolished. There are still families who are displaced from their homes. It was important to become aware of the still desperate situation and then come home and tell other people. We were only there for a week. We could help build houses but could not save people. … What we could do is see for ourselves the problems that remain and continue to create awareness.” After completing her sophomore year, she traveled to Scandinavia that May 16 with Irwin Nesoff, associate professor and chair of Nonprofit Leadership and Policy. The class that took this two-week trip was Comparative Social and Government Policies. They visited Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Rather than providing service during this trip, Carmen remarks that it was a learning opportunity. Scandinavia, she says, has robust social welfare policies from which the U.S. could learn. The government imposes very high taxes upon the citizens, but in return, they receive free child care, free health care, free education, and free higher education. The government also gives mothers a monthly check for $200 for every child she has until that child turns 18. Because the Scandinavian government is intent on building family values, it also gives mothers and fathers each a yearlong paid maternity leave. Carmen was also impressed by the lack of poverty and class disparity. Carmen toured a high-security women’s prison while in Scandinavia and was fascinated by the heavy focus on rehabilitation as opposed to punishment. In fact, the region has very few prisons because a very low percentage of prisoners actually reoffend after being rehabilitated. Scandinavia seemed like a Utopia to Carmen, to the point where she asked herself what she was missing. There must be a downside, she thought. In that vein, Carmen learned that xenophobia — intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries — is prevalent. When the trip to Scandinavia concluded, Carmen’s mother came to Europe to join her in an excursion to Germany and France. During the second semester of Carmen’s junior year, she studied abroad through a program in Costa Rica. One reason why she chose Costa Rica as a venue to study is because it is a Spanish-speaking country. Carmen’s parents intended for her to be bilingual, so she spoke exclusively Spanish until she was 4 or 5 years old. Her parents knew she would learn English when she started school. In the American school system, however, Carmen slowly lost a large portion of her Spanish-speaking skills. So, she went to Costa Rica in part as a journey to recover her fluency in the Spanish language. The study-abroad program in Costa Rica also interested Carmen because it offered a wide range of political science classes from which to choose. The classes WINTER 2016
Student Spotlight Carmen Piedad ’16 in Granada, Nicaragua, sitting on an ancient church foundation, which is all that is left of the church after being bombed in the civil war she took were Spanish, Immigration Issues in Costa Rica, Human Rights in Latin America, and Conflict Resolution in Healthcare. For the first month, the study-abroad program organized weekend trips. Carmen made several friends through her program and through others, so, after the first month, there were always people with whom to plan a weekend adventure on their own. Two places Carmen visited were Panama and Nicaragua. Classes in Costa Rica ended for Carmen on March 28, though she stayed in Central America until May 8. She spent an extra week in Costa Rica and then traveled to El Salvador. She went to El Salvador accompanied by her mother’s dear college friend Sara. This was a sojourn that was simultaneously special and difficult — special because Carmen in a traditional Nicaraguan dress in the streets of Granada it is where her parents met as young radical activists during the country’s civil war, and difficult because, though the civil war is over, the country is besieged by violent and murderous gangs. Sara had been with Carmen’s mother when she was in El Salvador. Carmen and her mother share a close relationship, and her mother’s time spent in El Salvador was one piece of her that she did not know well. She wanted to be in El Salvador where her mother had been. Carmen has funded all of her travel through Wheelock on her own. She has been known to work three jobs at one time. She says, “I do not earn money to buy things; I earn money to pay for experiences.” “I like to be outside of my comfort zone! When I travel, everything inside me is awake all of the time! The trees are different, the animals are different, the architecture is different—everything is different! I love talking with other people my age from other countries to hear what they do for fun!” Carmen sits with Amanda, the woman who hosted her in a small village in El Salvador. Amanda lost all of her children in the civil war. 25 <strong>magazine</strong>
Page 1 and 2: WINTER 2016 magazine Jackie Jenkins
Page 3: Dear Alumni and Friends, One of my
Page 6 and 7: In the News The Search for Wheelock
Page 8 and 9: STEM in the City 2016: A Summer Cam
Page 10 and 11: Developing Leadership for a Changin
Page 12 and 13: Feature “To each of us comes the
Page 14 and 15: “You will be better than those be
Page 16 and 17: Feature WHEELOCK COLLEGE CAREER SER
Page 18 and 19: Faculty Spotlight Three Families in
Page 20 and 21: Faculty Spotlight Adolescence and F
Page 22 and 23: Alumni Spotlight Rob Quinn ’86MS:
Page 24 and 25: Alumni Spotlight Mimi Katano ’93M
Page 28 and 29: Student Spotlight The Student Becom
Page 30 and 31: GIVING at a Glance Wheelock alumni
Page 32 and 33: WHEELOCK COLLEGE • ANNUAL REPORT
Page 42 and 43: Leadership Award Dinner Wheelock Co
Page 51 and 52: 1934 Jane Martin McMackin ’66 wri
Page 53 and 54: Class Notes much news to tell: “E
Page 55 and 56: Class Notes to continue to see the
Page 57 and 58: Class Notes and British Columbia. T
Page 59 and 60: Class Notes This happy, young-looki
Page 61 and 62: Class Notes “The amazing girls fr
Page 63 and 64: Class Notes Robin Fradkin Matthews
Page 65 and 66: Simmons ’07MS was selected as 201
Page 67 and 68: In Honor of Gwen Morgan ’76MS Mes

magazine

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?