A world of good
By Hannah Benoit
"I'm here to connect two of my worlds-Norton and Wheaton," Professor of Psychology Grace Baron says, addressing a crowd in the Woolley Room, "through a program that I love."
Baron introduces the course instructor, Geoffrey Collins, who steps to the podium. Behind him, an imposing image of a space satellite fills a wall screen. In front of him, a group of mostly gray-haired-and entirely attentive-students fill the seats.
"And I'm here to introduce you to my world-all things extraterrestrial," says the Wheaton assistant professor of geology. "Can anyone identify the object on the screen?"
Several hands shoot up, and Collins calls on a man toward the front. "It's Sputnik," the student says, correctly identifying the unmanned Russian satellite that was the first to orbit the Earth 50 years ago.
And so begins the first session of "Exploring Other Worlds," one of three courses offered to adult learners this fall by the Norton Institute for Continuing Education (NICE). The program, a partnership between Wheaton and the Epoch senior living center of Norton, has been offering noncredit college-level courses to local seniors since 1999. The courses, taught by Wheaton faculty and other local authorities, have addressed such diverse topics as American musical theater, the Civil War, New England architecture and world religions. NICE also sponsors free public lectures at Wheaton.
As NICE co-founder Baron points out, this partnership is just one of many long-standing collaborations between town and gown.
"Wheaton has a series of rich, sustained, reciprocal partnerships in this town," says the longtime Norton resident, "but sometimes they're almost like family relationships. People don't know about them outside the family."
So let it be known: The world at our doorstep is not worlds apart. For decades, local organizations and individuals have extended a host of learning opportunities to Wheaton students, while the campus community has reached out to its neighbors through community service, athletic opportunities, educational programming and the arts. These partnerships reflect the mutual interests of college and community, as well as Wheaton's emphasis on extending learning beyond the classroom.
The Norton Institute is one of the most successful of these collaborations. "The students who take our courses and attend the lectures always rave about the wonderful campus and professors," says NICE president Kaaren Harrington.
"Everyone at Wheaton is cooperative and accommodating, and Public Safety makes it possible for physically handicapped students to be dropped off close to the classrooms."
A shared history
Wheaton's tradition of community involvement dates back to the institution's earliest days. As founding mother Eliza Baylies Wheaton said of the seminary students of the 19th century: "It is my wish and hope that as they come in contact with the world, it shall be the better and happier for their having lived in it."
The family members who founded the female seminary that would become Wheaton College were also the town's primary benefactors. They built Norton's first public library on family land, donated land for a public high school and co-founded the Trinitarian Congregational Church. The family patriarch, Judge Laban Wheaton, served as town moderator for 20 terms, and his son Laban Morey Wheaton held multiple posts in town government (after his wife Eliza cured him of his penchant for carousing).
Over the years, more than two dozen faculty and staff members have followed the Wheatons' lead, serving in town government on the school committee, the board of selectmen, the finance committee, the public library board and more.
But despite the shared history of town and college, relations between the two have not always been harmonious. When the seminary became a four-year college in 1912, it began to develop and change much more rapidly than the town, according to college historian Paul Helmreich, professor of history emeritus. With the completion of Cole Chapel in 1917-18, the college severed its long-standing ties with the Trinitarian church, which Eliza Baylies Wheaton had cherished as dearly as the seminary. Many townspeople saw the rift as an insult to her memory, writes Helmreich in his history of the college.
Much of Wheaton's property is tax-exempt, a status that has rankled some residents over the years. In 1939 the college opposed the building of a dog-racing track in Norton and the project was rejected at town meeting. Bitterness lingered for years, according to Helmreich, who recalls: "I was still hearing in the sixties the view that all of the town's financial woes could be blamed on Wheaton for opposing the track, which would have generated much-needed tax revenue."
In the late 1960s, under President William Prentice, the college agreed to pay the town a sum equal to the taxes that would have been assessed on all college property not used for educational purposes, including housing rented by the college to faculty and staff.
Town-gown relations gradually improved in the 1980s and '90s, as Norton's population swelled and more white-collar professionals moved in. Wheaton President Alice F. Emerson presented the town with gifts of emergency-rescue equipment from the college, and her successor Dale Rogers Marshall worked closely with Norton officials, earning their respect and admiration.
Give and take
But even when town-gown relations have been rocky, Wheaton students and faculty have forged meaningful partnerships with neighbors in Norton and other local communities. By one count, those relationships now number well over 100.
Many out-of-classroom initiatives are tied to the curriculum, reflecting the college's commitment to experiential learning. Each year, more than 90 Wheaton students participate in fieldwork and student teaching in local public and independent schools and child care centers in Norton and nearby communities.
The college's relationship with local schools is so extensive that Grace Baron calls it "the Queen Mother of our community partnerships." Wheaton students contribute to the schools through their student teaching, research projects and tutoring while also benefiting from the supervision and guidance of the schools' teachers, some of whom also serve as visiting instructors at Wheaton.
"It's a mutual give-and-take," says Education Department chair Vicki Bartolini of this multifaceted alliance. "We regularly tap the expertise of our community partners for presentations, teaching courses and collaborating on the focus of student placements. Practicing teachers provide us with a reality check, too. They are teaching in the schools every day."
Wheaton has had a relationship with the Attleboro Public Schools for more than 30 years. In an era of high-stakes testing and increasing mandates on public education, second-grade teacher Claire Mallett finds that working with student teachers is "the antidote to teacher burnout."
"Having a future teacher in my classroom refocuses my vision on the prize that is real learning for all," Mallett says. "The Wheaton student brings a vitality and earnest desire to make a difference in the lives of children. Often, there is a very special bond that grows between my students and the Wheaton student, who is almost like a trusted older sibling to them. Wheaton students breathe life into our classrooms!"
Students in the education course "Multiple Perspectives in Literacy" get to field-test their learning at the Bennett Elementary School in Taunton, where they pair up with second graders for one-on-one tutoring. The Wheaton students plan all the lessons, using rhyming activities, music, drawing and poetry writing to make reading appealing. Their "literacy buddies" revel in the special attention.
"This is an amazing opportunity for my students to see the critical literacy theories they read about and discuss on campus actualized in this very diverse urban elementary school," says Mary Lee Griffin, associate professor of education.
Down the road in Plainville, Mass., students in Barbara Darling-Smith's "Religion and Ecology" course have participated in service-learning internships at the Crystal Spring Earth Learning Center since 1996. The students have assisted with worm composting, organic gardening, producing educational materials, creating ecological games for the center's children's camp and other projects. The class has also visited as a group to observe how the three Dominican sisters who run the center combine their sense of spirituality with a sense of stewardship toward the earth.
"Often, students have traveled to Crystal Spring on their own to do afternoon work projects," says Darling-Smith. "These always delight the hearts of both the Crystal Spring sisters, who are grateful for the help, and the students, who appreciate the kindness and warm hospitality they receive at Crystal Spring."
The sisters of Crystal Spring and the organic farmer who runs their community-supported agriculture program have also come to Wheaton, to speak to Donna Kerner's anthropology course, "Feast or Famine: The Ecology and Politics of Food."
Other community projects are run independently by students outside of class. Through Norton Youth Theatre (NYT), Wheaton thespians share their skills with 30 local schoolchildren to produce a fully staged children's musical each year at Norton Middle School. In December, the young actors will sing and dance their hearts out in Annie Junior, an adaptation of the musical Annie. Emma Allen, daughter of Music Department faculty members Matthew Allen and Julie Searles, will play the title role.
Through NYT, the Wheaton students have come to know many children and parents in town, says Danielle Ricci '09, the group's choreographer. The families in turn learn that "Wheaton is not just a place for rich kids. We're real people who are trying to build up a life for ourselves. We do NYT because we love musical theater and we want to help kids."
Ricci aspires to a career on Broadway: singing, dancing, acting, directing-she wants it all. NYT gives her a chance to practice every aspect of her craft through teaching.
Will Levenson '09 is the show's director, while music major Alexander Grover '09 serves as the music director. "I was in Annie when I was in middle school," Grover says. "To go from performing in it to teaching it is pretty special."
With years of saxophone lessons and band membership to his credit, Grover had considered a conservatory education, but he says that at Wheaton "the opportunities are endless. I can be involved in Norton Youth Theatre and direct an a cappella group [the Gentlemen Callers] and still take Spanish and have my music major."
Partners in learning
Although NYT is entirely student run, it now falls under the wing of Wheaton's Office of Service, Spirituality and Social Responsibility (SSSR), established in December 2005. The creation of SSSR represents a major institutional commitment to students' community service and co-curricular projects.
"The office builds on an ethic of service that is as old as the Wheaton Female Seminary," says Vereene Parnell, associate dean of SSSR. "It also builds on the pioneering work of the Filene Center and professors such as Grace Baron, Ed Tong [biology] and Derek Price [psychology], who have supported curriculum-based experiential learning for over two decades. However, it is the passion of our students that 'drives this bus.' They bring the ideas and the energy."
That energy was in high gear during fall semester, as Wheaton's first-year students rolled up their sleeves to complete service projects for a dozen organizations at 25 local sites, including Head Start, the Arc of Northern Bristol County and the Norton Public Library park. Known as Season of Service, this new SSSR initiative expands upon Wheaton's traditional service day. On one Saturday morning alone, 100 students visited residences managed by Taunton Housing Authority (directed by Colleen Doherty '90) to do everything from washing walls and flipping mattresses to cleaning ovens and raking courtyards.
The projects gave new students a chance to get to know their neighbors as well as their classmates. And as one elderly resident said as a student cleaned his windows, "This is wonderful!"
Since taking office in 2004, President Ronald Crutcher has reached out to the community in several other ways. He has hosted dinners at his home with local officials, businesspersons and educators to begin a dialogue on issues of common concern, such as the depressed literacy rate in Bristol County. And in 2005, the president revived Wheaton's tradition of Community Day, welcoming hundreds of local residents to campus for a festive day of arts, entertainment and hands-on activities. Wheaton's student athletes, who regularly conduct community sports clinics for children, are also active on Community Day, when they host activities for kids in Haas Athletic Center.
The theme of Community Day 2007 was "Partners in Learning," and it included a reception honoring the people and organizations that have provided enriching experiences to Wheaton students in recent years. More than 30 local partners attended the gathering.
"I talk about 'partners in learning' a lot," says Parnell, "because it's important for people to understand that the community is contributing to our students' education as much as our students are giving back to the community."
While Wheaton students have been organizing and leading community service projects for a long time, the office of SSSR has given them a home base, staffed by people who are there to support them. The dean and her staff-VISTA volunteer Katherine Jennings and administrative assistant Barbara Bayon-are also there to gently challenge students to think about how they can contribute to local organizations in a sustainable way.
"I tell them, 'You can't just fill the volunteer spots, because in May, you'll be gone.' It's an exercise in problem solving for the students," Parnell says.
The dean also stresses that service can be an interaction that benefits everyone involved. "We have to move beyond the charity model of service," she says, "because that is a one-way, top-down approach: 'We of great bounty give to those in need.' That might make us feel good for a while, but it doesn't address the systemic issues or get all of us working together to create a better community."
When we all work together, says Parnell, we are able to learn from the experience and wisdom of others. "Students have a lot to learn outside the classroom. We're fortunate that our surrounding communities are inviting us in and giving us that chance."
