Sometimes being active in your college and also in your home community isn't as difficult as you might think. For Rachel Bigelow '10, it's the same thing this summer. The Ilion native, funded by the Levitt Community Service Fellowship, has taken up the reins of the Utica Refugee Community Garden, located at the F.X. Matt Apartments, one of the refugee housing units in Utica. Bigelow is working with Judith Owens-Manley, associate director for community research at the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center. Her project was started last year by Jenney Stringer '08, who also received funding from a Levitt Center grant. Stringer negotiated with the Utica Municipal Housing Authority (UMHA) to receive permission to start the garden, and then worked with volunteers and residents to get the project off the ground.
This year, the garden is a reality, and Bigelow's work is to help it become independent and self-sustaining. As a result, she says, "My job changes a lot from day to day." She facilitates meetings at the garden, organizes activities with the residents' children, and provides a contact in case of problems, such as a recent episode where unknown insects attacked the plants. Eventually, the goal is to take a more hands-off approach as the residents become more independent in running the garden.
The community garden creates an important mechanism for people from different cultures to work together. In a community made up of Bosnians, Somalians, and Russian-speaking refugees from Belarus, communication can be a problem. "There is a big separation between different language communities," Bigelow says. "This is one of the only ways they can interact."
Bigelow also aims to draw the Hamilton and Utica communities closer together through the garden. With the help of Hillary Joy Pitoniak, the Hamilton greenhouse technician, she arranged to start plants in the greenhouse and then move them to the garden at the F.X. Matt Apartments during a "planting day." She also hopes to foster a connection with the Cornhill Community Garden in Utica.
A psychology major at Hamilton, Bigelow is a tour guide and worked this year as the supervisor for the phone-a-thon. Her favorite activity, however, is her job as a Resident Advisor. She notes that her experience as an RA was good practice for facilitating the community garden, and she expects her work this summer to help her in her campus job, as well. "It works both ways," she says. After Hamilton, she hopes to pursue work in the non-profit sector, possibly as a lobbyist against educational inequalities. Her work on the community garden has been about "learning to facilitate things," she says, which will be excellent preparation for working in a non-profit organization.
Bigelow emphasizes the help she received from the Hamilton community in pursuing this project, particularly from Stringer, Pitoniak, and Owens-Manley. Her fellowship, one of the two Civic Engagement Fellowships funded by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center, is community service-based, and focuses on providing support to initiatives in the Utica area.
-- by Laura Bramley
This year, the garden is a reality, and Bigelow's work is to help it become independent and self-sustaining. As a result, she says, "My job changes a lot from day to day." She facilitates meetings at the garden, organizes activities with the residents' children, and provides a contact in case of problems, such as a recent episode where unknown insects attacked the plants. Eventually, the goal is to take a more hands-off approach as the residents become more independent in running the garden.
The community garden creates an important mechanism for people from different cultures to work together. In a community made up of Bosnians, Somalians, and Russian-speaking refugees from Belarus, communication can be a problem. "There is a big separation between different language communities," Bigelow says. "This is one of the only ways they can interact."
Bigelow also aims to draw the Hamilton and Utica communities closer together through the garden. With the help of Hillary Joy Pitoniak, the Hamilton greenhouse technician, she arranged to start plants in the greenhouse and then move them to the garden at the F.X. Matt Apartments during a "planting day." She also hopes to foster a connection with the Cornhill Community Garden in Utica.
A psychology major at Hamilton, Bigelow is a tour guide and worked this year as the supervisor for the phone-a-thon. Her favorite activity, however, is her job as a Resident Advisor. She notes that her experience as an RA was good practice for facilitating the community garden, and she expects her work this summer to help her in her campus job, as well. "It works both ways," she says. After Hamilton, she hopes to pursue work in the non-profit sector, possibly as a lobbyist against educational inequalities. Her work on the community garden has been about "learning to facilitate things," she says, which will be excellent preparation for working in a non-profit organization.
Bigelow emphasizes the help she received from the Hamilton community in pursuing this project, particularly from Stringer, Pitoniak, and Owens-Manley. Her fellowship, one of the two Civic Engagement Fellowships funded by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center, is community service-based, and focuses on providing support to initiatives in the Utica area.
-- by Laura Bramley
