Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The views and opinions expressed in the following programmer those
of the speaker and don't necessarily represent those of the station, gets, staff,
management or ownership.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, you'll find you out with Pete the Poet Gold.
I'm Peter Leonard and I'm the poet Gold and we're
on the air this morning with three students from Vasa
called Italia and Molly. And before we get to these
three students, we're going to go right to the polic
goal for weekly prayer poem incanntation a goal. Please let
it roll.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, I'm going to do three high coups from my
body of work. You on my blue It's what nature
has shown me. Haiku one walking in the woods, beauty
may be at your feet, careful where you step. Haiku
two there was always gold hidden amongst the green leaves,
look at the autumn trees. And Haiku three, there is
(00:54):
connection which man could learn this lesson don't fear difference.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
And with those three hikus, three people, three hikus, and
our one host, which is Sydney Covell. The host for
today is student who might most of our listeners are
very well aware of Sydney. Let it go.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So, first of all, thank you guys so much for
joining us. I know it's really difficult because we're still
in final season, so I really appreciate you guys coming out.
So I want to start individually by just figuring our
letting our listeners know individually who you are and how
you interact with the Poughkeepsie community. So I originally asked
you guys to be here because I'm part of the
Community Engaged Learning Experience at Vassar and it's basically an
(01:39):
organization on campus that allows students to connect to the
broader community of Poughkeepsie. So, Mollie, why don't you tell
us about your experience in the CEO.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
So, I'm Mollie del Hunty. I'm a junior philosophy major
at Vassar during a women's studies corel it. This is
my first time doing a CEO at Vassar, but I've
had lots of friends praising the experience. Was happy to
join it. I'm working with the Hudson Valley Justice Center.
This is our first time doing a CEL. It is
a housing justice nonprofit law firm. So I've been going
(02:10):
in about four hours a week and conducting some legal
research to help out attorneys with their cases. Wow, that's
really powerful work. Talia, do you want to go ahead?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (02:19):
Hi, I'm Talia. I'm also a junior at Vassar and
I'm an environmental studies major. I'm involved in the CEL
office through Nature's Impact, which is an organization that does
work with local Poughkeepsie students to kind of represent different
facets of the environment and environmental statistics with art. And
so we're particularly working on gathering water quality data for
(02:43):
the fall Kill Stream and representing that with the students
through an art exhibition.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
And then Calder, do you want to take it away? Sure?
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (02:53):
My name is Calder Beasley. I'm a Science, Technology and
Society major at Vassorm and for my cl this semester,
I've been working with the Dutchess County Mediation Center and
so we work with restorative justice initiatives, and specifically I've
been working in schools and so we've been working with
teachers in different clubs to build community through restorative justice
(03:15):
and also examine some discipline in schools with a restorative framework.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Wow. So all amazing cels. And my first question, you know,
anyone can answer what has been the most influential and
powerful experience you've had within your CEL.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I'm just trying to tell you almost not an answer,
but in CEL is community community engaged learning, of community
engaged learning, it's being out in the world and called up.
Besides me being fresh, I really want to hear any
answers to Sydney's question.
Speaker 7 (03:51):
Awesome, thank you so keeps coming. The day after the election,
I got to be part of a training for Sort
of Justice with a group of about fifteen teachers, and
it was a difficult morning to wake up and jump
into an eight hour training, but over the course of
the morning, we created an environment that was not only
(04:13):
supportive but also deeply reflective, and so not only could
we tackle political issues and how everyone was showing up
in this space, but we also worked through how to
take our restorative framework and kind of this idea of
really valuing relationships and not only apply that to our
work in schools but also to our lives. That was
really awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Oh, could you give me a favorite for our audience
and explain to them restorative because a lot of people
use the terminology today but really don't understand what it
means and how it's utilized in today's society.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (04:45):
Sorry, sometimes I've been in the world a little bit
too long that I forget to really explain it. But
a resortive justice is sort of a philosophy. It has
indigenous roots, and so oftentimes it's a way of going
throughout conflict and so in sorry, but using a resorative framework,
(05:08):
it means that we really look to relationships and being
curious and understanding the full context. So instead of when
someone makes a mistake or causes harm, we exclude them
or send them to jail or some other practices that
we use in our more punitive society, a resorative approach
would first lead people to ask questions about why is
(05:28):
this person doing the things that they're doing, What are
the needs that haven't been met, and how can we
all as a community work to meet the needs of
all of the individuals so that we can work together
and either repair harm or build a strong enough community
so that harm doesn't really happen in the future as much.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
So it looks at the more sociological impacts on a
person's life and the choices that they made.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
Yes, yes, exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
And then Molly, I had a question for you, how
did Vassar facilitate the relationship between you and your CEO?
Was it easy, because that's a powerful opportunity, and I
know that my relationship with the iHeartRadio studio was definitely
facilitated through the school easily. But I'm wondering how that
experience was for you.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
Yeah, so I haven't done a CEO before, so I
don't really have anything to compare it to. It was
definitely a teeny bit rocky in the beginning, just because
they were working out all the logistics between getting credit
and setting up a relationship with a new organization. But
everybody out the Justice Center is insanely welcoming and just
very generous people who are very proud of their work,
(06:37):
so they were happy to accept. I believe there's four
interns from Bassard this semester. They were very happy and
you know, accepted us with open arms, so they were
just ready to jump right in with us.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Wow, that's that's really beautiful. And then Tali, I have
another question for you. So you mentioned that you work
with the water quality within Poughkeepsie. Have you come across
any striking revelations that have either that you are interested
to you?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Yeah, so there are a.
Speaker 8 (07:03):
Couple of things that we found.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
One of the greatest facets of the data that we
found is that actually in the fall Kill River stream,
sorry chloride levels, nitrate levels, phosphate fluoride, and ammonium levels
are all well within the legal standards for recreational water.
Speaker 8 (07:21):
Which is really positive.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
But we did find a lot of bacteria in the
water which is above the legal threshold, which is not uncommon,
particularly in an area like Pickkeepsie that has both the
confluence of urban and agricultural land use. It's not that
uncommon for that to be the case, but it does
(07:44):
make the water slightly dangerous for people using it recreationally,
like you shouldn't go in it, you definitely shouldn't drink it.
And so that was a really important revelation. And then
we also found that a lot of the pollutant levels
in the fall Kill, which is in the city of Poughkeepsie,
we're actually a lot lower than the pollutants in the
Casper Kill, which is in the town of Poughkeepsie.
Speaker 8 (08:07):
And that's kind of a.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Reverse because I think this stereotype that's often perpetuated is
that urban areas that often also like stereotypically have.
Speaker 8 (08:18):
Lower income people, including in Poughkeepsie. That's definitely the case.
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Are stereotype to be dirtier or less clean, But it's
actually that the town, which has higher income per capita,
has slightly more.
Speaker 8 (08:32):
Elevated levels of pollution.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
So I think that that was a really important stigma
that we were kind of able to disprove a little bit.
Speaker 7 (08:39):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
I mean that's fascinating work. Do you want to take it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, yeah, that is a very fascinating I live in
the town, So you just you just made me like
a Really, if you're just tuning in, you're listening to
finding guy with Pete in the poet Gold, and I'm
the poet Gold and we're here today with our assistance
of Sidney Kvel from Vassar College, as as well as
a Calder Beasley and Talia Eustein and Molly Della Hunt.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Just having a wonderful conversation about the experience in politics
and what they do and being led by how wonderful
Sydney Covell.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Okay, So now on a more broader scale, I want
to talk to you guys about Vassar's relationship to Poughkeepsie.
I mean, I know, I got invested in a cel
CEL program because I wanted to understand Poughkeepsie more. And
a common thing I've talked about on the show talked
about it last week is the bubble around Vassar's campus.
(09:33):
You know, the physical stone wall that goes around the
entire border of the campus being a representation of how.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Closed our walls are.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
So, how do you think or how do you feel
about Vassar's relationship to Poughkeepsie And is that one of
the factors that made you choose CEL as a class Molly,
do you want to start?
Speaker 5 (09:56):
Yeah, I definitely chose CEL to do a CEO because
of I felt a bit disconnected from the greater Poughkeepsie community.
I feel like Vasser absolutely exists in its own bubble.
People may don't really travel into especially the city of Poughkeepsie,
all that often, and it's very easy to while being
on Vassar's campus kind of become disengaged or just unaware
(10:19):
of greater issues in the Poughkeepsie area that community members
are advocating for and fighting for that Vesser members just
really aren't aware of because of the privileges that come with,
you know, attending a higher education university. So I really
wanted to get into the community, hear what community members
needed and wanted and what they were advocating for, and
(10:40):
to you know, come at that with them instead of
apart from them.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Absolutely, And do you feel that you're receiving that kind
of feedback from community members in your CEO?
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Yeah, I absolutely do. I don't do much direct engagement
with community members themselves. I'm mostly working with the attorneys
who are in turn working with the clients. But is
it's just a very positive and overwhelming joyous feeling that
you get when a client wins a case, even if
that is especially just with the state of housing in
(11:13):
Poughkeepsie and the Greater Hudson Valley right now. Good Cause
of Ction was recently passed earlier this year, which is
a really great a lot that has been protecting protecting
community members from being evicted or from their rents increasing.
So it's been very powerful to see how that affects
community members, and it's been very powerful to see these
(11:34):
attorneys advocating for for Poughkeepsie residents.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Is that something that is that something that's strictly for
the city of Poughkeepsie or New York State or the
Hudson Valley, this particular lawyer you're referring to it.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Yeah, So Good Cause of Ction was passed at a
state level, but different counties are able to opt into it.
So Poughkeepsie opted in, I believe this July. Newburgh recently
opted in, Kingston opted in as well. But there are
a lot of advocates for the Money is another organization
that advocates for a housing justice. So they are pushing
(12:08):
a lot of education about Good Cause of Fiction around
the state and hoping to pass that in other communities
as well.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah, and kind of segueing to Calder's work, I remember
the first time you told me about your CEO opportunity
and how emotional it can be and how challenging it
can be to kind of just go from the Vassar
space to the public schools of Poughkeepsie.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
You want to talk a little bit more about.
Speaker 7 (12:35):
That, sure, Yeah. I take a lot of education classes
at Vassa. I am an aspiring teacher, and so something
that frustrated me was we would talk about these large
scale education issues in class, but we didn't have that
like real life piece, it's experiential piece, and so through
my cels I've gotten to do that. But it's a
(12:55):
start contrast, because when we talk about maybe like a
language justice in the classroom, in class we're not always
able to have all of the real life factors of
the lack of funding and of the lack of the
teacher shortage. And so going into the schools, you see
these issues firsthand, which I think is equal parts emotional
but also like deeply educating. And so oftentimes it can
(13:19):
be difficult when you're working with a child who you
know may or may not have had a lot of
food the day before, the night before, or you're working
with teachers who are overworked and underpaid. And so it
allows me to take my knowledge and understanding of education
philosophy in the classroom and see where it kind of
comes short in reality, and it allows me to be
(13:41):
more creative when I'm problem solving and trying to fix
these issues that I get to see firsthand instead of
just think about them in the classroom.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Absolutely, And then Tala, Yeah, how do you feel that
Vassar has either expanded your knowledge of the Pokeepsie area
or kind of limited your knowledge.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
I think at Vasser, in order to use the institution
to expand your knowledge, you sometimes have to seek it
out yourself, like trying to do a CEL or joining
organizations that are involved in the community. I wouldn't say
that it's necessarily inherent to everyone's faster experience, and that
most of the people I know, including myself, who have
(14:25):
engaged in the community have known they wanted to do
that and chosen to do it. So I definitely think
Vassar could do a better job engaging all students or
incorporating it into a broader curriculum.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
I also think kind of building off of that when
we talk about Vasser engaging in the community and popping
the bubble. One way, of course is doing cels and
having students into the community. But I also think it's
very much a two way relationship, and something that I've
also tried to explore is how do I enter the
community and learn about and work with the community, but
then also how do we bring the community onto Vassar's
(15:00):
campus in ways that kind of support everyone in that relationship.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Have you found any ways? I'm just curious.
Speaker 7 (15:08):
Yeah, So, with different educational organizations, we do try to
invite students onto campus for tours or for other events.
But my final project for my CEO this semester is
a presentation I made a resource for teachers, and so
I'm having sort of like a launch party and so idea,
and so I've invited a lot of the teachers that
I've worked with and people I've been in training with,
(15:30):
and so ideally we can have a group of Vassar
students looking to be educators and educated from the community
on campus to really talk about these pressing issues.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Wow, that's that's an amazing final project.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You Yeah, I want to comment on that because the
Bubble Ambassador has not been new.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
It's almost that time.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, well we'll get a couple of minutes, a couple
of seconds, but the bubble invasaor has not been new,
and so I think that anything I could help sort
of like burst it, you know, push it forward, like
with your project, is a very good idea. And considering
that this is your junior year, you're you know, you
have a couple more years right to come up with
some more ideas that really may push the envelope forward
(16:12):
and engage not only Vassa students with the city of
Poughkeepsie outside of the organizations, because I think OCL does
a phenomenal job. You know, I sit on the board
of nonprofit. I've worked in nonprofit here in the city
at Poughkeepsie, and I know that we could not exist
without the students from Vassa really and the surrounding colleges.
(16:32):
It just and I know that I probably there are
other organizations that feel the same way. But what definitely
has been lacking, I think is sort of that organic
and holistic relationship between a college and the local community
and its citizens. You know, when when people think about
(16:54):
the mid Hudson Valley and particularly the city of Poughkeepsie
sort of like say, well, we're a college town, but
we're but we're not. You know, we have Barred, we
have Maris, we have you know, a Vassor. But you know,
unless it's a party, you know, you know, there's a
there's an engagement that is lost. And so hopefully one
day it'll be truly an immersive experience for everyone. And
(17:17):
with that said, I think I did one of your
editorialism right. So so with that said, I want to
once again say, if you're just tuning in, you're listening
and finding out with Pete the Poet Gold and I'm
the poet Gold and we're here with Sidney Covell, our
assistants from Vassar College, as well as Calder Beasley, Talia Eustein,
and Molly Della Hunty, who are all students in Vassa
(17:37):
College sharing their insight and their wisdom about their personal experience.
I just want to ask one more question before I
give you back the mic. You of off air, you
were speaking about your experience with the voting registration, and
I want to sort of shift the conversation and what
is your experience as far as going out into the
field trying to get people the register and also your future.
(18:02):
How do you see the current political climate and how
it may impact yourself as students.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Most of the voter registration that we do is on
Vassar's campus, particularly with Vassar students, which involves a lot
of tabling, sitting outside inside a lot of places kind
of just not heckling people, but.
Speaker 8 (18:27):
Trying to engage people as they walk by.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
And it can definitely be tiring and a little discouraging
sometimes because people live at a fast pace and will
often walk by or say that they'll do it later
when I anticipate that they won't. But that being said,
we registered many many people to vote this time around,
(18:51):
and on campus we had record high voter turnout, So
those are all really positive things.
Speaker 7 (18:58):
Yeah, Ty and I both work together in vasser Votes,
which is an organization of a bunch of Vassar students
who are voting advisors for the college. And I would
say that when we are interfacing with Vaster students, or
when I work with high schoolers who are getting ready
to vote, or even parents, are anyone in the community,
the one thing that I try to do is just
figure out what speaks to them, what issues do they
(19:20):
care about, because so often people feel like the political
system doesn't represent them or that going to vote is
a waste of time, their vote isn't heard, and so
really interfacing and working on that relationship and figuring out
what are the things that you care about and how
do you view yourself in the community, How do Vassar
students get connected and how are they impacted by these issues?
And usually that gets them out to vote.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
One more thing would be that there's a choice that
Vassar students have, which is that college students are allowed
to vote legally allowed to vote either in their college
town or at home. And so a lot we present
Vassar students with the choice to vote in the town
of Poughkeepsie or also to help regis for them to
vote by absentee ballot. And it's really about negotiating that
(20:06):
kind of choice. And the Kipsie is a very purple
area and a lot of swing elections. So we try
and encourage people, particularly people like myself who come from
very like politically homogeneous like hometowns, to get involved and
vote here because you can really feel that your vote
counts absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And so in an interest of time, I do have
two questions for you guys. But so on Wednesday at
the Van Faily election, my professor's one of my professors,
and I'm interested to see if you guys had a
similar relationship or similar experience. Looked at my class and said,
this is on you guys. This is something that is
(20:47):
a youth issue. You know, the youth vote. This is
our countries now in your hands, you know, kind of
putting the blame as well as responsibility on.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
The younger, younger generation.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
So I'm curious if you guys had similar experiences in
your classes the next day, or if you guys had
restorative circles in your classes. My classes were not that progressive,
which I was little shocked, but it's okay. And then also,
are you going abroad because I'm going to Sydney, Australia,
and I also know but and I'm pretty psyched about it,
(21:21):
but you know, I think I'm a little nervous to
return as well.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
So we'll start with you, Molly.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
Yeah, So I am going abroad to Glasgow, Scotland next semester.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
I'm very excited.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
It's beautiful there and I am excited to get out
of the country during that's pretty politically tumultuous time. But
I do feel a little bit of a twinge of
guilt for kind of fleeing, I guess in a way.
But in terms of the Wednesday after the election, most
of my classes actually had pretty great I wouldn't say
(21:54):
restorative conversations, but very emotional in raw conversations about our
feelings about the election. I remember early Wednesday morning, I
had a meeting with my advisor and you know, we
had both woken up seen the news. I listened to
the NPR Politics podcast too, while I was getting ready
just to update myself. But I walked on to campus
(22:16):
and there was this just like weight in the air.
You could kind of see it on everyone's face as
you were walking around. At Vassar, there's a pretty obviously
like homogeneous liberal standing, so most people were pretty upset
with the results, but there was just a general, very
depressed mood on campus that day, and I definitely saw
(22:37):
that carry out in my classes and in my conversations.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
You gonna go ahead, Talia, sure.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
I Actually I work with the Office of Restorative Practices
at Vassar, and the day after the election, I held
a restorative circle just to talk about how people were feeling.
And it didn't have super popular at tenants, but there
were a couple of people there and it was a
positive experience to hear from other people, especially people who
are feeling as discouraged as I am.
Speaker 7 (23:05):
Go ahead, Caler, Yeah, I was at a full day
restorative justice training, so my day was quite restorative. But
I will say a response to your professor, I think
that fingerpointing and blaming kind of got us to this
moment politically in the first place, so I try not
to engage in that. But I think most of my conversations,
especially with professors, we're quite restorative and just figuring out
(23:27):
like where students were feeling in the moment and just
like what needs they have.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
And Talia, you had mentioned earlier in the conversation, I
just wanted to clear it up for our viewers who
may not understand it. You had reference of Poughkeepsie being
a purple space. Can you explain that to our listeners
what you mean by that.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
Yeah, of course, a purple area kind just means that
there's relatively equal representation on both sides of the political spectrum,
so both Republicans and Democrats, and that a lot of
elections in.
Speaker 8 (23:56):
Poughkeepsie are pretty tight between the two parties.
Speaker 7 (24:01):
Also, just following up with Sydney's question about study abroad,
I am doing a health program that's going to Deli, India,
Cape Town, South Africa, and Buenos Airi's Argentina, and I'm
so excited.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Well, that's getting outside of Poughkeepsie.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
I'll bring the knowledge back.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And you know, one of the things that is true
about education. Education is about the world, the world community,
and to have an awful lot of activities on campus,
which should of builds your muscles for the getting out
there for the for the real game is a big
(24:41):
deal and I think that sometimes it's overrated how insular
we're in on itself. Faster is because all three of
you students being working through the Office of Community Engaged
Learning really gives another profile of Faster, which I really
want to emphasize. Another way to emphasize that is Sydney
(25:02):
and Colvell did a really good job here at Our
Heart Media and The Poet Gold wants to end on that.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
This was just the last two weeks have been really
an exciting show and I thank you guys for you know,
coming on and Sydney you did a great job, and
so thank you so once again to our listeners, I
want to thank you for listening and tuning into finding
Out with Pete and The Poet Gold and we're just,
you know, extremely grateful to have you listen and tune
in every week and thank you for your support.
The views and opinions expressed in the following programmer those
of the speaker and don't necessarily represent those of the station, gets, staff,
management or ownership.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, you'll find you out with Pete the Poet Gold.
I'm Peter Leonard and I'm the poet Gold and we're
on the air this morning with three students from Vasa
called Italia and Molly. And before we get to these
three students, we're going to go right to the polic
goal for weekly prayer poem incanntation a goal. Please let
it roll.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, I'm going to do three high coups from my
body of work. You on my blue It's what nature
has shown me. Haiku one walking in the woods, beauty
may be at your feet, careful where you step. Haiku
two there was always gold hidden amongst the green leaves,
look at the autumn trees. And Haiku three, there is
(00:54):
connection which man could learn this lesson don't fear difference.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
And with those three hikus, three people, three hikus, and
our one host, which is Sydney Covell. The host for
today is student who might most of our listeners are
very well aware of Sydney. Let it go.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So, first of all, thank you guys so much for
joining us. I know it's really difficult because we're still
in final season, so I really appreciate you guys coming out.
So I want to start individually by just figuring our
letting our listeners know individually who you are and how
you interact with the Poughkeepsie community. So I originally asked
you guys to be here because I'm part of the
Community Engaged Learning Experience at Vassar and it's basically an
(01:39):
organization on campus that allows students to connect to the
broader community of Poughkeepsie. So, Mollie, why don't you tell
us about your experience in the CEO.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
So, I'm Mollie del Hunty. I'm a junior philosophy major
at Vassar during a women's studies corel it. This is
my first time doing a CEO at Vassar, but I've
had lots of friends praising the experience. Was happy to
join it. I'm working with the Hudson Valley Justice Center.
This is our first time doing a CEL. It is
a housing justice nonprofit law firm. So I've been going
(02:10):
in about four hours a week and conducting some legal
research to help out attorneys with their cases. Wow, that's
really powerful work. Talia, do you want to go ahead?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (02:19):
Hi, I'm Talia. I'm also a junior at Vassar and
I'm an environmental studies major. I'm involved in the CEL
office through Nature's Impact, which is an organization that does
work with local Poughkeepsie students to kind of represent different
facets of the environment and environmental statistics with art. And
so we're particularly working on gathering water quality data for
(02:43):
the fall Kill Stream and representing that with the students
through an art exhibition.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
And then Calder, do you want to take it away? Sure?
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (02:53):
My name is Calder Beasley. I'm a Science, Technology and
Society major at Vassorm and for my cl this semester,
I've been working with the Dutchess County Mediation Center and
so we work with restorative justice initiatives, and specifically I've
been working in schools and so we've been working with
teachers in different clubs to build community through restorative justice
(03:15):
and also examine some discipline in schools with a restorative framework.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Wow. So all amazing cels. And my first question, you know,
anyone can answer what has been the most influential and
powerful experience you've had within your CEL.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I'm just trying to tell you almost not an answer,
but in CEL is community community engaged learning, of community
engaged learning, it's being out in the world and called up.
Besides me being fresh, I really want to hear any
answers to Sydney's question.
Speaker 7 (03:51):
Awesome, thank you so keeps coming. The day after the election,
I got to be part of a training for Sort
of Justice with a group of about fifteen teachers, and
it was a difficult morning to wake up and jump
into an eight hour training, but over the course of
the morning, we created an environment that was not only
(04:13):
supportive but also deeply reflective, and so not only could
we tackle political issues and how everyone was showing up
in this space, but we also worked through how to
take our restorative framework and kind of this idea of
really valuing relationships and not only apply that to our
work in schools but also to our lives. That was
really awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Oh, could you give me a favorite for our audience
and explain to them restorative because a lot of people
use the terminology today but really don't understand what it
means and how it's utilized in today's society.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (04:45):
Sorry, sometimes I've been in the world a little bit
too long that I forget to really explain it. But
a resortive justice is sort of a philosophy. It has
indigenous roots, and so oftentimes it's a way of going
throughout conflict and so in sorry, but using a resorative framework,
(05:08):
it means that we really look to relationships and being
curious and understanding the full context. So instead of when
someone makes a mistake or causes harm, we exclude them
or send them to jail or some other practices that
we use in our more punitive society, a resorative approach
would first lead people to ask questions about why is
(05:28):
this person doing the things that they're doing, What are
the needs that haven't been met, and how can we
all as a community work to meet the needs of
all of the individuals so that we can work together
and either repair harm or build a strong enough community
so that harm doesn't really happen in the future as much.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
So it looks at the more sociological impacts on a
person's life and the choices that they made.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
Yes, yes, exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
And then Molly, I had a question for you, how
did Vassar facilitate the relationship between you and your CEO?
Was it easy, because that's a powerful opportunity, and I
know that my relationship with the iHeartRadio studio was definitely
facilitated through the school easily. But I'm wondering how that
experience was for you.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
Yeah, so I haven't done a CEO before, so I
don't really have anything to compare it to. It was
definitely a teeny bit rocky in the beginning, just because
they were working out all the logistics between getting credit
and setting up a relationship with a new organization. But
everybody out the Justice Center is insanely welcoming and just
very generous people who are very proud of their work,
(06:37):
so they were happy to accept. I believe there's four
interns from Bassard this semester. They were very happy and
you know, accepted us with open arms, so they were
just ready to jump right in with us.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Wow, that's that's really beautiful. And then Tali, I have
another question for you. So you mentioned that you work
with the water quality within Poughkeepsie. Have you come across
any striking revelations that have either that you are interested
to you?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Yeah, so there are a.
Speaker 8 (07:03):
Couple of things that we found.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
One of the greatest facets of the data that we
found is that actually in the fall Kill River stream,
sorry chloride levels, nitrate levels, phosphate fluoride, and ammonium levels
are all well within the legal standards for recreational water.
Speaker 8 (07:21):
Which is really positive.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
But we did find a lot of bacteria in the
water which is above the legal threshold, which is not uncommon,
particularly in an area like Pickkeepsie that has both the
confluence of urban and agricultural land use. It's not that
uncommon for that to be the case, but it does
(07:44):
make the water slightly dangerous for people using it recreationally,
like you shouldn't go in it, you definitely shouldn't drink it.
And so that was a really important revelation. And then
we also found that a lot of the pollutant levels
in the fall Kill, which is in the city of Poughkeepsie,
we're actually a lot lower than the pollutants in the
Casper Kill, which is in the town of Poughkeepsie.
Speaker 8 (08:07):
And that's kind of a.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Reverse because I think this stereotype that's often perpetuated is
that urban areas that often also like stereotypically have.
Speaker 8 (08:18):
Lower income people, including in Poughkeepsie. That's definitely the case.
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Are stereotype to be dirtier or less clean, But it's
actually that the town, which has higher income per capita,
has slightly more.
Speaker 8 (08:32):
Elevated levels of pollution.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
So I think that that was a really important stigma
that we were kind of able to disprove a little bit.
Speaker 7 (08:39):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
I mean that's fascinating work. Do you want to take it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, yeah, that is a very fascinating I live in
the town, So you just you just made me like
a Really, if you're just tuning in, you're listening to
finding guy with Pete in the poet Gold, and I'm
the poet Gold and we're here today with our assistance
of Sidney Kvel from Vassar College, as as well as
a Calder Beasley and Talia Eustein and Molly Della Hunt.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Just having a wonderful conversation about the experience in politics
and what they do and being led by how wonderful
Sydney Covell.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Okay, So now on a more broader scale, I want
to talk to you guys about Vassar's relationship to Poughkeepsie.
I mean, I know, I got invested in a cel
CEL program because I wanted to understand Poughkeepsie more. And
a common thing I've talked about on the show talked
about it last week is the bubble around Vassar's campus.
(09:33):
You know, the physical stone wall that goes around the
entire border of the campus being a representation of how.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Closed our walls are.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
So, how do you think or how do you feel
about Vassar's relationship to Poughkeepsie And is that one of
the factors that made you choose CEL as a class Molly,
do you want to start?
Speaker 5 (09:56):
Yeah, I definitely chose CEL to do a CEO because
of I felt a bit disconnected from the greater Poughkeepsie community.
I feel like Vasser absolutely exists in its own bubble.
People may don't really travel into especially the city of Poughkeepsie,
all that often, and it's very easy to while being
on Vassar's campus kind of become disengaged or just unaware
(10:19):
of greater issues in the Poughkeepsie area that community members
are advocating for and fighting for that Vesser members just
really aren't aware of because of the privileges that come with,
you know, attending a higher education university. So I really
wanted to get into the community, hear what community members
needed and wanted and what they were advocating for, and
(10:40):
to you know, come at that with them instead of
apart from them.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Absolutely, And do you feel that you're receiving that kind
of feedback from community members in your CEO?
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Yeah, I absolutely do. I don't do much direct engagement
with community members themselves. I'm mostly working with the attorneys
who are in turn working with the clients. But is
it's just a very positive and overwhelming joyous feeling that
you get when a client wins a case, even if
that is especially just with the state of housing in
(11:13):
Poughkeepsie and the Greater Hudson Valley right now. Good Cause
of Ction was recently passed earlier this year, which is
a really great a lot that has been protecting protecting
community members from being evicted or from their rents increasing.
So it's been very powerful to see how that affects
community members, and it's been very powerful to see these
(11:34):
attorneys advocating for for Poughkeepsie residents.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Is that something that is that something that's strictly for
the city of Poughkeepsie or New York State or the
Hudson Valley, this particular lawyer you're referring to it.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Yeah, So Good Cause of Ction was passed at a
state level, but different counties are able to opt into it.
So Poughkeepsie opted in, I believe this July. Newburgh recently
opted in, Kingston opted in as well. But there are
a lot of advocates for the Money is another organization
that advocates for a housing justice. So they are pushing
(12:08):
a lot of education about Good Cause of Fiction around
the state and hoping to pass that in other communities
as well.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah, and kind of segueing to Calder's work, I remember
the first time you told me about your CEO opportunity
and how emotional it can be and how challenging it
can be to kind of just go from the Vassar
space to the public schools of Poughkeepsie.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
You want to talk a little bit more about.
Speaker 7 (12:35):
That, sure, Yeah. I take a lot of education classes
at Vassa. I am an aspiring teacher, and so something
that frustrated me was we would talk about these large
scale education issues in class, but we didn't have that
like real life piece, it's experiential piece, and so through
my cels I've gotten to do that. But it's a
(12:55):
start contrast, because when we talk about maybe like a
language justice in the classroom, in class we're not always
able to have all of the real life factors of
the lack of funding and of the lack of the
teacher shortage. And so going into the schools, you see
these issues firsthand, which I think is equal parts emotional
but also like deeply educating. And so oftentimes it can
(13:19):
be difficult when you're working with a child who you
know may or may not have had a lot of
food the day before, the night before, or you're working
with teachers who are overworked and underpaid. And so it
allows me to take my knowledge and understanding of education
philosophy in the classroom and see where it kind of
comes short in reality, and it allows me to be
(13:41):
more creative when I'm problem solving and trying to fix
these issues that I get to see firsthand instead of
just think about them in the classroom.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Absolutely, And then Tala, Yeah, how do you feel that
Vassar has either expanded your knowledge of the Pokeepsie area
or kind of limited your knowledge.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
I think at Vasser, in order to use the institution
to expand your knowledge, you sometimes have to seek it
out yourself, like trying to do a CEL or joining
organizations that are involved in the community. I wouldn't say
that it's necessarily inherent to everyone's faster experience, and that
most of the people I know, including myself, who have
(14:25):
engaged in the community have known they wanted to do
that and chosen to do it. So I definitely think
Vassar could do a better job engaging all students or
incorporating it into a broader curriculum.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
I also think kind of building off of that when
we talk about Vasser engaging in the community and popping
the bubble. One way, of course is doing cels and
having students into the community. But I also think it's
very much a two way relationship, and something that I've
also tried to explore is how do I enter the
community and learn about and work with the community, but
then also how do we bring the community onto Vassar's
(15:00):
campus in ways that kind of support everyone in that relationship.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Have you found any ways? I'm just curious.
Speaker 7 (15:08):
Yeah, So, with different educational organizations, we do try to
invite students onto campus for tours or for other events.
But my final project for my CEO this semester is
a presentation I made a resource for teachers, and so
I'm having sort of like a launch party and so idea,
and so I've invited a lot of the teachers that
I've worked with and people I've been in training with,
(15:30):
and so ideally we can have a group of Vassar
students looking to be educators and educated from the community
on campus to really talk about these pressing issues.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Wow, that's that's an amazing final project.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You Yeah, I want to comment on that because the
Bubble Ambassador has not been new.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
It's almost that time.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, well we'll get a couple of minutes, a couple
of seconds, but the bubble invasaor has not been new,
and so I think that anything I could help sort
of like burst it, you know, push it forward, like
with your project, is a very good idea. And considering
that this is your junior year, you're you know, you
have a couple more years right to come up with
some more ideas that really may push the envelope forward
(16:12):
and engage not only Vassa students with the city of
Poughkeepsie outside of the organizations, because I think OCL does
a phenomenal job. You know, I sit on the board
of nonprofit. I've worked in nonprofit here in the city
at Poughkeepsie, and I know that we could not exist
without the students from Vassa really and the surrounding colleges.
(16:32):
It just and I know that I probably there are
other organizations that feel the same way. But what definitely
has been lacking, I think is sort of that organic
and holistic relationship between a college and the local community
and its citizens. You know, when when people think about
(16:54):
the mid Hudson Valley and particularly the city of Poughkeepsie
sort of like say, well, we're a college town, but
we're but we're not. You know, we have Barred, we
have Maris, we have you know, a Vassor. But you know,
unless it's a party, you know, you know, there's a
there's an engagement that is lost. And so hopefully one
day it'll be truly an immersive experience for everyone. And
(17:17):
with that said, I think I did one of your
editorialism right. So so with that said, I want to
once again say, if you're just tuning in, you're listening
and finding out with Pete the Poet Gold and I'm
the poet Gold and we're here with Sidney Covell, our
assistants from Vassar College, as well as Calder Beasley, Talia Eustein,
and Molly Della Hunty, who are all students in Vassa
(17:37):
College sharing their insight and their wisdom about their personal experience.
I just want to ask one more question before I
give you back the mic. You of off air, you
were speaking about your experience with the voting registration, and
I want to sort of shift the conversation and what
is your experience as far as going out into the
field trying to get people the register and also your future.
(18:02):
How do you see the current political climate and how
it may impact yourself as students.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Most of the voter registration that we do is on
Vassar's campus, particularly with Vassar students, which involves a lot
of tabling, sitting outside inside a lot of places kind
of just not heckling people, but.
Speaker 8 (18:27):
Trying to engage people as they walk by.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
And it can definitely be tiring and a little discouraging
sometimes because people live at a fast pace and will
often walk by or say that they'll do it later
when I anticipate that they won't. But that being said,
we registered many many people to vote this time around,
(18:51):
and on campus we had record high voter turnout, So
those are all really positive things.
Speaker 7 (18:58):
Yeah, Ty and I both work together in vasser Votes,
which is an organization of a bunch of Vassar students
who are voting advisors for the college. And I would
say that when we are interfacing with Vaster students, or
when I work with high schoolers who are getting ready
to vote, or even parents, are anyone in the community,
the one thing that I try to do is just
figure out what speaks to them, what issues do they
(19:20):
care about, because so often people feel like the political
system doesn't represent them or that going to vote is
a waste of time, their vote isn't heard, and so
really interfacing and working on that relationship and figuring out
what are the things that you care about and how
do you view yourself in the community, How do Vassar
students get connected and how are they impacted by these issues?
And usually that gets them out to vote.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
One more thing would be that there's a choice that
Vassar students have, which is that college students are allowed
to vote legally allowed to vote either in their college
town or at home. And so a lot we present
Vassar students with the choice to vote in the town
of Poughkeepsie or also to help regis for them to
vote by absentee ballot. And it's really about negotiating that
(20:06):
kind of choice. And the Kipsie is a very purple
area and a lot of swing elections. So we try
and encourage people, particularly people like myself who come from
very like politically homogeneous like hometowns, to get involved and
vote here because you can really feel that your vote
counts absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And so in an interest of time, I do have
two questions for you guys. But so on Wednesday at
the Van Faily election, my professor's one of my professors,
and I'm interested to see if you guys had a
similar relationship or similar experience. Looked at my class and said,
this is on you guys. This is something that is
(20:47):
a youth issue. You know, the youth vote. This is
our countries now in your hands, you know, kind of
putting the blame as well as responsibility on.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
The younger, younger generation.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
So I'm curious if you guys had similar experiences in
your classes the next day, or if you guys had
restorative circles in your classes. My classes were not that progressive,
which I was little shocked, but it's okay. And then also,
are you going abroad because I'm going to Sydney, Australia,
and I also know but and I'm pretty psyched about it,
(21:21):
but you know, I think I'm a little nervous to
return as well.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
So we'll start with you, Molly.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
Yeah, So I am going abroad to Glasgow, Scotland next semester.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
I'm very excited.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
It's beautiful there and I am excited to get out
of the country during that's pretty politically tumultuous time. But
I do feel a little bit of a twinge of
guilt for kind of fleeing, I guess in a way.
But in terms of the Wednesday after the election, most
of my classes actually had pretty great I wouldn't say
(21:54):
restorative conversations, but very emotional in raw conversations about our
feelings about the election. I remember early Wednesday morning, I
had a meeting with my advisor and you know, we
had both woken up seen the news. I listened to
the NPR Politics podcast too, while I was getting ready
just to update myself. But I walked on to campus
(22:16):
and there was this just like weight in the air.
You could kind of see it on everyone's face as
you were walking around. At Vassar, there's a pretty obviously
like homogeneous liberal standing, so most people were pretty upset
with the results, but there was just a general, very
depressed mood on campus that day, and I definitely saw
(22:37):
that carry out in my classes and in my conversations.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
You gonna go ahead, Talia, sure.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
I Actually I work with the Office of Restorative Practices
at Vassar, and the day after the election, I held
a restorative circle just to talk about how people were feeling.
And it didn't have super popular at tenants, but there
were a couple of people there and it was a
positive experience to hear from other people, especially people who
are feeling as discouraged as I am.
Speaker 7 (23:05):
Go ahead, Caler, Yeah, I was at a full day
restorative justice training, so my day was quite restorative. But
I will say a response to your professor, I think
that fingerpointing and blaming kind of got us to this
moment politically in the first place, so I try not
to engage in that. But I think most of my conversations,
especially with professors, we're quite restorative and just figuring out
(23:27):
like where students were feeling in the moment and just
like what needs they have.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
And Talia, you had mentioned earlier in the conversation, I
just wanted to clear it up for our viewers who
may not understand it. You had reference of Poughkeepsie being
a purple space. Can you explain that to our listeners
what you mean by that.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
Yeah, of course, a purple area kind just means that
there's relatively equal representation on both sides of the political spectrum,
so both Republicans and Democrats, and that a lot of
elections in.
Speaker 8 (23:56):
Poughkeepsie are pretty tight between the two parties.
Speaker 7 (24:01):
Also, just following up with Sydney's question about study abroad,
I am doing a health program that's going to Deli, India,
Cape Town, South Africa, and Buenos Airi's Argentina, and I'm
so excited.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Well, that's getting outside of Poughkeepsie.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
I'll bring the knowledge back.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And you know, one of the things that is true
about education. Education is about the world, the world community,
and to have an awful lot of activities on campus,
which should of builds your muscles for the getting out
there for the for the real game is a big
(24:41):
deal and I think that sometimes it's overrated how insular
we're in on itself. Faster is because all three of
you students being working through the Office of Community Engaged
Learning really gives another profile of Faster, which I really
want to emphasize. Another way to emphasize that is Sydney
(25:02):
and Colvell did a really good job here at Our
Heart Media and The Poet Gold wants to end on that.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
This was just the last two weeks have been really
an exciting show and I thank you guys for you know,
coming on and Sydney you did a great job, and
so thank you so once again to our listeners, I
want to thank you for listening and tuning into finding
Out with Pete and The Poet Gold and we're just,
you know, extremely grateful to have you listen and tune
in every week and thank you for your support.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.