#wellesley underground

Kwan Kew Lai ’74, who WU interviewed in summer 2019, has a new book out: Into Africa, Out of Academia: A Doctor’s Memoir.

In 2006, Kwan Kew Lai left her full-time position as a professor in the United States to provide medical humanitarian aid to the remote villages and the war-torn areas of Africa. This memoir follows her experiences from 2006 to 2013 as she provided care during the HIV/AIDs epidemics, after natural disasters, and as a relief doctor in refugee camps in Kenya, Libya, Uganda and in South Sudan, where civil war virtually wiped out all existing healthcare facilities.

Throughout her memoir, Lai recounts intimate encounters with refugees and internally displaced people in camps and in hospitals with limited resources, telling tales of their resilience, unflinching courage, and survival through extreme hardship. Her writing provides insight into communities and transports readers to heart-achingly beautiful parts of Africa not frequented by the usual travelers. This is a deeply personal account of the huge disparities in the healthcare system of our “global village” and is a call to action for readers to understand the interconnectedness of the modern world, the needs of less developed neighbors, and the shortcomings of their healthcare systems.

Order the book here!

Belmont Books is also having a virtual event at 7 pm (EST) on January 19, 2021. Save the date! 

Join us as as we welcome back Dr. Kwan Kew Lai, to discuss her latest book, Into Africa, Out of Academia: A Doctor’s Memoir, with Dr. Nahreen Ahmed. Click here to register for this Zoom webinar.

About Into Africa, Out of Academia:

In 2006, Kwan Kew Lai left her full-time position as a professor in the United States to provide medical humanitarian aid to the remote villages and the war-torn areas of Africa. This memoir follows her experiences from 2006 to 2013 as she provided care during the HIV/AIDs epidemics, after natural disasters, and as a relief doctor in refugee camps in Kenya, Libya, Uganda and in South Sudan, where civil war virtually wiped out all existing healthcare facilities.

Throughout her memoir, Lai recounts intimate encounters with refugees and internally displaced people in camps and in hospitals with limited resources, telling tales of their resilience, unflinching courage, and survival through extreme hardship. Her writing provides insight into communities and transports readers to heart-achingly beautiful parts of Africa not frequented by the usual travelers. This is a deeply personal account of the huge disparities in the healthcare system of our “global village” and is a call to action for readers to understand the interconnectedness of the modern world, the needs of less developed neighbors, and the shortcomings of their healthcare systems.

Originally from Penang, Malaysia, Kwan Kew Lai came to the United States after receiving a full scholarship to attend Wellesley. “Without that open door I would not have gone on to become a doctor,” Lai wrote in her Doctors Without Borders bio.

In 2006, after volunteering in the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Lai left her position as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and worked part-time as a clinician, while dedicating her time to humanitarian work. Lai volunteered in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Vietnam, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, Malawi and provided earthquake relief in Haiti, Nepal, drought and famine relief at the Kenyan and Somalian border, hurricane relief in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the gulf coasts. She worked with refugees of the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Syria in Moria camp of Lesvos in Greece, and the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in war-torn Libya and Yemen. She treated Ebola patients in Liberia and Sierra Leone. During the peak of the COVID pandemic, she volunteered at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York and on St. Croix of the US Virgin Islands.

Into Africa, Out of Academia: A Doctor’s Memoir is about her experiences in Africa. Her book debut, Lest We Forget: A Doctor’s Experience with Life and Death During the Ebola Outbreak was published in 2018. Lai is a resident of Belmont.

Dr. Nahreen Ahmed is originally from the Greater Philadelphia area. She attended DrexelUniversity College of Medicine and subsequently went on to residency at theUniversity of Illinois in Chicago where she concomitantly completed her MastersDegree in Public Health, and was also invited to stay on for a Chief Residency.

She went on to pursue a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical care atNYU/Bellevue, and subsequently joined the faculty at the Hospital of theUniversity of Pennsylvania where she is currently an Assistant Professor inClinical Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care as well as aPenn Center for Global Health Scholar.

She launched her Global Health Career byfounding the Bangladesh Ultrasound Initiative, a training program for criticalcare physicians in Dhaka, Bangladesh and then proceeded to become the Head of Ultrasound for two non-profits MedGlobal and Bridge to Health with whom she hasworked to bring Ultrasound training, and medical care to crisis zones such asYemen, Sierra Leone, Rohingya Refugee Camps as well as low resource hospitalsin Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

Dr. Ahmed has a strong belief in capacity building with the aide of technology and telecommunications and that the key to sustainability in global medicine is via medical education and a hands-ontraining approach which empowers local clinicians.

Here are the links to the event pages:
Lai/Ahmed website page
Lai/Ahmed Facebook page

After graduating from Wellesley, Farah Hussain ‘06 pursued an MBA at Babson College and currently serves as the Director of Global Partner Marketing at PayPal. This year she completed her coach training from the Co-Active Training Institute, and focuses on one-on-one leadership coaching. Wellesley Underground caught up with Farah to learn more about her path to becoming a leadership coach. 

Thanks for chatting with us, Farah! Tell us a little bit about your background. How did you become a leadership coach? 

For my entire adult life, I have found myself jumping at opportunities to provide mentorship and advice to people seeking to advance their education and careers. Someone needs resume advice? I’m on it. Someone stuck in a job search? I’ll help you brainstorm a path forward. In grad school, I even created a peer to peer advising program that our college president spoke about in his graduation speech. 

There was something about helping people “get unstuck” and building momentum towards their goals, using whatever resources they had around them, that I found fulfilling. As the first generation in my family born in the US, our community simply didn’t have the same network and support system in place that I wanted to create for others. These activities energized me, yet I had never considered “fun” as a career path. 

When an organizational restructuring at my employer last year left me with a job scope that I didn’t find all that challenging, I opted to take advantage of the renewed mental energy I had outside of work to explore an external program where I could become trained as a coach. It would still be something I did “on the side, for fun,” I told myself, and I pursued training on nights and weekends for a year. I learned very quickly that coaching is not the mentoring or advising I had been doing for so long, but I was sold on the coaching approach. Whereas mentoring and advising is about getting answers from others, coaching helps people to find their own strength and wisdom. To me, this was what it meant to empower someone, and I was all about it.

Now, weeks away from earning my coaching certification, I find myself in the mode of “let’s let this journey unravel as it will.” I’m in a role I like in my full-time job, and I have a small business providing 1/1 leadership coaching to clients across the globe. I extend the coaching work into my network wherever it feels natural, and it’s been very fulfilling to live in the moment with this passion.

You mentioned that you pursued coaching to build on your love of mentoring. How has becoming a certified coach helped you in being a better mentor? 

Great question! First, I’ve learned the difference between coaching and mentoring. Coaching is guiding others to uncover their own authentic answers. The relationship between coach and client is one of partners. Mentoring is more about providing specific guidance and tactics to mentees. The relationship inherently has more of a hierarchy; the mentee seeks guidance from someone who has walked the path before and is therefore considered more experienced in the path. Now I integrate more coaching tactics into my mentoring. I ask mentees even more questions to get deeper into their mindset, and what matters to them, before I offer them advice.

We recently chatted with Lauren Young Durbin ‘99 who is a career transition coach. How is leadership coaching similar or dissimilar to career coaching more generally?

For the most part, in my opinion it is a matter of branding. Coaching industry leaders would say that the core tenets of coaching are the same whether you coach on the topic of career or another topic. Ultimately you are still focused on helping the client learn more about themselves and make authentic choices. As a coach, you may brand yourself based on what client profile you want to attract and what topic you want to coach on. You may also choose to further your training in a focus area that might have tools and resources specific to the context of your topic. For example, with executive coaching, you might educate yourself on and use professional assessments that can aid in your coaching of a given client. 

To apply this to Lauren, her brand as a “career transition coach” tells me in a clear way that she seeks to work with clients who want to explore a career transition. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the skills to coach on another topic, those other topics are just not the core focus of her business.

I use “leadership coaching” as my brand for a few reasons. First, I want to signal to clients that “leadership” will be the theme across my client work. Second, it’s a broad term as leadership extends into every area of life. It’s about how you show up and step up, whether it’s in a relationship, in meeting fitness goals, in exploring your spirituality, relating to your finances, and more. I predominantly focus on career coaching, but I do support clients in other areas of life, too.

In addition to the area in which most people would consider leadership coaching useful (in the professional realm), your bio also mentions relationships as being an area where leadership may be warranted. Tell us more about that. How have you coached people in terms of their personal relationships? Is it different from a therapeutic approach?

Coaching is relevant for any topic where you want to see a change. Understanding what it is that needs a change and envisioning a new future is part of the process of coaching. With respect to a relationship, it may be about unpacking what your current experience is with that relationship and what an empowered version of that relationship would look like. I’m not a trained therapist or well-educated about therapy so I can’t speak directly to how a coaching approach may be different, especially as there are so many different types of therapy. I can, however, share that coaching focuses very much on what you are experiencing here and now, and where you want to be. It is not about making sense of the past or uncovering why you may have certain tendencies, though sometimes those things do come up in the course of a coaching interaction. Coaching is also not a medical or scientific profession, though coaching techniques may be based on the science of the mind and behavior.

Along with leadership coaching, you’re also an advisor to Willow which provides financial coaching and advising to women. What reason(s) do you find that women most often seek out the assistance of a financial coach for? What is your role as advisor?

Women seek financial coaches often when they are navigating life journeys that have financial significance. A coach provides personalized guidance to help you achieve your financial goals. This person will help you get educated, organized, and stay accountable when it comes to your money. Some of the specific areas women go to Willow with are help in improving cash flow management, savings for an emergency fund and wealth building, debt management and risk protection strategies.

In my capacity as an advisor and member of the Willow Expert Network, I help provide both professional insights and more personal life journey experiences and inspiration to the fast-growing community of women who want to be financially empowered and take charge of their financial lives and future.  

With the ongoing pandemic, do you find that people are seeking out your services more than the time pre-COVID?

I launched my coaching business in tandem with COVID, so I don’t have a pre- / post- comparison point. However, making decisions amidst uncertainty has been a common theme across most clients over the past several months. I am amazed at the focus and commitment with which people show up for themselves. They know they desire a change, and they are willing to do the self-exploration and take the actions needed to help them on their journey.  

Speaking of COVID, you recently launched a coaching program in conjunction with The Mom Project to help those affected by COVID-related layoffs. How did this initiative come about? To date, what have you been able to do related to this project?

Coincidentally, I approached The Mom Project back in February as I was setting up my coaching practice. I wanted to offer pro-bono coaching to their members as they fit my target population of women (and allies), and I wanted the engagement to be a learning opportunity for me and for The Mom Project. We aligned to run a pilot with 10 of their members, take the learnings, then consider whether and how to scale. Our tone was light-hearted, exploratory, and fun. The pandemic was not yet a “thing” in the US.

I spoke to my first Mom Project member days after California began to shelter in place. I was in New York City, as was this member. The tone of our broader environment started to shift as the virus spread in the US and fear, panic, and uncertainty set in. Weeks later, at incredible speed, The Mom Project team put out a call for coaches to lift up so many people navigating their careers during such a challenging time. We followed the foundation we had built for the coaching pilot. They quickly secured 100 coaches (including myself) who coached nearly 1,000 members within the following 6 months. Here is some insight into the program from the voices of members I coached, and here is a follow-on program I co-sponsored with them in October to give people insight into how coaching works. Here we are at the end of October, and the support efforts continue.

If people are interested in learning more about your coaching services, where can they learn more?

I direct people to my overview at this link, where they can learn more about the service and read testimonials of past clients. This document includes an inquiry form. I review incoming inquiries for coaching and then speak to the potential clients one-on-one about their needs before they sign up for a formal package.

___

To watch a panel Farah participated in about why people seek coaches, see here. 

With just 7 days to go until the U.S. election, 2020 is showing no signs of letting up. We saw that last night with the swearing in of a new conservative Supreme Court Justice prior to the election, a move that prioritized filling the seat left vacant in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death over COVID relief legislation. Personally speaking, it’s hard not to feel despondent after a long year that has felt heavy in so many ways. If you’re looking for something you can do right now, here are some suggestions: 

SELF-CARE

• If the news is too much for you, unplugand get off social media
  
• Get outside (weather permitting) and go for a walk or get some fresh air
• Yoga fans - Yoga with Adriene has hundreds of videos on YouTube
• Music - a well-crafted playlist can help change your mood 
• Coloring- there are a ton of ‘adult’ coloring books out there that can serve as a good distraction while you listen to the aforementioned playlist
• Journaling - getting some of your thoughts and feelings out and on a paper may help you relax and release some energy
• Mindless TV or funny YouTube videos - also a great distraction
• Reading - this may help focus your mind on something else and maybe even transport you someplace that isn’t a dumpster fire
• Call a friend and catch up on each other’s lives (and not the news)
  
• Take a nap - rest is especially important right now
  

DONATE

If you’re in a place to give financially, here are some options: 

• Mutual Aid Networks
• Feeding America
  
• National Network of Abortion Funds
• Abortion Care Network
  
• ARC-Southeast
• Indigenous Women Rising
• National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice 
• Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
• National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum 
• Fund Texas Choice
• New Orleans Abortion Fund
• Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund
  
• RAICES
• Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)

ACTION

If you’re interested in taking action: 

• Make calls with Swing Left
• Volunteer with Vote Save America
• Ensure that your family and friends all have a plan to vote
  
• Identify an organization in your community that could use volunteers (and allows you to remain safe)
• Consider what issue(s) are most important to you (climate change, education justice, etc.) and connect with a related organization 
  

Interview by Cleo Hereford ‘09

While many of us are looking just three weeks ahead to the 2020 U.S. election, some are already thinking about the 2021 election cycle. Ingrid Gomez ‘97 is one of those people as she recently declared her candidacy for New York City Council representing District 21, which covers the East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, LeFrak City and Corona areas of Queens. After graduating from Wellesley in 1997 with a degree in psychology, Gomez went on to receive a Master of Social Work (MSW) from Hunter College in New York and currently works as a mental health therapist. We caught up with Ingrid to learn more about why she is running for New York City Council. 

Thank you for agreeing to chat with Wellesley Underground! Tell us a little bit about yourself. If someone were to ask ‘Who is Ingrid Gomez,’ how would you respond?

Thank you for the opportunity to share a little bit about me and why I’m running for office. Who is Ingrid Gomez? Ingrid Gomez is a survivor. I am originally from Colombia and my family escaped drug cartel violence and immigrated to the US when I was 7 years old. During my childhood and adolescence, I helped raise my siblings through the turmoil of the South Bronx in the 80s and 90s while my mother worked as a housekeeper at a power plant in the day and took English classes at night. Throughout this time, my family and I lived undocumented and as a result my siblings and I were separated for some time from our mother due to unjust and inhumane immigration policies. It was these injustices and lived experiences that led me to a career in social work years later.    

I began my professional career as a clinical social worker 17 years ago and I currently work in Corona as a mental health therapist at the Child Center of New York’s Early Childhood Center. I feel that my impact on individuals and families as a social worker is great but I will have greater reach with the power and the purse of the city council. My community is suffering. And we’ve had enough. I know I’ve had enough!

You are currently running in the 2021 New York City Council race to represent District 21. What led to your decision to run for public office and specifically, why City Council?

I am running for city council because my people are suffering from food and job insecurity and we are facing a housing crisis. I live in one of the poorest city council districts in the city. Many of my neighbors died from COVID-19 related complications. Approximately 440 Corona residents perished during this pandemic, thousands more got sick and thousands lost their jobs. The reason why so many of my neighbors fell ill and why we suffered higher rates of COVID-19 is because my working class community of Corona is made up of essential workers who have no choice to work from home. They deliver your food, drive you around in taxis, clean your homes, stock your supermarket shelves and because of the lack of affordable housing, the residents of District 21 have to live doubled up and tripled up housing–just like I once did as a child–so there is no way to socially distance. As a social worker, I saw the suffering of my clients up close and I witnessed food lines 15-20 blocks long outside church pantries. Many of my clients were in those food lines for hours, and if they got lucky, they returned home with their shopping carts full of groceries but when the food ran out, many were turned away with empty hands and hungry stomachs. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating. And because I saw the suffering first hand, and saw the inaction of our local elected official who I want to replace, I co-founded the Corona Mutual Aid group–which is a branch of the Queens Mutual Aid–and we delivered groceries and personal care items to hundreds of families. The need is so great here, and the urgency is so real. In the richest country in the world, no one should go to bed hungry and that is why I feel the urgency to run for office. 

What are some of the major issues that District 21 residents are facing? How do you think these issues have been exacerbated by the pandemic? 

I would say the issues of housing affordability and food and job insecurity were exacerbated a hundred fold by the pandemic as they already existed in our district. 

How do you think your background in social work influences the lens through which you see some of the problems that your community is experiencing but also the approach you would take toward addressing these issues?

I love this question! I think as a social worker all the time. I wake up each morning and while I have my coffee, I scroll through social media and there isn’t a day when I don’t think, man if only social workers ruled the world, we’d be in better shape! I think that where many are inclined to see problems, social workers are trained to see strengths and opportunities for change and healing. 

When I personally head to the polls, I always think about the most vulnerable members of my community when casting my ballot. When you think of the most vulnerable residents of District 21, what group(s) come to mind and how do you think they could be better served at the city level? 

This question hit me hard. I would say the entire community is vulnerable, but most vulnerable are the sex workers, women who are trafficked, and Trans Women who face violence and death at higher rates than other communities. In council, I hope to bring a city wide initiative to tackle gender violence, much like we have now in council, but with a particular focus on sex workers, human trafficking victims and Trans Women. I also want to provide discretionary funding to non-profits led by Trans and immigrant women. 

Obviously, many of us these days are paying close attention to the upcoming 2020 presidential election; federal elections, in general, tend to have higher voter participation rates. How do you plan to engage voters in terms of the local election for City Council and why it matters?

Great question! In 2021, for the first time ever, we can choose our elected representatives through Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). RCV would make it so that candidates run and seek the support from all of the community, and not just their base. Voters get to rank their choices in order of preference–first, second, third choice and up to five–and with a nifty formula, the candidate who ends up with the majority of votes wins the election. Essentially I would say that with Rank Choice Voting in the upcoming municipal elections in 2021, we have the opportunity to educate voters on what RCV is and why it’s important to vote in local elections. Voter education is crucial because many are uninformed about what the city council does and that the city council determines how much money goes towards essential services, schools, hospitals, housing, and other matters that directly impact the community. 

Finally, we at Wellesley Underground are big proponents of self-care (especially during this pandemic). With all that is going on both in the world and for you personally, how are you taking care for yourself?

I am a big napper! And a big knitter! I love to sleep and knit. But I can’t do both at the same time, obvi. Insert laughing emoji. :) I also take care of myself spiritually with prayer and meditation and I worship with other believers. My faith shapes my life, and my heart is inclined towards service, much like our Wellesley motto, “Non ministrari, sed ministrare”. To serve, not to be served. That is how I hope to live my life. 

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Follow Ingrid on Twitter: @IngridPGomez

To donate to Ingrid’s campaign: see here

JESS SIRIZZOTTI, ‘10 majored in Architecture and served in Shakespeare Society, both of which she regularly works into otherwise unrelated conversations. She enjoys baking, jeerleading,various art stuffs, and word play. She lives in NYC and reads voraciously. This piece originally appeared on Jess’s LinkedInprofile.

It is a numbers game.

Getting hired is not like class ranking, where the most qualified people get jobs first and everyone else falls into line order. It is getting in front of the right person at the right time. The more you apply, the more chances you have to nail that timing.

I applied to 195 companies in five months and got one final offer. I didn’t get any more qualified during that slog, but I did get much better at telling my story and explaining translatable skills. So, by the time the right company was looking for a skill-set like mine, I was able to make my case.

Pacing all those applications as ten each week, or two per business day is more long-term effective than churning out all of them in a panic-fueled haze followed by months of despair refreshing your inbox.It will take a lot of applications, but burning out helps no one. Create business hours for yourself, if at all possible, and don’t let it steal every minute of your life. You are allowed to have lunch. You are allowed to take a break. I am extremely thankful to my husband for encouraging me to turn everything off at the end of the “work day” and do literally anything else.

Tell people.

This is even more vital with everyone sequestered. You are absolutely not the only person looking for a job right now, and having other people to vent or cheerlead is crucial. Do not do this alone.I set up weekly calls with two other job searchers, and it saved my sanity. We traded cover letters, shared job listings, said goals and hopes out loud. Sometimes our calls were just an hour to talk to someone we weren’t living with. It’s often easier to fix someone else’s problem, and having another pair of eyes looking out for you never hurts.

No, really. Tell people.

Of my 195 applications, 71 were through connections. At companies that get a lot of interest, the easiest way to cut a stack of resumes is to filter for internal referrals. It’s exclusionary and perpetuates classism, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.The job I wound up with wasn’t from a referral, but I had plenty of people I barely knew get me in the door with other companies. Even if they don’t offer to submit your application internally, most people will let you name-drop them in your cover letter. Schedule a quick call to ask them about their experience at the company, and see how they feel about their employer. This pandemic is making it very clear how companies treat their employees when the chips are down—don’t waste it.

To free yourself from the shame of asking for help, consider it a joint favor. Think of how great your connection will look when you’re killing it at that job six months in. As my former CEO would say, it’s a win-win-win. (She’s also responsible for 14 of those external referrals.)

LinkedIn Premium helped me find my connections, but if people in your field aren’t heavy users, find what that works for you. Reach out to your alumni association, your old coworkers—you never know who might know someone who knows someone (and keep up with it between job hunts).

There are still people hiring.

There are a lot of people out of work right now. There are a lot of roles that aren’t available and won’t be for months.

With this stop-everything crisis, amazing resources have become available to help people find roles that still need to be filled. In tech especially, there are hiring booms in some places and business as usual in others. At the beginning of my job search, I stuck to LinkedInandBuilt in NYC to find openings, but was working my way alphabetically through the list at candor.co towards the end: https://candor.co/hiring-freezes/

There are freelance networks, contract opportunities. Focus on right now, and don’t try to sort out your entire life’s career this week. Treading water is the goal.

This is just for right now.

I had this on a note taped to my monitor. This *gestures at everything* is not the new normal. It is a hopefully brief interlude that we will get through.The future will happen. Focus on you, today. Someday you can repay the favor to someone in your network.

And if you need someone to look at your resume, please don’t hesitate to ask.

The Wellesley College Native American Student Association has put forth a list of demands to the College: 

To show your support of Native students and their demands, you can sign their petition here. 

In support of our Native sibs, I acknowledge this post was written from Massachuset land. 

The following was submitted to us by former students in Wellesley’s Computer Science Department: 

The Wellesley Computer Science (CS) Department prides itself on preparing its students to take on both the technical and social challenges they will face in their professional futures. Questions of gender discrimination in the greater CS community are frequently discussed* with the Department’s active support evident, for example, in its funding for students’ attendance at the Grace Hopper Celebration, the conference known for being the “world’s largest gathering of women technologists”. However, the treatment of the Department’s junior faculty and lab instructors (non-tenure track positions) confers a contradictory message. 

This disparity is highlighted by the recent reappointment denial to Prof. Ada Lerner; the decision has surprised the student community given Ada’s status as a beloved professor, known for both their focus on teaching and inclusivity in the department, and their contributions to the field of computing more broadly.  We, a group of former students of the Department, question the rationale behind Ada’s dismissal and what it indicates about the treatment of junior, or pre-tenure, professors in the department.

(*We later discuss the fact that other forms of discrimination are not consistently discussed by the department, but we do note that gender discrimination in particular is frequently mentioned, owing in particular to Wellesley’s status as a historically women’s college.)

 A champion of all students

Prof. Ada Lerner joined the Wellesley CS faculty in 2017, immediately upon their graduation from the UW Allen School of Computer Science doctoral program, after receiving numerous tenure-track offers. Ada quickly became a favorite of students for their remarkable teaching skills, instructing students at a variety of levels, including Introduction to Computing, Data Structures, and an advanced seminar on Security & Privacy–their research area. Students frequently commend their flexible late policy, which carefully balances student mental and physical wellbeing with course content and academic achievement. A variation of Ada’s policy was implemented near universally by the Department at large.

Ada’s belief in and support for their students is further exemplified by their content delivery and expectations of students. One former student summed up their seminar course as “by far the most challenging elective I took as a computer science major, and while in any other context that might’ve been an incredibly stressful experience, Ada worked with me to make sure I could finish all the work. She by no means went easy on me, but she did give me the support I needed to finish the work.”

 “She definitely doesn’t let you off easy,” adds another student, “but she gives you the support so when it gets hard, you know you can ask questions without judgment. The material would go over my head in class and then Ada would explain it fifteen different ways until I felt comfortable.”

Ada’s research area reflects the same care and concern for the experience of marginalized populations. Their research was featured in Wellesley Magazine in Summer 2019, with the article “Online Safety for All” highlighting their focus on inclusive security and privacy, describing the field as “a subfield of security that focuses on specific populations, including marginalized or vulnerable groups like refugees or LGBTQ people, as well as groups with key roles in society, such as lawyers or journalists.” Their work recently garnered a prestigious $175,000 grant for “Understanding and Addressing the Security and Privacy Needs of At-Risk Populations” from the National Science Foundation and has been published in highly selective computing conferences, including the 2020 ACM CHI conference(24.3% acceptance rate). As former students, we note that her lab is impressively staffed with students from various grade levels who often serve as co-authors on lab publications and are actively involved in a variety of projects. A student who has worked with Ada as a research assistant jokes that they feel “almost spoiled” for having had the chance to work with a research mentor who is so considerate of student experience and learning.

Outside the classroom, Ada is an outspoken advocate for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the Department. “Ada shows up,” one alum states. “They not only consistently attend events where students voice their concerns and celebrate their identities, they intentionally look for ways to uplift and empower marginalized student voices, asking all the right questions and putting in whatever work is necessary to aim for equity in all aspects of college life.” Ada helped lead a self-study that publicly disclosed the experiences of different student populations in the Department, with a particular focus on the roles of race, ethnicity, LGBTQIA+ identity and class, as well as the experiences of students with learning accommodations. While the results were conclusive that the CS Department, like many others on campus, had a lot of work to do, DEI efforts seemed to stall at the study’s conclusion.

Students were confused that the Department failed to implement student-facing changes the study suggested; some students noted the repeated absences of some professors and observed that some senior faculty members didn’t seem to buy in to the topic. We cannot help but wonder if some professors hostile to the DEI push led by Ada did not support her reappointment as a result of their feelings about the self-study.

All of the above leaves us puzzled by the College’s decision to terminate Ada’s tenure-track contract, making this their last year at Wellesley. The Committee on Faculty Appointments (CFA), which decides matters of faculty appointment, promotion, and reappointments on behalf of the College, handed down the decision leaving us both surprised and concerned about the integrity of the reappointment process and the potential factors affecting the decision. We note that the CFA states they make decisions based both on the recommendation of the candidate’s home department, as well as their own evaluation of a candidate’s quality of teaching, research, and service to the College. Given the information we’ve shared, we question why the College chose not to reappoint an assistant professor who is clearly beloved by students for her teaching, mentorship, support, and inclusivity.

To that end, we remind students that are bothered by the decision made regarding Ada’s reappointment they can voice their concerns to the Committee on Faculty Appointments, who are ultimately responsible for reconsidering the decision. Information on that process:

You  can send emails concerning your impressions of Professor Lerner to the address: [email protected].  If you want to send physical letters, they should be addressed to:

___________________________________________________________

Provost/Dean of the College

Chair of the Committee on Faculty Appointments

106 Central St

Wellesley, MA 02481

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According  to college policy, your letter will be shared with Professor Lerner and the  chair of the Computer Science department (Professor Takis Metaxas), as well  as all members of the Committee for Faculty Appointments. You may indicate in  your email whether you would like for your letter to be shared anonymously  with identifying wording removed, or with your name attached. Letters may be  submitted electronically as an email, or as an email attachment.

If  you have any further questions about this process, you can contact Jennifer Ellis, Clerk of the Committee on Faculty Appointments ([email protected]).

Reflecting on departmental culture

We reflect on this decision in the context of the Department’s junior faculty at large; specifically, we are concerned by trends that we have witnessed as students in the Department interacting directly with junior faculty. We are frustrated with the way some of the more senior members of the department have handled the hiring and retention of faculty in general.

Junior faculty are held to extremely high standards that we believe the people imposing those standards wouldn’t necessarily have met at the same point in thei careers. Junior faculty are also much more likely to be approached by students, both because they teach many of the introductory classes that students will have taken by the time they must choose an advisor, and because their demographics are often more similar to those of the student population. While the formal advisor process has been restructured to take some of the load off the junior faculty, many are still approached for informal advice and guidance in a way their senior peers are not; it is also unclear if current tenure-track professors will have their research expectations reduced as a result of the excessive amount of advising they were previously providing. We also note that a particular source of emotional support for students – lab instructors – are mostly women and untenured, meaning that they do not have the job security that their peers do, and are not necessarily compensated for their mentorship in the same way.

We call on the senior faculty to make themselves more approachable to students, so that the load does not fall on junior faculty, who are also facing the pressures of research and teaching evaluations. There are existing models for this, including many adopted by Wellesley’s own Math department, who host informal teas to build community and encourage interaction between senior faculty and students in various ways. We also note that along with Ada, Prof. Sohie Lee is a champion of D&I initiatives and has worked to implement new tutor training, yet she is one of the few faculty members of color and is technically a lab instructor, despite holding a PhD, This again reflects an onus of emotional and cultural labor on already overburdened pre-tenure and non-tenure track faculty.

 It is unclear to us why the Department is both unable to hire many faculty of color, and unable to retain the faculty of color that they do hire. We question whether the environment of the Department is perceived as hostile, and, if so, what can be done to change that. We theorize that, in part, the Department’s hiring practices may be exclusionary, as the majority of candidates come from a small pool of highly selective CS programs, which are already known to have a host of systemic problems that make them unwelcoming environments to both people of color and those who are not cisgender men.

Moving forward

This letter has two main goals. First, we hope to make the Wellesley community aware of the double standard in the CS department, and especially encourage the upper levels of administration to investigate the treatment of junior faculty in the department. Second, we hope to encourage members of the department to reflect critically on the treatment of their peers and engage in self-reflection with regards to departmental culture. Ultimately, we believe that it is in large part these systemic problems in the department that contributed to Ada’s reappointment denial, rather than official, concrete factors such as teaching, research, and service to the CS department and College at large.

We call on those involved to truly reflect on the concerns raised here and via other fora, and to commit to measurable improvement; in short, to do better, both for current students and faculty and for those to come.

Cleo Hereford ‘09

Soon after moving back to my hometown (Lynn, MA) in 2009, I became more involved with my city’s public education including everything from bloggingto organizing to moderating school committee debates. The catalyst was largely the realization, after having attended Wellesley, that there were major disparities between even public school districts in terms of funding but also access to various opportunities, focus within the classroom, and the physical environment (see Lynn’s crumbling 100 year old school buildings). I guess I kind of knew growing up in close proximity to wealthier towns but attending Wellesley really let me know that the Wellesley Public School District, for example, was on a completely different level than Lynn (a district that is currently about 66% Hispanic/Latinx and 58% economically disadvantaged). Part of my interest over the last 10 years has extended to include consuming anything and everything related to K-12 public education both in Massachusetts and nationally. If you’re like me and interested in public education or want to learn more (particularly in light of the inequities that COVID has made even more apparent), I’ve included some reading and listens for you to consider. 

First, I would be remiss if I didn’t include some options from Diane Ravitch ‘60. A former Assistant Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush in the early 90s, Ravitch has since come out in opposition to both the increase in standardized testing and school privatization. 

Her latest book published this year: 

Other options by Ravitch include: 

• The Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools(2000)
• Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform(2001)
• The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education(2016)

Eve Ewing, a sociologist of education who currently teaches at the University of Chicago wrote this excellent book on the impetus for and impact of school closings in Chicago: 

Interested in learning more about standardized testing?

https://bookshop.org/books/beyond-test-scores-a-better-way-to-measure-school-quality/9780674976399

Here are some other recommendations: 

• The Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools(Monique Morris, 2018)
• A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School (Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire; November 2020)
• Choosing a School for my Daughter in a Segregated City (Nikole-Hannah Jones; The New York Times)
• What if America Didn’t Have Public Schools (Julie Halpert; The Atlantic)

And if you’re more into podcasts right now (because who has an attention span these days?):

Hosted by Jack Schneider andJennifer Berkshire,Have you Heard has covered everything from how politics has shaped textbooks to the LA teacher strike to billionaire philanthropists’ involvement in public education. 

And: 

Thank you for chatting with us, Portia! Conversation around voting has been in the news a lot most recently in regard to the closing of polling places in Kentucky. Tell us a little bit about your work in this area.

We’re at a critical moment in history, both politically and socially, and voting rights is directly at the forefront. I am currently the Associate Director of Law and Policy at the Voting Rights Lab where I devise policy strategy on ballot access, voter restoration, and, of late, COVID-19 response. While I’m at a national organization, we work in partnership within states - and across the political spectrum - to protect and advance voting rights.

I watched a discussion between Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Stacey Abrams and one of the things they mentioned was the need to understand what voter suppression looks at the individual state level. For those who don’t know, what are some of the different forms that voter suppression can take?

All suppression refers to is when parties engage in strategies that keep people from voting in an attempt to influence election outcomes. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t just something that happens in the South, and it isn’t just done by Republicans. Suppression also looks different everywhere you go. In some places it is shuttered polling places, voter ID requirements, and broken voting machines. In other places, it is changing polling places for every election, or separating municipal elections from statewide or federal elections, which tend to have greater turnout.

Aside from Black people, are there other demographics that are particularly susceptible to voter suppression?

Yes! It is not just Black people whose vote gets suppressed. There are young people students, who are often less familiar with the voting system; infrequent voters, who don’t keep up with changes; new voters, including recent U.S. citizens; voters experiencing homelessness, who may not have a permanent address to receive mail or other election communications; and voters whose primary language is not English. The different mechanisms of suppression can affect the turnout of different groups, and so it is critical that we recognize all of its forms.

Obviously, this year is an important election year with the presidential race on the ballot. Is voter suppression as much of an issue in local or statewide elections?

It is on the agenda, but it is very much couched in terms of voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the US continues not to have its shit together in responding to the pandemic, voters are very concerned about whether they will be able to vote safely. Much of the question of who will be suppressed ends up being about who has access to absentee ballots and early voting, who can register during a pandemic, how to obtain IDs when motor vehicle agencies are closed, how many polling places remain open, etc. All of these issues are suppression issues.

In terms of electoral politics, voting rights sometimes isn’t as much of an issue candidates run on, but it should be. The quality of our democracy depends on the ease with which people can participate, and we should be forcing candidates to state their positions on voting and how they will expand access to the ballot by removing all of the restrictions and barriers.

As much as we talk about the importance of voting, there are also some people who don’t see voting as a ‘silver bullet.’ Do you have any thoughts on that?

I am laughing because I’m definitely one of those people. Voting is important for all of the reasons people acknowledge: civic duty, having a say in government, social cohesion and feeling a part of something. And at the state and local level, races can sometimes be so tight that any single vote can really determine the outcome. But we are not going to be able to vote ourselves out of this mess. What I typically say, and personally believe, is that we need multiple tactics. So I say vote as one tactic for change, so long as you believe it is helpful and not harmful to the ultimate vision of change you wish to see in the world. But also continue to attack the system from multiple directions to move us all towards justice.

For those interested in voting rights, what are some of the best ways to get involved?

If you are healthy and a registered voter, you should become a poll worker. Many poll workers are high-risk of COVID, since they tend to be older, which is contributing to a national poll worker shortage. So no matter where you are in the country there is a need for people. And if you can’t do that, work to elect people who believe in protecting and expanding the franchise, and not suppressing it. There are so many great people running, especially at the state and local level, and they all need support. That support can be financial or volunteering to phone bank or write postcards; it all matters.

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For more information: 

• Voting Rights Lab
• Fair Fight

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Interview by Cleo Hereford ‘09

Wellesley Underground has invited Black students and alumni of Wellesley College to tell us about their undergraduate experiences. We are inspired by the various social media accounts created by alumni and students at various schools and colleges across the country calling attention to instances of racism, anti-Black racism, and xenophobia. Below is one of the submissions we received: 

“I distinctly remember there being an article in Counterpoint written by a black student about why they didn’t want to join Ethos or didn’t think it should exist - something along those lines - and having a white acquaintance not be able to contain their glee in reading said article, largely because they didn’t believe that there should have been an Ethos. (Interestingly, they didn’t seem to have a problem with any of the other affinity groups). I once sat through lunch in the dining hall when that same acquaintance who remarked that it was rude for a friend of theirs to say that someone they knew only got into college because they were Indian “even if it was true.” I grew up in a diverse community and only felt black (and poor AF) for the first time at Wellesley.”

-CH ‘09

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If you have a story that you would like to share with WU, we are taking submissions here.

Wellesley Underground has invited Black students and alumni of Wellesley College to tell us about their undergraduate experiences. We are inspired by the various social media accounts created by alumni and students at various schools and colleges across the country calling attention to instances of racism, anti-Black racism, and xenophobia. Below is one of the submissions we received: 

“I remember having a racist interaction with Carla Verschoor that caused me to lose confidence in my abilities. Would be nice to have a black or Latina premed adviser to keep people from dropping out. Needs to be more work done to encourage black and brown students to stay in the sciences.”

-Andrea ‘06

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If you have a story that you would like to share with WU, we are taking submissions here.

Wellesley Underground has invited Black students and alumni of Wellesley College to tell us about their undergraduate experiences. We are inspired by the various social media accounts created by alumni and students at various schools and colleges across the country calling attention to instances of racism, anti-Black racism, and xenophobia. Below is one of the submissions we received: 

“Mona Lisa Smile and the “Not Too Tan” casting call for student extras.  I don’t need to expound. It was a helluva time to be Black at Wellesley. It was the first time I understood that no matter what I do, no matter how much of the same elite space we occupy, I will always be reminded that I’m just a n*****.”

-Hollee ‘00

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If you have a story that you would like to share with WU, we are taking submissions here.

Wellesley Underground has invited Black students and alumni of Wellesley College to tell us about their undergraduate experiences. We are inspired by the various social media accounts created by alumni and students at various schools and colleges across the country calling attention to instances of racism, anti-Black racism, and xenophobia. Below is one of the submissions we received: 

“I had a professor who would constantly try to argue with me about things I said or tell me that I was wrong. However when another student would point out that I was right and say the same points as me in slightly different words, the professor would proceed to say “oh well I guess Wendy was right”. I was the only black person and it was so infuriating that at a certain point I just stopped participating.”

-Wendy ‘23

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If you have a story that you would like to share with WU, we are taking submissions here.

Interview by Cleo Hereford ‘09

A Delaware native and member of the Nanticoke tribe, Courtney Streett ‘09 is currently the President and Executive Director of the Native Roots Farm Foundation (NRFF). NRFF is a non-profit organization “dedicated to celebrating Native American cultures, protecting open space, cultivating a public garden, and practicing sustainable agriculture.” Prior to founding NRFF, Courtney was previously an associate producer at CBS News working on both the CBS Evening Newsand60 Minutes and was also a senior news producer for the Business Insider. 

I was super excited to catch up with my friend and classmate about her exciting new work with the NRFF. 

Cleo: Thanks for chatting with me, Courtney! Before we talk specifically about the Native Roots Farm Foundation, you say NRFF’s story starts with your great-grandparents. Tell us a little bit about them and also your family’s Delaware roots.

Courtney: Thanks, Cleo, for inviting me to share my journey with the Wellesley Underground community!

My family has been in Delaware…since time immemorial. Through my father, I’m a member of the Nanticoke Indian Association and our family tree goes back several hundred years in lower Delaware (since European records were taken). The Nanticokes’ first contact with Europeans was in 1608 with Captain John Smith, yup, the man who kidnapped Pocahontas. The community has survived since then by assimilating into the mainstream, but many aspects of our culture were lost. That includes our relationships with food and nature – rather than seasonally moving between fishing, hunting/foraging, and growing regionally adapted crops, the Nanticoke had to adjust to the European practices of private land ownership and farming in one place year round.

At the turn of the 20th century, my Nanticoke great-grandparents bought a farm. It was unusual for people of color to own property at that time, but they cultivated the land and sold produce like strawberries, raspberries, peas, and tomatoes to passersby at the beach. Through hard work, dedication, and tenacity that property passed down through generations of my family and is now owned by my father’s cousins. I grew up visiting the farm and it’s provided a connection to both the natural world and to my ancestors.

Cleo: Native American communities, like all minoritized communities, are not monolithic. What would you like WU readers to know about the Nanticoke, the tribe that your great-grandparents were members of?

Courtney: We can thank Hollywood for creating the stereotype that all Native American communities live on reservations, have long straight hair, have tepees, and operate casinos.

Indigenous communities have been largely erased from American history – today Pennsylvania doesn’t even recognize any tribal communities. But we know the Lenape, Susquehanna, and Iroquois were some of the area’s first inhabitants.

We are still here! The Nanticoke have a Powwow every September that’s open to the public. Mark your calendar: September 10 and 11, 2022! It’s a celebration of our culture and community and an affirmation of our roots in Delaware.

Cleo: Let’s talk about NRFF. You previously worked as a producer for CBS News and the Business Insider. What made you take the leap into establishing a non-profit organization? Why focus on a public garden and farm?

Courtney: I was living in Brooklyn and working my dream job; and then my dream changed.

After Powwow in 2018, I saw that the farm my great-grandparents had nurtured was for sale. I knew this cultural and agricultural history couldn’t be lost – and I also knew that my partner and I couldn’t afford to buy 100 acres, 10 minutes from the beach.

I had nightmares about the farm disappearing. Because in this area, the crops have been replaced by condos. Lower Delaware has been one of the fastest developing regions of the country. After months of conversations and research, we realized our limitations as individuals,  but that as a collective, we could make a difference. So, we created Native Roots Farm Foundation (NRFF).

Why plants? When creating NRFF, we wanted to celebrate Indigenous communities, the farm’s agricultural history, and also native plants. So, NRFF has a few different components to its mission. We’re working to celebrate local Indigneous communities by protecting open space, creating a public garden with native plants and highlighting what they’re called by the Nanticoke and Lenape, and cultivating a farm that feeds the community using Indigenous agricultural techniques.

I also love plants and getting my hands in the soil – I did research in the Wellesley’s Greenhouses my junior year and presented at the Ruhlman Conference. I didn’t know how that would manifest in my life, but it was a building block for NRFF. Sibs, while on campus (as students or alums) check out the new greenhouse, explore the edible ecosystem, and walk one of the many beautiful trails! You never know how it’ll change your life!

Cleo: Building an organization in the best of times is not easy. How has it been attempting to establish and grow NRFF during the ongoing (never ending) pandemic?

Courtney: Hahaha what an interesting question. We launched NRFF in January 2020…and the rest is history. Lockdown meant we had the time to sit on the computer, file paperwork, and really build a strong foundation for NRFF.

It also meant that events we had planned couldn’t happen. So, we pivoted and started building an online community which has continued to grow and flourish during this never ending pandemic. Every week, we post on social media about native plants, food systems, and Indigenous communities.

(Shameless plug—follow us on InstagramandFacebook!)

Cleo: In addition to protecting land at risk of development, how does climate change factor into your goals for establishing NRFF?

Courtney: Right now, the buzz words in food production are “regenerative agriculture”. Regenerative agriculture is *Indigenous Agriculture*. But, of course, the Indigenous roots of this land stewardship practice are rarely recognized. Instead, regenerative agriculture is celebrated as a brand new way to farm.

Why are we hearing about this now? Most food is grown using industrial agricultural practices that have been linked to pollution, soil erosion, intensive water use, reduced biodiversity, chronic illness, and greenhouse gas emissions which are causing climate change.

Regenerative agriculture differs because it’s a holistic approach to land management. It recognizes the interconnectedness of soil, plants, water, animals, and people without centering humans. In practice, regenerative agriculture focuses on nurturing soil health, because that determines the health of both people and the planet.

Most importantly, regenerative agriculture is about community and equity – principles and approaches NRFF celebrates. Let’s get back to the roots and work with nature to address climate change.

Cleo: In addition to posting about sustainable farming and plant life, you have also posted about rejecting blood quantum and have highlighted those with both Black and Native ancestry on the Native Roots IG page. As someone who is both Black and Native, why has it been important for you to post about those topics?

Courtney: My mother’s parents were from the Caribbean and I always saw my two cultures, Indigenous and Caribbean, as being separate. With mom you eat flying fish and callaloo. With dad you eat fry bread and succotash.

But then I heard a song that stopped me. It was “Ba Na Na” a blend of Caribbean beats and Native drumming (by the Indiegnous group The Halluci Nation). The lyrics are: “…Carnival season, this life for the books/I jump and I wave and I wine and I juke…” Just like this song mixes genres, I can and other people can, too. It’s time for all of us to embrace our full cultures and identities.

Cleo: What are your long and short-term plans for NRFF? Where do you see the organization in 5 years?

Courtney: In five years, I see NRFF welcoming the Wellesley family to its fully operational public garden and sustainable farm!

More immediately, we have our first big event of 2022 next weekend and I’m looking forward to continuing to build community, making Tehim Juice which has become an NRFF staple (Tehim is Nanticoke for strawberry), and meeting new people! We’re also hoping to have an intern this summer and just submitted a Hive Internship Project.

Cleo: Finally, how can your Wellesley sibs and WU readers support you and your organization?

We’re still a new organization, in the startup phase, and I’m so grateful for the support of the Wellesley family!

You can help uplift NRFF’s message by following us on social media, sharing the organization with your community, grabbing our signature shirt that says “This shirt saves farms”, or making a donation.

But don’t stop with NRFF, get to know your native plants! Plant them in your yard, window box, or planter. Learn what they’re called in the Indigenous language where you live. And foster a love for your local ecology.

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For more information on NRFF or to support the organization: https://www.nativerootsde.org

You can also follow NRFF on Instagram@nativeroots_de

There are few words that elicit a similar level of dread in average people as taxes do. Simply mentioning the word results in immediate not-so-subtle groans and sighs. This reaction is justified: even beyond the stress of simply completing taxes, the tax system, like many institutions, has a history of racial prejudice. As Professor Dorothy Brown documents in her bookThe Whiteness of Wealth, the incorporation of new tax benefits and credits like lower taxation on stock income or marriage tax incentives throughout the years has been aimed at lowering the contributions of whiteAmericans.

Nevertheless, there are many tools within the tax code that you can leverage to support yourself or others. Unfortunately, these resources are often not fully taken advantage of due to the overly complex language and confusing rules of the tax code. Adding onto this, some taxpayers, particularly those who are low-income or are non-English speakers, are manipulated by fraudulent tax filers who steal the refunds they deserve. Regardless of whether you hope to use the tax code to support your justice initiatives, make sure your family has the right resources, or file your own taxes, it is important to learn more about taxes.

The tax system is unique in that it has an individual’s financial and familial circumstances and because of this, it has been and can be used to provide support to historically disadvantaged groups. Some salient programs that have had national benefits include three refundable tax credits: the Earned Income Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Credit, and the Child Tax Credit. Refundable tax credits differ from nonrefundable tax credits in that they can return extra money to you, boosting your tax refund. If a refundable credit or a partially refundable credit reduces your tax liability to zero, the government will give you an amount of the unused refundable portion of the credit as a tax refund. Thus, while nonrefundable tax credit can reduce your liabilities (the amount you owe the government) to zero, refundable tax credits go beyond this, with the possibility of the government paying you a certain amount of eligible money. These refundable credits are particularly important to low income taxpayers because they generally need to pay the government a lower amount of money, making them often unable to benefit from all of the resources provided by the credit if it is non-refundable.

The first refundable credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides workers with a refund of a certain percentage of their earnings, has been the most effective anti-poverty program for working age people. The American Opportunity Credit, a partially refundable tax credit that can give students a credit of up to $2,500for qualifying higher educational expenses, has been able to offset the costs of college. The Child Tax Credit offers financial assistance to low-income families with children and has proven to decrease child poverty and increase social mobility for many families. During the pandemic, President Biden used the tax code as an engine to alleviate some monetary burden for low-income families. His monumental expansion of the Child Tax Credit  lifted  3.7  million  children  out  of  poverty  in  December  and cut child poverty rates by around 30 percent. When filing taxes, learn whether your community, family, or yourself can qualify for these programs because they have been a positive force across the country.

While the tax code has been used in historic ways during the past couple of years to uplift many Americans, these changes are not permanent and action needs to be taken to support them.

The Build Back Better Act, which incorporated many of the social tax expansions like the Advanced Child Tax Credit changes, is currently being revised and repacked into different proposals and policies. With the future of these crucial programs on the line, it is more important now than ever to reach out to your senator advocating for passing this bill. But there is advocacy that can be done beyond speaking to elected officials. You can pass a short certificate online on the IRS website to learn about preparing returns and more generally about the tax code. Then, you can file taxes for yourself, your family or others at a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site. With the tax deadline quickly approaching on April 18th (or April 19th for MA and ME), it is necessary to maximize the potential of the tax code, both by pushing for new reforms and helping everyday Americans access them.

Most importantly, remember that behind the verbose language and excessive rules are learnable tools that you can use to support yourself and those around you.

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Eshika Kaul ‘23 is an Economics and Peace & Justice Studies student at the College. Her passion for public service has led her to expand volunteering opportunities for students and lead a $5,000 week-long civic-oriented trip as a Ministrare Coordinator. Off-campus, Eshika has personally leveraged her tax certification to secure tens of thousands of dollars in benefits for under-resourced clients at the Federal Tax Clinic of Harvard Legal Services Center. 

Please reach out to me at [email protected]if you are interested in learning more about taxes or getting involved with volunteering.

Disclaimer: A version  of this article has appeared in The Wellesley News.

Since we last posted about Texas’ abortion ban (SB8), there have been a number of abortion restriction related bills passed. Just this week both Florida and Kentucky passing bills with the latter banning abortions after 15 weeks effective July 1, 2022. Now more than ever, it’s important to local abortion funds in states imposing restrictions on reproductive rights, particularly given that these bans often cause the most harm for those who are low income and/or POC. 

If you have the means, we’ve put together a list of some funds for you to support: 

Alabama

• Yellowhammer Fund
  
• Alabama Cohosh Collaborative

Florida

• Broward Women’s Emergency Fund
  
• Tampa Bay Abortion Fund
  
• Florida Access Network
  
• Women’s Emergency Network
  

Kentucky

• Kentucky Health Justice Network
  
• A Fund, Inc

Oklahoma

• Roe Fund
  

Texas

• Frontera Fund
  
• Jane’s Due Process
• Texas Equal Access Fund
• Lilith Fund
• West Fund

Multi-State

• Indigenous Women Rising
  
• ARC Southeast(Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina & Tennessee) 

It’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day (#f*ckColumbus) - what better way to commemorate the day and show solidarity than to support Native organizations and social media accounts. I’ve put together the following list to help get you started:

• Native Roots Farm Foundation (https://www.nativerootsde.org/):A non-profit organization dedicated to “celebrating Native American cultures, protecting open space, cultivating a public garden, and practicing sustainable” founded by fellow alum Courtney Streett ‘09
• SLC Air Protectors(@SLCAir): Native-led 501c3 that addresses the air pollution in Utah, while supporting Indigenous stewardship; Venmo: SLC-AirProtectors
• Indigenous Peoples Day NYC(https://ipdnyc.org/):  A 24 hour celebration of dance, culture, and ceremony on Lanapehoking/Randall’s Island, NYC
  
• Lakota People’s Law Project (IG: @lakotalaw)
  
• Honor the Earth(https://www.honorearth.org/)
• Indigenous Food Lab (IG: @indigenousfoodlab): An org focused on creating access to Indigenous education & foods
• Tewa Women United(https://tewawomenunited.org/): Located in the Tewa homelands, the org works to grow community and end violence against women, girls, and the earth
• Indigenous Women Rising(https://www.iwrising.org/): An org focused on sexual health and reproductive justice accessibility for Native families
• Native American Rights Fund(https://www.narf.org/): “Since 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has provided legal assistance to Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide who might otherwise have gone without adequate representation.”
• Indian Law Resource Center (https://indianlaw.org/)
• Land Rights Now(https://www.landrightsnow.org/): An org that mobilizes and engages active citizens, media, communities and organizations worldwide to promote and secure the land rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
• American Indian College Fund(https://collegefund.org/)
• Indigenous Environmental Network(https://www.ienearth.org/)
• Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (IG: @csvanw;https://www.csvanw.org/)
• Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women USA(https://mmiwusa.org/)
  
• Partnership with Native Americans(http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pwna_home): A 501 ©(3) nonprofit organization “committed to championing hope for a brighter future for Native Americans living on remote, isolated and impoverished reservations.”
• Native American Heritage Association(https://www.naha-inc.org/):  NAHA is a charitable non-profit organization dedicated to “helping Native American families in need living on Reservations in South Dakota and Wyoming”
• Inuit Tapirit Kanatami (https://www.itk.ca/help-inuit-communities-thrive/):  Works to improve the health and wellbeing of Inuit in Canada “through research, advocacy, public outreach and education.”
  
• Native Wellness Institute(https://www.nativewellness.com/)
• Warrior Women Project(https://www.warriorwomen.org/)
• The Redhawk Native American Art Council(https://www.redhawkcouncil.org/): A not for profit organization “founded and maintained by Native American artists and educators serving the tristate [New York] area.”
  
• Indigenous People’s Power Project (https://www.ip3action.org/who-we-are/): A nonviolent direct action training and support network “advancing Indigenous communities’ ability to exercise their inherent rights to environmental justice, cultural livelihood, and self-determination”
• Alaska Rising Tide (IG: @alaskarisingtide)
• Native Womens Wilderness (IG: @nativewomenswilderness;https://www.nativewomenswilderness.org/):  A nonprofit organization with the purpose of “inspiring and raising the voices of Native Women in the Outdoor Realm.”  
• Sacramento Native American Health Center(https://www.snahc.org/)

Last night, the Texas State Legislature passed SB8 which effectively bans abortions as early as six weeks prohibiting them “whenever an ultrasound can detect what lawmakers defined as a fetal “heartbeat.” 

Twitter reactions to the bill’s passage as well as the Supreme Court’s failure to take action on an emergency appeal noted the severity of the situation. 

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Re: SB 8: 

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So what can you do? Here are some organizations and abortion funds on the ground in Texas you can support: 

• The Afiya Center (Dallas, TX; advocacy organization dedicated to transforming the lives of Black Women and Girls through Reproductive Justice)
• Avow 
• Bridge Collective(Austin, TX)
• Buckle Bunnies Fund
• Clinic Access Support Network(Houston, TX)
• Frontera Fund(Rio Grande Valley)
• Fund Texas Choice
• Jane’s Due Process
• Lilith Fund
• Texas Equal Access Fund
• West Fund(West Texas)
• Whole Women’s Health Alliance
• Whole Women’s Health

You can also support funds in neighboring states which will likely become vital in helping Texas residents access care: 

• Cobalt Fund(Colorado)
• Indigenous Women Rising (New Mexico)
• Mariposa Fund(New Mexico)
• New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice 
• Reproductive Equality Fund of the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center(Colorado)

To learn more about SB8, you can sign up for this virtual event on Thursday, September 9th from 12 - 1:30pm CST hosted by the Texas Equal Access Fund, the Lilith Fund and the Lawyering Project: 

https://secure.everyaction.com/ajAOV1gyPk6t4kdOIMJ5vA2?emci=1486cf78-e70a-ec11-981f-501ac57ba3ed&emdi=a388d5ec-e70a-ec11-981f-501ac57ba3ed&ceid=10801602

For those living in states outside of Texas, you can also check to see what, if any, reproductive rights-related legislature may be in the works in your home state and also contact your local state representative/senator to make your stance on the issue known. 

In early August 2001, I set down my bag in a simple dormitory in the village of Bol’shie Koty on the coast of Siberia’s Lake Baikal. “We each get a bed, cupboard, and closet space, and there’s a cool Russian stove. Our room overlooks the lake!” I enthused in my journal. Bol’shie Koty, whose 150 summer residents dwindle to only 80 in the deep Siberian winter, is, like many communities along the nearly 400-mile-long lake, accessible only by boat. The crescent-shaped lake is the world’s deepest (over a mile), the world’s oldest (at least 25 million years), and holds the most water of any lake (around 22% of the planet’s fresh surface water). Unique as well as superlative, Baikal hosts hundreds, if not thousands of animal species found nowhere else on earth, including sponges, fish, amphipods, and a freshwater seal. In remote southern Siberia, its watershed drains vast expanses of Mongolian steppe and Russian taiga, and the lake holds a somewhat mythical place in Russian culture. As part of the inaugural expedition of the Wellesley-Baikal program, which paired a spring course on Baikal history, literature, and ecology with summer study at the edge of the lake, I had rejoined my classmates after graduating from Wellesley and spending a summer in my home state of Vermont. 

Over three weeks we explored the lake and its surrounding towns and forests, taking water samples and plant inventories and meeting local scientists, artists, land managers and even a shaman with a double thumbnail. On that gravelly shoreline, while also at the figurative shore where college meets adulthood, I was enchanted by the ways this place burst with both novelty and familiarity, and I immersed myself in observation to make connections between them.

On our misty boat ride to Bol’shie Koty, I saw eerie expanses of ghostly, bare tree trunks near the head of the Angara River, the bare, pointy stems resulting from an intense local outbreak of Siberian silk moth caterpillars. I was fresh from a field technician job counting invasive insects and inventorying disease in white pine stands for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, and diligently took photos for my boss back home. 

A few days after, I observed a female Siberian silk moth, “a beautiful creamy shimmery color with delicate folds,” alight on our boat in the lake, whose water looked “almost glacial in its deep blue green, slightly milky texture.” As I watched from where my classmates and I were taking samples, “one moth took off from our boat and flew valiantly toward shore, only to come closer and closer to the water until finally landing, becoming a creamy speck on the blue-green Baikal waters.” Later, I felt an odd surge of recognition - as well as horror - when one of us turned back a bedspread (“of a smooth cotton and muted brown/blue/purple/pale pink weave”) to find the grayish, fibrous lump of a silk moth cocoon. The caterpillars of Dendrolimus superans sibiricus defoliate Siberia’s characteristic coniferous forests, devouring needles of tamarack, pine, spruce, and fir. 

Twenty years later, I’m back in Vermont, reading these somewhat overwrought - and repetitive! - words of my younger self while the larvae of Lymantria dispar (their common name, ‘gypsy moth’, is a derogatory ethnic slur) devastate trees around me during one of the worst outbreaks in Vermont in 30 years. Lymantria dispar larvae, like their distant Siberian cousins, feed on trees that distinguish Vermont’s forested landscape, though they defoliate oaks and other hardwood trees rather than the needle-leaved conifers that the Siberian caterpillars eat. I work as an ecologist and spend much of my time on projects that protect another huge lake, Lake Champlain, and its watersheds. I still love Russian literature, saunas, and dill, my appreciation for all of which sharpened during my time at Baikal. The world changed forever just three weeks after we returned from the far side of it that year. Yet in my own life, throughlines from those days along the crumbling shoreline continue to surface and reverberate in the present. Like the fine threads of a Siberian silk moth cocoon, these connect my past and present selves, shaping and in turn being shaped by perspectives and decisions that continue to unfold.

I couldn’t have articulated it at the time, but on rereading my excruciatingly detailed journal, I can see that this trip to Russia was the first time that I, at age 21, saw myself as a witness to and participant in the churning path of history, rather than merely a visitor to museums and ruins clearly separating past and present. Opposing truths can exist at the same time, the past continually bumps up against the present, and these moments and impressions form part of an unfolding and messy whole. 

I marveled at juxtapositions. The beauty of the silk moths and the devastation of the forests in their wake. Wild-looking river deltas along the lake, thick with larch and cobble, that were in fact just decades out from the ecological and human devastation of slave-powered gold mining and deforestation. The expanse of lake viewed from an old rayon factory in Baikalsk, where I pondered a failed Soviet scheme to make airplane tires from wood pulp. A wolf wandered the shoreline and lynx pelts adorned the walls of a village home. Cows wandered the lanes and wooded margins of Bol’shie Koty, while rough fences kept livestock out of yards instead of in pastures, where they would have been in my familiar Vermont. Yet this surprising settlement pattern recalled early New England villages modeled after those in England, where overgrazing of common areas inspired the ecological and economic concept of the ‘tragedy of the commons’ in the mid-nineteenth century.

In Russia I saw academic concepts like this embodied in the land and lives around me, and the contrasts activated my thinking. Primed by the wide-ranging spring course with Tom Hodge and Marianne Moore, big thinkers with endlessly curious minds, I filled my journal with lists of plants, records of weather, notes from lectures and questions to consider. 

One day our group got to witness the value of a long-term journal first hand. Talking with biologist Lyubov Izmesteva, in her dusty lab, we learned that her grandfather, Mikhail Kozhov, had begun recording ecological data on the lake in 1945, offshore from Bol’shie Koty. He passed the pen to his daughter and now granddaughter, and their collective decades of observation yielded a unique record of the lake’s health. Marianne Moore recognized the value of this careful record in 2001 and has shared it more broadly in the years since that trip. Reaching through and beyond the Soviet era, this family project is now helping the rest of the world understand how climate change is impacting Baikal. 

Though I lacked a deep grounding in Russian political history, I felt a momentum in Russia, which seemed like it was still actively turning a corner from the drudgery and oppression of the Soviet era toward the complexities of democracy and capitalism. I knew the forested hills, river valleys, and watery depths around me held painful histories, like the cut-short lives of “uncounted, unregistered hundreds [of political hostages], unidentified even by a roll call” deliberately drowned in Baikal around 1920 as part of Russia’s post-revolutionary, pre-Stalinist horrors, and described by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago. In Moscow in 2001, I snapped a photo of a billboard advertising chewing gum, looming over a Soviet-era statue. The frivolity of the gum, its promise of a tiny personal diversion, seemed to contrast in a fascinating way with the stern Communist officer on his horse, frozen in metal.

In Moscow, I wrote, “Miles & miles from the city center are 6-lane streets, long apartment buildings, stores (many for furniture/home furnishings), people strolling, hurrying or waiting, painting, digging, talking, rolling out sod, carrying wallpaper, buying clothes, selling watermelons, riding bikes, doing exercises, kissing”. The pendulum seemed to be swinging toward growth and expansion. Yet other pieces just hadn’t caught up yet. I remember a car pulling another car on a busy city street with only a thick piece of rough twine, goldenrods and tall grasses adding a surprising wildness to the edges of city sidewalks, the shopkeeper in Bol’shie Koty calculating change with an abacus. I observed these dynamics with curiosity and delight.

In 2021, Baikal is an Instagram backdrop and Russia, presided over by a former KGB officer, a shaky mix of democracy and authoritarianism. I haven’t been back, but I wonder if the residents of that busy Moscow street still feel the forward-looking momentum I observed. Are they still carrying wallpaper and rolling out sod, shaping their spaces? As influencers filter images for fantastic effect and shadows of the Soviet era continue to loom, I can’t find the photos I took with film on that trip, or the paper (the last of my college career) that I wrote by hand on the porch at Bol’shie Koty. I still keep methodical notes about land for my job, but my personal journal these days contains mostly scattered thoughts on parenting, relationships, and career, quotes from podcasts, and conceptual brainstorms. I write in it to get ideas out of my head and process the complex dynamics of life, not to record anything for posterity. But in reflecting on Baikal two decades later, I realize my younger self gave me a gift in the form of her obsessively detailed notebook. She helped me decipher the throughlines that connect me to her, through a trip we both took to the other side of the world. My work now is to figure out how to pay this gift forward, to whatever selves come next.

Juneteenth is nearly upon us and WU encourages all of our fellow non-Black alums to truly think about what the day means to our Black siblings. Further, it is important for allies and accomplices to keep the perspective that, while some may feel it important that Juneteenth be recognized as a national holiday, there is the very real possibility that the day could become commercialized or whitewashed in a way that is not beneficial to the Black community. And that while the day may be formally recognized, voting rights in states where there are significant black populations are being stripped away, abortion rights are being threatened, police brutality is still a thing and there is an ongoing discussion (war) on Critical Race Theory in US public schools and institutions. 

While you contemplate that, WU also encourages you to financially support, if possible, organizations focused on Black women as well as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Donating to Wellesley is great but HBCUs in particular often have much smaller endowments and resource pools than PWIs (and sometimes are deprived of money that is rightfully owed to them). We have put together a list of organizations and HBCUs for you to consider supporting on this Juneteenth: 

ORGANIZATIONS

Black Mamas Bailout

Black Mamas Matter Alliance

SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

Brown Girls Do Ballet

The Loveland Foundation 

Black Women’s Health Imperative 

National Black Women’s Justice Institute

Black Girls Code 

Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)

Southerners on New Ground (SONG) 

Beacon Hill Black Alliance

The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness

The Black Women’s Agenda 

Black Women’s Blueprint

Black Girls Smile

Marsha P. Johnson Institute 

HBCUs

The HBCU Foundation 

The United Negro College Fund

Alabama A&M(Alabama) 

Alcorn State University(Mississippi)

Bennett College(women’s college; North Carolina)

Bowie State University(Maryland)

Clark Atlanta University(Georgia)

Dillard University(Louisiana) 

Fisk University(Tennessee) 

Florida A&M (Florida) 

Grambling State University (Louisiana) 

Hampton University(Virginia) 

Howard University(Washington, DC) 

Jackson State University (Mississippi) 

Kentucky State University(Kentucky) 

Langston University(Oklahoma) 

Lincoln University(Pennsylvania) 

Meharry Medical College(Tennessee) 

Mississippi Valley State University(Mississippi) 

Morgan State University(Maryland) 

Morehouse College(Georgia) 

Norfolk State University(Virginia) 

North Carolina A&T State University(North Carolina) 

Prairie View A&M(Texas) 

Savannah State University(Georgia) 

Southern University(Louisiana) 

South Carolina State University(South Carolina) 

Spelman College(Georgia)

Tennessee State University(Tennessee) 

Tuskegee University(Alabama) 

Virginia State University(Virginia) 

West Virginia State University(West Virginia) 

Xavier University of Louisiana(Louisiana) 

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If museums and/or cultural organizations are more of interest, seethis listof Black/African American institutions we put together last year. 

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Cleo Hereford ‘09