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Antioch College

Antioch College Launches Yoga Teacher Training

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Starting with the Winter quarter in January 2018, Antioch College students can now receive college credits for Yoga Teacher Training through an innovative 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training Program at the College’s Wellness Center. Comprised of community members, Antioch students, and a few Antioch alums, the inaugural program cohort is completing the training in partnership with Yoga Springs Studio, a Registered Yoga School with the National Yoga Alliance.

“I am very excited to bring the program to Antioch. It is an additional tool for students to have when they graduate. The skills that one learns teaching yoga can be applied in various community and work environments. It also teaches valuable life skills for maintaining balance and well-being,” said Monica Hasek, director of the Yoga Teacher Training program and the Wellness Center. Antioch students interested in obtaining certification had previously approached Hasek about offering courses, and during the College’s community-wide visioning process, the opportunity presented itself to integrate the Wellness Center more fully into the College’s curriculum. This resulted in the Yoga Teacher Training program as well as other certifications, like American Red Cross Lifeguard Training.

 

Students in the program are doing much more than refining their yoga skills. Through classes mixed with alums and community members, students have the opportunity to build new connections. Amelia la Plante Horne ‘18 described it as “a community of people openly working on themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally.” The support from the community and the practice and knowledge gained through yoga training also positively affected her other academic pursuits. “It’s easier to do my schoolwork,” la Plante Horne explained. A weekend of intensive practice has provided new perspective for her other courses and work during the week.

 

Another current student, Hollyn Bermod, said the intensive weekend structure “helps balance out the rigorous academic curriculum” at Antioch. She expected the program to be a deepening of her own personal practice of yoga and challenging to as a full-time student, but she discovered the program also taught her to focus in new ways. “I’ve been able to integrate full body awareness into everything I do. It’s about honoring yourself and where you’re at.”

 

As an approved part of the curriculum at the College, students can find new ways to integrate the lessons learned from Yoga Teacher Training with their current degree programs, whether they plan to teach yoga or study ecologic systems. Starting with the Fall 2018 quarter, students at Antioch College will truly own their education through self-designed majors that will include a curricular focus on the College’s Area of Practice: wellbeing, sustainability, deliberative democracy and justice, creativity and story, and work and resilient community. Innovative pieces of the curriculum, such as Yoga Teacher Training, give students the opportunity to put values into practice and integrate a variety of learning opportunities into a degree program.

For more information about this program and other Antioch College courses focusing on Areas of Practice, including wellbeing, please contact Christine Reedy, communications specialist.

 

 

Antioch College Takes Real Food Challenge

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1378167_667778729923285_2120083983_nThis week, Antioch College President Mark Roosevelt, along with staff and student representatives signed the Real Food Campus Commitment. This student-driven agreement amplifies Antioch’s commitment to improving our nation’s food system to prevent adverse ecological, health and social outcomes.

The Real Food Challenge (RFC) leverages the power of youth and universities to create a healthy, fair and green food system. The RFC’s primary goal is to shift $1 billion of existing university food budgets away from industrial farms and junk food and towards local/community-based, fair, ecologically sound and humane food sources—what they call “real food”—by 2020.

Antioch College is fast becoming a national model in terms of ways that institutions of higher learning can support ecologically sustainable, humane and socially equitable food systems. From the Antioch Farms to the Antioch Kitchens, the College strives to deliver real food to students, faculty, and staff. Antioch College is second in the nation in real food consumption at 56%. Only Sterling College in Craftsbury, Vt. consumes a higher percentage of real food at 74%.

“Antioch College has a long history of being thoughtful about our impact on the environment including how the food we eat affects the world around us,” said Antioch College President Mark Roosevelt. “The re-created Antioch is no different. We are fully committed to delivering real food to our students, faculty, staff and community. By signing the challenge we redouble our efforts to win victories for humanity through food systems.”
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“Participation in the RFC allows the College to be involved in the ongoing national conversation about food sustainability,” said Antioch Kitchens food service coordinator Isaac DeLamatre. “While we continually seek to investigate and develop our own solutions, given the circumstances of our community, we are pleased and honored to be a part of this growing network of activists.”

Sara Brooks, a member of the class of 2015 and a driving force behind the signing said, “The signing of the Real Food Campus Commitment solidifies Antioch’s institutional dedication to sustainable and ethically produced food. The commitment states that the dining services program is participating in the Real Food Challenge program and that we are dedicated to having 60% real food by 2020. The signing of the commitment is recognition of the hard work of the entire dining services crew and Antioch as a whole, but especially the kitchen staff, and the people at local farms growing the food, who work very hard and are dedicated to seeing Antioch and its students succeed.”

Through the Real Food Campus Challenge Antioch College will:

·       Commit to serving over 60% Real Food by 2020;

·       Purchase more local foods, buy only single or direct source coffee, and continue the development of the campus farm;

·       Institutionalize a Real Food Calculator to be run by the College’s assistant food service coordinator, a paid, student position;

·       Establish a Food Systems Working Group—in Antioch’s case, an already established group called the Antioch College Food Committee (ACFC). This committee has open membership, and is facilitated by the assistant food service coordinator. Members include kitchen staff, students, faculty and general Antioch staff, as well as community members from Yellow Springs who are engaged with food issues and activism;

·       The ACFC commits to continually developing educational programming along with supporting community initiatives such as establishing EBT payment at local farmers markets. The ACFC will also continually support the Antioch Farm, and small and local farms in and around southwest Ohio.

Antioch Farm 5100x370The Antioch Farm is a living, learning laboratory for students and a place that makes Antioch more sustainable. Located on campus, students participate in all aspects of the Farm from planning to planting to eating. For example, as part of their coursework, students may take soil samples in environmental science classes, make maple syrup in the Global Seminar on Food, or observing chicken behavior in psychology classes.

The Farm, started in 2011, includes an annual growing area, pasture for animal grazing, a food forest and a hoop house. The Antioch Farm models and practices a variety of sustainability-focused growing methods such as organic and permaculture. All food grown on the Antioch Farm, including fresh produce, eggs, pastured lamb, and culinary and tea herbs, is served in the dining halls. While the average meal travels 1,500 miles to reach the table, food from the Antioch Farm travels 1,500 feet to the College’s kitchens.

Antioch Kitchens provide quality meals and service to the Antioch community. The Kitchens seek to support and engage the scholastic and life experience of our community by providing quality meals of integrity, creating an environment of experiential learning and providing attentive, caring service.  The Kitchens support the ideals of Antioch College by being mindful of their products, the people that produce them and the way in which they are produced.

Fore more information on the Real Food Challenge visit www.realfoodchallenge.org.

Sunny Drake To Perform Transgender Seeking… at Antioch College

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Sunny Drake (photo by Tania Anderson)

Sunny Drake (photo by Tania Anderson)

The Antioch College performance program is hosting Transgender Seeking…, a solo performance by artist Sunny Drake on Friday, February 21, at 7:00 p.m. in the Glen Helen Auditorium.

Drake, an award-winning Australian queer and transgender theater maker, performer and educator will explore queer relationships as “the space between our big political visions and our messy lives in trying to live up to them.”

Recently featured in Gscene Gay Magazine, writer Eric Page wrote, “Drake is one of those rare provocative performers who are uber-smart but ultra cozy at heart… one of the most interesting and touching performances I’ve seen in a while.”

Based in Toronto, Drake has toured his work extensively in Canada, Europe and the United States. He recently won the SummerWorks RBC Professional Artist Award (Canada’s biggest juried theater festival), and was honored by NOW Magazine (Toronto) for “Outstanding Performance” and “Outstanding Design.”

Transgender Seeking… has been generously supported by Antioch College’s Community Council, and is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Gabrielle Civil, associate professor of performance, at gcivil@antiochcollege.org.

Antioch College’s Herndon Gallery Hosts Night Of Performance To Close Currencies Exhibition

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Gabrielle Civil performs at Antioch College's Herndon Gallery

Gabrielle Civil performs at Antioch College’s Herndon Gallery

The Herndon Gallery on Antioch College’s campus will host an evening of performances on Friday, February 14, beginning at 7:00 p.m.  This event will close the current exhibition, Currencies, which presents the work of current Antioch arts faculty and resident scholars.

The evening will include dance performances by Jill Becker, associate professor of dance at the former College, and a National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer’s Fellowship recipient, and Melissa Heston, a collaborative dance and theatre artist who performs regionally and internationally. Becker and Heston will begin by performing solos and duets improvised with a  “love” theme—sappy, romantic, dreamy, love-sick, love-lost, melancholy, first love, etc.  In addition, Heston will perform an excerpt from Bon Voyage, a piece choreographed in 2003 with music by Yann Tierson. Becker will be performing a solo piece, “What I want to say is…,” that moves between the private and public self.

Louise Smith, an actor, writer, and educator, and currently Antioch’s dean of community life, will be performing One Don’t Operate Without the Other, a performance poem about darkness. This piece premiered in Cincinnati last year at the Time Arts Series, and is inspired by Jungian ideas about the unconscious mind and how it expresses itself through language, the body and the world around us. Smith is a 2003 Obie Award winner for her work in A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair.

Gabrielle Civil, a poet, conceptual and performance artist, and associate professor of performance at Antioch College, will be performing “and then . . .” This piece features Nicolas Daily, resident life manager, with video by Cristian Perez Lopez ’17. Civil writes of this new piece, “Break out the Happy Meal, it’s Valentine’s Day. What to do with the space before, during and after love? With loud sound, movement, video, naughty texts and more, this work offers upside down roses, black kisses and trying to cry. There is a parental advisory due to its explicit content. Not for the faint of heart.”

The evening of performances is free and open to the public.  For more information, please contact Dennie Eagleson, creative director of the Herndon Gallery, at 937 768 6462 or e-mail her at deagleson@antiochcollege.org.

 

Art Weekend in Yellow Springs

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It’s a bit mind-boggling. There are almost too many art events going on in Yellow Springs this October 15th-17th weekend…… nah!

Friday night is Art Sroll, and I am really looking forward to that. But I’ve already told you about Art Stroll in my last blog. Though I do have 2 new offering to add to Friday night’s mix:
At 8 p.m. you can stop by the Gardens of 100 Corry Street for a free outdoor theater performance of- “Hey that’s a Nice Bike “ created by Vanessa Query. A second performance at 9 p.m. will be in the courtyard in front of Sam &Eddies on Xenia Ave.

From 5p.m.-9p.m, in King’s Yard, Mike Garrett will be carving Tikis.  Mike is a great Tiki Carver, I can’t wait to see this!

Big breath, get ready, here’s the rest of the weekend-

On Saturday is a “Couples Adventure.” If you’d like something new to do to keep your relationship growing or just want to have fun with your love, here’s a list of 5 new experiences that you can have together on Saturday the 16th.
1. “Healing and relaxation comes when you drum. ”Make a drum filled with your spirit and then later learn to drum together. In this special workshop at Wild Gourd Studio you can each make your own gourd drum with gourd artist Cynthia McDonald. Cynthia plays a lovely, haunting Native American flute and the drum. She has drums in her studio for you to try.
2. A new way to care for each other. During a Thai-Yoga Massage workshop, you’ll learn how to help each other with a deeply relaxing form of bodywork that combines assisted stretching derived from yoga with acupressure style massage and energy balancing. The instructor, Jen Ater, traveled to Thailand to learn with masters this healing bodywork of Thai-Yoga Massage.
3. Bliss out with a great combo-a relaxing private yoga class followed by Swedish massage sessions for the both of you. Janet Baer offers this private session at her beautifully decorated old farmhouse with a labyrinth in the garden.
4. Declare your love forever. Work with Sarah Strong, at Strong heArt Studio and an old time printing press to hand print your own love poster.
5. Create a masterpiece together with New Orlean’s artist Jennifer Float. In Jenny’s Cork and Canvas Class you’ll drink wine, party and make art.
You can sign up and pay for any of these activities at www.getawaysforwomen.com

You need to sign up by Friday morning.

Both Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.-6 p.m. is Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour and Sale. It’s the one time each year that some of Yellow Springs fabulous artists open their studios to visitors. You get to see how they make their art, what tools they use, watch demos, talk with the artists and purchase art. It’s a fascinating peep into an artist’s life. This year there are also 1-2 guest artists at each of the 8 artist’s studios, so you get the opportunity to meet a couple of artists at each stop on the tour.
Download a map at www.ysarts.org This is a free event.

For a great end to a wonderful day, on Saturday from 5 p.m.- 10 p.m. you can stop over at the “Artoberfest” for a music festival and Beer Garden. “Artoberfest” will be held at The Barr Property on the corner of Limestone and Xenia Ave.
During “Artoberfest”, you can enter your favorite beer container in the “Finest Stein” contest to be judged by local artists and celebrities between 7 and 8 pm. Seasonal beers, wine and food will be available and live bands will perform. Brewing and other food and drink demonstrations are planned. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the gate. Advanced tickets can be purchased online at www.yellow-springs-experience.org

On Saturday from 6:00-8:30 p.m. is another reception for an exhibit called “Emerging Visions: Antiochians Make Art” It’s at the Herndon Gallery, in South Hall at Antioch College. The show features paintings, prints, and works on paper and tile by 6 alumni artists.

As always, there is more going on, but I’ve run out of steam. Hope you get a chance to join the fun in Yellow Springs this weekend! If you meet up with me, (I’ll be the one in the black ball cap with Jafagirls written in hot pink across the front) say hi!

Antioch College – A New Life

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Antioch College

Antioch College

Anitoch has undergone a lot of change in the last two years, as it was announced that the university would be closing the campus indefinitely.  After a lot of support from both the Alumni community and Yellow Springs residents, and two long years of work, it was announced earlier this month that all college assets and the Yellow Springs campus would be transferred from the University to a newly independent College.  Working now to reopen the college will be the next step for the new administration.  As part of our introduction to the Village of Yellow Springs, I was able to spend a few minutes with the Communications Chair of the Antioch Alumni Association, Christian Feuerstein.  With change once again coming to Antioch College, we discuss her time spent at school, the college’s impact and the upcoming Reunion that will be the next turning point in the future of the school.

1)   As the communications chair, what sort of things do you do for Antioch College?

I became the Communications Chair very briefly before the announcement about the closure of the college.  It was actually my second meeting there, so it was quite a shock.  What I have done over the past two years is write press releases, arrange interviews and help work on the website.  I also work with a team of about sixty alumni volunteers in various activities.

2)   What was your reaction when it was announced classes would be suspended and then eventually closed?

The alumni board knew there was going to be a strong reaction from past graduates.  The Reunion in July of 2007 was a focus on alumni coming together.  We had about 700 former students come down to Yellow Springs to get a last look at the college and to find out if there was anything we could do.  That is when we launched the fund raising project to help save the college.

3)   Did you attend Antioch College in Yellow Springs?

I did, I graduated in 1994.

4)   How did your experiences there impact your own life?

I owe Antioch College everything.  I arrived there in 1990 when I was seventeen.  My father had passed away 2 years earlier and it was a bad time for me.  My family wouldn’t have been able to afford Community College, but Antioch gave me a wonderful scholarship.  I was a writing major, and I did my co-op in New York City.  I’ve been in publication ever since.  I also met the love of my life there, Mike Heffernan, (class of ’96.) We’ve been together for fifteen years and married about eight.

5)   Why do you think there had been a decline in the college as far as enrollment over the last several years?

There were a number of reasons.  The main reason that the AAUP (American Association of University Professors) cited, was a top down curriculum that was sort of placed upon the faculty to teach but not necessarily designed by them.  They tried to make it work, but explaining how to market the plan to students was not all that it could have been.  So there was some natural frustration on behalf of both the students and faculty in that regard.  One of the projects that we will be working on is maintenance on the facilities, because unfortunately we really did a lot of differed maintenance.  While I don’t have data that this contributed to it, I can’t help but wonder if it was a factor.  Some of the buildings do need some work.  There was also a declining number of faculty because of budget cuts, and it was difficult for students to schedule the classes they needed some times.  With a limited number of people teaching classes, those classes would be unavailable to some students who needed them.

6)   Are there any evaluations on the curriculum being made, or new ideas being discussed on how to teach classes?  Or is the new administration going to use a lot of the old University’s class structure?

That is really up in the air right now, because we don’t really have any faculty at the moment.  I know that we are hiring what are called Morgan Fellows whom are all former faculty members.  With their help, we will be conducting a series of presentations and workshops to help start planning the curriculum.

7)   I have heard discussions about renovating multiple buildings on campus, is any specific location that is getting a focus for when classes start again?

The best way I think I can answer that is to come to Reunion which is October 2nd through the 4th.  There is going to be a State of The College to discuss the renovations and facilities, and to help plan our next step in the process of reopening the college.  Going to antiochians.org will give a schedule of all the events happening at Reunion.  There are several events that require registration but they are indicated on the webpage, otherwise it is open to the public.

8)   The school has a long standing history of acceptance and activism in times when it was not considered the norm, accepting women students upon the school’s opening as well as a handful of African American students as early as the 1850.  It became more progressive with early involvement in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s, and has a strong history that defines the school as a liberal arts college.  what would you say the biggest impact Antioch has had on our country?

Well, the country and even the world need Antioch College.  They need them to be that “laboratory” and catalyst for change.

9)   Which principles does the school most want to help teach students that want to attend Antioch?

We want to give them those experiences period.  The Antioch education has always been based around community, classrooms and co-op.  It’s going to be important for students in the future to be committed to all three; from helping the student body work together, to co-op alternating work and study, and classroom that helps inform and enhances the other two.

10) The school had to be temporarily closed at least 3 times in the past that I could find for various reasons, but successfully reopened each time.  Are you confident Antioch can rebound again as an alternative to the typical higher education institution

Yes, we are really excited.  It is beautiful what we have accomplished so far, but this is the first step in a journey.  We’ve been very encouraged by what we’ve seen, especially with community support.  There are no stories like this in higher education and shows we are once again the catalyst for change; we are not going to wait for the future, we are going to shape it.  We have done the impossible, and that has made us mighty.

11) What sort of ways could residents in the Dayton region get involved with the re-opening and support of Antioch College?

First we’d love for people to get involved.  There is a link that says “Volunteers” on www.antiochcollege.org, which is the new website for the college.  They can find different opportunities there to help out and keep up to date with what is going on at the school.  Obviously if people don’t have time to do this though, we can accept donations to our fundraising cause through the website, which is all tax deductible.