Each quarter, the Antioch community welcomes back students returning from their Cooperative Education work terms with an opportunity to share about their experiences in the weekly Community Meeting space. This past quarter, Co-op student at WYSO, Mari Smith, captured the student’s tales in a podcast for The Antioch Word. The Antioch Word is a monthly podcast that was started by a Co-op student in her time at WYSO and continues to be a project for each new student Co-oping at WYSO.
To learn more about WYSO, its connection to Antioch College, or the Antioch Word, check out this site.
For his third co-op, Octavio Escamilla-Sanchez ’17 joined the hardworking team at Northshore University HealthSystem as a Research Assistant, working alongside Dr. Sanborn and Dr. Chehab. Located in a suburb just north of Chicago, Northshore University HealthSystem works to provide patients the best care possible, while also having a strong commitment to researching new medical treatments and performing various medical trials. As a Research Assistant, Octavio was tasked with analyzing data and compiling his findings into presentations that helped argue the benefits of the program/solutions for reducing sugar consumption developed by the doctors. “Dr. Sanborn has worked with Dr. Chehab who has created a program called the Sugar Show. This program is meant to educate the students of what is too much sugar. The program avoids using the words fat or obese, and just focuses on the negative health affects.” As a part of the program, surveys are taken, collecting data on student sugar intake, BMI, and other factors. Octavio’s role was to analyze the data collected from the surveys, calculate percentages for obesity levels, healthy weight levels, and more. All of his hard work came to fruition when he had the opportunity to present his findings to the Evanston Town Ship High School’s wellness committee.
Venturing to Detroit, Katie Olson ’17 found herself in the thriving art scene of the city. She worked as a Production Assistant for Mutual Adoration, a small business “that transforms reclaimed wood from local structures and other salvaged materials into furniture, custom installations, and small production goods.” While at Mutual Adoration, Katie was able to use both her past experiences at Crown Point Press and her studies as a Visual Arts major at Antioch to greatly contribute to the work at Mutual Adoration. Daily tasks included prepping materials, sanding, painting, assembly of frames and more! She expanded her learning in woodworking but also, through getting involved in the Detriot community outside of her work hours, Katie was able to interact with local artists,” gallery owners, curators, and professors” and even volunteered at “Afterhouse, a project started by faculty at University of Michigan who are renovating a partially burned down building into a functional greenhouse in the neighborhood that she lived in.” Katie truly embraced what co-op is all about by applying her learning both from classroom studies and past work experiences, and getting out to explore her new community, meeting new individuals in the arts, and volunteering to build up the area around her. Great work, Katie!
With support from Antioch College and the Lloyd Family Fund, four Antioch College undergraduates presented posters at the 2015 Oral History Association conference in Tampa, Florida. The conference theme, Stories of Social Change and Social Justice, aligned with their faculty-mentored oral history-based fieldwork conducted during their fourth co-op in WORK 425: Oral History Practicum. Pictured are Cristian Perez-Lopez ’17, who is currently co-oping with the Oral History in the Liberal Arts initiative as the digital archives coordinator; Katie Zechar ’16, who researched Turkish immigration in Dayton, Ohio; Charlotte Pulitzer ’16, who delved into place and identity through oral histories and live mapmaking; co-op faculty member Brooke Bryan, and Eric Rhodes ’16, who began his research on redlining and its implications to communities in Dayton, Ohio.