Collaboration and Community: Miles Taylor ‘28 at the Coretta Scott King Center in Yellow Springs, OH
Oct 08, 2026The Coretta Scott King Center (CSKC) is one of Antioch College’s learning hubs that was established in 2005, in the honor of Coretta Scott King and her activism for civil rights. I chose the CSKC for my second CO-OP and was assigned the position of an Events Coordinator. With the help of Queen Zabriskie, my daily tasks consisted of supporting events, sending out emails, cleaning the center, and attending meetings.
As a sociology major, I thrive off of learning about the social dynamics between communities, not just to feed my hunger for knowledge, but help raise awareness about social issues that many communities are struggling with on both macro and micro levels. At the center, I’ve witnessed and experienced the steps and effort that go into making events first-hand, and because of that, those experiences not only helped me explore and figure out what I want to do in order to pursue social justice advocacy, but they also helped me to gain a new perspective when it comes to organizing community events that push for that activism.
With these experiences, I am developing more communication, organization, leadership, and networking skills. However, a major lesson that I’ve learned while co-oping at the CSKC is that you must find a way to keep yourself afloat and focused as you start to feel the burn-out of work, because you can’t expect yourself to help others if you aren’t in a good condition yourself. Being at the CSKC has given me the opportunity to see how others care for each other and themselves,
Studying sociology while taking this CO-OP has allowed me to make a direct, positive impact within the communities that I am a part of and engage with, while also expanding my understanding of how communities shape the social practices and choices of individuals, and I am glad to have been able to contribute to the CSKC’s mission to transform the lives of people by centering various social issues around race, gender, and class.
Research and New Perspectives: Miles Taylor ’28 at Yellow Springs Home, Inc.
Jun 25, 2025For my first co-op as an Antioch student, I am currently co-oping at Yellow Spring Home, Inc. Home, Inc. is a non-profit organization for local affordable housing in Yellow Springs and our mission is to, “strengthen the community and diversity in Yellow Springs and Miami Township by providing permanently affordable and sustainable housing through our Community Land Trust.” We mainly focus on low-income housing, as the price of housing in Yellow Springs is extremely high and only continues to get higher.
Five days a week, six hours a day, Monday through Friday, I go into the office around 9AM and start working until around 3PM. I’ve been mostly doing typical office work such as making calls, checking and sending out mail, and attending meetings. Although it sounds boring and repetitive, it actually helps a lot with getting accustomed to office work and will be beneficial in the near future. But that’s not all the work I do. I’ve also been given longer tasks that need more effort to be put into them. One of the very first assignments that I’ve been given was to do research on past housing projects and record their housing tax credits. It took me most of my first week here to finish it, and I didn’t even know what housing credits were until I started working at Home, Inc..
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- Exploring one of the houses of the Cascades project.
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- My workspace in the office.
Despite having fewer coworkers in a nonprofit organization like this, everyone has their part to play in keeping a small nonprofit organization that resides in a small town operating. The dedication that I see from my colleagues at Home, Inc. is admirable, and I am learning a lot from them, as they have been working at Home, Inc. for way longer than I have. It was a bit intimidating, especially when I could barely comprehend the language and terms being used during meetings, but my colleagues don’t hesitate to guide me through my tasks.
During my time co-oping at Home, Inc. as a Miller Fellow, I’m gaining a lot of practical experience with teamwork, prioritization, communication, and project-management. And most importantly, I’m gaining new perspectives and learning what it means to be part of a community from my colleagues, especially from Home, Inc.’s executive director, Emily Siebel. Working here has been humbling, rewarding, and I hope to have a good, long relationship with Home, Inc..
Learn more about Yellow Springs Home, Inc. here: http://www.yshome.org