Michael Bare, Antioch class of ’02, lives in San Francisco and works in public health for two national LGBT health organizations. I met him at his apartment on Nob Hill, which had a terrific view of the city (peep the iconic Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill in the photograph). He was preparing to bake a cake for his partner’s brother, who was visiting for the week, but he took some time to have a conversation with me on his gorgeous, sunny rooftop.
I didn’t feel like I was going to a college where it was Grade 13. I felt like I was going somewhere where I was treated like an adult. I was given the opportunity to have experiences both academically and in co-op that just branched the whole theory-practice divide. That’s what I wanted, the whole social justice framework that Antioch was built upon, and the way that reached into everything that they did. That’s one of the reasons I went there. Going to Antioch definitely improved my vocabulary to be able to talk about social disparities and to talk about the impacts of social justice. Going there allowed me to travel, which is something that most young people want to do. It gave me the opportunity to really study a broad array of things that I didn’t think I was interested in before I got to Antioch. It exposed me to all kinds of viewpoints and cultures that I had not experienced prior.
