Hostelling International: Home is Where the Heart Is

Contributed by Alana Rogers, 
Photos from Hostelling International Boston website:
http://www.hiusa.org/massachusetts/boston

Alana Rogers is a service-learning student who served at Hostelling International as part of her Connections and Decisions course.

Laughter. Food. Friendships. What better way to spend a Wednesday night? These are the wonderful things I experience every other week at my Service-Learning community partner, Hostelling International Boston. Each four-hour session is spent cooking a meal with hostel guests, who are visiting from around the globe, while jamming out to music, and discussing common interests. Although it may sound simple, both guests and volunteers, such as myself, learn a lot about the global community and who we are as citizens of the world.

My role as a volunteer includes planning meals and encouraging positive interaction between guests. However, my role is not a difficult one to achieve, as conversation runs seamlessly and there is always plenty of food. Some of this semester’s sessions have included making burritos and preparing an ‘Italian Night,’ complete with pasta and garlic bread. Preparing and eating these communal meals allows volunteers to share American culture with guests, and for guests to teach us about the culture of where they are from. Each session I meet people visiting from a wide range of countries, such as China, Venezuela, Argentina, and India. Although they come from many countries, many of them are just like me – young individuals trying to find their place in the world.

My serving with Hostelling International Boston has helped me develop as an individual over the course of one semester. One important way in which my volunteer work has had a tremendous effect on me is in helping me on my journey of declaring a major. I have always enjoyed working with people, but I never realized how much joy I take away from interpersonal interactions until I began socializing with guests at the hostel. Planning and cooking meals every other week also helped me realize that I enjoy hands-on work and preparing programs.  From this experience, I was able to declare a major in Architecture before the end of the semester. Although my decision was not directly influenced by my experience at Hostelling International, serving there did help me realize that I enjoy working in small groups, which is often the work environment at an architecture firm.

The most enjoyable aspect of volunteering at Hostelling International Boston, besides cooking and eating delicious food, is meeting the guests who are visiting Boston from all across the globe. I am interested in learning about their cultures and traditions, and am open to sharing my American traditions with them. My hope for every guest is that they take a piece of Boston back to their home country and that they, too, discover a little piece of themselves that may help with their own exploratory process.

Conceptual Drawing: Thinking Outside the Box with Jamal Thorne

Contributed by Suzie Kim, S-L Program Assistant and Co-op

April 24, 2015

Northeastern students working alongside AFH students

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jamal Thorne early this March. We sat across from each other in the bustling first floor of Ryder Hall, the hub of the College of Arts, Media and Design courses.

As a college student, Jamal was a pioneer in his field. He was among a group of students who initiated a newly formed cooperative M.F.A program between the Museum of Fine Arts and Northeastern University. During this time, he received the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant, a significant grant that aids and assists contemporary artists. With his experience, it is no surprise that he was the facilitator of a new service-learning art course this semester called Conceptual Drawing.

His Conceptual Drawing course is different from a traditional art class in two ways. First, the course does not teach students to draw in an observational manner.

“We think about what to draw and that thought process becomes the things that you want to draw. Instead of painting an apple, we paint an idea, a conversation, emotions, human interactions, we draw transformation,”explains  Jamal.

The class explores how intangible and abstract things – such as emotions, conversations, thoughts, ideas – are transferred into visual representations  through different mediums.

The second distinct characteristic of this course is that it is one of  the newest additions to the Service-Learning roster. It works in partnership with Artists for  Humanity (AFH), a nonprofit organization that provides a safe and meaningful place for urban teens with a passion for art.The  program employs high school students of every art level to explore  art as a creative outlet  through internship  programs.

Conceptual Drawing then pairs  the high school students of AFH with college art students. Course instruction takes place at AFH, which Jamal described many times as “alive and electric.”  (To see pictures, click here)   

Students take notes as Jamal Thorne gives his lecture on the
on the site of Artists for Humanities

Jamal believes that the course provides an opportunity for these relationships to form in a very organic manner and the benefits of the partnership comes full circle.

Painting by AFH student 

“[College students] develop inhibitions in [their] creative faculties as [they] get older. They’re analytical in their thinking and their [art] style whereas the teen participants’ age, there are no hesitations. There are infinite possibilities,” Jamal said. “When the Northeastern students are faced with the uninhibited creative influence of the high school students, they are forced to push themselves.”

The grade in this class is not reflective only of the student’s artistic skills, but also how well they interact with the high school students and establish flourishing mentor-mentee relationship. The course encourages college students and the high school students to actually get to know each other through discussions about their assignments.

Finished paintings are set out to dry 

As for the AFH high school students, they were given the opportunity to receive college level art instruction as well as positive role models that were close in age.

Jamal believes that art is a great tool for engagement and empowerment.  Service-Learning always welcomes new mediums of civic engagement and will continue to look out for innovative opportunities such as Conceptual Drawing.

For students who are interested, Conceptual Drawing is open to students of all majors and will be available in the upcoming fall semester.