[Alumni-chat] What will the BOT do?

[Beverly Porter]

> The co-op quarters I spent in New York City (six in all) and Washington, 
> D.C. (one) were the most valuable part of my Antioch experience, and that 
> is not to denigrate the academic curriculum, which was firstrate.  But the 
> opportunity to try different jobs, and to experience the real world 
> outside of Antioch, was invaluable to me, and enabled me to grow in ways 
> that would have been impossible at a more traditional school.  And twelve 
> weeks (with the possibility of twenty-four weeks, with the staggered 
> schedule) was just the right amount of time to either study or work --  
> just as you were becoming tired of one or the other, poof!  The quarter 
> changed, and you were somewhere else.  I found it refreshing, never felt 
> that lack of a vacation.
>
> John Hevelin '68


This was also my experience a decade earlier. A few comments both as a co-op 
student and several decades later as a co-op employer.

A.) Student.  I was C-div my freshman year, an option that allowed us to be 
on campus the full year thus having the chance to meet all the A-div and 
B-div folk. We were required to have ten hour a week part-time jobs on 
campus during at least one of those periods. That first year on campus also 
gave me the opportunity to get  heavily involved in Theater, and political 
and religious discussion groups.  This was in addition, of course, to my 
many courses and long nights at the '68 grill and Tavern. I was actually 
rather relieved to finally go on my co-op job in NYC late that summer after 
my freshman year.  The thought of actually working, for money, in New York 
and finding a place to live, was unbelievably exciting.  That job and later 
ones in Pleasantville, New York and Rockville Maryland plus traveling to 
Europe were an extremely important part of my Antioch experience.  I found I 
could be independent and do things successfully on my own in sometimes 
difficult situations. I also had the invaluable experience of "trying out" 
work life in some areas I thought I was interested in. I never minded being 
disrupted every 12 weeks, maybe I just didn't have much to pack up. In fact 
I was always looking forward to the next challenge.

B.) Employer. In the 1980's I employed two Antioch students at different 
periods of time. They had both wanted to work in New York City as much as I 
had years earlier. The position I had to offer, administrative 
assistant/secretary, wasn't that exciting but it did involve some 
research-related work. There was also an interesting group of professionals 
to interact with. The students had some personal problems to deal with but 
they were both excellent employees.  The biggest difficulty for me as an 
employer was the discontinuity. In three months I could just about get 
someone to the level of making a real contribution, then another student 
would come in. I wanted to expand the co-op program but wasn't sure how to 
deal with this difficulty. I tried to talk to the co-op office at the time, 
but they were basically non-responsive. I have always felt that if we could 
have worked together a good program could have been developed.

Beverly Fearn Porter '58
>
>
>
>