Last week, many people in Maine were introduced to the fabulous Emily Walsh through a News Center Maine feature story about how for many Bates students, getting more engaged with Lewiston has been an important way of dealing with the October 25 mass shooting. In this week’s blog post, we offer a more in-depth look at Emily’s Bates story, which is unique to her but also illustrates the breadth and depth of community-engaged learning available to all students at Bates.

Where are you from? (all the places!)

I grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts, but moved to New Jersey in fourth grade and to Windsor, England for the end of middle school and high school! My family moved to the Bay Area right before my senior year of high school, and I boarded at my high school for that year. As of this past June, we moved back to Massachusetts; so now I just say I’m from Boston.

What attracted you to Bates?

I knew I wanted to be at a school that held similar values to my own, and Bates seemed to highly value engaging with the Lewiston community, and promoting collaboration over competition among students. I wanted to be at an undergraduate-focused institution where I would be able to form close relationships with faculty and be able to get involved in research. I also adore New England and especially fall in New England, so the location was a bonus! 

What are you majoring in, and why?

I’m majoring in neuroscience with a public health GEC. I’ve always been fascinated by the brain and by human behavior, and I loved the “biological psychology” unit of my psychology class in high school. I knew coming into college that I wanted to major in neuroscience, but I didn’t realize how many areas within neuroscience there are! Through taking different courses and trying out different job shadows/internships, I’ve realized I’m most interested in the intersection between human neuroscience, psychology, and public health. Essentially, how can we apply what we know about the human brain and behavior to create/implement/evaluate psychological interventions at both the individual and community level?  

What is a highlight of your academic career so far? 

One of the highlights of my academic career has been my independent study this semester. This project actually began last spring when I took a “Programming for Data Analysis and Visualization” class. For our final, we had to analyze any dataset we wanted and present our results to the class. I reached out to the Maine CDC for their “Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System” (PRAMS) survey dataset and ended up presenting about how initial emotional reaction to pregnancy acts as a predictor of postpartum depressive symptoms. I then presented this work to the PRAMS steering committee, and eventually turned it into a larger analysis, which I presented at the national American Public Health Association conference in November! For my independent study, I’m working with Professor Su Langdon in the Psychology department to broaden this work and turn it into a manuscript with the goal of submitting it to an academic journal.This has been an exciting and informative process, and I am grateful for Professor Langdon’s mentorship throughout this semester!  

How has the Lewiston community figured into your Bates experience so far? 

One of the very first classes I took at Bates, my FYS, was called “Lewiston: A Local Lens on Global Issues.” In this class, we learned all about the history of Lewiston and reflected on our own history with community engagement and how we wanted to engage with the Lewiston/Auburn community. During this class, we were assigned community partners, who we interviewed about their experiences with the Covid-19 pandemic (as this class was in the Fall of 2020). My community partner was Deb Marron, the activities coordinator at Clover Healthcare, a nursing home in Auburn. I have maintained a fantastic relationship with her since then and have been volunteering on the dementia unit at Clover on a weekly basis for the last couple of years. 

My freshman year, I also connected with Bates alum Jen Cartmell, the Androscoggin Manager of Big Brothers/Big Sisters. She matched me with a “little” who I’ve seen on a weekly basis for the past three years. I look forward to seeing my “little” every week, and I’m hoping to keep in touch with her after I graduate. There are a lot of Bates alums who do weekly Zooms with their “littles,” which is a testament to how great the program is! 

Last January, I also began working as a part-time “rehab technician” at a brain injury clinic just five minutes from Bates called Goodwill Neurorehab. I run small groups including “Poetry,” “Memory Strategies,” and “Women to Women.” This has been one of the most pivotal experiences in my college career, as I have learned so much in this role and have formed beautiful connections with the clients at the clinic. Many of them are lifelong Lewiston/Auburn residents, and I so enjoy learning about what it was like to grow up here and getting a perspective on Lewiston through them that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. I can wholeheartedly say that the Lewiston community has played a major role in shaping my college experience. 

Would you say a few words about your role as a Community Outreach Fellow at the Harward Center? What do you do as a COF, and what is meaningful about that work?

As a COF, I coordinate weekly Sunday brunches at two low-income housing communities in Lewiston that primarily house elderly individuals and individuals with disabilities. I’ve had such a great time at these brunches this past semester, and it’s been exciting to see Bates students come back week after week to cook food for and socialize with the residents. We’ve had wonderful turnout, with around 20 Bates students and 20-30 residents attending each brunch. One of my favorite things about this type of work is getting to connect with people and hear their stories, and I always encourage the Bates brunch volunteers to strike up conversations with residents. Being a COF also means that students will often ask me how they can get involved off-campus, and it’s fun to help people match their skills/interests to organizations that are looking for volunteers. 

What is one thing you especially appreciate about Bates?

The people! Being at such a small, residential college means that you form really close relationships with those around you; from hours-long Commons conversations to constantly distracting one another in the library, to late-night talks in the dorms. People at Bates are incredibly passionate about what they do. For instance, I know nothing about geology, but I love listening to one of my friends talk with excitement about her geology thesis and her summer doing research in the Arctic. There is so much to learn from one another, and the tight-knit feel of the Bates community is unbeatable.       

If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about Bates, what is one thing you would like to change?

I would add more Bobcat Express shuttles/drivers (and vehicles for them to drive)! I don’t have a car on campus, so I usually use the Bobcat Express to get to my various off-campus engagements. It’s such a helpful option and I always have fun chatting with the drivers on the way. I know they get really busy when there are a lot of students doing off-campus work, so having more shuttles/drivers would alleviate that pressure and allow for more students to use this awesome service.