Last week, we gave a bittersweet send-off to our colleague Ronan Goulden. After four years as a Bates student, and then two more years as our AmeriCorps VISTA/Civic Leadership Fellow, Ronan packed up his Honda Fit and started the long drive across the country towards the University of Washington, where he will pursue a Master’s degree in Public Health. 

Originally from the West Coast, Ronan threw himself into his new home of Lewiston, Maine in as many ways as he could. He joined the four-year Bonner Leader program, which requires students to spend several hours each week engaged with local non-profit organizations; he became a Sociology major, one of the most community-engaged departments at Bates; he worked as a Bates EMT, getting to know the local public health infrastructure; and to our great fortune, he became our Harward Center student worker – one who always asked for more work to do, and who did it with excellence every time.

COVID struck halfway through Ronan’s college career, and where most students struggled to stay engaged, Ronan used his skills as a licensed EMT to work as a contact tracer, gathering symptom data, notifying close contacts, and connecting those most impacted by COVID-19 with the resources they needed. As a senior at Bates, Ronan brought his academic and community engagement interests together to write a community-engaged honors thesis focused on workplace discrimination towards local BIPOC communities. As a part of his project, Ronan interviewed dozens of local immigrants and found evidence of significant linguistic discrimination in local workplaces. His research was put to use by a cross-sector initiative called the Working Communities Challenge of Lewiston Auburn.

Ronan worked so closely with the Harward Center as a student that his transition to a full-time member of our team was seamless. As an AmeriCorps VISTA with a main focus on youth aspirations, Ronan designed and led on-campus “Aspirations Days” focused on colleges, trade schools, and careers for hundreds of local young people. To support and sustain that work, he helped develop a student club at Bates focused on youth mentorship aimed primarily at first-generation young people, and he organized many community-engaged opportunities for student clubs and organizations. For ordinary mortals that would have been plenty of work, but Ronan also co-led the Bonner Leader Program, an arrangement that began when one of our staff had to take a medical leave. On top of all that, he managed the integration of a new volunteer management system that has radically shifted the way we keep track of civic engagement at Bates.

As you can imagine, we will feel Ronan’s absence keenly as we begin a new academic year. We are also excited to see the amazing places his new path leads him. And if it turns out he doesn’t enjoy it, he can always come back home to his family at the Harward Center!