Bates people tend to do a double-take when I greet them at this time of year with a peppy “Happy new year!” Yet for faculty, staff, and students alike, the beginning of a new academic year can feel at least as momentous as the January turn of the calendar. 

Across the Bates campus right now, the signs of welcome and fresh beginnings are ubiquitous. At the Harward Center, we mark each school year with a raft of activities that happen only at this time of year. Here are some New Year highlights from the past week:

Bates Votes student leaders arrived on campus early to plan for the Fall election season, including voter registration, education, and mobilization initiatives. Among other things, they presented to Residence Life student staff and hosted a voter registration table for incoming students. Pictured here are Bates Votes Ambassador Caroline Bibbens ’25, Bates Votes Co-coordinator Ethan Chan ’25, and Community Outreach Fellow Xucheng Zheng ’27.

Harward Center staff welcomed this year’s Kessler Scholars (first generation college students) to Bates with small-group conversations about taking an assets-based approach to the off-campus community, including using scholar Tara Yosso’s concept of “community cultural wealth” as a lens for understanding the often overlooked skills and capacities of historically marginalized communities. Those conversations were followed by a picnic lunch featuring locally-made Somali dishes. 

At the end of the first day of Orientation for first-year students, Harward Center staff and student leaders facilitated an interactive presentation entitled “Welcome to Your New Hometown.” The presentation included trivia questions about the Lewiston/Auburn community, with prizes for the top 10 scores. Do YOU know how many languages and dialects are spoken at Lewiston High School today? (41 as of last week!)

Students participating in a three-day AESOP trip focused on community engagement within Lewiston started their trip at the Harward Center with an orientation to Bates-style community work, followed by a guided walk through the downtown led by Harward Center staff members Mohamed Awil and Darby Ray and then a delicious Somali meal at Naima restaurant on Lisbon Street. During lunch, Executive Director of the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine, Fatuma Hussein, shared her experience and wisdom with the group. (Two of Ms. Hussein’s children are current students at Bates, and a third graduated from Bates last year.)

Other “New Year” events coming up this month include:

• the Harward Center’s annual Open House this Friday;
• half-day retreats this weekend for two of our cohort-based student leadership programs (Bonner Leaders and Community Outreach Fellows), and opening gatherings for other civic leadership cohorts: the Bates Civic Action Team, the International Student Experiential Education Fellows, and the Bonner Racial Justice Fellows;
• the first week of Harward Center staff member Morgan Kinney’s First Year Seminar, “The Civic Self: Exploring Place and Purpose in Community;”
• the campus-wide Volunteer Fair on September 11, featuring community partners and student leaders from dozens of local organizations; 
• the launch of this year’s Community Liaison program, which mobilizes Bates clubs and athletic teams for community engagement activities throughout the year;
• the first day of work for dozens of Bates students who get paid to work at local nonprofit organizations through the college’s Community Work Study program;
• a backyard supper party at Darby’s house for new faculty and community-engaged faculty;
• the first gathering of the PEP (Publicly-Engaged Pedagogy) faculty learning community; 
• the first meeting of this semester’s Community-Engaged Learning Lunch Bunch – an opportunity for faculty who are teaching CEL courses to share with and learn from each other; and
• initial planning for a possible Community-Engaged Data Hub.

So much to celebrate!