Local Impact: Related Content
![Photo of Purple Carrot Farm](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/purple-carrot300.png?itok=lA0PpJdM)
On May 18, CAPA and the Robert Frost Stone House Museum hosted a webinar on Resilience Gardening in Bennington, featuring some of our community's expert gardeners who answered questions on everything from compost to keeping plants healthy to saving seeds, and much more.
![Photo of produce in shopping cart](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/shopping-cart300.png?itok=eiZ6qPVo)
Thirteen students in Tatiana Abatemarco's Resilience and Food Access in Bennington, VT course presented their market basket study, which analyzes the availability of healthy foods in an area, to the Bennington Hunger Council via Zoom.
![Photo of Bennington CAPA building](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/CAPA300x225_2.jpg?itok=xaEnXhO0)
During the COVID-19 pandemic, twenty-two Bennington College students are interning for local organizations working to support food sustainability, public health, family initiatives, and other resources for Bennington community members.
![Stacks of fabric masks](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/masks300.jpg?itok=SPPRK1-r)
Bennington College's Prison Education Initiative (PEI) has partnered with fellow members of The New York Consortium for Higher Education in Prison (NY-CHEP) to provide protective face masks for all incarcerated individuals in New York State.
![Photo of Purple Carrot Farm](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/purple-carrot300.png?itok=lA0PpJdM)
With the recent global pandemic and Vermont's stay-at-home order, local farmers are responding to public health and food security concerns through new measures to protect customers and create more resilient communities.
![Photo of interns at Veggie distribution event](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/grateful-hearts-produce300.png?itok=2PticrjT)
During Field Work Term, Stanzin Angmo ’20, Ren Barnes ’22, Ekaterina Burtseva ’20, Elene Charkviani ’22, DaEun Jung ’21, and Ulysses Lin ’20 participated in the inaugural Population Health Fellowship. This fully-paid, health-related internship opportunity was jointly offered by Bennington College and Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC).
![Image of face shields](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/face-shields300.png?itok=_8zOI9OI)
Bennington College’s 3D printers are usually a staple of the College's Visual Arts programming. However, as Southern Vermont grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the College’s 3D printing equipment and materials have been put to a now-critical use.
![Text Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Logo](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/mellon-logo300x225_0.png?itok=4l2YrdAr)
Bennington College has awarded three grants of $5,000 each to implement and support community-proposed initiatives that explore and expand food systems in Bennington county.
![Photo of plastic in ocean](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Beyond-Plastics300x225_0.jpg?itok=OiL7nozS)
Students in Judith Enck's Plastic Pollution and What Students Can Do About It course have written letters to the editor about the need to protect the environment and marine life from the growing problem of plastic pollution.
![Photo of soup pot](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Soups300x225.png?itok=-8jL_ZO0)
On Sunday, November 17, the southern Vermont community will come together at Mount Anthony Union Middle School for the 2019 Bennington Empty Bowls Supper.
![Photo of Dorset theater](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/dorset-playhouse300x225.jpg?itok=jwqXGUuz)
Ten Bennington College students and alumni mentored regional middle and high school students who wrote and created plays of their own as part of the Dorset Theatre Festival's 6th Annual Jean E. Miller Young Playwrights Competition.
![Photo of SVMC campus](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/svmc300x225.jpg?itok=liRqmjP1)
This winter, Bennington College and Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) will offer six students fully-paid, health-related internship opportunities as part of the inaugural Population Health Fellowship. Population health transforms the healthcare model— in thinking about healthcare from seeing patients only when they are sick, to partnering with people to address their social, environmental, and economic issues before they become sick.
![Image of Sophie Nevin](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Sophie_Nevin300x225.jpg?itok=vOKreaUJ)
Activist Sophie Nevin '18 helped organize the town of Bennington's first annual Pride celebration.
![Image of Commons dining hall](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Hunger-Free-Lunches300x225.jpg?itok=Db64iRw-)
Bennington College plans to provide free lunch to local children for three weeks this August, in an effort to bridge the gap between summer and school-year meal programs, reports the Bennington Banner.
![Photo of Carling Berkhout](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Carling-Berkhout300x225.jpg?itok=09f5d3kX)
Carling Berkhout '19 is the 2019 Robert Frost Stone House Museum Kilpatrick Fellow.
![Image of Putnam Hotel](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Putnam-Block-photo-300x225.jpg?itok=T4fc7jEM)
The Putnam Redevelopment Project, of which the College is a major partner, closed a deal on June 14. Construction has officially begun on phase one of the project.
![Photo of 2019 graduates](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Class-of-2019300x225.jpg?itok=EdRUjfaK)
Bennington College celebrated the achievements of the Class of 2019 at Commencement this year with the three members of the acclaimed folk trio Mountain Man: Molly Erin Sarlé ’12, Amelia Meath ’10, and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig ’09, who shared their advice to their younger selves, spoke on the importance of balance and collaboration, and performed several songs.
![Photo of Erin McKenny](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/McKennyErin_320x230.jpg?itok=cU8b5Rrb)
The Robert Frost Stone House Museum, which recently reopened for its second season under Bennington College’s stewardship, has appointed Erin McKenny as its new director.
![The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Logo](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/mellon-logo300x225.png?itok=TC9KlFdU)
Bennington College has been awarded a grant of $1 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch a three-year collaborative effort with local partners to address the systemic causes of food insecurity in Bennington County.
![photo of metalworker demonstrating](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Sculpture1-300x225.jpg?itok=PlppjCqA)
Earlier this year, Design and Planning Coordinator Erin McKenny and faculty member Jon Isherwood were approached by the organizers of the annual North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show (NBOSS) to explore how Bennington students could engage with the Village School of North Bennington (VSNB) and participate in the outdoor sculpture show.
![Photo of elementary school students working](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Hindi-Lesson300x225.jpg?itok=qu2SBLky)
![Photo of comfort dolls](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/comfort-dolls300x225.jpg?itok=tMuGbg20)
Madeline Poultridge '20, Hadley Pack '22, Annabel Hoffman '22, Lola Wilson-Kolp '22, and Ella Stewart '22 have been volunteering with Vermont Arts Exchange's TLC Dolls program.
![Cover of the Walloomsack Review](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/WalloomsackReview24-cover300x225.jpg?itok=8jADmcc_)
Students in Mirka Prazak's Fall 2018 course Studying Place by Metes and Bounds were published in a special issue of the Bennington Museum's Walloomsack Review.
![Image of a postcard on bulletin board](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Impossibilities%20of%20landscape300x225.png?itok=r_p9mLAD)
As the Robert Frost Stone House Museum opens for its second season under Bennington College’s stewardship, visitors to the property will be invited to reimagine Frost and his surrounding environment with (Im)Possibilities of Landscape, a senior curatorial work presented by Sophia Gasparro ’19.
![Poetry at Bennington logo](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/poetry-at-bennington_1_0-300x225.jpg?itok=oIgcPk4a)
Poetry at Bennington, a program of short-term residencies that brings established and emerging poets to Bennington College for public readings and close work with students, has been endowed with a gift of $4 million from longstanding donors to the College. This gift advances the endowment goal of the recently announced $150 million Bennington College capital campaign.
![Sign for Bennington Project Independence](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Bennington-Project-Independence300x225.jpg?itok=55Xfgexe)
When five first-year Bennington College students began their annual Field Work Term at Bennington Project Independence in January, they were not sure what to expect working at an adult day care facility.
![Photo of Mariko Silver and Laurie Patton](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/20190327%20-%20Middlebury%20Language%20Schools%20Partnership%20Signing2.jpg?itok=lwPGZh1X)
Beginning in the summer of 2020, Bennington College will be hosting several of the Middlebury Language Schools on campus. The change was made possible by a new agreement between Bennington College and Middlebury.
![Martha Graham](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Martha%20Graham%20300x225.jpg?itok=U9-tZ0l5)
Bennington College connections abound in the Bennington Museum's exhibition Works on Paper: A Decade of Collecting, which highlights a disparate body of works, from historic to contemporary and self-taught works, to creations by Bennington Modernists. The exhibition is on view through May 5.