Juniors, meet your new senior class VP…well, if all goes well for Brooke Richart ’08. If not, she’s got Traverse Square tutoring, her cushy WesWings job, and Earth House to fall back upon.
Laura: Let’s start with what everyone knows you for: Traverse Square.
Brooke: I started February of my freshman year, when I heard about it from an info session and decided to show up. I started going two days a week, and now it’s pretty much my life. I’m one of the staff members, and it’s my job now to make sure the kids don’t die every afternoon and to make sure that the tutors don’t kill them. It’s a great program! If anyone’s interested, they should come talk to me.
Justin: How does the program work?
B: It’s at Traverse Square, the housing program across from Lo Rise/Hi Rise. There’s a community center in the complex, and it’s open Monday to Thursday afternoons. Any kid who wants to come can. Most of the kids who live in Traverse Square come, and others who don’t live there come too. It’s an after-school program, so we help them with their homework, we read with them, we make projects. Today we played Jeopardy. We had a dance off.
L: What are some of the quirkiest things you’ve taken the kids to do?
B: We take them to a lot of shows at Wesleyan, like Jubilee. We took them to a talent show last weekend. We usually have a good time heckling all the performers on stage, especially if the kids know them.
J: How is Wesleyan’s relationship with the kids? Do they feel welcome on campus?
B: No. Definitely not. We talk about it with them, and they talk about when they come up to Wesleyan without us, which is often, they feel unwelcome. They say people make rude comments to them. It’s really interesting to “cross this divide.” We see people all the time who cross to the other side of the street when going to the bookstore so they don’t have to walk in front of Traverse Square. Most Wesleyan students don’t cross that line behind Lo Rise. It’s very strange, especially when they were going to build the wall a few years ago. A bunch of us wrote a letter to the Argus explaining why the school just can’t do that. It would make things so much worse.
J: Do the kids really latch on to you, or do you feel like there’s a lot of distance?
B: They really love the program. When we go on spring break, and the center’s not open, they’re like, “why isn’t this open? Why can’t we come?” When you see them outside of tutoring hours, they’ll call you out and embarrass you in front of your friends, they’ll come see you in the library. There are lot of great relationships being formed between the tutors and the kids.
L: How do you recruit people?
B: Mostly it’s become word-of-mouth. We always have more tutors than kids, so we see people who we think would be good with kids, and they tell their friends. It ends up that the tutors become close friends with each other.
L: You’re the head of Earth House. How did you get started there?
B: This is my fourth semester living there. I applied with my friend freshman year and have lived there ever since. Now I’m house manager.
L: Is it as granola as everyone assumes?
B: No! We listen to rap music, and some of us aren’t vegetarian. We’re not as uptight and crunchy as everyone thinks we are.
J: Okay, end this mystery: what is the difference between Earth and Out House?
B: Earth House is about environmentalism and environmental activism, whereas Out House is more about outdoor recreation. There’s a lot of overlap, because both houses involve the outdoors, but Out House is different. They go hiking and all that stuff. There’s a little bit of rivalry going on. They’ve streaked our house. But usually we get along.
J: They have a weird thing about butts in their house. Do you have anything like that?
B: We used to host the naked party, until ResLife told us to cease and desist or we wouldn’t be a program house. We’re working on getting it to happen this spring, if they’ll let us get away with it. It’s not against the rules to have a naked party. We’d always register it, and P-Safe would roll up and be like, “Hey. No alcohol, but we don’t care that everyone’s naked.” There were some issues with it being a little sketchy, so ResLife told us to cut it out.
J: What programs does Earth House do on campus?
B: This semester we have Veg-out, which is a big Earth House tradition. We make a giant meal for everyone who wants to come that’s all local, all vegan, all organic food. We also have a co-op now, and that’s three meals a week. About 30 people share the responsibilities. We brought up kids from Traverse Square, took them sledding, and had them over for hot chocolate. At the end of April we always have food politics week, which is going to be really great this year. We’re going to talk about hunger issues in Middletown. People who have done theses about food distribution are coming. Hopefully, we’ll have a movie showing and have an edible plants walk. We just want people to be more aware with the issues about what you’re eating.
L: I hear you’re campaigning for a certain position.
B: That’s true. My friend Justin Douglas ’08 and I are running for president and vice president of the senior class. Our slogan is that we’re like Barack and Hillary, but better. We’re really excited about it (mostly just to campaign), but if you knew us, you’d know that you really want us to plan your senior cocktails.
J: You’re Hillary, I assume. Do you feel that you’re similar to her in any ways?
B: Yes, I’m Hillary. And we’re both girls, but other than that — she a little too uptight for me.
J: Do you think Hillary would fit in at Earth House? I bet she recycles.
B: She totally recycles. She’s one of those uptight liberal, Prius-driving, sushi-eating types. She’d fit in at Earth House.
L: Tell us about your job at WesWings.
B: I’ve been working there for over a year now. I like it a lot. It’s probably one of the most hilarious jobs anyone could ever have, because it’s a crack squad of Wesleyan students serving greasy fried food to all the jocks. It’s a funny dynamic. It’s funny to be serving your fellow students, and they don’t think you’re listening to them when they’re talking. I’ve worked the Saturday morning brunch shift for a year now, and it’s hilarious, because you can totally tell, “you two hooked up last night.” I see what’s going down.
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