The Meal

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Amanda Beardall

A few weeks before break I received an email from the Mural Arts Program, where I interned this summer, inviting me to “The Meal.” This was a culminating project that had involved outreach and education on heirloom foods at different farmers’ markets and other food/environmentally themed events from throughout the summer. Heirloom foods are foods grown from seeds that grow the same way they did hundreds of years ago (so no genetic modification). These seeds are not patented so anyone can use them. The Meal, officially titled 70×7 The Meal XXXIV, was a performance art piece created by Lucy and Jorge Orta, two artists from France, who have done this project 34 times in different cities throughout the world.

A table set for 1000 people

This was the largest version they had ever done of “The Meal.” The artists set up a table for over 1000 people to sit together, eat together, and discuss topics of food production and access together. Half of the tickets to “The Meal” were picked out of a lottery of people who signed their names on a list at any of the “What We Sow” events, the heirloom food education table set up at events throughout the summer. Each person who won a ticket was allowed a guest. The other half of the tickets went to constituents of different Mural Arts and food access non-profits’ programming bring a wide variety of people together over this fully catered meal. The artists designed a plate that each person was allowed to take home with them.

My plate, soon to be filled with delicious heirloom food

The great thing about the event was that it was located right next to City Hall in Philadelphia so while sharing this delicious meal together, we were immersed in the most urban part of the city. To me, it highlighted the contrast between the organic/farm/local foods and the city-dwellers who largely don’t have access to these products unless they can afford it.

View of City Hall from our table

I was surrounded by great company on the day of the event. I sat near a few of the students I had worked with this summer on a mural painting project and got to see many of the people that I had worked with over the summer. My friend Elizabeth from Bryn Mawr came as well so it was great way to have her meet all the people I interacted with during my internship. I appreciated getting to hear so many different perspectives on the issues of food production and to appreciate the deliciousness of the food together.

Elizabeth and I at The Meal

The food was one of the best parts. The menu was designed by a famous chef in Philly and featured only heirloom vegetables. We got to have:

Fennel and parmesan gratin
Squash caponata with raisins and pine nuts
Traditional bagna cauda with potatoes, purple carrots, fennel, and chicory
Haricots vert and red fingerling potato.

The food!

The only thing that could have made it better was getting to try some heirloom dessert as well! Overall, it was a fantastic experience. I mean who else can say they’ve eating with 1000 other Philadelphians in the heart of the city? I am happy I’ve still been able to stay involved with some of the events for Mural Arts even though I am not currently working there.

Happy Lantern Night!

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Amanda Beardall

Tonight was our second tradition of the year: Lantern Night! It is our oldest, most serious, and arguably the most beautiful of all the traditions. This is the night when all first year students (freshmen, transfers, and McBrides) receive their lanterns. The ceremony symbolizes passing down the light of knowledge from the Mawrters past and present to the newest members of the community. This is such an important tradition to Mawrters that during WWII during the metal shortage, alums donated their lanterns to be melted down into new ones so the incoming class could still have a Lantern Night experience. To me, it represents the mentorship that forges out community together: you have so many resources your first year to support you along your way and then the following years you get to pay it forward by mentoring a new class of Mawrters.

Beautiful glowing red lanterns for 2017

The first years walk into the Cloisters in complete darkness and silence. They wear long black robes so that they also blend into the darkness. The juniors and seniors are “swingers” so they stand in each arch way and sing a song in Greek called “Pallas Athena” while the sophomore “runners” run with the lanterns and set one down behind each first year student. Once all the lanterns have been distributed, the first years pick up their lanterns, making sure not to look directly into the light of knowledge in the process, and sing the traditional Greek song “Sophias” that they have been practicing for the past week. The first years then exit silently while the upperclassmen sing “Sophias” back to them until all of them have left. The rest of the evening is spent taking hundreds of photos with your customs group to cherish for the rest of your Bryn Mawr experience.

My friends Monica and Grace and me as swingers

I was abroad last fall so I missed it during my junior year, but this year I got to participate as a “swinger” and my sophomore year I got to be a “runner” so I was very lucky to be involved in every level. Lantern Night was beautiful and it’s bittersweet to say good bye to my last one. Luckily, my two favorite traditions, Hell Week and May Day, are coming up next semester so stay tuned for more traditions fun!

Happy Lantern Night from our family to yours! (Denbigh 3rd)

The City of Sisterly Love

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Amanda Beardall

A few weeks ago, my sister Caitlin came to visit so I got to show her all around Bryn Mawr, Philadelphia, and DC. She had come once before with my mom during my freshman year, but since they were together they did a lot more stuff on their own and a lot more touristy stuff. Since it was just the two of us, I got to show her all my favorite things and make it a lot more personalized.

Caitlin takes advantage of $1 dollar food

The first two days she was here was somewhat uneventful since I was extremely busy with classes/meetings (aside from rediscovering s’mores pizza at Haffner), but on Thursday we got gelato at Capogiro (voted the best gelato place in the world) followed by the Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll in West Philadelphia. Many of the restaurants and shops on Baltimore Ave offer $1 dollar samplings to get a taste for everything in the neighborhood. Some of the things I purchased included: a hot dog, earl grey sriracha ice cream, mango lassi, samosas, Ethiopian wraps with injera, stuffed grape leaves, and a photobooth strip. We wanted to get even more treats since the portions were so small but many of the lines got so long that it wasn’t worth it. We got absolutely soaked with rain and missed a train, making us half an hour late for my first tea, but overall it was an absolutely worthwhile experience! My first hall tea went extremely well despite my lateness. I brought all the snacks that people had requested, we made “Where am I?” door signs, and took a tour of everyone’s rooms! We had over 34 people attend so I was proud at how successful it was!

Birthday party with Monica, Giang, and Grace

The next day I held my official birthday party! My birthday happened during dorm leadership training so very few of my friends were on campus. This was a great chance for me to invite everyone I love from all different contexts since this was my last birthday at Bryn Mawr. We got to do karaoke and hang out, making it a low-key way to end the week.

Trip to the Magic Gardens in Philly

The next day, we headed out to Philly to do a service project helping to prepare a garden for an elementary school. After a fun morning of digging and planting, we went to the famous Sabrina’s Cafe for lunch with our new friend Madison. I ordered the stuffed French toast which was delicious but also found the thumb of a plastic glove in my food which was pretty gross but made my meal free! Afterwards we explored Philadelphia and ended at the Magic Gardens, a giant mosaic museum done by a local Philly artist. This was my sister’s favorite part of her stay as well as one of my favorite places in Philly.

Julia, Caitlin, and me at the Lincoln Monument

On Sunday, my sister and I traveled to DC to show her around the city for the first time. She has a friend who goes to George Washington University so we were able to meet up with her and see all the different monuments. We were very ambitious trying to pack all of DC into a day but after a lot of walking around the day before, waking up at 5:30AM that morning to catch our bus, and with the blisters on my feet, we ended up spending half our day sitting by a fountain and people watching. While seeing the touristy parts of a city is definitely necessary, just being able to sit and enjoy a city is an equally valuable experience. We ended the day with a trip to Shake Shack, an East Coast favorite. I had a burger and fries and a vanilla custard with jam and coconut doughnuts: so tasty!

Sheep milk ricotta

Branzino

Salted caramel budino

Our food adventures continued into Monday. I took my sister to Barbuzzo, an Italian/Mediterranean restaurant in Center City for Restaurant Week, a time when Philly’s best restaurants offer fixed price selections of their menus so even college students can afford fancy food for a week. We got three courses. I chose the sheep’s milk ricotta, the branzino, and the salted caramel budino. It was probably one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. The sheep’s milk ricotta was creamy, sweet, and perfect with bread; the branzino was perfectly grilled and delicious with the skin on, and the salted caramel budino was an amazing combination of salty, sweet, and cookie crumbs to end the meal. It was a $20 dollars (plus tax and tip) well spent.

I didn’t get the chance to go home this summer so I was very fortunate my sister took the time to visit me before she started school. I was sad she had to leave, though slightly relieved since entertaining a guest on top of being a senior is pretty exhausting, but I know she’s going to have an incredible first year of college. I miss her already and can’t wait for my family to visit again for my graduation in May!

PLENARY

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Amanda Beardall

One of the greatest parts of Bryn Mawr is our self-governance. We have the oldest self government association in the country. I always like to make the distinction between self governance and student governance: self-governance means that apart from major financial decisions, students are really the ones who drive change and initiatives on our campus. All of our club budgets are approved by a student committee. We do not need faculty approval to spend money for our clubs. Even our honor board is a committee of students who decide on a case-by-case basis what the consequences of honor code infractions could be. It gives a tremendous amount of power and agency to the students, giving us the confidence and skills to make change once we graduate from Bryn Mawr as well.

In addition to weekly Self Government Association (SGA) meetings, we host Plenary once a semester where students can propose resolutions to make change on campus. The topics can completely range. Through Plenary, Canaday Library is now open until 2AM, our dining halls started composting, and dorm president elections are now in the spring so they get trained with the DLT in the fall. This year, we are voting on using gender neutral pronouns in our constitution, supporting divestment from fossil fuels, and changing our “recycling representatives” to “green ambassadors.” One third of the student body is required to vote on resolutions, which is what we call quorum (this year it’s 441). Although waiting for quorum is a pain and we all have homework to do, Plenary is an incredible opportunity to make change and have your voice be heard. We’re very lucky to have a space that allows us so much autonomy.

So if you aren’t already at plenary, please come now and help us make quorum! There are raffles and fun music videos and all your friends together at one time. Happy Plenary!

Finding Plenary

My Plenary haiku:

FInd me for candy

If you are from Denbigh 3rd

In the balcony

(to incentivize my residents to come)

…And We’re Back!

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Amanda Beardall

I jumped back into the school year starting with a crazy night of moving in. I didn’t put any of my things in storage like I usually do since I was staying local for the summer; meaning basically everything I owned had to be moved back. Thanks to my friend Elizabeth, we were somehow able to fit everything into one trip. Elizabeth and my two other friends, Megha and Lisa, helped me carry up my life’s possessions to the third floor of Denbigh. I was so lucky to have such great friends help me move; something that’s already an exhausting and stressful process.

Before I could even get really settled in, it was time for hall advisor training! Being a hall advisor means I am a resource for all residents who live on my hall. I build community through teas and by getting to know everyone on my hall. I am also on the customs committee, so in addition to picking all of the customspeople last semester, I helped to plan customs week to orient the first years to Bryn Mawr. Having two roles meant I was going from event to event nearly non-stop for a week and a half. Luckily, I got to sneak away at night to celebrate my 21st birthday with two of my best friends in Philly! Followed by a second night of going to a concert at my first 21+ venue.

Celebrating my 21st with Prianna and Elizabeth (Photo credit: PP ’14)

Training was informational and useful but also required very long days so having my residents move really brightened my spirits! In the past, I lived in Brecon and Rhoads South, but now I live in Denbigh which is quite a change for me. This is the first time I have lived on main campus and also the biggest hall I have ever lived on (43 residents including myself with 22 freshmen!). My customs group only had eight people, which definitely had its perks as well, but the great thing about having such a big hall is that there’s always someone new to get to know and a lot of energy on the hall. It also allows for an incredible amount of diversity. Just within my hall we have people from: Hawaii, Pakistan, The Bahamas, South Korea, Pennsylvania, Kansas, China, Florida, Michigan India, New York, Vietnam, California, Germany, and Texas (and that’s only a few of them!). We have a very social and energetic hall. Everyone has already started to make friends with each other and can’t wait to see the community that we build and the memories we will create with each other.

Denbigh dorm leadership team

Me and my customspeople Coco, Rachel, and Chanel

I’ve finally accepted my status as a senior but the craziest part is realizing that I am part of the oldest class on campus. My friends in years past who were my mentors and older sisters have all graduated now. It’s weird to see their class color red on all of the freshmen bags and mugs. When one class graduates, their class color gets passed down to the new incoming class. It’s all part of the circle of life! I am excited to be a mentor to the red class in the same way that they were to me when I was a freshman.

My Denbigh Third freshmen!

Being a senior has meant I got to participate in starting our college cheer, the Anass; walking up the senior steps whenever I want; and getting to wear a robe for Convocation! We got to walk into Goodhart Theater together as a senior class to the ever-familiar bagpipes, followed by a series of speeches from students, faculty, and administrators urging us to reflect upon our time at Bryn Mawr and think to the future. The ceremony was followed by a delicious Caribbean themed picnic outside.

We’re so old now (Photo credit: PP ’14)

Our senior status was highlighted by our first tradition of the year: Parade Night! The first year students are welcome to the community by going on a short jog. They are greeted with water balloons and water guns from the sophomores who are sad they are no longer the babies who get all the attention. The juniors are the sister class for the freshmen so they throw candy and flowers while the freshmen run. The seniors all the while sit on the senior steps and get to cheer for the running freshmen. Afterwards, we all have a step sing where we sing both serious and silly songs together as a school with our lanterns. I think of it as a big karaoke session for everyone. This night also marked the first time I was able to sing “Bread and Roses”, a song originally written to support women’s working rights and now a tender song exclusively sung by the senior class.

Seniors on the senior steps (photo credit: AC ’14)

As for classes, I am writing my senior thesis at Haverford with a cultural psychologist, taking my environmental studies senior capstone project at Haverford, Judgement and Decision Making (a 300 level psych course), and English Learners in the U.S (an education course with a Praxis/fieldwork component). I am definitely feeling the weight of having a senior workload now. My work is a lot more independent now so there’s a lot less structure and “hand-holding” than I’ve been used to in year’s past. It’s also exhilarating though; I really have a lot of say in what I am interested in and what I get to work on this semester. I am also getting a lot of my requirements out of the way so that aside from my thesis, I am free to take whatever classes I want next semester since I have finished all of my other requirements. I am hoping either to take just two or three classes since I came in with two credits from IB, take another 360 course cluster, or to just take classes in subjects I have never tried before.

It’s great to finally be back with everyone here! It seems like there’s so much to come but I know I have to savor and appreciate every moment because every things will be the “last.” Even with an overwhelming workload and schedule, I am determined to make this the best year at Bryn Mawr yet! Anassa kata!

Wrapping Up Summer

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Amanda Beardall

This last month has flown by and it’s hard to believe I’m finally back for my senior year. There was never a dull moment by the end of the summer. I was able to get much more involved at my internship. I got to go out and actually help paint murals at my field site. I also got to spend the entire last week of my internship on site working with a local artist and a group of middle school students on an environmentally focused art project. The students were each assigned a weed found in the neighborhood and they created botanical drawings which I helped turn into a guidebook for all the kids to keep. We also created paper using mugwort, a local weed. We filled our homemade paper with seeds and then cut pieces out to make a wheat-paste mural so that when the paper falls off, the seeds will grow in the soil below. We also used the paper the students made as the cover for their botanical guidebooks.

Making botanical drawings of weeds.

Finished guidebook

I was sad to have to say good-bye by the end of my internship. I felt like I was finally getting into things and having an impact and then suddenly it was over. Getting to see a more administrative aspect was definitely valuable and crucial for developing project management skills for non-profit work but even my supervisor commented on how my face lit up whenever I got to work on hands-on, tangible things like painting murals or working with youth. Previously, I had been thinking about going into social work or non-profit work, which are both definitely still options; but I’ve been seriously thinking about possibly going into school counseling or school psychology. I would love to work in an environment where I get to support students outside the classroom and build rapport with them; while also working somewhere that has stability and pays enough to live on. No matter what, I plan on taking a gap year or two to figure out what exactly I want to do with my life!

On the social end of the summer, I continued doing much of what I did earlier in the summer: going out to eat, going out with friends, taking advantage of free concerts, and taking day trips to visit friends. I went to another free concert in Northern Liberties with my friends Elizabeth and Megha, though unfortunately it poured so much that we left before the headlining band Cold War Kids came on but we still got to enjoy the opening band Capital Cities and ate some of Philly’s most delicious sandwiches beforehand. Another weekend, Elizabeth and I volunteered for the XPonential Music Festival in Camden, NJ across the river from Philly. It also poured that day sadly but on the bright side, we got to see My Morning Jacket, Wilco, and Bob Dylan free for volunteering!

Having fun seeing Bob Dylan despite the downpour

Philly is in a great location because it is only a few hour bus drive to get to several other East Coast cities. One weekend, I traveled down to DC to visit my friend Alia. I was determined to have a non-touristy experience of DC so for the first time, I visited no monuments so I got to see DC as a real city rather than just as the capital. The first day we explored Georgetown and got cupcakes! It was one of the hottest weekends of the summer so a majority of our time was spent relaxing in the shade on the waterfront. We met up with my friend Colleen from home and shared Vietnamese food for dinner. The next day, we meandered around the adorable neighborhoods around H Street, met up for lunch with our friend from Haverford who was in Indonesia with us, and saw the Air and Space Museum. I’ve come to really love DC (though not how expensive the housing is) and I am excited to visit even more, especially now that my good friend’s family has relocated just outside.

Exploring Georgetown and hanging out on the Potomac River

I also went up to New York City for the day to visit my friend Grace, where we explored the East Village, a part of NYC I had always heard of but had never experienced. Being a foodie herself, she showed me some great places so throughout the day we got Mediterranean food, bubble tea, and Japanese food for dinner. We stumbled upon a pogo stick competition, watched all the cute dogs run around in the dog park, and I was able to purchase the first two seasons of Friends on DVD at a moving sale where everything was a dollar!

Japanese Food in the East Village with Grace

My final days were spent saying good-bye to friends who were off to other countries for jobs and studying abroad, exploring new neighborhoods of Philadelphia, going to film festivals (where my friend actually helped make one of the films), and mentally preparing myself for school. Summer seems like a distant dream now but overall it was definitely a good one. Living in Philadelphia doesn’t arouse the same excitement for other people the way it did last summer when I was in Indonesia but I feel like Philly is actually a home for me now. Bryn Mawr has been my home since I’ve been here but Philadelphia always seemed distant and confusing. Now I can navigate it without even thinking and have found hidden gems in every neighborhood that I’ve visited. Philly is not glamorous like Paris or New York. I like that though. It’s authentic, hardworking, walkable, and filled to the brim with life and full of characters from the avid sports fans to the Mummers who parade the streets in bright colors every New Year’s. I had spent only half a day in Philly to see the Liberty Bell when I was in eighth grade so it’s pretty crazy to think now I’ve formed such a connection with the city. Despite Philly’s flaws, I’ve come to love it and I couldn’t imagine going to college anywhere else.

Singing Fountain in Passyunk Square in South Philly

Snapshots of my Philadelphian Summer

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Amanda Beardall

My sincerest apologies for not posting more this past month; there’s a lot to catch you all up on! I am living in a house in West Philadelphia with two housemates (one is the landlord and is in an Argentinean tango band; the other is a Haverford alum who is working towards a masters in architecture at Penn) and two cats. When I haven’t been interning with the Mural Arts Program, I have been working in the admissions office at Bryn Mawr, and when I am not doing that, I’m likely hanging out with friends in the city. I am pretty lucky in that many of my friends are in the area for the summer or have at least been for a short while so I’ve had a chance to see them. What’s also been great is that I’ve been getting to know Mawrters who I didn’t know as well during the school year who are also in the area!

One of the greatest parts about living in Philadelphia is the FOOD! In the past month, I have had Indian, Mexican, Indonesian, Ethiopian, Thai, Burmese, Chinese, Malaysian, Lebanese, Greek, Japanese, and great brunch food! I have countless restaurants that I still want to try. West Philadelphia has an extremely diverse range of food options so I am pretty lucky to be able to walk a few blocks from my house to find delicious food. It’s a great way to bond with friends, especially since there are so many affordable options in West Philly.

I’ve also really come to love cooking for myself. I cooked for myself for half a semester in Denmark so I already had some experience but it’s actually been much easier here in the U.S, where all the ingredients are all in English and I am familiar with the measurements. Sometimes it can be exhausting and just seems like too much after a long hot day but I’m proud to say that I have never succumbed to ordering take-out for just myself or cooking microwaveable food (NOT that there is inherently anything wrong with either of these things, it’s just more affordable and more fun for me to cook my own food!) One of the big reasons I chose to live in West Philadelphia over Fairmount (where my internship is located) was the proximity to grocery stores. I live near three grocery stores which each fulfill different niches for me: Aldi (for dirt-cheap dry goods), Shop N Bag (still very affordable, where I do most of my grocery shopping), and The Fresh Grocer (more expensive so I go here when I need fresh produce or want a treat) The most challenging parts of cooking for myself are: A) buying groceries that won’t expire before I can eat them , B) coming up with new dishes for one, and C) having to cook not just a main dish but a side as well. It’s also really upsetting when something turns out terrible and you have to eat it anyways or throw it away because you already used so many of your groceries and you already took so much time to make something (like when I made pesto pasta with chicken and asparagus yesterday and I accidentally poured ALL of the salt on my meal…). I usually rotate between: fajitas, stir fry, pasta, sandwiches, and for sides: cooked vegetables and salad. Lately, I have gotten more creative and made things like potato leek soup and nasi goring udang (Indonesian fried rice with shrimp). I’ve even started baking more, making things liked nutella filled chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cake for a friend’s birthday.

I am also at a unique advantage in that I live on the border of “University City” and “West Philly” (which seems to be divided by 52nd Street). I get to see two very different sides of West Philadelphia, something that I really love since most college students only ever stay on Penn’s campus and never venture out. West Philadelphia has had a history of crime and violence but things have changed a lot for better and for worse due to gentrification of the neighborhood by University of Pennsylvania but there has also been a lot of revitalization of neighborhoods for themselves. One of my favorite examples is the community garden that is right under my El stop. Every Thursday, they have a farmer’s market and I love buying fresh strawberries there to enjoy on my way home!

Most days don’t tend to be incredibly exciting for me: go to work, come home, cook dinner, clean, up, sleep, but having friends nearby breaks up the monotony! My friends Megha, Kriti, and Alisha live less than a mile away so we usually get together once a week and cook dinner or go out to dinner. My friend Amelia came to stay with me before she left the country for Japan and Malaysia so we had a delicious dinner and hilarious photoshoot altogether! I also got to see my friend Rebekah before she left for South Arica to study abroad so we made a final dinner together and ate gelato! It was super hard to say good-bye to my friends going abroad but I know they will both be having incredible adventures and with any luck I might be traveling too if I am accepted to an international fellowship program after graduation. I am hoping to visit Amelia in Japan; a country that has always been on my bucket list to travel to.

Photoshoot at my friend Megha’s place

A few weekends ago, I went down to D.C to visit my friend Colleen! Three years ago, I worked at a summer camp for military youth in Oregon and Colleen was my cabin partner. Together, we managed 18 eight to nine year old girls and we’ve been good friends ever since, always making sure to see each other breaks. I was ecstatic that my friends from home would only be a few hours away from me for the summer! I was in less than DC for 24 hours but we still had a blast! We found a great pizza shop on H-Street for dinner, had stuffed french toast for brunch the next morning, explored the National Mall, and wandered through the museums. I had only been to D.C twice before: during an eighth grade East Coast trip and for one day earlier this semester when I came to see Obama’s inauguration so it was great to just explore and see it as a city and not just a tourist site. I’ll be going back to D.C again this weekend to see my friend Alia and to explore even more of D.C since less than 24 hours is definitely not enough.

Visiting my friend Colleen in DC

I also got the chance to celebrate my lovely friend Elizabeth’s birthday for the second year in a row. The three Bryn Mawr girls from Indonesia got together and went out for Greek food and ice cream on Friday and then met up with a big group of the friends the next night. I am eagerly awaiting my birthday now when I can finally go to 21+ concerts and join my friends on more outings. A lot more people will be back for DLT training on my birthday too so it will be a great chance to reunite as well.

Me and the birthday queen

The same weekend, my friend Alia and I met up with fellow Mawrters Maddy and Jennifer to see Monsters University, cook lunch, and go out to Franklin Fountain afterwards.

Ice cream treats at Franklin Fountain

Last weekend, I was extremely fortunate to be able to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time from the U.S side! Elizabeth and I went to visit our friend Paige in Long Beach Island on the Jersey Shore. We played in the waves (sadly it was just as cold as the Pacific is…), laid on the beach, visited a lighthouse, explored the tide pools, and ended the day with Blizzards from Dairy Queen. It was a wonderful day, and I have the sunburns and sand everywhere to prove it!

Paige, Elizabeth, and me at the Jersey Shore

I’ve also been going to lots of ~*free*~ concerts! The radio station 104.5 puts on free concerts at The Piazza in Northern Liberties every few weeks during the summer. I’ve had the chance to see Royal Teeth + Metric and Capital Cities (it started pouring rain before we had the chance to see Cold War Kids sadly). My sister is coming to visit in the mid September and she’ll get to come with me to the last event of the season! For Fourth of July, since Philadelphia is where it all started, they have a huge free outdoor concert and fireworks so I got to see John Mayer and Ne-Yo! The night was soured though when complete chaos broke out in the crowd when someone set off a firecracker. Mob mentality is a scary thing. This past week, I won a pair of two free tickets from Campus Philly, a non-profit that connects students in the Philly area to the city, to see Yo La Tengo and Belle and Sebastian at The Mann Center. I brought my friend Kriti and we had a blast! It was the perfect kind of music for an outdoor concert and we had a great view of the city by the end. Next weekend, Elizabeth and I are volunteering at the Xponential Music Festival in Camden meaning we will get to see a bunch of bands for free, including My Morning Jacket, Wilco, and Bob Dylan! I have no idea how I’ve been so lucky these past few weeks, usually I never win anything.

Belle and Sebastian at The Mann Center

Speaking of being extremely fortunate and lucky, I had the opportunity to hear Hilary Clinton speak at Bryn Mawr last week! I will know have seen both the Clintons speak in person since Bill Clinton came to Bryn Mawr my freshman year to campaign for the Democratic PA senator candidate. I was originally on the wait list but enough people didn’t show up so I got off the stand-by list and actually got to see her speak in person! I was absolutely delighted since my sophomore year, I was invited to the initial Women in Public Service (an initiative to involve more women in the public service sector) meeting where she was speaking but I couldn’t go since I had too much work since it was finals week. This time around, she was the keynote speaker for the Women in Public Service Institute, a conference that brought together female leaders and activists from around the world to discuss peacebuilding and development. Hilary was incredible and eloquent in her speech; stressing the importance of having 50% of the public sector be represented by women by 2050. Sadly, she did announce her candidacy for president but nevertheless, seeing her was inspirational and an experience I will never forget.

Hilary Clinton at Bryn Mawr (photo credit: Hannah Smith ’14)

That was a super long post but I feel like I’ve finally caught everyone up on all the thing I’ve been doing these past few months! Stay tuned for an update on my projects with Mural Arts!

Mural Arts Program: Beginnings

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Amanda Beardall

This summer, I received funding from the Katharine Hepburn Center at Bryn Mawr to work with the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, the largest public arts initiative in the country. I applied to work with them since it seemed like the organization was a perfect fit for my combined love of social justice, the arts, and non-profit work. I also wanted to be able to get to know Philadelphia better since my two last summers were spent in Portland and Indonesia. I was ecstatic in February to find out I would be working with such an amazing organization but it was put to the back of my mind as I was kept busy during the semester with academics and extracurriculars. Now I’m here and it’s crazy to think it’s actually happening!

A mural near my house; part of the “Love Letter” series in West Philly

My first few days were spent reading up on the organization’s history. Here’s a brief overview: The Mural Arts Program was started in the 80’s as the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti to combat Philly’s graffiti problem by beautifying communities with murals. It was founded by Jane Golden, winner of Bryn Mawr’s Katharine Hepburn medal in 2009 and one of the facilitators for the Women in Public Service conference happening on campus this summer. The program has grown from a bunch of ex-graffiti writers painting small murals to producing over 3600 murals since it has been created. The program now has art education, restorative justice, and behavioral health programs in addition to painting community murals. Reading about all the incredible, transformative work that Jane Golden had done made me feel extremely honored to be sitting just ten feet away from her office.

“Common Threads”: The tallest mural in Philly and one that I pass everyday on Broad and Spring Garden on the way to my internship

An extensive amount of work goes into making a mural. Typically, artists hold meetings with community members to see what sort of mural they would like in their community. Sometimes, the murals already have a theme and a site is chosen for that theme. Murals often feature cultural images from the predominant ethnicity of a neighborhood, a depiction of the history of the neighborhood, prominent community leaders, naturally beautiful scenes, or one that depicts a darker theme such as depression or the criminal system. My supervisor runs the Restored Spaces Initiative, which creates murals with environmental themes and often partners with other organizations to plant gardens to reclaim urban space as natural space. It can be extremely challenging to create a design that fits the desires of community members, sponsors, and artists. The end result not only creates pride in communities over the new mural but also unites and empowers community members through the process of creating a mural. Community members are hired and trained to learn how to set up scaffolding and to help paint the murals, local school children often get to help design and help create the mural, and the neighborhoods build community by working together to transform their neighborhood.

Philly Painting: Mural Arts’ largest mural to date, completely repainting an entire block on Germantown Ave

My role has been extremely varied so far. Overall, I am the Special Projects intern, working specifically on Restored Spaces and Housing (murals focused on the issue of homelessness) but I tend to do something new every day. I’ve done everything from typical intern work (getting coffee, entering data into spreadsheets), to calling community members about upcoming meetings, to painting murals myself. Working here has allowed me to see new sides of Philly. One day I had to find my way to Queen’s Village in South Philly where I flyered and hung up posters for an event that weekend. I also traveled to a neighborhood in West Philly, where my supervisor and I knocked on doors to get wall authorizations signed so that we could get permission to paint murals there. This will be the area I will be working most closely with this summer; starting in July I will be spending one day a week out on site, working with the kids at a local school doing artwork centered on botany (a match made in heaven for me due to my love of art and environmental education). I am also really excited because this neighborhood is not that far from my own neighborhood in West Philly and the R5 (the train that connects Bryn Mawr to Philly), runs right through this area yet I had never actually experienced it before. Sometimes I can get a little antsy sitting in an office all day but I always have to remind myself that doing the seemingly menial work that’s more behind the scenes is the reason the incredible work that happens can be done; an important lesson for me as I continue into non-profit or social work.

Painting a mural on a school in North Philadelphia for Eagles Day

I’ll be keeping you all updated with my internship as it progresses! In the mean time, expect a blog on all the things I’ve been doing outside of my internship this summer!

Graduation Feels

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Amanda Beardall

Now that finals are over, I can finally collect my thoughts and write about graduation in the way it deserves. Every year after graduation, seniors have a table set up with food and drinks near all their friends so their professors and families can all mingle in a tradition known as garden party. I was a garden party girl for three of senior friends; meaning I was in charge of picking out a spot for them, picking up decorations beforehand, decorating the table, and grabbing food and drinks from dining services the day of the event. I “garden partied” for my friends Alia, Amelia, and Duong. All of them are international students from Southeast Asia, from The Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam respectively. Alia and I were in Indonesia together last summer, and our fellow Bryn Mawr intern Elizabeth was also one of Alia’s garden party girls. Amelia and Duong were my hellers; both living on my hall during my freshman year and staying my close friends ever since.

My three garden party seniors (from left to right: Amelia, Alia, me, and Duong) Photo credit: AL'13

My three garden party seniors after graduation (from left to right: Amelia, Alia, me, and Duong) Photo credit: AL’13

Two days before graduation, I waited in line for four hours to secure spots for the three of them. It was a pretty stressful event considering it was the day before all academic work was due and I had to collaborate with all of their friends and garden party girls but in the end, I got three nice spots near the sidewalk after a frantic run to grab tables and chairs while securing a spot. After finals were finished, I turned all of my attention to getting ready. I was lucky enough to get a ride to move all of my things to West Philly and to pick up decorations the day on the day of graduation (thanks Dawn!) and I spent the rest of the morning helping to decorate their spots with the help of the other garden party girls.

Garden party spot set up for seniors Linh and Duong before the rain by the garden party girls: me, Minh, and Thu

Garden party spot set up for seniors Linh and Duong before the rain by the garden party girls: me, Minh, and Thau (photo credit: LT’13)

Unfortunately, our hard work went to waste. Halfway through commencement, it started to pour so I had to carry the tables and ruined decorations of my seniors from Erdman Green to the Cloisters, where a large tent was set up so Garden Party could still happen despite the rain. As I made what seemed like upwards of 20 trips in the rain without a jacket or umbrella with all of the other garden party girls, it made me realize just how much each and every one of us cared about the class of 2013 and we were soaked to the bone to prove it. This is our last gift to the seniors in a way, so they can come and relax and see everyone for the last time before heading their separate ways. The rain separated many people and ruined many elaborate decorations that were never even seen by the seniors but to me it served as a sort of metaphor. Life will throw many unexpected challenges your way and things may not go as you had hoped but it is the relationships you build within a community that will thrive despite the circumstances. We made the best of the rain and I was delighted to finally meet the families of my friends. Since many of them are from so far away, this was the first time many of their family members had been to Bryn Mawr, and for many, the United States.

After focusing so much on finals, moving, and setting up for garden party, it finally hit me that this was the last time I’d likely to see many of my senior friends as I was walking table to table. I’m going to miss the class of 2013 so much next year. They were my customspeople, my hellers, my friends, my mentors. I’ve learned so much from them and had so many meaningful experiences. I hope to make the new class of 2017’s experiences as great as the previous red class did for me. I know they’re off to change the world too. Here’s a snapshot of some of the things they’ll be doing next year (a special shout out to my own seniors: Duong, who will be an analyst for Chatham Financial in Kennett Square, PA, and Amelia, who will be getting her masters in geochemistry from the University of Tokyo!) I can’t wait to see what new adventures many of them are off and to see the incredible work they will be doing. It makes me nervous for my own post-graduation search but excited as well to finally step into the real world.

Amelia and Alia’s families celebrating together at Dante and Luigi’s (Photo credit: AL’13)

Luckily, I didn’t have to say good-bye just yet. Amelia and Alia took me and Elizabeth out to a delicious Italian restaurant in South Philly as a treat for setting everything up for Garden Party. It was a lot of fun getting to eat and talk with the families that had raised such passionate, intelligent, and caring women. It was the perfect way to end the school year and a stressful last two weeks. More to come on my summer, my internship, and reunion weekend for the next post.

10,000 miles and a year later: I’m so happy to still be such good friends with my fellow Bryn Mawr Indonesia interns (photo credit: AL’13)

Anassa kata and congratulations 2013!

The Wonders of West Philly

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Amanda Beardall

I’ll write a more thought-out reaction to living in West Philly for the summer but I just wanted to share this beautiful evening that perfectly captures the living, breathing, rich diverse culture of West Philly:

After finishing a savory feast at an Ethiopian restaurant, my friend from Bryn Mawr and I ordered baklava and two-dollar smoothies, a perfect light and sweet dessert to complement our hearty meal, from a Lebanese cafe. We ran into two Bryn Mawr alums who graduated last year who are both doing non-profit work. Walking back to her car, we passed several children playing in the streets. A friendly neighborhood laundromat owner gave us directions on how to back out of our parallel parking job. We drove past dozens of families sitting on their porches, watching their children playing and enjoying the warm weather. I return home to my sublet for the summer to my Korean housemate rehearsing with her Argentinian tango band and my half Italian/half Indian public service architect housemate (who’s actually a Haverford alum) grilling food on the barbecue out on our back porch. I end the day by curling up and re-watching Arrested Development, one of my favorite TV shows, to prepare for the new season that’s premiering in a few weeks. This evening completely reaffirmed my decision to live in West Philadelphia for the summer and can’t wait for all the adventures that lie ahead in the coming months. If anyone has any suggestions for fun things to do/places to check out in West Philly, please send them my way!

on the loose

for I only have a moment, and a whole world yet to see.