Joel and Bess, who were both dating other people during that semester, eventually married in 2007. (Director isn’t exactly keeping a list, but she guesses at least 10 couples have shared a WCSC experience.)

The Dalys have three kids and live in Indiana. Joel, general manager at Veada Industries, is so good with Excel spreadsheets now that he estimates he could do “the entire semester’s work in about three hours.”

It’s a good enough story to stop right there and begin to spread the news about the Oct. 22 40th anniversary celebration of the Washington Community Scholars’ Center (WCSC), known formerly as the Washington Study-Service Year (WSSY). With 747 participants since the program’s inception in 1976, WCSC/WSSY is the university’s longest running cross-cultural program.

Mark your calendar

Alumni, families and supporters are invited to celebrate the program’s growing legacy. Visitors are welcome at any or all portions of the Oct. 22 celebration, which begins at 1 p.m. at the Nelson Good House with a reception and tours. At 2 p.m., directors and EMU representatives will welcome guests and offer a program update.

At 3 p.m., staff members will lead a Brookland neighborhood walking tour.

From 5-7 p.m., Capital Area Food Bank hosts a catered dinner and open mic event. The food bank, located at 4900 Puerto Rico Ave. NE, has been a “long-term, reliable partner for internship placement,” says , WCSC associate director.

But, wait…there’s more

With 747 participants, some of whom married each other, there is bound to be a wealth of stories to share. So of course we must hear the rest from Joel Daly.

In the house that semester was Deborah Good, daughter of WSSY founder Nelson Good, who directed the program until 1987. Nelson Good would pass away in 2005, just after the fruits of his long labors resulted in helping to secure a new, renovated location for the program in the Brookland neighborhood.

It was to that Brookland house that Bess’s sister, Brenna Steury, came for her semester-long experience. As a high school senior, she had visited her sister (and her eventual brother-in-law) at South Dakota Avenue, sized up the situation and decided it looked like fun.

Stories like that of Joel ’03 and his wife, Bess Steury ’03 Daly, and her sister, Brenna Steury ’07 Graber, are common in the WSSY/WCSC annals, which is exactly why Schmidt is excited to spread the word about the anniversary event.

“The program has made a great impact on our graduates, on the EMU community and here in Washington D.C.,” Schmidt said. “We’re looking forward to hearing more about the lives of our alumni and where the WCSC experience led them.”

Started just a year after the end of the Vietnam War, the WSSY program focused on service in an urban environment, Schmidt said, noting that historic legacy is a part of the program’s current identity. “Today’s students have professional aspirations and are looking to this program not so much for service opportunities but to gain professional skills and to be ready for the job market. Yet through our classes, the majority of our internships, and the context of the city, we keep the spirit and mission of the original purpose very much alive today.”

Donate to the WCSC scholarship fund

The event also coincides with a campaign for the . A goal of $100,000 has been set. The fund will help students with significant financial need to reduce room and board costs, and enable them to attend the program.

Those who most benefit from the fund include commuter students, first-generation college students, students of color and non-traditional students.

Schmidt cited two recent instances where commuter students struggled to pay the extra expense of room and board at WCSC and missed the chance to intern with organizations specific to their career interests in teaching English language learners and working in immigration law.

“A percentage of our students balance family commitments and full-time work while they attend EMU,” said Schmidt. “The requirement to live and learn in a cross-cultural environment can be a challenge for these students, but this distinctive cross-cultural program offers a more convenient, life-changing experience that is rich in both service-learning opportunity and professional development.”

To learn more

For more information on the impact of WSSY and WCSC, check out the following articles:

• Read a 2001 Weather Vane article about the , written by Kevin Docherty ’05.
• This article by Andrew Jenner ’04 covers the , EMU’s longest running cross-cultural. It covers the beginnings of the program, the inspiring leadership of Nelson Good ’68 and the impacts on several graduates.
• In August 2015, the program celebrated in Brookland.
• Read(Cascadia Publishing House, 2009) by Deborah Good ’02 with WCSC founder Nelson Good ‘68.

The other goals are more oriented towards experiencing life in the Nelson Good House, the intentional community she shares with 12 other college students, and the fun of getting to know the major metropolitan area that includes the nation’s capital. That list includes “explore more places, survive the humidity, maybe get a tan, understand the metro system and get better with my cooking skills.”

Bautista-Garcia’s goals fit those of the WCSC experience, according to associate director . “Outside of their internships, the students are encouraged to engage with their community life in the house, as well as around the city. Visiting different churches, exploring neighborhoods they might not visit on their own, and attending events around the city that engage issues of race, culture and privilege, complement our weekly seminar discussions.”

The cross-cultural experience represents the final semester for Garcia-Bautista, a senior and major from Timberville, Virginia who earned the honor during May’s Commencement exercises.

Here’s a list of other WCSC participants and their internships.

• Abby Bush, a major from Souderton, Pennsylvania, is working at , which includes a day center for homeless women as well as “integrated mental health, physical health and addiction recovery services to homeless and low-income women,” according to their website. She assists with activities at the center, which include yoga and support groups, and with meals.
• Abigail Clemens, a history major from Harleysville, Pennsylvania, is interning at the North American Meat Institute, a national trade association that represents companies in the meat and poultry industry. She is writing press releases and media advisories, accompanying legislative staff to Capitol Hill, and attending briefings and hearings. She also reviews the daily Federal Register for information pertinent to the industry, and prepares a briefing for review and distribution.
• Andrew Hindle is interning at MANNA, Inc., an organization which helps low and moderate-income families with home ownership in the D.C. metro area. He is a major from New Market, Maryland.
• Jacob Brown assists with the reporting of Washington Nationals baseball games for The Sports Xchange and is also involved in fundraising for the YMCA Metropolitan Washington’s Thingamajig Invention Convention, a STEM event for area youth. He will also provide post-event coverage for the organization’s newsletter. He is a major from Achilles, Virginia.
• Jake Lind, a major from Harrisonburg, Virginia, works with DC United’s U23 soccer team, assisting with set-up and transition in practice. He’ll also work with their youth summer camps.
• Kyle Johnson, a major from Brookneal, Virginia, is an intern with Financial Education Literacy Advisors (FELA), which provides financial education services to partners and clients. He works with Director of Technology ’14, a former WCSC student who interned at FELA and was hired full-time by the company after graduation. Also there is Joel Murray ’14, also a former participant in the WCSC program who interned with Sojourners magazine.
• Nina Simmons, a major from Harrisonburg, Virginia, is working with children attending Little Friends for Peace summer camp, teaching about healthy bodies and performing nursing duties.
• Sarah Boshart is an intern with the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, participating in their efforts to create a more restoratively oriented experience for court-involved youth in the DC area. A major from Harrisonburg, Virginia, she works at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding during the school year.
• Shay Whetzel, a history major from Bergton, Virginia, is collecting oral histories from elders with Iona Senior Services.
• Victoria Campbell, from Chester Gap, Virginia, is a major interning at Saint Anthony’s Catholic School summer camp.
• Troy Chieffo, a Bluffton College history major, from Newton Falls, Ohio, is interning at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, a community museum in the Anacostia neighborhood which examines American history and culture from an African American perspective. He is researching and developing Wikipedia pages under the supervision of the head archivist.
• Natalie Leake, a nursing major from Bridgewater, Virginia is interning at Sitar Arts Center, supporting their summer arts and music camp programming.

Joining them were student conduct professionals, Title IX coordinators, victim/survivor advocates, as well as faculty from 14 different colleges/universities.

“I was humbled by the wisdom and different perspectives that were brought from faculty and staff from other universities to this training,” said sophomore Emma Petersheim. “It was extremely meaningful to be there as one of four students at the training because we were able to get feedback from experienced adults who have worked with students for many years as victim’s advocates.”

Hosted by Skidmore College sociology professor and Little Book author David Karp, the training included three eight-hour days of facilitation work, group engagement, and roleplaying. Karp is the author of  The Little Book of Restorative Justice for Colleges and Universities: Repairing Harm and Rebuilding Trust in Response to Student Misconduct. [The has strong ties to EMU’s .]

Petersheim, along with fellow sophomores Katrina Poplett and Meg Greene and first-year Noah Haglund, are currently taking a course on restorative justice (also known as RJ) and trauma awareness, taught by Professor , who traveled with the group. , restorative justice coordinator at EMU and , associate director at the , also participated.

“The other colleges represented seemed to be very impressed by the engagement of the EMU students,” said Poplett. “Most of the other people there worked in the conduct offices or in administrative positions. They were all somehow related to conduct or sexual violence offenders at colleges.”

Among the skills practiced was the use of conferencing and circles to address student misconduct. Four experts from New York and Pennsylvania helped lead the training.

“My hope is that from this experience I can be a resource at EMU to help cultivate hard conversations that need to happen,” said Petersheim. “I hope to use this learning experience as a resource going forward within University Accord.”

, the campus facilitation and mediation group, has recently sponsored the creation of the student-led Team Accord. Team Accord, made up of graduate and undergraduate students, seeks to encourage education, training and facilitation of restorative justice within the EMU community. Poplett is a member of Team Accord and her three fellow students plan to join next year.

“At EMU, we talk about RJ so often that people have become cynical and make fun of it,” said Poplett. “I think it’s vital for students be educated, to get engaged in RJ, and to become facilitators. In addition, it’s very valuable to have students working with Jon [Swartz] so that it’s not just him working on restorative justice. It makes it a lot easier for him to do his job well.”

On campus, when harm is done, Swartz says that many times the initial questions are “Who did it? And what do they deserve?”

“These kinds of questions put the focus on “offenders” only, which can often silence the voices of those who were impacted,” said Swartz, who wants to “move the conversation to asking questions like ‘Who has been impacted? What will those most impacted/harmed need? How can those needs be met? Who is responsible to meet those needs? What if justice looked more like healing? What would a process to support that look like?’”

Attending such trainings helps professionals and students, those most affected by the process, see that similar questions are being asked on other university and college campuses.

Portions of this article were first published in the April 14, 2016, issue of The Weather Vane.

The celebration is small but significant: Ten years ago this week, on Thursday to be exact, WCSC officially moved from cramped quarters at the much-beloved, but run-down “This Old House” to the spacious renovated brick three-story building on Taylor Avenue. (The house was not quite ready for immediate occupancy; the first group of students moved in January of 2006).

The noisemakers and party hats are only a precursor to next year’s 40th anniversary celebration, said Schmidt, a professor of history who can’t resist offering some historical context for .

“��ݮ����’s D.C. program started in 1976,” she added. “That’s one year after the Vietnam War ended and two years after Nixon resigned. A lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same.”

Servant leadership part of program vision

One thing that hasn’t changed for EMU’s longest-running cross-cultural program is its unwavering commitment to teaching about servant leadership and social justice, as epitomized by its first director and the building’s namesake, Nelson Good.

Good, who first came to Washington D.C. as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, founded and directed the Washington Study Service Year (WSSY) until his retirement in 1986. As a member of the advisory council, he offered mentorship through programmatic changes in 2002 – reflected in the name-change to Washington Community Scholar’s Center – and then spearheaded the search for a new and larger facility that was closer to public transportation and academic institutions (EMU students at that time attended classes at Catholic University of America and Howard University).

“This Old House” had been used for decades previously by Mennonite service agencies, but despite the nostalgic connections, it was clearly time to move elsewhere: zoning restrictions prevented any upgrades or expansions and the house was not handicapped-accessible.

Good reconnoitered the city, knocked on doors, interviewed prospective sellers, and eventually talked one couple into letting their property go at a reasonable price. The months-long renovation process included “a lot of sweat equity,” Schmidt said, as well as a sizable financial commitment from EMU. Additionally, WCSC alumni and other donors contributed more than $100,000 toward the renovation costs.

When the well-wishers gathered to celebrate Aug. 20, 2005, the afternoon blessing and celebration included speeches, music, remembrances of alumni, and a tribute to Good, who had passed way from cancer just months before. His daughter Deborah, a WSCS participant in 2002, shared a poem, and alumni and friends were also invited to plant a butterfly garden in the backyard.

That garden continues to flourish, Schmidt says. “It’s a beautiful space. The students use it for barbecues and reading a book and just hanging out. If you look in the garden, it’s clearly a place where college students are, and I mean that in a good way.”

Experiencing life in an urban environment

If the garden has been obviously staked out by college students – who come from EMU, Goshen College, Bluffton University, and most recently, through a new articulation agreement with Regis University in Colorado – the three-story brick apartment building, Schmidt says, is quietly innocuous, also in a good way.

Students experience life in a predominately African-American neighborhood with a growing population of foreign-born residents and a Catholic presence (friars-in-training from the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America regularly walk by). The sits between three academic institutions: Catholic American University (CUA), Trinity Washington University and Howard University Divinity School. The CUA/Brooklands metro station bisects the neighborhood and its urban attractions: several restaurants, a coffee-slash-bike shop called ; the mixed-use , featuring a thriving studio arts scene with regular music and dance events; a Barnes and Noble; and a few places to find that staple of college life: pizza.

The modern design of the Good House was a perfect and restful complement to the urban experience, says Emily Blake, who lived there that first spring semester and later was assistant director from 2008-2012. “The city can be this crazy collage of interactions and weird and wonderful sights. It’s nice to come home to a place that’s simple and beautiful, and filled with people who know you.”

Fellow WSCS participant Aerlande Wontamo remembers the house that spring was “new, clean and perfect.” She has fond memories of dinners in the common area, walking to and from the metro, and being befriended by local bus drivers. Wontamo took classes at Howard University and worked with the Ethiopian Community Development Council in Arlington, a connection which years later led her to her current position as senior resettlement manager for Lutheran Social Services. She’s lived in the D.C. metro area for about eight years, a decision she traces back to the positive experience of living in the Nelson Good House.

“So many lives continue to be transformed by EMU’s commitment to the WCSC program. This house is the place where that happens, and we honor Nelson Good’s memory by helping students make more memories,” Schmidt said.

The result: Wharton took advantage of finishing prerequisites early by spending the spring semester of her sophomore year at the (WCSC), where she interned at the in Washington D.C.

The experience “gave me a solid foundation for the next two years of ,” Wharton said. “And most of the time job rejections come in the form of lack of experience, so having an internship directly in my future career would hopefully help my resume.”

Add to that the fun of living in and exploring around Washington D.C. with friends and a true , and Wharton says she gained far more than just vocational preparation. She has a new found confidence in her ability to navigate urban streets, and lots of great memories of new territory explored with friends.

Plan ahead for better internship experience

Building a foundation of “cultural competency” and learning special communication skills was an important emphasis.

Wharton’s choice is one that WCSC director hopes other pre-professional students will think about in the future. For many students in pre-professional programs with demanding course schedules, finding time for the required cross-cultural experience is difficult. Summer travel is one option, but with foresight and planning, students can fulfill cross-cultural requirements and gain valuable on-the-job training during the fall and spring semesters, said Schmidt.

“Over these terms, more opportunities are available in Washington DC, and supervisors have more energy and time for individualized instruction,” says Schmidt.

With fewer interns competing for attention, supervisors like registered nurse Roxana Trejo, at Marie Reed, can take the time to teach, guide and mentor.

“Marie Reed is a wonderful learning environment, perfect for students who have little clinical experience and have not entered into nursing clinical rotations yet,” says Schmidt. “And because of our history and networking in the city, we have many other placement options that can meet other the needs of other pre-professional majors as well.”

Intercultural nursing

Community of Hope has hosted EMU students since the internship program began in 1976 as the Washington Study Service Year (WSSY). The organization helps low-income families, including the homeless and refugees, with housing, health issues, and employment. Originally a ministry of the Church of the Nazarene, the organization has been independently run as a non-profit since 1980 and is widely recognized and respected for its work.

Marie Reed, in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood, is one of three health centers operated by Community of Hope. There, Wharton worked with grandmothers and their four-day-old grandchildren in the same day and with refugees “from Russia to Ethiopia to South Africa and everywhere in between,” she said. She helped homeless people and young struggling professionals looking for inexpensive healthcare.

“I didn’t think traveling just a short distance from EMU would expose me to so much diversity,” she said.

In her daily responsibilities, Wharton worked with the medical assistants to conduct pre-visit record reviews. She greeted and “roomed” patients, many of whom had limited English proficiency, took their vital signs and medical history, sometimes with the help of translators, and then entered information into the medical database.

“Sometime we go to the lab and run tests, give shots, or assist the providers (doctors),” she said. “It’s a lot to get done within a limited amount of time but it’s taught me so much about the operating system of the health care field and even more about effective ways to communicate with patients.”

Building a foundation of “cultural competency” and learning special communication skills was an important emphasis. “‘Up’ and ‘down’ may seem like simple words,” Wharton said in a chapel presentation back on the EMU campus in April, “but in the context of discussing a dose of medicine, a miscommunication could result in serious problems.”

Since working in the public health field, Wharton says she’s unsure which particular speciality she’s interested in, but the experience confirmed her desire to become a nurse. She does know, however, that her time at Marie Reed has helped lay a strong foundation of critical skills for her future.

“Since I started my internship before my clinicals, everything I’ve learned about actually practicing nursing I owe to Marie Reed,” she said. “The staff here is beyond wonderful to work with and they all cared so much about helping me learn what I needed to be successful.”

Living and working in the city

In the end, Wharton’s WCSC experience was a positive one, and that is partly due to her own motivation, says , assistant director, who observed Wharton’s “blooming” during the semester. (Kauffman, Schmidt and communications director are integral to the Nelson Good House community life: “This program wouldn’t have been as special to me had it not been for them,” Wharton wrote in a later email.)

“Any cross-cultural is what a student makes of it,” said Kauffman, who has conducted graduate research into cross-cultural studies in faith-based environments. “Between handling a variety of challenging situations in her internship adeptly and with great compassion, and stretching herself personally, Nancy has pushed the boundaries of her comfort zone intentionally and repeatedly.”

From visiting approximately 100 ethnic restaurants (yes, the housemates kept track) to exploring museums and enjoying concerts and sporting events, Wharton and her fellow cross-cultural students definitely made most of their experience together. That made all difference for Wharton, who was initially hesitant about living and working in the urban environment.

“It was great living in such a supportive environment,” she said. “I’m very thankful for my housemates and they’ve made this semester a great one for me.”

That means she’s soon be reunited with the new friend, Eileen Schofield, who helped to change the direction of Stoll’s life.

Eileen lives at , an organization that builds “inclusive communities of faith and friendship where people with and without intellectual disabilities share life together,” according to their website. L’Arche (pronounced larsh) has 18 communities in the United States, and more than 140 communities in 40 countries.

At L’Arche, Eileen and other “core members” live, work, and interact in an integrated community. An outgoing and warm person, Eileen “has the ability to make newcomers feel as if they belong,” according to Bethany Keener, director of communications and development.

If it were not for Eileen, Mandi might not have taken the position at L’Arche. Last November, when she visited L’Arche for an interview, she nervously joined the members for dinner. After eating, the group broke out in song – a full-hearted and full-throated rendition of the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

Mandi remembers looking across the table and watching Eileen belt out the lyrics with a smile on her face.

At that moment, she said to herself, “Yes, this is where I want to be.”

Soon the two were posing for selfies while cooking dinner and chatting away like old friends. Then there were walks through the Adams-Morgan neighborhood, which gave Mandi a new appreciation for the joy of finding small treasures.

“I don’t think I’ll ever find another penny on the ground and not think  of her and the delighted smile that crosses her face when she finds a penny waiting for her,” Mandi says.

During her internship, Mandi spent half of her week at the Euclid  House – one of the L’Arche communal homes – and the other half  at the L’Arche office working in development. Keener, her supervisor, assigned tasks that helped her explore her natural gifts, which turned out to be in grant writing and advocacy.

But at Euclid House, she enjoyed sharing daily chores, mostly cleaning and cooking, with core members, who quickly, like Eileen, became friends.

The relationships that develop between co-workers, and between core members, are more important than official job titles and a hierarchical structure, Mandi says, adding that L’Arche is “a community of equals, not employees and residents.”

From penny-seeking to singing out loud, Mandi “embraced the L’Arche community fully,” said , WCSC’s associate director of program administration. “Her internship called for a high degree of commitment to their model of community, and she definitely did that.”

Having that experience and then being invited to become a full-time member of the community is significant, Mandi says. “Being offered this position has much more meaning than if I had found a job elsewhere because L’Arche is saying ‘We’ve seen your work, you are a good fit with us and you’re doing a good job’ rather than ‘We think you might fit here, let’s see how it goes.’”

The job offer is a “strong affirmation of my positive experience this past semester and gives me confidence that my desire to stay with L’Arche makes sense beyond me, to the community as a whole.”

It surely makes sense to Eileen, too.