We open by welcoming our newest team member, Noah Lawson Sakola, born to Education Program Specialist Kaitlyn Jones on September 10. Congratulations, Kaitlyn and Nick! We can’t wait to meet you, Noah, and teach you all about prison abolition, Black feminisms, and the power of collective care. We won’t teach you too much about resistance until you’re a teenager. We hope the new parents are settling in and getting some rest.
The first month of the semester has brought new faculty and campus students to the cohort students at ORW, and Mary is especially excited to be teaching at the facility in the degree program for the first time. They are taking a second class in the major with Dr. Octavian Robinson, and an African-American and African Studies course with Dr. Shavagne Scott that will fulfill one of the minor requirements. Rounding out the schedule is Dr. dinorah sanchez-loza’s education class.
Keep an eye open for our spring semester recruitment efforts, which will get underway in early October. OPEEP continues to face campus student enrollment shortages, and with gasoline prices climbing again, we may experience added burdens for students. Please talk to your classes about our spring offerings! It’s never too early, since they have to plan carefully around the time commitment. We will offer five classes open to students through the Columbus campus, and one through Mansfield. You can see the full list on our Enroll page. We are happy to visit classes to talk about OPEEP, so let us know if we can come by to share what makes our classes so special.
This month’s newsletter offers a contribution from Destani in our “Day in the Life” series and a couple of updates from our learning communities. We’re excited to see the vibrant activities that the three learning communities are engaging in, with support from the Mellon Foundation. We continue to seek your ideas for programming and presentations – please reach out to volunteer a few hours to share some of your expertise with people who need it most! We’re working to fill out schedules in Marysville (ORW), Lancaster (SCI), and London (LoCI) across the entire academic year.
Thank you for reading, and as always, remember to give us a follow @osu_opeep.
Drs. Tiyi Morris and Mary Thomas