Bike Recycle Vermont’s workshop in Burlington’s Old North End buzzes on a winter evening. You open the door to warmth and a pleasing whiff of well-used bike parts, grease and hundreds of rubber tires. ̽̽ first-years Max Green and Dean Wertz lean over a work bench cleaning and repairing crank sets, while friends and classmates Hudson Cassello and Kyle Landry sort legions of old front forks destined for rebuilds into workhorse “new” bikes that will help their owners get to jobs and the grocery store.
The ̽̽ contingent among the volunteers at work this evening has been at it every Tuesday through the semester, part of the community service central to their experience at the , one of the university’s Residential Learning Communities.
The focus at Dewey is getting out into the local community, says program director Kailee Brickner-McDonald. As she rattles off places students are making a difference — from Fletcher Allen Hospital to the Committee on Temporary Shelter to King Street Center to Bike Recycle Vermont for a total of 1,800 hours of volunteer work logged as fall semester nears its close — it’s clear the program is doing well by the man it’s named after.
“We don’t use his language — ‘education for democratic purposes’ — specifically,” Brickner says with a smile when asked about the influence John Dewey, ̽̽ Class of 1836, swings on the first floor of Harris these days. “I don’t think that would appeal as much to students. We talk, instead, about ‘how do I make a positive social change.’”
First-year students and sophomores in Dewey House live together in Harris Hall; juniors and seniors remain involved through programming and as mentors to the new members. With a total membership in the house of nearly eighty students, there’s a strong sense of passing along the lessons and ethics of community service. That continues on with alumni, as well. Carlisle Jensen ’15 is part of that tradition. A member of Dewey House as an undergrad — and the recipient of CUPS Outstanding Student in Service-Learning in 2015 — she continues her experience in a staff leadership role with the program through AmeriCorps VISTA. Lining up those steel forks back at the bike shop, Hudson Cassello says he was drawn to this particular volunteer project by the hands-on work and the tangible impact of providing affordable bicycles that can truly make a difference in the lives of low-income Vermonters. Max Green, a mechanical engineering major, notes that he appreciates the way getting his hands on some metal each week meshes in a practical way with his studies.
Asked about how experience has matched with expectation at Dewey House, Kyle Landry confesses, “I kind of expected a bunch of socially awkward kids.” He explains that community service wasn’t exactly “in with the in-crowd” at his high school. It’s a different story at Dewey House and more broadly at ̽̽, he says. “There are so many kids who are thoroughly involved. I was just not expecting it.”
Read more about service learning and community engagement at ̽̽: