Student contributors: Rose Resnick, Jackson Rutherford, and Alana Colvin
During the Spring 2022 semester, students in Dr. Seth Lee’s Critical Writing class—a required course in SRU’s Rock Studies program—partnered with Robin’s Home for a semester-long project. Robin’s Home, located in Butler, PA, is a supportive housing center for female veterans and their children. There, veterans are provided with a place to live, social services, and budgeting for food. Students in Dr. Lee’s class were placed in small groups and assigned a veteran from this home to interview and write a narrative on. Each of these women have come from different places and served in different ways, so no two groups had a similar story. Rose Resnick, Alana Colvin, and Jackson Rutherford were all in this class working on the project. During this time, they had the opportunity to improve their researching, writing, and editing skills. But most important, they had the opportunity to work with the amazing women at Robin’s Home.
From Alana:
My work with Robin’s Home has been one of the most meaningful projects I have ever contributed to. I went into Critical Writing with the mindset that it was just another mandatory class to get out of the way. I’ll be honest: I was not excited to do this project at all. But after meeting the veteran I was assigned to, Eileen, my whole attitude changed. I felt obligated to share her amazing story as best I could. The process of actually creating the narrative was a challenging but, also, fun process. We had to pick out what to include, whether it be direct quotes from our veteran, photos, or videos. Researching historical context was something we also had to look into. One of my majors is history, so I found that part to be enjoyable. It took quite a while to create the final product. On the last day of class, Dr. Lee held an end-of-semester party where we met our veterans and shared our products. I was incredibly nervous to show our video to Eileen. She had shared so many vulnerable things about herself and trusted my group to accurately portray her story. She ended up loving it. She was smiling the entire time watching it and continuously commented how well done it was. Seeing how happy it made her was completely redeeming for how much work it was to create.
I would encourage anyone, whether they be in the English department or not, to give any class like this a chance. Being someone from outside the department, I was not looking forward to the class at all. But my experience was plenty for me to confidently say that you never know what you will get out of a project. I was never expecting a basic competency course to be one of the most valuable I have ever taken. If you are questioning whether to take a class, I would say just go for it. You might surprise yourself.
From Jackson:
I had a great time working with Dr. Lee and my partners for this project. For the final project my group had to drive to Robin’s Home to interview our veteran, Cheryl. Dr. Lee gave the class a few options for the style of the final project. My group decided to record a final video project, and my partners and I completed certain jobs for the project to manage the workload. I was the person who brought all the equipment and drove us to Robin’s Home. One of the biggest challenges we had was finding the best time to record Cheryl. At the end of the semester Dr. Lee had a little get together party with Robin’s Home. Our group video was shown to the entire room. Cheryl teared up while watching the video. My overall experience with that class was great. At the time I was an Exploratory student. That final project got me interest in my major, which is Digital Media Production. If I had not taken the Critical Writing class, I would likely never found my major.
From Rose:
Going into Dr. Lee’s class, I was nervous. While I don’t consider myself a bad writer, I struggle to start and finish writing projects as they can seem overwhelming. I had heard stories from friends in other classes about projects that seemed to be only relevant to English majors. But my fears and actual experience could not be more different. The second our project was announced, I was excited. We were not writing just to practice skills. We were writing for a purpose, and it was incredibly motivating to know my work would have a real-world impact.
Despite my excitement, our project started slowly. The veteran we were assigned was difficult to contact. It turned out she was having medical issues. By the time some of our classmates were having their first interviews we were having first contact with our second veteran. We were on a time crunch and the women at Robin’s Home lived busy lives. Luckily another option appeared. The aunt of one of our classmates was a female veteran willing to work with us. When a week passed, and we could not work something out with the woman at Robin’s Home, we finally made contact with Amy.
Amy’s story was incredibly inspiring. She served as a Judge Advocate for almost twenty years; helping to settle legal disputes, educate soldiers and distribute reparations at home and abroad. As my group members and I pieced together a narrative, I struggled to find a compromise between my own views for the project and the views of my three group members. I wanted everything to be perfect, but I had to learn to allow others their contributions. In some places I had to let go and let them write what they thought was best. In fairness, that was what they did for me in my own sections of the paper.
In the end, we submitted our paper with pictures and audio clips imbedded and a happy veteran. Amy wanted to tell her story and share her love for the military which had become her life’s work. The project opened my eyes to the reasons someone would pursue a military career and the options that it provides. Through the work of others, I also learned the struggles female veterans can face in our country. I am glad to have participated in this project. To have gotten one person’s story immortalized for the world to see.
To close:
As Dr. Lee’s Critical Reading course came to a close, the idea that the three of us agreed upon is that the Rock Studies program offers Slippery Rock students opportunities to engage in many meaningful forms of community outreach while preparing us for our academic and professional careers. Once, we looked at the Rock Studies English requirements as something that didn’t extend beyond our individual classes or the campus community, and now, we know that our work has significantly impacted the lives of some of the people who need it most, our veterans.
For more information about Robin’s Home, please visit their website at https://robinshome.us/
Here is a selected example from the final projects in Dr. Lee’s courses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbYcE_Zd17M
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