Listen Up Antioch
Do you hear what I hear? Do you see what I see? Sights & sounds of Antioch from around the globe.
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CINCINNATI, OH (2007-08-27) Sun. morning presentation to Antioch University Board of Trustees: presentation by former Board of Trustees members, followed by questioning.
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Recordings from the Board of Trustees meeting in Cincinatti in August 2007
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Board of Trustees - August 25, 2007 - Afternoon (Closed) Sessions: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download -
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Yesterday, I sent my own meager bio listing my victories for humanity, but I really want (with her permission) to share the story of one of my best friends from Antioch, who truly embodies every value for which Antioch stands, and who is almost certainly too busy and too shy to trumpet her own considerable accomplishments.
Megan Rosado graduated from Antioch in 1997 with a self-designed major in community organization, based on her interests in social work and peace studies, and took a job with the Chicago Abused Women’s Coalition, which provides shelter services to women victimized by domestic violence. Although this is an emotionally draining and typically low-paying field, it was Megan’s first choice for employment. Beginning at a poverty-level salary, she took on the responsibilities of a Domestic Violence Counselor. Her clients, many of whom had no work history or dealt with substance abuse issues, had ninety days to reconstruct their lives, often leaving behind homes, families, and possessions. Megan labored diligently with each to ensure that they could build a life free of violence, generally working more than sixty hours a week.
An unwritten agency policy dictated that, domestic violence counseling being such a trying occupation, counselors should not hold the position longer than two years, to prevent burnout. At the end of two years’ tenure, CAWC created a new position for Megan, Head Counselor. Megan continued to counsel clients while at the same time overseeing all the other counselors and taking on other organizational duties.
Moving up the administrative ranks, for a short period, she worked as a Legal Advocate, accompanying battered women to court, where they often had to face their abusers, and advising them of their rights. Megan then began her current position, Volunteer Coordinator. In addition to many other essential responsibilities, she took on the recruitment and training of shelter volunteers. The training program, an intensive series of once-a-week workshops, runs for several months at a time. Its focus being to educate not only on domestic violence issues, but also race, class, gender, and other topics of sensitivity and tolerance, these trainings require a great deal of organization. Megan is responsible for dictating the content, and hiring speakers, often leading workshops and discussions herself.
In addition, Megan took a second job counseling abusers at night. When asked to co-facilitate the batterers group, her principles required her to accept. For Megan, it was a matter of putting her money where her mouth was, and after years of advocating court-ordered counseling for the perpetrators of domestic violence, she could not refuse when asked to lead such a program, despite its encroachment on her already limited time.
For ten years, Megan has consistently demonstrated the highest commitment to the work of domestic violence counseling, not only achieving success in her field and helping the people of Chicago, but standing every day on the front lines of the battle for humanity, and every day winning new victories. Megan is a shining example of the best that Antioch has to offer the world, a constant pillar of the community, regardless of what community she is in. If every graduate could move through the world with her intense work ethic and strong moral code, Horace Mann’s vision might be not only a rallying cry for Antiochians past, present, and future, but a global vision communicated through a language of good works.
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Growing up on Chicago’s North Shore, I came to Antioch from a place of privilege, rather different from the experience of most of my new classmates. Although I considered myself open-minded, the Antioch community helped me recognize and unlearn racism, sexism, homophobia, and most importantly for me, the classism inherent in my upbringing. Immersion in a community of people who craved social justice taught me about compassion through action. In four years at Antioch, I saw my friends repeatedly challenge the government, the police, and the University, in pursuit of equality. I came to understand that the most marginalized in our society are those in the greatest need of champions, and I learned that all people share responsibility for their world. Without these lessons, I would not have been mentally equipped to help those I met on co-op: mentally ill adults at the Rose Hill Center work-therapy community, or CHINS (children in need of services) in State’s care at the Antrim Girls’ Shelter.
From an isolated individual, I became a person capable of living in and understanding communities, with the knowledge that my actions could affect others in negative or positive ways. In 1998, when I was assaulted on a business trip, my fear might have allowed a criminal to go free. With the support and encouragement of my fellow alums, I found the courage to testify against my attacker, who was sentenced to three years in prison. In turn, my Antioch friends’ attitude helped me persuade another friend to seek justice against a sexual predator in another country.
I can trace a direct line from Antioch to current work in my community. I first studied yoga at Antioch in 1995. In 2004, I became a certified yoga instructor, and although I no longer teach, I have carried with me the practice of karma yoga: active charity. During the school year, I spend three or four afternoons a week with elementary students, providing literacy enrichment for children who often do not see books or hear stories in their homes. Although it feels like a small contribution, my Antioch education has taught me that change is possible, fomented by dedicated individuals contributing what they can to causes in which they believe.
Monica Friedman
Class of ‘96
