Off the Hill

(Editor's Note: This is the first in an ongoing series of articles showing how Southwestern College faculty are making an impact in a world without boundaries.)

Moira Rogers, modern languages

Moira Rogers met José García in a juvenile detention center in Atlanta. He was 13 years old. The director of the center thought José might be mute; he hadn't spoken a word in six months.

But when Moira, then part of the faculty at Morehouse College, began speaking to the boy in Spanish, his rebellion melted away. He begged her to call his parents, to tell them that he was alive and well, and that they should come and get him out.

It wasn't easy. He didn't have a phone number and the name of the apartment was no help. But Moira had insights most social workers don't have. She knew that in a Latino community, you can expect to find a crowd playing soccer on a Sunday afternoon at a park. So she went to the soccer game in the neighborhood José had described.

Still, the crowd was suspicious. They feared the slight Argentine was an undercover police agent, or worse, an immigration agent. Finally Moira gave her phone number to one of the boys. Give it to José's parents, she said. Their son is desperate to come home.

When she arrived home the phone was ringing. It was José's mother. She told Moira tearfully that she had been at every detention center in Atlanta, not knowing a word of English, and could not find him. That night José and his parents talked for the first time in six months.

During the following months, two of her students committed to visit José at the detention center and taught him how to read and write. They made friends with the boy, and even though they claimed they did not know enough Spanish to hold a meaningful conversation, what they knew and were willing to share was a powerful learning experience for both José and the students.

Winfield isn't Atlanta, but when Rogers, now coordinator of international studies and the modern languages program at Southwestern College, heard that up to 500 Latino immigrants were expected to move into the Cowley County in the next year, she knew she had to act.

Soon after Future Beef announced plans for opening a meat packing plant in Arkansas City, she became involved in community planning. At the urging of Memorial Library director Greg Zuck, Rogers spearheaded the Welcome New Neighbors/Bienvenidos Nuevos Vecinos effort.

Working with Southwestern's three service learning teams (Conocer, Leadership, and Discipleship), Rogers organized the community-based project to ease the transition of the new workers into Cowley County. The program includes informational brochures of services and contacts, language services (translations, interpreting, ESL and Spanish classes), and visits to Pittsburg, Kan. (Pittsburg's successful integration of Latino workers into the community has been held up nationally as an example of how to assimilate immigrants into a rural community.)

Today Welcome New Neighbors is a partner in the assimilation efforts of such groups as the Winfield Area and Arkansas City Chambers of Commerce, an effort that involves students in service learning in the real world.

"This service component must be part of our education," Moira Rogers says passionately. "It must be part of what we do as Christians, taking care of people's needs, being responsive."

Cumbernauld Village: A Southwestern Connection

Stroll around the grounds of Cumbernauld Village and you're likely to find a Southwestern College connection.

Maybe it's an alum strolling along the edge of Loch Earn, a fishing pond with waterfall that bisects the sight line between the apartment windows and the setting sun.

Or maybe the SC connection will be a student. SC's nursing students present well-received seminars on wellness topics, and it's a convenient and receptive site for service projects.

Whatever the connection, founders George and Marilyn McNeish are delighted the village's Southwestern ties have remained strong as the retirement community moves well into its second decade. Their vision of a progressive retirement community with ties to the educational life of the college has been realized.

"We started looking into this when I was trying to find a place for my mother," George explains. "No place in town had the kind of garden home, to apartment, to assisted living, to full care options we were looking for." He became determined that other Winfield residents and Southwestern College friends would not have the same kind of disappointment.

The result is a wooded village with winding roads, a piece of Scotland transplanted into central Kansas. The first resident was SC trustee emeritus Helen Waite.

This cordial relationship between the college and the retirement community has led to ongoing exchanges. Cumbernauld residents are encouraged to attend Southwestern theatre and music events, to swim in the indoor campus pool, and to be involved in other aspects of college life. SC students are welcomed as they perform service projects and seminars.

And the relationship has resulted in a large group of SC constituents. Among Cumbernauld's residents are a former president of the college, former trustees, retired faculty, alumni, parents of faculty, and good friends of the college. A wide range of backgrounds (pastors, farmers, businesspersons, postmen, homemakers) leads to congenial companionship.

"Cumbernauld is an option for anyone, no matter what the person did before retirement," Marilyn stresses. "Sometimes people look at a place and think it might not be something they're able to do, but people from all backgrounds are living at Cumbernauld and loving it."

As for the connection to Southwestern, the McNeishes expect it to continue to thrive. "I would hope it would stay just like it is," George adds