BY MARLA HOLT
ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRIANNE FARLEY ’06

Regular listening to the daily news could lead anyone to wallow in pessimism and conclude that the world verges on collapse. Stories of terrorist attacks, racial strife, viruses, gun violence, and poisoned water fill our news feeds, not to mention all those fear-mongering declarations from presidential candidates. It’s enough to make you want to crawl back into bed, pull the covers over your head, and declare yourself a cynic.

How then, to lift our collective mood? Well, we’ve got you covered. We asked a few Macalester alumni and professors to serve up a handful of things to feel good about. Here’s what they had to offer.

Improved understanding of sexuality

As executive editor of the Huffington Post’s Queer Voices section, Noah Michelson ’00 has seen a shift in how we talk about sexuality. “We’ve made tremendous and rapid progress in visibility and inclusiveness,” he says. “We’re moving toward encompassing people who haven’t gotten attention in the past.”

Media attention for celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner and Miley Cyrus, who have spoken publically and positively about their sexuality, has been helpful in moving toward greater understanding and acceptance, says Michelson. “Educating people about transgender, pansexual, asexual, and other identities can remove misconceptions,” he says. “We can pass all the laws we want, but until we help people understand what it means to be queer, it won’t matter.”

As we talk openly about sexuality, we remove stigmas and become less repressed, says Michelson, who co-hosts the HuffPost’s Love+Sex podcast, which examines sexuality from an anthropological perspective. He’s encouraged each time he hears from a listener who identifies with a topic featured on the show. “Once you’ve heard someone’s personal story,” he points out, “it’s a lot harder to hate him.”

Dentist_600.jpgBetter access to dental care

Seven years ago, Minnesota became the first state to license dental therapists, a new, mid-level provider whose primary purpose is to increase access to dental health among underserved, uninsured, and low-income families.

Depending on their training, dental therapists can practice either independently or under a dentist’s supervision. It’s a new model being hailed nationally for providing quality care at a lower cost, says Sarah Wovcha ’89, executive director of Children’s Dental Services, a nonprofit consortium of clinics serving children throughout Minnesota. Wovcha also co-chairs the Minnesota Safety Net Coalition’s oral health committee, which was instrumental in passing the dental therapist licensure legislation.

Nearly 60 dental therapists are currently practicing in Minnesota, working in public health settings to provide both preventive and restorative services to those most in need of affordable oral health care. “This program gets quality care to the places where it’s needed most,” Wovcha says.

Growth of community-based theater

Maren Ward ’93 and her cofounders started Bedlam Theatre to create plays with social commentary. “We wanted to impact the community,” she says. One of Bedlam’s first projects was to produce a play based on stories gleaned from Somalian and other East African immigrants new to Minnesota.

Today, their vision has a name: community-based theater, an artistic endeavor designed to tell the stories of people bound by a community, be it geographic, cultural, or thematic. Communitybased theater also breaks down barriers between actors and audience. Bedlam combines a bar, a restaurant, and a stage in its Lowertown St. Paul location, inviting passersby to view productions through its street-level windows. “We’re creating new audiences by sharing a story and a moment, by witnessing some truth, and talking about it afterwards,” Ward says.

She also directs the zAmya Theater Project, a program of St. Stephen’s Human Services, in which people write and perform plays inspired by their experiences of homelessness. zAmya is community-based theater at its best, Ward says, engaging people with the issue of homelessness and getting them involved in efforts to end it.

Entrepreneurial problem solving

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Our tendency to narrowly define entrepreneurship as a new forprofit technology or app business doesn’t do justice to the many entrepreneurs working outside that world, says Seth Levine ’94, entrepreneur and managing director of the venture capital firm Foundry Group.

“We’re seeing a huge shift through the democratization of entrepreneurship, as innovators establish connections that extend beyond traditional geographic boundaries,” Levine says. “The world benefits as more people look to themselves as the engine to grow beyond their circumstances.”

One such example, he says, is the Unreasonable Institute— an accelerator program that’s strengthening the global impact of entrepreneurship. The institute provides resources and training— such as mentors, funders, coaching, and curriculum— to select entrepreneurs working on creative solutions to the world’s greatest social and environmental challenges. From 2010 to 2014, the Unreasonable Institute supported 93 ventures in 59 countries, including MANA Nutrition, which is working to solve malnutrition in children, and Greenlink Energy, which is using solar installations to transform schools and health facilities in Africa.

Challenging negative attitudes

In 2013 Minnesota voters defeated a discriminatory anti-LGBT constitutional marriage amendment. When the Supreme Court ruled to legalize same-sex marriage in 2015, large numbers expressed their rainbow-colored support of the decision. Such resistance to the anti-gay movement is heartening, says political science professor Paul Dosh, and just one example of how people are beginning to challenge prevailing negative attitudes that often immobilize us.

“I’m inspired and optimistic about the future because of the civil way we are coming together as communities to respond to societal issues that need to be addressed,” Dosh says. Civil activism has the power to change lives, he says, as evidenced by movements such as Black Lives Matter, the first sustained civil rights push since the 1960s, and Occupy Homes Minnesota, a grassroots organization that fights for safe and equitable housing.

There also is greater mobilization around climate change, Dosh says, with young people leading the charge. “They’ve grown up recognizing that climate change is a crisis caused by humans and that they need to take action,” he says, providing hope that such generational consensus will lead to significant progress in addressing the issue.

Increased mobilization of young people

Chris Messinger ’00 sees reason for hope every day at his job as executive director of Boston Mobilization, a social justice leadership development program for teenagers. “Our society is set up to be very segregated, but the teens I work with are building meaningful connections across divides,” Messinger says. “These amazing young people are working together for change.”

Teens involved in Boston Mobilization facilitate social justice training around issues ranging from race and racism to community organizing; bridge the gap across the false geographic divide of city and suburbs to build a stronger network for change; and take action on issues that impact young people. They have addressed racism in schools through Speak Up! A Personal Stories Project, which produced an anthology of 25 stories, discussion questions, and action resources now being used in schools nationwide. They’ve also worked for increasing the minimum wage, reducing toxic diesel emissions, and securing funding for youth summer jobs.

“Young people are articulating new ways of doing justice work,” Messinger says. “They are demonstrating collaborative and visionary leadership.”

Commitment to urban ministry

When Erik Christensen ’95 became the pastor of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Chicago in 2006, the congregation had just 12 members, most of whom were over 60. The church has since undergone a dramatic turnaround and today its membership is closer to 100 people of all ages and backgrounds.

“We are more in keeping with the Logan Square neighborhood that we serve,” he says, “which is young, rapidly changing, and ethnically diverse.” Christensen credits the transformation to his congregation’s public commitment to urban ministry. The church sold its century-old building and moved into a storefront to allow it to focus resources and energy on community advocacy— like campaigning for public and affordable housing and fair labor practices—instead of the upkeep of an old structure.

“We’re putting our faith into practice,” Christensen says. By embracing storytelling during worship, church members have discovered the richness of life and faith experiences in their community. St. Luke’s and three other nearby churches have developed an ecumenical storytelling program that celebrates that diversity. “We’re discovering huge similarities across lines of difference and it’s really hopeful,” Christensen says.

More use of renewable energyFlying_600.jpg

A landmark climate accord, signed by 196 nations at the 2015 Paris Climate Summit, provides a broad foundation for meaningful progress on climate change. It commits those nations to pursue efforts to limit the planet’s temperature increase to less than two degrees Celsius.

“The agreement was definitely a shot of sunshine,” says environmental studies professor Roopali Phadke, who attended the summit with a group of Macalester students. “It’s the beginning of a century-long project to mitigate the effects of global warming on climate change. One of the ways nations can work toward that is by supporting renewable energy sources.”

Notably, Congress recently granted multi-year extensions to renewable energy tax credits for wind and solar power, an action expected to increase demand and continue to help drive down costs. Minnesota, one of the most progressive states for renewable energy, is leading the way by supporting initiatives such as community solar gardens and District Energy, North America’s largest hot-water district heating system. Macalester, for its part, has signed a 25-year agreement with SunEdison to offset 100 percent of the college’s electricity use with solar energy.

MARLA HOLT is a freelance writer living in Owatonna, Minn.

April 19 2016

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