Secret no more

Student workers find The Clarke Forum a challenging campus workplace.

December 5, 2006

Seniors Danielle Goonan and John Wiske are Clarke Forum employees who enjoy the rigors of tight deadlines and an intellectually engaging workplace.

Ten students have uncovered a hidden campus treasure of a workplace—The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. Through their work, they are letting others know about the unique organization and its contributions to the college's intellectual life.

In her sophomore year, when Danielle Goonan '07 was recommended by a faculty member for a job at The Clarke Forum (then known as The Clarke Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary Issues), the American-studies major didn't even know what the center was.

"Then I put two and two together and realized that it was the place that organized all of those events that I had to go to freshman year," Goonan, now a student supervisor at the Forum, says with a laugh.

The Clarke Forum examined

The Clarke Forum at 249-255 W. Louther St. is charged with fostering discussion, debate and dialogue about current issues, both domestic and international. The professional staff and a group of student employees organize a range of events, with topics based on an annual theme—this year, energy.

"It's a tricky balance to present things that are timely and still on a theme," says John Wiske '07, an East Asian-studies major and Forum project manager.

Some balance is achieved because the organization is flexible enough to respond to significant events, such as nuclear proliferation in North Korea or, closer to home, the shooting at an Amish school in Lancaster County. An event may feature a single lecturer or a panel discussion featuring several experts.

"It's a job you take home with you," explains Katie McClellan '07. A student supervisor this year, the biology major says a job at The Clarke Forum is "more intellectually engaging than many other jobs on campus."

The student staff includes two supervisors who work with the project managers to write press releases for upcoming Forum events. They learn graphic-design skills to create posters and printed programs for the lectures. Programs include short, student-written biographies of the speakers and brief explanations of the issues under discussion.

On the night of the event, a student acts as an emcee, introducing the speaker, overseeing the question-and-answer period and concluding the event. Students also hone their public-speaking skills by interviewing speakers for programs on WDCV, the college's radio station, and become comfortable working with experts in a variety of fields. The students also talk up events to classmates and brainstorm on how to get more students and faculty members to attend the events.

Discovering new talents

The useful skills that students develop from working at The Clarke Forum go beyond the research, writing and public speaking that make up a large part of their jobs. "It's important as part of a liberal-arts education that you learn not just new skills but have a broad array of skill sets," Wiske explains.

"It is our breadth of experience (and knowledge, hopefully) at Dickinson and The Clarke Forum that sets our educational experience apart from others," he continues. McClellan, the only science major on the Forum student staff, adds that mastering these new skills has given her confidence as she prepares for life after Dickinson.

The three students say that the close-knit Forum community makes working there, despite the pressures of tight deadlines, a great experience. Goonan especially has enjoyed developing friendships with students from all around the country and the world.

The students depend on each other for, among other things, moral support, especially to calm nerves when introducing a speaker, who may be an ambassador or a Pulitzer Prize-winner.

Says McClellan, "It's really like a family here."