As part of the program, students at Walter Williams High School read The American Queen alongside 福利亚洲国产精品鈥檚 Center for Design Thinking and Power+Place Storytellers. Every Tuesday, the Center for Design Thinking鈥檚 Danielle Lake and student facilitators Cooper Mallor, Berenice Sanchez-Rosaldo and Tyberious Brooks facilitated discussions at these sessions.

During the discussions, the Center has been focusing on the leadership strategies and transformative actions related to the themes of oppression throughout the book. Additionally, the Center encourages students to reflect on the book鈥檚 overall content, themes and connections to real-world issues.

“Every time I go, I feel pretty excited,” Brooks said. “Getting to see them open up more, think more critically about what they’re reading, it’s really nice to see the progression in them every time we go.鈥�

To further increase real-world connections, over eight Power+Place Storytellers and various community partners joined the weekly sessions. The goal of their participation was to offer engaging mentorship figures for students. Each individual comes to the program with a background that allows them to understand each other’s experiences and themselves in similar terms.

“‘The American Queen’ fits naturally in his core curriculum, which challenges students to examine resistance against discrimination throughout U.S. history,” said Robert Alvis, a civil literacy teacher at Walter Williams High School. “This core curriculum goal closely aligns with the Center鈥檚 goal to empower students to act as leaders in the face of oppression.”

Alvis says he hopes students “learn how to listen to someone’s opinion and respond to constructive questions鈥� from these discussions.

Set during the Reconstruction Era, 鈥淭he American Queen鈥� focuses on the quality of life Black people had as a result of their own leadership and decisions after slavery was abolished. The book explores the complexity of freedom as something communities had to define for themselves amid ongoing hardships.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not like one day the government woke up and said slavery is abolished and everything is better now,鈥� Alvis said.

Made possible by a $20,000 grant awarded to the Power+Place Collaborative and The Center for Design Thinking by the , Walter Williams High School Students, Center facilitators, Power+Place storytellers, and community partners were able to bring conversations about the book beyond the classroom.

The 鈥淪torying Home: Cultivating Cross-Cultural Connections through Storytelling鈥� grant, which was awarded, aims to support civic storytelling to encourage conversations surrounding generational and cultural background differences. Through it, the book program culminated in a meaningful milestone 鈥� an opportunity to meet the author of 鈥淭he American Queen鈥� in person and engage with the wider Alamance County community at a book luncheon on April 15.

The Center is advising participants in their new , an initiative by Project Pericles that is designed to encourage universities to participate in civic engagement endeavors through multimedia projects. These storytelling projects will showcase 鈥済rassroots changemaking鈥� that strengthens agency, builds community partnerships, and fosters democratic conversations.

The fellowship’s goals closely align with the mission of the Center and its support of the Power+Place Collaborative. Since 2018, the collaborative has worked with residents across Alamance County to collect oral history, create digital stories and examine the memories and stories of people who have shaped the community.

Lake, along with design catalysts Berenice Sanches-Rosaldo and Andrea Camo Conde, and community partner James Shields Jr., the manager of the African American Cultural Arts and History Center, helped lead the consulting workshop.

Lake, Shields, Sanches-Rosaldo and Camo Conde helped participants think through three different ways to advocate for systemic change through storytelling. These frameworks explored strategic storytelling, investigative follow-up, and activating community action. The Center advised the Project Pericles attendees to follow these methods since the Center and its Power+Place Collaborative use storytelling as a means to build trust across our community.

The Center will continue to consult Project Pericles鈥� Civic Story Lab Fellowship throughout the spring and summer.

In preparation, students from the Center for Design Thinking have been working alongside Power + Place storytellers to mentor youth in Robert Alvis鈥� Civic Literacy course at Walter Williams High School.

In addition, students from Professor Deidre Yancey鈥檚 鈥淟eadership Theories鈥� class have been preparing to facilitate conversations around leadership and changemaking for community attendees.

The American Queen is a North Carolina Reads 2025 pick from the North Carolina Humanities NC Center. The book is based on the true story of Louella and William Montgomery, two freed slaves who became the self-proclaimed king and queen of the Kingdom of Happy Land nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western NC.

Alamance Reads is funded by the Friends of the Alamance County Public Libraries, a nonprofit that raises money through annual book sales to support all programming initiatives, including the Zoom Pass program, the Lucky Day collection, the Seed Library, book club kits, educational resource kits and downloadable electronic content.

To help make these connections possible, the Center for Design Thinking and the Power+Place Collaborative were awarded $20,000 from the North Carolina Humanities Awards Large Project Grant. The grant, entitled 鈥淪torying Home: Cultivating Cross-Cultural Connections through Storytelling,鈥� supports civic storytelling efforts across the county. The goals are to connect people to different ideas in their local communities and encourage a deeper understanding of the importance of conversation between different generations and backgrounds.

The Collaborative has partnered with Professor Pamela Runestad鈥檚 Anthropology of Food and Food Pathways course, community members, previous storytellers and the Elon Community Church to provide cultural homemade meals, where components came together to make a shared meal and shared connections for the film screening held on Dec. 4.

The screening featured a dozen stories, ten community resource tables and four food stations centered around the theme 鈥渞oots and routes.鈥� Food stations, for instance, reflected an important part of the designated culinary storytellers’ life and included 鈥淓rvin鈥檚 Beans & Slaw,鈥� 鈥淧atty鈥檚 Tacos,鈥� 鈥淢ohsin鈥檚 Chai鈥� and 鈥淩andy鈥檚 Salad Bar.鈥�

鈥淚 am convinced that food is the key to connecting people,鈥� Power+Place 2024 storyteller Patty Holmes said. 鈥淭his collaborative offers the perfect way to combine speaking and cooking. I love sharing recipes and discussing the meaning and origins of specific dishes.鈥�

Food from Land to Mouths – Ervin’s Beans and Slaw

Students from the Anthropology of Food and Food Pathways course visited Reverend Ervin Milton鈥檚 farm to learn about farming and be introduced to what recipes they could expect at the screening.

Rev. Ervin Milton was raised on a 44-acre tobacco farm in rural Gibsonville, where his family grew their own food to make for every meal. His parents never hid the fact that his family was poor, making it a lesson on how to be sustainable while making enough to feed every mouth at the table.

鈥淚 grew up poor and didn鈥檛 know it because everyone around me was poor,鈥� Milton said. 鈥淲hen extra people came to our house, there was always enough for them to eat with us. [Milton鈥檚 parents] learned how to stretch things, how to make things work, how to have enough without assuming that you got everything or that you need everything.鈥�

Milton鈥檚 family still owns the land, continuing to grow their own produce and educate others on intentionally farming food to be more environmentally and sustainably conscious of food waste.

For his dishes, Milton decided to make three things that he remembers fondly being at his dinner table: coleslaw, cornbread and pinto beans. These three dishes were staples, coming from the farm straight to the family鈥檚 plates.

鈥淣ow people are just simply throwing away [food], almost to the point where they throw away people,鈥� Milton said. 鈥淚 think it’s important to help people, in my case, to understand how you can make a meal, how you can feed people and not spend a lot of money and still make it tasteful.鈥�

Growing up in the civil rights era, Milton was no stranger to inequality. In 1964, he was the first black student to apply to an all-white Gibsonville High School, integrating the school for the first time. The school lunch table was one of the first places where he knew that he wanted to educate people on the causes and importance of equity on both sides to 鈥渕ake life fair for everybody.鈥�

鈥淚 remember sitting while the white people that I worked for, they used to eat first and then we would eat,鈥� Milton said. 鈥淭hat wasn鈥檛 going to be my life. I went back out to the field that day, but that memory has always been there for me.鈥�

You can learn more about by viewing his digital story on the Power+Place YouTube channel.

Cultural Eats – Patty’s Tacos

Holmes was a 2024 Power+Place storyteller, sharing an of crossing into the United States from Mexico with her daughter to build a new life in the nation. This year, she鈥檚 focusing her story on her 鈥渟econd passion鈥� and culture, bringing an array of Mexican tacos to the table.

鈥淭he Power+Place Collaborative not only educates, but it does so through real stories 鈥� stories that often aren’t found in the news or media,鈥� Holmes said. 鈥淲e are 鈥榠nvisible yet real,鈥� but through initiatives like this, we can become visible and reachable.鈥�

A staple of her own childhood, Holmes made picadillo tacos for the 鈥淧atty鈥檚 Tacos鈥� station. Her mother used to create the meal as it was plentiful and could be made for both breakfast and lunch.

As a child, Holmes would visit tortilla bakeries 鈥撀� tortillerias 鈥� that would often have salt shakers, letting customers 鈥渟avor a warm, fresh tortilla with a sprinkle of salt 鈥� a 鈥榯ortilla con sal.鈥欌�� While waiting in line, she would also enjoy a raspado, a Mexican-style shaved ice dessert topped with syrups, fresh fruit and sometimes condensed milk or chili-lime seasoning.

鈥淢y experiences becoming a storyteller for Power+Place feels incredibly fulfilling,鈥� Holmes said. 鈥淜nowing that many people can understand the immigrant journey is powerful and promotes empathy and unity in our community.鈥�

Faith-Fueled Food – Mohsin’s Chai and Randy’s Salad Bar

Students also met with Mohsin Sidiqui for 鈥淢ohsin鈥檚 Chai鈥� at the Burlington Masjid, a place that鈥檚 been important to him since he came to the U.S. In 2023, of immigrating to Burlington, North Carolina from Pakistan鈥檚 largest city Karachi when he was a young boy. In his story, he emphasized the importance of community and family, something he missed when he moved to the states.

Through thoughtful conversation, Sadiqui told the same story to the Anthropology of Food and Food Pathways students through chai tea, a drink that he鈥檚 savored since a young boy. He also talked about the differences of the chai made in Pakistan and the U.S.

Randy鈥檚 Salad bar features staples from Pastor Randy Orwig, Pastor of the Elon Community Church. Pastor Randy has been a longtime, generous supporter of the Collaborative.

In preparation for the film screening, students met with pastor Randy Orwig to educate on community engagement within the church and its mission, along with touring the kitchen where the food will be made. In addition to hosting 鈥淩andy鈥檚 Salad Bar,鈥� Orwig helped design the event, oversee the set up, and recruit community volunteers for the event.

Feeding the mind and body – Anthropology of Food and Food Pathways

Students in Professor Pamela Runestad鈥檚 Food and Food Pathways interviewed culinary storytellers about the particular dishes and took field trips to Milton鈥檚 family farm and the Burlington Masjid to gain a better sense for the significance of these foods to their storyteller.

Students鈥� insights from their interviews with storytellers and their site visits will be archived on the website alongside the dozen new stories captured this year about 鈥淩oots and Routes.鈥� So far, Power+Place has archived over 120 documents, photos, transcripts, and more to their database that is accessible to anyone.

鈥淚 think students are really interested to learn about the variety of different experiences in our wider community here and see how food fits into that,鈥� Runestad said. 鈥淭hey’re also learning about collection and processing of qualitative data 鈥� not just for data’s sake, but for a purpose: these narratives will be shared with Storytellers and saved in the archive.鈥�

Both the culinary and Power+Place Stories of Alamance storytellers met with Williams High School participants, the students who have been working with them and the Elon community at the church. This year, 12 new storytellers were featured with a focused theme of rootedness, migration and belonging.

This year鈥檚 theme is 鈥淪torying Home: Cultivating Cross-Cultural Connections Through Storytelling,鈥� with participants exploring themes of rootedness, migration and belonging. Faculty members Danielle Lake, Sandy Marshall and Deidre Yancey are leading the initiative together in anticipation of the Dec. 4 screening.

The Power+Place Collaborative is a partnership between 福利亚洲国产精品, the African American Cultural Arts & History Museum, Burlington Parks & Recreation and Alamance Public Libraries. Since 2018, they have collected and preserved oral histories and cocreated digital stories with residents from diverse communities across Alamance County.

鈥淲orking with Groups and Communities鈥� student Peyton Patrick sees the impact of her Power+Place community-engaged course from both a logistical and creative level. Patrick is inspired by her instructor and Center for Design Thinking Director Danielle Lake as she sees her as a 鈥渂oss, a teacher and a mentor at the end of the day.鈥� The teachings of design thinking have also helped shape Patrick鈥檚 time as an 福利亚洲国产精品 student.

鈥淭he whole point of the center is to design human change and create things that are going to improve people鈥檚 lives,鈥� Patrick said. Being a part of the process of community change is 鈥渟o much different than talking to a whole class about how you can make a difference in the community.鈥�

Owner of Occasions鈥� Catering & Southern Cuisine Elois Lettley is Patrick鈥檚 storyteller for this semester. She instantly found a connection with her, enjoying hearing about Lettley鈥檚 upbringing and how she brings different food influences to the restaurant.

鈥淛ust 15 minutes outside of this bubble, there鈥檚 so many people of diverse backgrounds and cultures that want to get to know you,鈥� Patrick said. 鈥淚t really changes your whole perspective on what it means to be able to understand other people and to understand and connect with others.鈥�

Along with collecting stories, The Alamance County History Harvest collected materials from storytellers to store on an open-access digital database. Power+Place stores its archived materials from storytellers and History Harvest materials on , an openly accessible platform for digital collections and exhibitions.

With guidance from Amanda Kleintop, assistant professor of history, and graduate student Emily Moser, students Andrea Camo Conde and Amaylie Bethea helped gather materials from storytellers at the event. Camo Conde was a student in the class last year, also creating films alongside other students. She believes working this position still allows her to connect with the storytellers.

鈥淭he history harvest was a great way to meet and get to know them through the objects they brought, which highlight their significant impact on the community,鈥� Camo Conde said. 鈥淚t’s so nice to see people reminisce on the objects they brought in to be scanned and recognized by the community. You can see in their face that they are appreciative and happy to share their stories.鈥�

This year, the Power+Place Collaborative is collaborating with Williams High School civic literacy students. High school students will be attending the December storytelling event to hear all the finished stories from members of their community.

There are two options to attend this year: Limited in-person seating at the Elon Community Church. If you would like to attend in person, please email dlake@elon.edu and register , or you can attend virtually from 12:30-2 p.m. EST. Register

Merrie Byers 鈥�26 is not doing a traditional research project for the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE); the cinema and television arts major is exploring differences through a self-produced documentary.

The documentary focuses on the reverends of two churches in Burlington, North Carolina, with a deep, complicated and connected history. During U.S. slavery, according to Byers, members of Union Ridge Church owned members of Union Chapel United Church of Christ. Now, the reverends of each church, which sit across the street from one another, have developed a close relationship.

鈥淭hey are using their friendship to combat this prejudice and hosted a committee where 10 members of the church from each side got together and talked about these differences,鈥� said Byers, who is from Wake Forest, North Carolina. 鈥淚t really made a difference in how these churches have blossomed into a bonded community.鈥�

Byers, an Honors Fellow, was introduced to both churches through the Place and Placemaking course, connected to Elon鈥檚 Power + Place Collaborative, a community partnership that works to capture and share untold stories of communities in Alamance County.

In the course, Byers says, faculty members Sandy Marshall and Danielle Lake discussed the significance of Christianity in Black and white communities, and how those communities worship. Byers was tasked with creating a mini-documentary about another reverend, but when reviewing the work of other students about her current documentary subjects, she had an idea.

鈥淲hen I watched the footage, it just felt like these stories should have been brought together,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was really fascinating to me to see the way that this friendship has connected the two of them.鈥�

Byers is working alongside Nicole Triche, associate professor of cinema and television arts, on the documentary, which she will present in a poster presentation at SURE on June 24 in the Snow Atrium of Schar Hall.

Nearly 60 students will present at the annual research symposium, which provides an opportunity for students to work with faculty and gain meaningful research experience over the summer, without the pressure of other courses during a typical semester. Students apply for the opportunity, which usually takes place during the summer before the junior or senior year.

鈥淧rofessor Triche is genuinely one of the most understanding, yet professional, people that I鈥檝e worked with,鈥� said Byers. 鈥淚 really appreciate her approach to education which stood out when I took her COM 2200 class.鈥�

Even though her documentary won鈥檛 be displayed at the poster presentation, Byers still hopes people will take away an important message.

鈥淚 want to bring hope,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 been such a common theme with the two interviews I鈥檝e had. Anything that can shine a light on the fact that this history is timeless and always needs to be talked about. Oral histories are important, and you can learn so much from someone else鈥檚 perspective.鈥�

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• Untold Stories
• Community members harvest their history at Power + Place Collaborative event

For over a year, 福利亚洲国产精品 Master鈥檚 of Higher Education student Emily Moser has been leading the Alamance County History Harvest, an initiative affiliated with the Power + Place Collaborative that focuses on building a community archive through digitizing the historical materials of Alamance County citizens and storytellers.

The Power+Place Collaborative is a partnership between 福利亚洲国产精品鈥檚 Center for Design Thinking, diverse faculty across campus and community organizations. Their goal is to collect, preserve and share oral histories and digital stories in partnership with residents from diverse communities across Alamance County.

鈥淲e鈥檝e really been trying to highlight the storytellers of Power+Place and the communities that interface with Power+Place, particularly the African American communities in Alamance County,鈥� Moser said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 rooted in accessibility to create counter archives 鈥� archives outside of a traditional university or library archive.鈥�

Moser holds many roles at Elon, along with her time doing History Harvest, including being the program coordinator for the Center for Engaged Learning and the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning. Through her work, she鈥檚 interweaved all her interests into one, including her love for objects and public history.

鈥淚 hope that objects can be another way people can connect,鈥� Moser said. 鈥淚 think that the History Harvest can be that. You don鈥檛 have to be a permanent resident of Alamance County and the items don鈥檛 have to be about Alamance County. It can be about you as someone living in Alamance County, that鈥檚 just as valid.鈥�

Power+Place stores its archived materials from its storytellers and its History Harvest materials on , an openly accessible platform for digital collections and exhibitions. So far, Power+Place has archived over 106 documents, photos, transcripts, and more to their database that is accessible to anyone. They will work this summer on adding all of the donated materials to the Omeka site, along with hosting additional Harvest events.

Coordinating and planning for the History Harvest started in the summer of 2024, then transitioned to one of Assistant Professor of History Amanda Kleintop鈥檚 fall Museum Studies and Public History classes, where students learned how to do some of the work themselves.

鈥淲e had an initial open History Harvest in September at Snow Camp Outdoor Theater,鈥� Moser said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e done pop-up History Harvest events with Power+Place. We are really lucky that students from Dr. Kleintop鈥檚 class last fall stayed interested. A benefit of Elon being a close-knit community is that there鈥檚 a lot of interpersonal connection.鈥�

According to Moser, History Harvest was designed at the University of Nebraska as a public history project designed to engage students. The student-led initiative encourages working directly with community members to collect and digitize donated materials. Moser will be at the Gibsonville Public Library鈥檚 Juneteenth Celebration on June 14, also referred to as Juneteenth, to collect and further expand the History Harvest database.

The setup is 鈥渨ay more simple than you think,鈥� only using a book scanner that saves scans directly to a hard drive and metadata forms that describe the specifics of the object on the website. Moser says that those who bring the materials still keep ownership of the object brought to History Harvest, which will be recorded in the metadata.

Connect with Power+Place Collaborative

If you are looking to donate any objects or materials to the History Harvest archive, you can contact Moser at聽emoser3@elon.edu or Center for Design Thinking director Danielle Lake at dlake@elon.edu for further information.

This summer, you can also join the Center for Design Thinking and the Power + Place Collaborative at where the organization will be sharing digital stories from diverse community members.

In the fall, Power+Place will host Stories of Alamance County 2025, a public screening and community dialogue featuring new digital stories focusing on rootedness, migration, and belonging. These stories are co-created by Elon students and local partners, including the African American Cultural Arts & History Center and the CityGate Dream Center.

A History Harvest, community dialogue and lunch will be held along with the screening open to all members of the community to join! .

Learn more about the Power + Place Collaborative and make a donation .

Every community is full of stories 鈥� some well-known, some waiting to be told, others on the verge of being lost. The Power + Place Collaborative is bringing those stories to the surface, encouraging 福利亚洲国产精品 students to step outside the campus bubble and into the Alamance County community.

The initiative, a partnership between Elon鈥檚 Center for Design Thinking, the African-American Cultural Arts & History Center, Burlington Recreation and Parks, Alamance County Public Libraries and other community partners and cultural organizations, works to capture and share untold stories of communities in Alamance County.

鈥淪o much of the suffering and pain we see in the world is because we don鈥檛 know each other, we don鈥檛 care about each other,鈥� says Danielle Lake, director of the Center for Design Thinking and associate professor of human service studies. 鈥淲hen we understand our histories from all of these different perspectives, we can re-imagine what we want our community to be together so that it becomes a place where we鈥檙e connecting.鈥�

Design thinking is a relational approach to problem-solving that helps uncover the underlying causes of challenges and provides creative, structured methods to address them. It focuses on understanding the needs of the people affected, encouraging collaboration and generating innovative solutions. Since 2016, Elon鈥檚 Center for Design Thinking has focused on developing, teaching and studying these techniques.

The idea of collecting oral histories in the community started in 2018 with Jane Sellars, the founding executive director of the African-American Cultural Arts & History Center in Burlington. Sandy Marshall, associate professor of geography, read about Sellars鈥� work and offered his expertise as a human geographer, studying how young people are shaped by histories of division and violence in their communities.

鈥淎lthough my expertise is in the Middle East, we of course have our own divisions and conflict in our own society, and I wanted to use some of those creative storytelling tools that I鈥檇 used with young people in the Middle East and elsewhere here at home,鈥� Marshall says. 鈥淚 want to have my students see that there are interesting places, interesting stories and diverse perspectives right on their doorstep.鈥�

Sellars and Marshall began working on using digital technology to tell the stories of the Black community in Alamance County. But in summer 2018, some of Sellars鈥� elders died, intensifying her desire to begin collecting oral histories quickly. So in fall 2018, Marshall launched the Power, Place and Memory course, a precursor to the Power + Place Collaborative. Marshall originally planned to only have his students do audio recordings, but School of Communications students in his class took the effort to the next level with video recordings. Sellars was pleased with the work and was excited to continue, but she died in 2019.

There was a lull in the oral history effort following Sellars鈥� death, but as interest around community-based learning at Elon grew, Marshall, Lake and Vanessa Drew-Branch, associate professor of human service studies, connected with Alamance County organizations and began to form the Power + Place Collaborative. Drew-Branch came up with the name, inspired by Marshall鈥檚 2018 course.

鈥淸It鈥檚 about] learning about the power of our place, but also thinking about how power shapes place and thinking about that critically,鈥� Marshall says.

The Power + Place Collaborative officially kicked off in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a tough time for an initiative working to encourage connection and collaboration.

鈥淲e did walking tours outside, we used Zoom to record oral histories and we came out of the experience saying 鈥榃e have to continue this. This was incredible,鈥欌�� Lake says. 鈥淎t a time when people were feeling isolated and alone, opportunities to connect were even more valued.鈥�

Since its inception, the Power + Place Collaborative has captured about 60 oral histories from a wide variety of people within the Alamance County community, all now available on their website. One of those stories was Bobbi Ruffin, recreation superintendent for the City of Burlington, who helped form the collaborative in 2019. Ruffin鈥檚 interest in oral histories began when she was working at the Mayco Bigelow Community Center at North Park in Burlington. The park opened in the 1950s during segregation and was a place where Black families would gather. Ruffin says people would often tell her about their experiences in the park.

“When we understand our histories from all of these different perspectives, we can re-imagine what we want our community to be together so that it becomes a place where we鈥檙e connecting.”聽鈥� Danielle Lake

鈥淎fter hearing those stories so much, I wanted to really capture them and honor those stories,鈥� Ruffin says. 鈥淥f course we didn鈥檛 really have Facebook or social media like we have now where folks take pictures all the time. It became a goal of mine to figure out a way we could capture these stories so we could share them.鈥�

Ruffin says being a storyteller didn鈥檛 come naturally, as she wasn鈥檛 confident that she had much to contribute. 鈥淚鈥檓 still learning so much, but I think that鈥檚 the power in it, because we all have a story, we all have an experience and we all have connections to these spaces and places in our community,鈥� Ruffin says. 鈥淓ven though it was awkward, I鈥檓 really grateful to have the opportunity to share my experience so far.鈥�

James Shields, operations manager for the African-American Cultural Arts & History Center in Burlington, says it鈥檚 important to highlight stories that aren鈥檛 often told in the news or history books.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not simply looking for people that are famous or people who have made some great achievements like a political office or business,鈥� Shields says. 鈥淲e are looking for people who have a compelling story, something that would help people understand citizens of our community that many of us may not interact with in our daily lives.鈥�

The work of interviewing the storytellers is in the name 鈥� collaborative. Each organization contributes in some form to the effort, including Elon students. Aaron Chan 鈥�26, a cinema and television arts major, has worked with the Center for Design Thinking since his first year at Elon. He directed 鈥淟egacies of Love,鈥� a documentary highlighting the stories of the Sellars family and their contribution to preserving Black history in Alamance County. Chan鈥檚 work won the Center for Writing Excellence鈥檚 fall 2024 Campus Involvement Award.

鈥淚 want to live here after graduation and I鈥檝e been trying to understand the area as much as possible. I think being at Elon, it鈥檚 very easy to stay on campus and be in the bubble. I鈥檝e been very fortunate to meet people who have helped me connect to Alamance County,鈥� Chan says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a little bit embarrassing if I tell someone I went to school in North Carolina and they ask me what it鈥檚 like and I can only think about campus and I don鈥檛 know anything about the actual people who live there.鈥�

The work goes beyond video and audio production. Faculty members across disciplines integrate the collaborative into their curricula. In fall 2024, Lecturer in Human Service Studies Deidre Yancey worked with Power + Place to have her students interview storytellers for the Working with Groups and Communities course.

鈥淲hat I鈥檓 focusing on with students is understanding how to identify communities, how to access communities, how to value communities, understanding that communities are made up of different groups of people and each group has their own story,鈥� Yancey says. 鈥淢any of our storytellers are much older than our students; they鈥檙e the age of their grandparents in many cases, and they develop these friendships. I think they learned a lot from each other, which is another kind of really rich aspect of this project.鈥�

In the Global Migrations course taught by Marshall and Lake, students worked with the CityGate Dream Center community center and the Burlington Masjid to interview people of migrant and refugee backgrounds.

鈥淥ne of Jane鈥檚 early visions was to tell the African American history perspective, but also include other diverse voices in our community, including migrant voices,鈥� Marshall says.

In September 2024, the Global Migrations and Working with Groups and Communities students met with storytellers for an interactive event.

鈥淲hat is so amazing is that we all have our own unique stories,鈥� says Kassim Mbwana, one of the storytellers at the September event. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so refreshing and empowering to see someone else take their story and retell it in a way that you haven鈥檛 thought about and share it with people.鈥�

The event was followed by a December public screening of the students鈥� stories. Yancey was particularly moved by a storyteller鈥檚 experience crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

鈥淚t鈥檚 so important for people to hear and understand issues directly from the people that have experienced them, thinking about change-making and the power of stories,鈥� Yancey says. 鈥淚鈥檓 talking a lot about being a leader within one鈥檚 community, and this idea that leadership is about recognizing where there are areas of need in your community and working with others to make positive change.鈥�

Marshall and Lake also teach the Honors Program course Place and Placemaking, where students conduct 鈥渃ommunity-based research with the aim of uncovering the hidden histories of forgotten places and reimagining how places in the community might look instead.鈥� Mya Lee 鈥�26, an Honors student studying entrepreneurship, took the course in her second year.

鈥淚 was able to take a lot of what I learned and apply it to my personal growth and connect with the people of the community where I live,鈥� Lee says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important for me to get to know the people of my community and connect further with the people in the community who look and relate to me.鈥�

The course made such an impact on Lee that her Honors thesis focuses on some of the storytellers, specifically how Black entrepreneurs can be supported.

鈥淎s an entrepreneurship major, I have a strong passion for small business and small business growth,鈥� Lee says. 鈥淎s an African American female in the field, I wanted to empower Black entrepreneurs and shine a light on what I like to call hidden histories. A lot of Black entrepreneurs in our history haven鈥檛 been highlighted the way I believe they should.鈥�

The oral histories are only one aspect of the Power + Place work. In 2024 the collaborative launched the Voices of Alamance County Public Story Walk, a physical representation of the digital stories. The first story walk was unveiled at Beth Schmidt Park after Elon students partnered with Williams High School students to formulate the stories. The story walks have now expanded to the Mayco Bigelow Community Center at North Park and the Graham Middle School walking trail. Stories of Alamance County faith leaders were also on display in the Numen Lumen Pavilion in fall 2024. The collaborative received a $10,000 Impact Alamance Community Forward Grant in 2023 to create dialogue across faith communities and to collect and share oral histories around religion and spirituality in Alamance County.

鈥淲e see the fall as being about capturing these oral histories, transcribing them and making them publicly accessible,鈥� Lake says. 鈥淏ut we think about the rest of the year as trying to find opportunities to make that knowledge live, to connect those stories across generations, to bring them to schools, to bring them to parks, to bring them to residents, to host events, to have more conversations about what we鈥檙e learning when we listen more deeply to each other鈥檚 experiences.鈥�

Because no one organization 鈥渙wns鈥� the collaborative, it can be hard to sustain financially. The organization has set up a gift fund so anyone can help the collaborative continue and grow.

鈥淲e鈥檝e focused on stories of the past, but have created spaces in the present to raise issues that communities are facing,鈥� Marshall says. 鈥淚 hope that the next phase of this work could be a bit more targeted towards some of those issues that we鈥檙e hearing in the communities, that we could begin to address some of the continued inequities and we could continue to be a good neighbor to our surrounding community.鈥�

Reflecting on how far the effort has come since Jane Sellars鈥� idea, Shields is thankful the work is continuing.

鈥淲hen you look in the room when people come to screen our videos and see the faces of the community coming together in this way to share stories, that鈥檚 what she wanted to see,鈥� Shields says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a beautiful thing and we are looking forward to many more stories in the future.鈥�

Learn more and see the stories on the Power + Place Collaborative website.

In this two-part session, the co-facilitators introduced the UNESCO Story Circles methodology, developed by Darla K. Deardorff, as a means for fostering cross-cultural empathy, respect and understanding through personal narratives.

Also presenting at the confernece were Danielle Lake, director of the Center for Design Thinking and Marshall, along with student Rony Dahdal and Hector Perez, on the Power & Place Collaborative. Their presentation was titled, “Localizing Global Engagement Across Intercultural and Intergenerational Divides: Stories and Strategies.” In their session they shared strategies for cultivating meaningful intercultural and intergenerational learning that have emerged from a place-based storytelling project led by The Power+Place Collaborative, a community-university partnership located in Alamance County.

Stephen Braye, professor of English, led a pre-conference workshop on “The Missing Piece: Enhancing Student Learning through Effective Re-Entry Programs.”

This community lunch will help participants design actionable opportunities for moving towards radical hospitality and accountability across their communities. Participants will get the chance to engage in intergenerational and cross-cultural conversations among students, youth, organizers and elders.

Diya Abdo will facilitate conversation on fostering change through intergenerational and intercultural collaboration. Abdo is a Lincoln Financial professor of english at Guildford College, founder of Every Campus a Refuge, a program for resettling and housing refugees on college and university campuses, and author of “American Refuge: True Stories of the Refugee Experience.”

On Friday, March 28 the Design Forge will close by featuring “Relationality: An Emergent Politics of Life Beyond the Human” by Arturo Escobar, Michal Osterweil, and Kriti Sharma (the selected book for Design Forge 2025). The book鈥檚 central theme focuses on constructing livable worlds that lie in knowing and acting on the awareness of the interdependence of everything that exists 鈥� what the authors refer to as “relationality.”

The authors will be the closing keynote speakers at the Design Forge, sharing compelling stories and transformative strategies drawn from their lifework, followed by an engaging Q&A session open to both virtual and in-person attendees. You can register to attend the closing keynote online. Registration for all Forge sessions are located online.

The Center for Design Thinking invites participants to join other book club sessions and events we hold by registering on our website.