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\u201cMy father was taking a bath and lightning struck while he was standing in the tub, but didn\u2019t shock him,\u201d Hutson says in the audio recording detailing one of those strikes. \u201cThe bolt followed the television cable, went under a picture window, scorched the drapes, and rolled a rather large fireball out of the television set.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tale only gets better from there.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of many stories shared by Montgomery County residents who were interviewed and recorded last year by Wabash College students in\u00a0Professor Jill Lamberton\u2019s Audio Rhetoric and Creative Writing course. An audio-recording-based variation of the wildly successful\u00a0Humans of New York<\/a>\u00a0Web site<\/em> and books, the Humans of Montgomery County<\/a>\u00a0 presents 10\u00a0stories from 9\u00a0of those interviewed, including:<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0\u00a0a city police chief recalling his father’s advice and how it\u00a0guides him\u00a0every day on the job;<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0\u00a0a social worker recounting the downward spiral of her college-era drug addiction and her struggles to recover, and\u00a0her daughter who completes the story as a living witness to that successful recovery;<\/p>\n \u2022 a retired insurance man describing the genesis of his ongoing project to send \u201coutdated\u201d fire trucks from Indiana to villages in Mexico, where they find new life serving thousands;<\/p>\n \u2022 a teacher who taught her students how to be engaged and empowered citizens by becoming national advocates for Amtrak\u2019s daily train service to Crawfordsville;<\/p>\n \u2022 an outdoorsmen who had moved out of state but returned to live closer to family, and is now an advocate for local natural resources like Sugar Creek and Shades State Park;<\/p>\n \u2022 a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and title company administrator\u00a0whose response to a potentially debilitating disease is to reconnect with her family and live as fully as she can, one day at a time.<\/p>\n The stories were recorded\u00a0by young men who\u2014at 19 to 22 years old\u2014are members of an age group not often singled out for its ability to listen. Yet for this project, Lamberton says, they not only listened well, but many displayed the understanding, wisdom, and\u00a0empathy you\u2019d hope for in much older men and women.<\/p>\n \u201cThese members\u00a0of our community were so generous in\u00a0telling\u00a0their stories and granting us permission to share them with the world, and the students fully embraced this project,\u201d Lamberton adds. \u201cThey wanted to get to know these citizens of the College\u2019s hometown, to listen, and to learn.”<\/p>\n Students begin the course recording personal stories from their own lives and from friends or family members, then listen to and constructively critique one another\u2019s work. The Humans of Montgomery County\u00a0took\u00a0those listening and technical skills off campus and into our local community.<\/p>\n “In designing the project, I worked closely with Associate Director of Communications Richard Paige and Wabash Magazine<\/em> Editor Steve Charles\u00a0to invite Wabash students and Montgomery County residents to engage in positive, personal interactions with each other,” Lamberton says. “Such interactions can be more rare than any of us might expect or hope.”<\/p>\n She recalls the words of\u00a0one of her students, who wrote at the end of the semester: “Every assignment was challenging and forced me to grow as a citizen and student. Continue to force the guys out of the Wabash bubble. That taught me as much as anything.”<\/p>\n \u201cChanging lives at Wabash means much more than preparing students for a lucrative career,\u201d Lamberton said late last year when she was granted tenure at the College. \u201cEnglish professor Anne Hall was recently quoted in the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0as saying that college should be a time and place to develop \u2018the muscle of thoughtfulness, the use of which will be\u00a0the greatest pleasure in life and will also show what it means to be fully human.\u2019 I\u00a0couldn\u2019t agree more, and\u00a0I\u00a0am so grateful to have found in Wabash College a place where\u00a0a dedicated staff and faculty teach and mentor students\u2014both in and outside the classroom\u2014in a way that calls them to\u00a0grow into more thoughtful, confident, engaged human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThey wanted to get to know these citizens of the College\u2019s hometown, to listen, and to learn.\u201d<\/em><\/h4>\n
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The project included class sessions on “on location” audio recording and editing, interviewing, and photography taught by Audio and Video Technician Phillip Merriett, Paige, and Charles. Administrative Assistant Violet Benge\u00a0and Director of Student Engagement and Success Heather Thrush were invaluable in making connections with the community residents who were interviewed. Funding for the project was provided by\u00a0a Lilly Endowment Faculty\u00a0and Staff Mini-grant through the Center for Innovation, Business and\u00a0Entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n