Jennifer Allen
M.A. Whole Systems Design, 2006
She sensed in Antioch a passion and investment in creating a more powerful future not just for a few but for everyone.
"As an educational institution, Antioch was seeking to help students build connections and an understanding of the world that was bigger than themselves. For me and my particular experience, it has lived up to those expectations," says Jennifer Allen, who, as a program coordinator/specialist for the Office of Interpreter Services for King County Superior Court in Seattle has served youth and their families in Juvenile Court."It's a choice we all have to make, but the things I can offer to the world based on this education are so much more now than they were before I began."
For the past 18 months, she has been part of a Strategic Diversity Plan/Initiative at Juvenile Court.
"We have been reviewing and assessing court services in all areas to determine their cultural competency and we have developed strategies and a five-year plan to increase/improve cultural competency and diversity issues throughout the organization," she describes.
When she was a Whole Systems Design student, she says core faculty members Farouk Seif and Betsy Geist were a constant source of inspiration and support.
"They forced me to push my own intellectual edges and capacity to see beyond what was obvious, and to trust myself as a student and designer of the change process. In addition, Betsy's class 'Experience of Place' changed my life and helped me understand how important place is in my life and what a profound (and often invisible) impact it has on all of our lives," Allen says.
She also credits faculty Shana Hormann for her impact when Allen completed her thesis after a year's delay because of illness.
"Without her support to design a thesis seminar, and constant cheerleading, firm/unwavering encouragement and commitment to the students, I am not sure I would have been able to get it done," Allen notes.
She took part in independent study on two occasions, once as part of a group that designed its own course and once solo where she explored a particular area of inquiry and interest.
"As students, we were given a great deal of latitude and autonomy to pursue specific areas of critical interest that would supplement and enhance our education beyond the courses that were offered," Allen describes. "We were entrusted with the tools and capacity to achieve our goals through independent study, which allowed us to further develop our critical thinking and confidence in creating programs that really worked for us."
Allen says she tells prospective Antioch students: "An Antioch education will stretch their minds beyond anything they could imagine, and it will also push their boundaries and even their comfort zones, but it will be worth all of that and more, because it will prove to them their innate intellectual and personal strengths and capabilities they may not have realized were theirs."
She says she sees her education as an investment in her future, regardless of its cost.
"Its value only increases with time," she says. "It's a choice we all have to make, but the things I can offer to the world based on this education are so much more now than they were before I began."
She is now relocating to Portland, Ore., a new adventure.
"I plan to seek work that will be in line with the education I received," she says, adding that wherever she lands, she sees herself enhancing the organization.
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