Jill Lamberton moved to Crawfordsville in 2006, where her new husband, Professor of Classics Jeremy Hartnett ’96, was teaching at his alma mater. The 168体育平台下载_足球即时比分-注册|官网st Coast native never dreamed they would stay in small-town Indiana beyond two years.
“When I moved here, I was a long way from home,” Lamberton says. “It was a bit of a culture shock. I just couldn’t imagine myself being here for long. 168体育平台下载_足球即时比分-注册|官网 stayed for the people and for the meaning in the work.”
Lamberton has served in various roles, including professor in rhetoric and English, associate dean of the College, and now special assistant to the president for diversity, equity, and inclusion. She says her current role is “simply” helping others find community at Wabash.
“Community means having your people. It’s the ‘Cheers’ thing—you want to go where everybody knows your name,” Lamberton says with a laugh. “It’s a series of groups where I feel like I can go. People are glad I’m there. I can hold them up, and they can hold me up. I’m just keeping my eye out for who’s not finding that at Wabash and why. Then, thinking about what are the things we can do to change—not just as individuals but institutionally as well.”
She says her work is to facilitate introductions of people to each other in ways that help them find the connections in their stories.
“168体育平台下载_足球即时比分-注册|官网 need to believe we have things in common and then interact enough to find those shared goals or values,” she says. “168体育平台下载_足球即时比分-注册|官网 don’t sit down and say, ‘Tell me what your beliefs are, and I’ll tell you what mine are. Then we’ll see if we want to talk to each other again.’
“Instead, it’s doing something together like reading a text, putting on a meal for members of the community, or building a Habitat for Humanity House,” she says. “In the process of doing something else that is the primary focus, you can let your guard down enough to find connection.”
Lamberton doesn’t limit her work to making connections only among students on campus. After 15 years, she is still surprised when local residents comment they haven’t been on campus or don’t know they are allowed to take advantage of activities at Wabash.
“My kids went to in-home day care. I saw the caregiver every day for five years, and one of the last times I was there she said, ‘Oh, I’d like to see the campus sometime. I’ve never been there,’” Lamberton says, recalling her conversation. “Similarly, Professor of Art Annie Strader talked to a middle school art teacher about our artist-in-residence program and bringing students to visit our Eric Dean Gallery. The teacher said, ‘I’ve taught in Crawfordsville schools for 16 years. No one ever told me I could do this.’
“If that’s going on, we’re doing something wrong,” she continues. “I’m really proud that we have free entrances to our art galleries, concerts, lectures, and most athletic events. But people don’t know that unless they’re connected to the College already. So, what success looks like for me is that the community knows where to find things and participates in our events.”
In a few short years she has been in her current position, she is seeing the fruits of what she imagined could happen.
“I get excited when I see community groups on campus that I didn’t see here three years ago. For example, La Alianza has been saying they want to be open to the Latino community. At the Dia de Los Muertos and Posada events in the fall, there were several tables of community members spanning at least three generations. Last year, there was only one table.”
Most importantly, regardless of the situation, Lamberton tries to approach all situations with sincerity and encourages others to do the same.
“I’ve never been much of a fan of arrogance,” she says. “When people, like my husband and me, have Ph.D.s after their names or other advanced degrees, it can be easy to lead with our expertise rather than our common humanity. And so that’s also a sense of building community—how do I enter this conversation not by assuming I know more, but by assuming there’s an interesting human being across from me that’s worth getting to know?
“When trust and openness happen, I like how much we can learn from one another.”