Kent State University faculty, staff and students team up for migrant community
New book explores the lives of Mexican migrant workers and
exemplifies the work Kent State students, faculty and staff are doing to help-
KENT, Ohio – What started as an assignment to document the display of teamwork by Kent State University faculty, staff and students as they help migrant workers at the Hartville Migrant Health Clinic, turned into a personal project and five years of hard work and relationship-building for photographer Gary Harwood. The end result: a new book from Kent State University Press that details the lives of a migrant community.
The book, titled “Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community,” is set in the small rural town of Hartville, Ohio, located about 30 miles south of Kent State. At its core is the telling and personal photography of Gary Harwood, Kent State University photographer, who spent five years documenting the migrant workers, capturing everything from the hard work of the day to the joyous celebration of a birthday. Harwood takes readers deep into the lives of these legally documented Mexican citizens who come to Northeast Ohio every year to work at K.W. Zellers and Son Inc., the largest farm in the area.
Through the beautifully written vignettes of David Hassler, program and outreach director for the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State, readers learn more about the life of the migrant community. Hassler, who wrote for a similar project with urban gardeners in Cleveland, Ohio, presents each tale as a first-person narrative written in the voices of the migrant workers and surrounding community members who support them.
“When I learned of the K.W. Zellers and Son farm and the work Kent State nursing and translation students were involved in at the Hartville Migrant Health Clinic, my interest was piqued,” Harwood said. “I didn’t know this place
existed. After finishing my assignment for Kent State in 2001, I decided to continue my work. I knew this was a special place – a community with a remarkable love of family and dedication to each other.”
At the Migrant Health Clinic, Kent State nurse practitioner graduate students and faculty, along with other organizations, treat hundreds of workers – nearly 135 families each year. The treatments are normally focused on primary care, which offers these students excellent real-world training. They also encounter and assist with occupational skin conditions and work-related injuries, in addition to conducting Tuberculosis, tetanus and women’s health screenings.
“Approximately 15 to 22 nurse practitioner students per year participate in the clinic’s operations, providing services and developing new skills under the supervision of the nurse practitioner’s nursing faculty,” said Eugenia Missik, project director for the Hartville Migrant Health Clinic. “Classes for these students in the summer provide opportunities for them to interact with migrant clients and to enhance their understanding of Hispanic culture, health issues and concerns for migrant and seasonal farm workers.”
To help with communication, translation students from Kent State University’s Institute for Applied Linguistics – a research and training unit affiliated with the University’s Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies – also work at the clinic, providing interpreters for the clinic staff and its patients. The translation students also assist the workers with forms and obtaining information about social service programs to which they might apply.
This unparalleled real-life experience not only benefits Kent State students, but also contributes to the betterment of the communities the university touches. It is just another example of Kent State’s commitment to the scholarship of engagement, a belief that conducting academic work in the real world can directly benefit communities.
“Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community” is available on Amazon.com and costs $24.95 in hardcover and $19.95 in paperback. For more information on this book, visit www.growingseason.net or www.kentstateuniversitypress.com.
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