Category: Semester

Cynthia Chen (BMC ‘25), Maika Kogawara (BMC ’27), Nayja Shah (BMC ‘27)

Centralizing Data Collection

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: DSCI 310: Data in Action

Faculty Advisor: Jennifer Spohrer

Field Site: Harriton House

Field Supervisor: Laura Carpenter

Praxis Poster: 

DSCI_Harriton House Praxis Poster_Revised

 

Further Context:

For this project, we collaborated with Harriton House, a historic house near the college that housed many influential figures, including Charles Thompson. The Harriton Association maintains it and was seeking access to funding so that it could retain its independent operations. To help Harriton House receive funding, we worked on centralizing their data collection systems, generating headcount forms, and creating guides for staff for easy maintenance.

We primarily used Excel forms, OneDrive, and Excel sheets as our tools for data collection and storage. To gather information from roamers, we created an Excel form with a QR code containing questions about demographics and group sizes. The QR code provides a convenient and accessible way to collect headcounts digitally, requiring only a few taps on a phone.

One major issue Harriton House faced was finding an efficient way to house their volunteer check-in and check-out system. Prior to this project, the Harriton staff had been using paper copies to track volunteer hours, which was not ideal for students in the nearby area to demonstrate their volunteer participation for credits and fund proposals.

We decided to explore Microsoft Excel as the macros function was perfect for our goal of creating an easy, simple, and quick method for volunteers to track their hours. Microsoft Excel is also free on the App Store for volunteers to download and check in and out from their devices. Through trial and error and adapting from codes we found on YouTube channels such as Barb Henderson, we were able to generate a fully automated Excel sheet that can track what time volunteers clocked in and out, and the total hours they worked throughout the week. We implemented volunteer ID numbers as a way for volunteers to clock in and out swiftly. These volunteer ID numbers are unique 4-digit numbers that Harriton staff can assign based on the volunteer’s birthdate. Our hopes for this Excel sheet is for it to relieve the workload off of Harriton staff and have quantitative data on hand for fund proposals. But this spreadsheet only works for regular volunteers. For event-specific volunteers, we created another Excel form for volunteer logins during specific events. Volunteers must record their start and end times on this form.

This project helped cultivate community connections with the Harriton staff, taught the importance of patience, and allowed for the practice of data governance. This praxis, Data in Action, focuses on a variety of topics, one of them being data governance. How do we ensure that the data is being stored safely, not being taken advantage of, and can be reproduced? To implement data governance, we worked to ensure that users consented to their data being used, the information was reproducible, and not identifiable. We informed the people filling out our headcounting survey about why we were asking for this information and asked for their permission to use their information for head counting. Then, in order to ensure reproducibility, we created guidelines, specifically for the volunteer check-in and check-out information. We created instructions on how to clean the dataset and conduct analyses for staff, as well as instructions for the volunteers who were going to fill out the form. The third aspect was fulfilled by creating four-digit ID numbers to identify data rather than using the personal information of people who filled out the forms, preventing re-identifiability.

This project aimed to help digitize the Harriton House’s data and to make it easier for them to fulfill data aggregation to receive funding. We are excited to see the staff use our materials and are hopeful that the Harriton Association will, in due course, receive funding for them to continue operating independently.

Ruth Tilahun (BMC 26′), Kelli Eng (BMC 26′), Jenny Le (BMC 26′), Gioanna Zhao (BMC 26′), David Dai (HC 26′)

Automating Data Collection and Analysis for Solar Energy Initiatives

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: DSCI 310: Data in Action

Faculty Advisor: Jennifer Spohrer

Field Site: Philadelphia Solar Energy Association (PSEA)

Field Supervisor: Liz Robinson, Rob Celentano

Praxis Poster: 

DSCI_Jenny_Le_RevisedPraxisPoster

 

Further Context:

During our time in the Data in Action course, we gained the opportunity to explore a crucial question in terms of data and social impact: What does it take to use data responsibly in service of social good? Over the semester, we explored the legal, ethical, and historical dimensions of data use, while partnering directly with local non-profits to co-create a data project that reflected their values, needs, and mission. We learned to critically examine how data is produced and interpreted, and how thoughtful design and communication can make data more useful. Through hands-on work, we gained insight into both the power and the responsibility that comes with using data in the public sphere.

Our team partnered with the Philadelphia Solar Energy Association (PSEA), a non-profit that promotes solar energy adoption across Pennsylvania through advocacy, education, and community engagement. PSEA’s main challenge was related to data collection and visualization. Solar installation data was scattered across different platforms, inconsistently formatted, and difficult to update. This limited their ability to create timely, effective visual materials to inform the public and support clean energy initiatives. The goal with our project was to streamline the data collection and visualization process that was often compiled by one person. We developed a sustainable, code-based process to gather, clean, and visualize solar data from public sources like AEPS, SEIA, and PJM. Using Python, we created scripts that automated data extraction and analysis, providing a final deliverable of user-friendly, updatable plots delivered in a Jupyter Notebook format. Each team member contributed to the project in a unique way. One member focused on scraping and organizing the data, experimenting with different Python libraries to handle inconsistent formats and shifting web structures. Another led the visualization efforts, creating clear and interpretable charts like histograms, bar graphs, and bubble plots to illustrate trends in solar adoption. Other teammates documented the full workflow and assembled the project deliverables, ensuring our work would be easy for PSEA to maintain long-term. Throughout the semester, we met biweekly with PSEA staff to present our progress and adapt our approach based on their needs. By the end, we had a working system that helped streamline their outreach efforts and gave us a real sense of what it means to do data work that matters.

One experience that stood out during this project was the pivot in our final project deliverable format. In the beginning, our team members aimed to create a product that would require no work on the back-end from PSEA. This manifested in the use of an API that would run visualizations based on our Python scripts and deploy them to a separate website. In discussing with our supervisors, we decided that this format would ultimately not serve PSEA’s goals, so we pivoted to Jupyter Notebook. Initially, this felt like a setback because the scripts then required some efforts from PSEA to download external data sources. However, in troubleshooting this issue, we wrote documentation for the data import process. Our final deliverable decreases the overall workload for PSEA, if not being 100% hands-off, and this experience gave us deeper insight into how crucial it is to openly communicate with partners about technical limitations and updates.

This course and partnership with PSEA allows us to gain technical skills as well as tools for data analysis, collaboration, and project design. We learned how data can shine a light on possibilities for community advocacy, and we’ll take with us the ability to communicate our work clearly while handling data responsibly.

Sarah Stephens (BMC ’25) Maya Carlino (BMC ‘26), Karen Angel Aguirre (BMC ‘26) Elise Cameron (BMC ‘27)

Crating Community through Cooking

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: SPAN 247: Gastropoetica Latinoamericana

Faculty Advisor: Juan Suárez Ontaneda

Field Site: Puentes de Salud, ACLAMO

Praxis Poster: 

SPAN_Group 1 Poster- Elise, Maya, Karen, Sarah

 

Further Context:

Throughout the semester, our class has learned about the history and significance of food in Latinx communities. From corn, which is an indigenous crop central to Mesoamerican civilizations, to cacao, originally from southern Asia and spread through colonization. We’ve seen how food tells stories of migration, resistance, tradition, and memory. These crops are ingredients in many of today’s Latinx dishes. Just something as simple and essential like the corn tortilla.

As part of our learning, we visited Puentes de Salud, an organization that supports the Latinx immigrant community in Philadelphia. Our class through Praxis and this course created interactive projects to teach teenagers about staple crops like corn, yuca, plantains, quinoa, cacao, potatoes, beans, pineapple, coconut, and aji (chili pepper). We as a class designed fun group activities like drawing, games, and tasty snacks to introduce these ingredients and their cultural roots in a meaningful way.

After our first visit, during a group reflection with Puentes de Salud, we realized the kids were craving more than just activities; they wanted food so the next time, we delivered. Our class was divided into groups, where we each prepared a dish that highlighted one or more of the crops we studied. The food that we made included pico de gallo, guacamole, mangonadas, chocoflan, and tostadas de tinga. Our group picked tostadas de tinga which was a new and fun experience for us since it was our first time cooking together.

We followed a special recipe passed down from Karen’s mom who makes tostadas de tinga at least once every week. It’s a family favorite. We cooked everything in the ECC kitchen beforehand and brought it to Puentes de Salud, along with toppings that include lettuce, sour cream beans and queso cotija. One thing we learned while making it, is that if your tomato sauce comes out too acidic, a little sugar helps balance it out. Everyone was allowed to build their own tostadas. It was a creative and collaborative way to connect over food, allowing each child to make the meal their own. While we were reflecting at the end of this trip, one of the volunteers Lucia shared a memory that was really meaningful. She said that when she first reunited with her mother in the U.S., she saw a small window with the kitchen light on. Inside, her mother stood at the stove with the stove on and a pan of tinga chicken. She hadn’t had tinga since then. The tostadas de tinga brought that memory rushing back to her.

What started as a class praxis project became something deeper. It became a shared experience rooted in tradition, storytelling, and community. Recipes are more than instructions, they’re bridges between generations. They stay with us for life. Cooking and eating together at Puentes de Salud wasn’t just fun, it was healing as well. It was a reminder that food keeps us grounded in our own cultures and how food also opens doors to understanding others. Through tostadas de tinga, we honored Karen’s family recipe, celebrated the kids’ curiosity, and brought someone back to a memory of home. And that? That’s the real power of food.

Hannah Cosgrove (BMC 25′), Rachel Dopico (BMC 26′), Ema Eig (BMC 25′), Isabel (Izzie) Hoffman (BMC 27′)

Community Building through Culinary Connection

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: SPAN 247: Gastropoetica Latinoamericana

Faculty Advisor: Juan Suárez Ontaneda

Field Site: Puentes de Salud

Praxis Poster: 

SPAN_Group 2

 

Further Context:

As a part of our Praxis course, “Gastropoetics of Latin American Culture”, we had the opportunity to work with various partner organizations in Philadelphia to discuss how food traditions and foodways have shaped culture and discourse in Latin America. In class, we engaged with theory, manuscripts, short stories, cookbooks, and movies across a range of disciplines to begin to understand the complex ways that food has been recorded, categorized, and understood over time and space. Comparing indigenous narratives, colonial interactions, and shifting constructions of gender, we partook in field trips and community collaborations as an opportunity to put these concepts into practice.

For one of our partner collaborations, we visited Puentes de Salud, an organization in Philadelphia that offers medical, dental, and educational services to the local Latine and immigrant community. Part of this programming includes a group called Lanzando Líderes (Launching Leaders) that focuses on providing high-school aged kids with mentoring and workshops that encourage leadership skills, academic support, and confidence. Topics generally discussed by the group include post-highschool planning, social-emotional skills, health, wellness, and social justice. Volunteers from local partners, like Bryn Mawr College, often come in to help lead sessions related to their area of expertise.

Our journey with Puentes de Salud consisted of three visits. The first visit was an informational session and the others involved workshops related to food pathways. In the first of these sessions, we gave presentations and led students through activities on different foods, such as potatoes, pineapples, cacao, beans, etc, essential to Latin American identity. Incorporating feedback from this session, we came prepared for our last visit with enough recipes to create a community meal. As we cooked, we led the ‘Launching Leaders’ group in discussions on the history of food origins in Latin America related to the specific recipes and dishes. In small groups we shared our personal connections to the created dish while cooking the meal together. At the end of each session, we were able to share our takeaways with our group while enjoying our delicious homemade meal!

Alessia Seijas Fuenmayor (BMC ‘28), Lourdes Sankar (BMC ‘27), Marielle Soluri (HC ’28), Lucía Román Harter (BMC ‘26)

Food and Community

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: SPAN 247: Gastropoetica Latinoamericana

Faculty Advisor: Juan Suarez Ontaneda

Field Site: Puentes de Salud, ACLAMO

Praxis Poster: 

SPAN_Praxis Poster Presentation group 4 Revised

 

Further Context:

For our course this semester, we partnered with Puentes de Salud, a non-profit organization that provides health care and afterschool services for the Latinx community of South Philadelphia. We also worked with ACLAMO, another non-profit organization that offers bilingual resources to address the gaps in accessibility for Latinx youth. Over the semester we participated in two meetings with the students at Puentes and one with the members of ACLAMO.

During our first meeting with Puentes, we created activities and infographics for the students with the various products we had discussed during class. Items like potato, pineapple, beans, corn and coconut were discussed in a cultural, social and historical lens. We discussed how important these items were to our day-to-day life, their role within our Latinx heritage, as well as the way each crop made its way to the Americas. Each student received a zine that consisted of each ingredient and its foodway to the United States. Afterwards, we bonded with the students and decided on our next activity.

Our second meeting consisted of creating accessible recipes that connected us to our culture that the students could recreate at home. As half of our group was from Texas, we decided to make mangonadas, a popular Mexican drink made from mango chunks, mango extract, lime juice, ice, tajin and chamoy. We guided the students through the process and explained why this recipe was significant to us. Many of the students and organizers tried this drink for the first time which was really special for our group to create a sense of community surrounding a common food from our own cultures. Through this process we were able to connect with the students as we shared our favorite dishes and experiences in the kitchen.

Lastly, we met with ACLAMO, their students joined us on campus for a couple activities, a campus tour and dinner! The goal of this meeting was to allow the students to see themselves represented in higher education and show them a realistic view of college. We shared experiences about our dining hall and their cafeteria experiences. And discussed how we would like to see Latin American culture represented in these spaces. We built community with these students by connecting over common foods we loved from our own homes and hoping that dining halls and cafeterias would make more efforts to include all cultures.

It was a very meaningful experience to be able to connect with both the Latin American history we discussed during the class, and the diverse Hispanic population of the city of Philadelphia.

Maia Roark, HC 25′

Curating the Past: Preserving the Future

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site:  Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Field Supervisor: Brianna Quade

Praxis Poster:

HART_Maia Praxis Poster (24 x 36 in)_Revised

 

Further Context:

This semester, I interned at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP). I was lucky enough to work in the Learning and Engagement Department under Brianna Quade, the Community Engagement Coordinator.

For a little introduction, HSP opened in 1824 as a way to preserve valuable documents of the American Revolution. Today, HSP’s collection includes over 21 million items, most of which are books, manuscripts, photographs, and newspapers. The archive rests in the heart of Center City, several blocks away from City Hall. One of my favorite things about HSP is that all of the objects are in one building. If you sit down in the Hogwarts-esque reading room and request something — say, an 18th-century ornithology book, a 10-foot SEPTA map, or a David Kennedy watercolor — it will be brought to you. There are so many items that even HSP’s staff regularly find materials they never knew we had. (One of the most recent ones was the diaries and briefcase of a traveling salesman who traveled with his pet raccoon, Dimples).

My work mainly involved working on an upcoming exhibit entitled Voices of the Community: Local Black Preservation. I spent the beginning months of the internship sifting through different collections, trying to find materials that resonated with me. I finally settled on the Nellie Rathbone Bright collection. Over the next few weeks, I researched Ms. Bright and put together a wall case that highlighted significant moments in her life. Ms. Bright worked as the principal for three different Philadelphia schools in the mid-20th century. She constantly strove to make her community a better place, planting gardens, building playgrounds, and generally improving the areas around her schools. In a particularly touching photograph, Ms. Bright poses with several teachers and schoolchildren next to a TV: the first of its kind at her school.

Overall, one of the most memorable experiences of this internship was the feeling of tapping into the great Philadelphia community. As a Haverford student, I sometimes forget how isolated the campus is. My internship at HSP not only made me feel like I was in the know, but also made me feel like I was doing something about it. When Macy’s announced that they were closing the historic Wanamaker Building, America’s first department store, HSP invited the public to come view its Wanamaker Collection which included drawings, photographs, and letters about the building. I got to help set up documents for a WHYY segment on Wanamaker.

Finally, I am so grateful for my experience at HSP. This is my second time interning in its Learning & Engagement Department, and I have learned so much about working in the museum field. Above all, I have learned the importance of a positive work environment. Thank you to Brianna, Justina, Selena, and Katie for such a great spring semester.

Ella Sokulski, BMC 27′

Museum Studies Fieldwork: Wexler Gallery

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Wexler Gallery

Field Supervisor: Maeve Daly

Praxis Poster:

HART_EllaSokulski_Revised

 

Further Context:

Over the course of the spring semester, I had the pleasure of interning at Wexler Gallery, an art gallery in Philadelphia’s Fishtown. Wexler Gallery focuses on exhibiting collectible design and artwork; these categories span fine arts, such as paintings to glass, and light design. As an intern, I became aware of the daily workings of an art gallery and explored each facet of gallery life.

Through my internship, I explored numerous online platforms used by the gallery, including FileMaker Pro, ArtBase, Squarespace, 1st Dibs, Incollect, and Constant Contact. Part of my responsibilities as an intern were to make sure these online platforms were up-to-date. This included adding contacts and art to ArtBase, adding people to the mailing list, updating pieces on 1st Dibs and Incollect to be sold, updating information on the website, and contacting museums and designers to promote our artists.

Along with the digital aspect of my internship, I was also a part of putting together the Henry Bermudez exhibition. I accompanied Maeve, my field supervisor, to Bermudez’s studio to take photos and dimensions of his art for the show, and organized them online so that they were easy to reference. I was able to help with the curatorial process and assisted in the arrangement of the art. Along with the technical side of the exhibition, I also helped with facilitating the opening.

Interning at Wexler Galler was an amazing experience where I got to experience the daily activities of an art gallery. I gained valuable skills for online databases and for working with other websites, such as Incollect. The staff at Wexler Gallery was extremely welcoming and eager to help me figure things out, I am so thankful for all that I learned.

Deora Starobin, BMC 26′

Exhibition Labeling at Woodmere Art Museum

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Woodmere Art Museum

Field Supervisor: Amy Gillette

Praxis Poster:

HART_DeoraStarobin_Revised

 

Further Context:

This semester I worked at the Woodmere Art Museum, located in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. This is a smaller scale institution that focuses on the artworks and artists of the greater Philadelphia region and their social ideas in the broader context of American art. They have a phenomenal collection of works inside their 19th-century building, as well as an array of outdoor sculpture installations. I had the incredible opportunity to work in the curatorial department under their Associate Curator, Amy Gillette.

In collaboration with two other interns from Bryn Mawr, I got to help Amy organize the artworks Woodmere was planning on exhibiting in their new building opening this fall, Maguire Hall. This project became something that I was able to work on in a hybrid format—Doing most work independently, while coming to Woodmere bi-weekly to check in on my progress and to get to know the museum a bit better. I started by sorting through a long document of all the works that would be displayed in the new building and figuring out which ones already have object labels and artist biographies. I was also responsible for cross-referencing the museum’s information with what is currently on their collections website. Many of these works already had labels and biographies online, though some had never been written about before. I found this part of the project to be repetitive and task-oriented, and thus it felt rewarding when the long document had finally been fully sorted through.

The next part of the project involved going through the pre-existing labels and biographies and creating revisions. Some of the artists are still living, so it was important to make sure their information was up to date. Some of the object labels were a bit short or lacked detail, so I did my best to create more nuanced formal descriptions and include some art historical analysis. I tried my hand at writing a couple artist biographies from my own research, which I found came much easier to me than the object labels. I also found supplemental readings for the labels, so readers could learn more about certain art movements or artists that were relevant to the piece.

Although this process was difficult at first, I really enjoyed doing this independent work. I feel as though my research and writing skills have improved substantially, and I think it will be neat to see what I worked on when I visit the new building in the fall. Additionally, I am so grateful to Amy, my supervisor, for introducing me to her colleagues and letting me sit in on various departmental meetings at the museum. I found this to be an incredibly fulfilling firsthand experience to the behind-the-scenes world of a local art museum.

Eleanor Toyama, BMC 26′

Penn Museum: Into the Collections

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: The Penn Museum

Field Supervisor: The Penn Museum

Praxis Poster:

HART_EleanorToyama_REVISED

 

Further Context:

For my Museum Studies Fieldwork experience, I got the opportunity to work with Katy Blanchard, a Bryn Mawr alum, in the Near East collections of the Penn Museum. I worked alongside another Bryn Mawr intern, Sally Jamrog, in completing the photographic inventory of material excavated from the site of Beth Shemesh on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The site was occupied from about 2000 BCE by the Canaanites, and is mentioned in the Old Testament as an important biblical city. This means we were working with objects over 4000 years old, such as ceramic lamps, dishes, jugs, stoneware, and even some semiprecious stones used as jewelry. Being in contact with these objects twice a week for so many hours at a time was an incredible opportunity, and drew me even closer to the ancient world.

Sally and I proceeded methodically through shelves of objects, checking that each item was in its place, and then bringing them to the next stage. We photographed the objects against a gray backdrop and made decisions about how to best position each piece to highlight the most diagnostic elements. We then put the items in new containers, either plastic bags or boxes, writing the identifying museum numbers in fresh Sharpie. After that, the objects got placed back on the shelves, and we organized them in the most efficient way to maximize visibility and ease of access. This was the flow of most of our work days—some other times, we went on visits upstairs (out of the collections basement!) to the galleries, to look at item examples, or to archives, to check out the field notes of the items we were handling.

Throughout this experience, I’ve gotten a very hands-on perspective of the everyday work that goes into managing the collections at a museum, and specifically an archaeological one. This is especially pertinent as I am a Classics major, so I am glad that I was able to bring that viewpoint to work that deals with the kind of things that I am studying directly in my other courses. I’ve gained a new appreciation for the little objects, with lots of credit to my supervisor Katy’s enthusiasm and pure love for her job and all it entails. I went into this course with the hope of learning a bit more about the behind-the-scenes of a museum, and I am emerging with the knowledge that collections management is a fulfilling experience that presents new discoveries every day.

Anth 246 Spring 2024: Field Research in Linguistic Anthropology

Praxis I Course: Anth 246 Spring 2024: Field Research in Linguistic Anthropology

Instructor: Amanda Weidman

Community Partner: Science Leadership Academy (SLA) at Beeber

Explore Professor Amanda Weidman’s scholarship, student-led research, and methodology for ethnographic analysis here: https://brynmawranthro.wixsite.com/linguisticanthro/courses-at-bryn-mawr

Course Description:

This course provides hands-on experience in linguistic anthropological methods of data collection and analysis. We will explore various methods employed by linguistic anthropologists, including: ethnographic observation of language use in context; audio-recording of spoken discourse; working with a linguistic corpus; online research methods; conducting linguistic and ethnographic interviews; and learning how to create a transcript to use as the basis for ethnographic analysis. This is a Praxis 1 course. For the praxis component of the course, in the first half of the semester, the class will work with a high school language arts teacher to design a lesson and project for a high school language arts class that incorporates linguistic-anthropological concepts and student-driven research on language. The purpose of this is to move beyond the prescriptivist approach to language commonly taken at the high school level, toward a more descriptive, ethnographic approach that learns from young people’s creativity and agency as speakers of language. In the second half of the semester, the class will work collaboratively on a research project that we develop as a class. Class time will be used to discuss the results of student work, read and discuss relevant literature in linguistic anthropology, synthesize insights that develop from bringing different ethnographic contexts together; and work collaboratively on a way of presenting the findings.