by Sonya Bernard-Hollins, publisher- Community Voices
Founder-Merze Tate Travel Club and Travel Writers Academy
*All photos by Sean Hollins, property of Community Voices.
KALAMAZOO (MICH.)-Kavia Couvillion, 11, took the challenge. She, along with other students of the Tate-Stone Travel Writers Academy placed a plastic cup on their head (filled with a small beanbag weight) and attempted a dance routine featured in The Fiddler on the Roof. Her moves were smooth and fluid, allowing her to be the only one of the group to make the eight-count knee bend to the floor, cup still positioned on her head. Couvillion’s experience with the Barn Theatre’s Backstage Xperience program was just one of the unique hands-on opportunities she and 14 other girls had through a program hosted by the Merze Tate Travel Club.
More than $6,000 in donations and in-kind services made it possible for girls to visit such places as the Kellogg’s Pilot Plant, MLive’s Kalamazoo Gazette, Battle Creek Enquirer, Barn Theatre, Craig’s Cruisers and the more than a dozen area businesses owned by women who opened their doors and shared of their stories to inspire girls to succeed. During the week the students also learn the importance of philanthropy and community service. A generous collaboration with D&W Foods allowed the Merze Tate Travel Club to host its inaugural “Race Around the Aisle” food race for Loaves and Fishes at the D&W Foods on Romance Road in Portage.
The race included seven three-person teams that joined in the effort to race down the aisles for specific foods to go into the Loaves and Fishes pantry to feed the needy of Kalamazoo County. Townsquare Media was the winner of the first race which gathered more than 300 pounds of food for the organization and allowed them to take home the trophy plate for 2014.
The Tate-Stone Travel Writers Academy is a one-week career exploration and media camp component of the Travel Club (which was founded as a Saturday program in 2008). The academy (held July 7-12) focuses on exposing Michigan girls in grades 5-12th to women in various careers in order to help them better find their own passions and careers that match. In addition, the students serve as reporters; writing and interviewing women for the annual Girls Can! Magazine in collaboration with Community Voices Magazine. This year, thanks to an outpouring of community support by individuals and businesses, the girls who were referred by teachers, all were sponsored for the week with contributions going to provide the shirts they wore each day, food, housing at Kalamazoo College, travel, educational materials and more.
The fruits of the girls’ labor will be shared with the community during Art Hop night, Friday, October 3, at MLive’s Kalamazoo Gazette. During this event the magazine the girls created will be unveiled along with awards and presentations to sponsors and volunteers.
In 2008, Sonya Bernard-Hollins founded the Merze Tate Travel Club with 12 students. The initial focus was a Saturday program that exposed girls to writing and career exploration. The grassroots effort was supported by organizations, volunteers and donors to provide unique experiences from visiting Stryker Instruments to being a guest at the State Capital of the former State Representative and former Kalamazoo Mayor, Robert Jones. Students of the club have visited Detroit’s Motown Museum, met Tuskegee Airmen, created a documentary film and a photo exhibition, all in the name of the program’s namesake, Merze Tate.
Tate, a 1927 graduate of Western Michigan University left a legacy of travel diaries and photos to WMU upon her death in 1996. Sharon Carlson, director of WMU’s archives, shared of Tate’s items with Bernard-Hollins who was inspired by the woman who had accomplished so much with little recognition. Tate herself started a travel club for African American students while teaching at Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, Ind. from 1927-32. She took these students to such places as Niagra Falls, Philiadelphia and Washington D.C. in order to connect what she taught as a history teacher to the real world.
Tate went on to become the first African American to graduate from Oxford University, the first African American female to earn a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University and Radcliffe College and was a Fulbright Scholar in India. She traveled the world twice during the era of Jim Crow, was an expert on disarmament, was a national Bridge champion, inventor and fluent in five languages. Bernard-Hollins is completing a book on Tate’s life which is to be released in the fall of 2o14. For more information on Tate, visit: www.merzetate.com.
For more information about the Merze Tate Travel Club and how to contribute to future career exploration opportunities for girls, contact Sonya Bernard-Hollins at: contact@merzetate.com, or call 269-365-4019. Also, follow the Tate-Stone Travel Writers Academy #MTTC2014 on Twitter and Facebook!
