Jennie Rose Halperin ’10 — Valuing Everyone's Contribution
It’s hard to find an area of campus - academic or extracurricular - in which senior Jennie Rose Halperin isn’t involved.
She writes a regular column for the Columbia Daily Spectator, and had previously been the paper’s music editor; she’s the special collections assistant at the Barnard Zine library; volunteers regularly at the Broadway Community soup kitchen at Broadway Presbyterian Church; has worked on an organic farm in Costa Rica; traveled to Nicaragua with Hillel as part of its 2008 Alternative Spring Break; helped found the Responsible Endowments Coalition of Columbia, a group concerned with socially responsible investing, and, as an American studies major concentrating on media and popular culture from 1900-1945, is currently writing her senior thesis on American vaudeville. In her spare time, Halperin, a fan of vintage clothing, enjoys cooking, tap-dancing, going to museums, and exploring New York City. Somehow, “I try to balance my jobs, my interests, and my arts,” says Halperin, who has been on the dean’s list for two of the past three years. Next semester she plans to intern with CUNY’s American Social History Project.
One of her favorite undergraduate experiences was a sophomore-year internship with StoryCorps, where Halperin focused on the study and practice of oral history, a project that English department professor Maura Spiegel supervised as an independent study. StoryCorps “brought together two of my passions, social justice and history, in an entertaining and engaging way,” says Halperin, who appreciates the organization’s efforts to promote a “culture of listening.” Noting that there is a sense that Americans don’t listen to each other anymore, she continues, “We’re losing national identity. It’s important to bring that back, and promote that, to develop mutual trust.”
Although Halperin would like to work after college - perhaps in a farming or homesteading program, or experiential education program that would combine teaching and gardening - she eventually hopes to earn a graduate degree in an oral history or public-history program. Similarly, she adds, “It’s important for people to take hold of their own stories, their own histories. It’s a wonderful thing to sit down with people and interview them. Everyone has something to contribute.”
—Merri Rosenberg '78
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