One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about being a local reporter is getting to meet more of the Addison County community.

I’d attended high school in Vergennes and church in Middlebury and knew my corners of the county well but, as a more introverted person, rarely pushed myself beyond them.

Joining the Addy Indy team in 2022 gave me that push. Over the years, I’ve met farmers and teachers, game wardens and artists. I’ve spoken with people working to tackle the climate crisis, address food insecurity, reform the state’s broken health care system and develop more affordable housing.

The best part of those conversations is that the people I’m speaking with are my neighbors. This spring, I got the chance to meet more of them.

I was among a group of community members taking part in this semester’s New Perennials Community Roots Apprentice Fellowship at Middlebury College. Through the program, students are paired with people working at organizations in the Middlebury area. It offers students a chance to get off campus and “feel connected to a place and to mentors where they will live and work while they’re at Middlebury — and maybe longer, as many Middlebury College alums demonstrate.”

I was paired with Lily Jensen, a sophomore studying environmental literature at the college. Over the past few months, Lily and I have attended events together, talked about my work as a reporter and explored ways to get more students plugged into local news.

It’s been a fruitful partnership that’s helped inform my approach to covering Middlebury College and introduced me to people I might not have met otherwise. Practitioners and students gathered a couple times throughout the semester, including for an evening of final presentations that capped off the program last week.

Students shared their experiences working with the Bridge School in Middlebury, Bee the Change, Turning Point Center of Addison County, Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community and the Addison Independent. They spoke of learning what it looks like to show up for each other, to see a person’s strengths, to challenge the assumptions we have about the world around us and joyfully pursue work that cares for pollinators and our planet.

That work isn’t always easy, and it is work. Whether it’s the hours spent planting a garden or attending a town meeting, tending to our communities requires our time, our thought, our courage.

That last piece has held me back in the past. When I think of putting myself out there, it’s easy to see all of the things that could go wrong. What if I say the wrong thing? What if I’m turned down? Ignored?

Sometimes that happens. Being part of any community inevitably means having awkward conversations, running into disagreements and making difficult decisions. This spring with the Community Roots Apprentice Fellowship program reminded me of why being in community is worth all of that — worth pushing ourselves for.