MEMORIES - ALLISON GREEN

My Experiences at Evergreen

My years at Evergreen were tremendously significant for my growth as a woman, an activist, a scholar and a writer. I took a novel workshop one quarter -- twenty pages a week. It scared me to death, but the confidence I gained propelled me to write a second novel (in my master's program) and a third, which is now in search of a publisher.

Hiro Kawasaki, Marilyn Frasca and Mark Levensky taught a course my final quarter, Memory Images. We read Proust and Adrienne Rich; I wrote a story about violence, history, culture, and family -- themes I continue to explore.

My third year I was managing editor of the Cooper Point Journal (with the brilliant Francisco Chateaubriand as senior editor). My writing and editing skills improved, but more importantly, my concern for social justice flourished, and I began to realize the power of writing to do something about it. That year Elissa Tissot was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend in the cafeteria. At the paper, we struggled to cover the story -- to explain, to understand, to educate about violence against women -- while our hearts and guts were torn out.

I teach now at a community college, and I often steer students toward Evergreen. Recently I received an e-mail from a former student, once a high school dropout, thanking me for directing her to Evergreen. She had just successfully finished two quarters at the Tacoma campus and, for the first time, been told she was a good student. She loved school. I live for that.