Lydia Brassard '08 Spends Field Work Term at the Ronald McDonald House, Pasadena, CA

Ask Bennington alumni to recount their most remarkable tales from their college years, and you're likely to hear yarns about outrageously imaginative faculty and fellow students; ingenious and unlikely social events; the "aha" moments that shaped their own work and lives.

But you'll also hear tales from across the country and across the globe--set in political campaigns and research laboratories, law offices and art museums, hospitals and theaters, newspapers and national parks. That's because, for each year they attend the College, Bennington students must go out into the world to complete seven-week winter internships in areas that fascinate them and complement their studies.

Field Work Term, going strong since the College's founding, brings new stories each year. Here's one such tale from FWT 2007. Stay tuned for more over the next few weeks.

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The toddler needed brain surgery, and for three weeks, he and his mother had been waiting. They were hundreds of miles from home; the mother missed her husband, and the boy missed his dad. Every day the mother called the insurance company: Was today the day they would approve the child’s surgery? Every day the answer came back: No.

Lydia Brassard ’08 couldn’t speed up the insurance process, ensure the success of the surgery, or rearrange circumstances so the family was reunited. But she could help make sure the mother and son had a comfortable place to stay—and offer much-needed friendship and concern—during their wait.

As an intern at Ronald McDonald House of Pasadena, CA, during her 2007 Field Work Term, that was one of her favorite parts of the job.

Critically ill children and their families often have to travel great distances to get the specialized care they need. The mission of Ronald McDonald House is to provide low-cost, supportive places for those families to stay during the treatment—whether overnight or for months on end. No one is turned away for lack of ability to pay. “If we weren’t there,” Lydia says, “some of these families would be living in their cars.”

"When I started to learn more, it blew my mind."

Lydia’s official job title was Special Events Intern, and she was startled to learn just how significant those “special events” were. “I honestly didn’t know much about the organization when I went into it,” Lydia says. “But when I started to learn more, it blew my mind.” Among the surprises: the Pasadena Ronald McDonald House receives only $3,000 of its annual $430,000 budget from the McDonald’s Corporation. This means that every year, several large fundraising events are needed to help make up the difference.

That’s where Lydia came in: assisting the staff in planning events and taking care of logistics like researching and purchasing. By the end of her Field Work Term, she had worked on several events, but there was one that became particularly important to her: an annual reunion for Ronald McDonald House families. After weeks of helping to plan it out from start to finish, she was given the task of serving as on-site coordinator for the entire day, overseeing several teams of volunteers. With food stations, toy giveaways, and a host of activities that included magic shows, pony rides, and more, there was something going on at every moment.

“It was nerve wracking at first,” she says, “but after I got over the initial fear, it was really neat to see that it was about delegating responsibilities. Everybody was so supportive and willing to help. It was a really fun day.”

"Go to work, come out of a meeting, and get stuck in the eye with bubbles."

Lydia’s studies at Bennington are rooted in social science, particularly psychology and anthropology. It was a social science class, in fact, that led her to the Ronald McDonald House—but not for the reasons you’d expect.

“I took Mirka [Prazak]’s Consumerism class last term, and that really gave me an interest in marketing and branding, because there’s a psychology to that. We read all these books about the brainwashing techniques that advertisers use to sell products, and I thought, ‘I can’t do that,’ so it was important to me that if I was going to work in marketing, it would be for a nonprofit.” A few months later, she was at the Ronald McDonald House, not only marketing events but planning them.

At first glance, it seems like a far cry from her previous FWTs, working with psychiatric patients at hospitals in Albany, NY and Washington, DC. But what she calls the “more pastoral aspect” of her job emerged early on, and once again she found herself offering one-on-one support to people going through a tough time. The offices where Lydia worked are located in the actual houses—“two beautiful old Craftsman homes right next door to each other”—where the families stay. “You go to work and you’re working in somebody’s living environment. So you have official events and board meetings where you have to dress up for this business-type atmosphere, but then you go into the kitchen and families are making coffee and cooking eggs. You might have a mother crying on your shoulder, or you might be running around in the backyard with your shoes off, playing with a child.

“There was one little boy would give me a hug and kiss every day and call me ‘friend,’ and—I can’t get mad at him for this—one day he accidentally stuck a bubble wand in my eye.” She laughs. “Go to work, come out of a meeting and get stuck in the eye with bubbles.

“These families," she continues, "are at such a fragile time in their lives. For a parent who’s staying at their child’s bedside for three nights in a row—it’s so nice to be able to be there for them and provide this kind of service.” Lydia grew especially close to the mother of the eighteen-month-old boy who was awaiting brain surgery. He eventually had to go home without treatment; the wait was too long, and he was missing his regular doctor appointments. But Lydia says the boy and his mother have plans to return—as does she. “I’m still going to help out with the work of the organization while I’m here at Bennington. They invited me back next year, and I can’t wait.”

More:

• Ronald McDonald House of Pasadena, CA
• Profiles in Adventure: Ryan Smith ’08 Spends FWT as a Medical Intern at a Hospital in Guadalajara
• More feature stories about Field Work Term
• Field Work Term Sampler
• Social Sciences at Bennington

Click here to browse the archive of campus feature stories.