July 20, 2026

When the latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey results came in for the Bennington area, they revealed something heartbreaking: many young people in the region feel they have few trusted adults in their lives. That sobering statistic might have remained just a number—if not for Bennington College students and a coalition of leaders from across education and the community. 

It started with Bennington College student Yasmine Fundi ’25, who was working at Bennington’s Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, a member of Dartmouth Health, for Field Work Term. With encouragement from James Trimarchi, SVMC’s director of planning, and AmeriCorps VISTA member Faye MacDonald, Fundi began to envision a program that would connect local high school students with Bennington College students in a meaningful way. And with that, Bennington Rising was born.

Fundi’s idea found its first champion in Barbara Alfano, director of Bennington’s First-Year Forum—a course designed to help new students explore their interests, build community, and connect to the world beyond the campus. Alfano pitched the idea to her First-Year Forum faculty members in Chemistry Fortune Ononiwu and in Biology Blake Jones. Both enthusiastically jumped in. Each created a project for their First-Year Forum group that high school students could join. 

One group, Kids for Science!, connected college and high school students to explore methods of teaching hands-on science lessons about artificial intelligence, simple machines, camouflage, evolution, and other topics, while a second group, What’s in Your Food?, challenged both high school and college students  to create projects about the chemical compounds in processed foods. 

“It was Yasmine’s brilliance that students of different ages could bond by working side-by-side on a community project,” said Trimarchi. “Whether it’s doing a research project or designing a science lesson, it gives students a reason to talk and share ideas and a way to connect.”

Thanks to support from school leaders, including the Southwest Supervisory Union’s Director of Curriculum Instruction & Assessment Melissa Senecal, the project enrolled about a dozen high school students and arranged for them to make two trips to Bennington’s campus to work on their projects with their college-student counterparts in person. The groups also met online. 

The partnership with the Southwestern Vermont Supervisory Union additionally extended to Bennington Elementary School, where teams in the Kids for Science! group delivered the lessons they designed to fourth and fifth grade classes in late November.

Meanwhile, the teams in the What’s in Your Food?  developed and installed pieces for a gallery exhibit displayed for two weeks at Bennington Museum. 

Devon Giardini ’29 and Radames Cordero Ramos ’29 teamed up with a high school student named Noa to make an animation about gut health. “We started with a question about kombucha and prebiotic sodas,” said Giardini. “Working together was pretty chill. We met once a week. Noa worked on the script and did the voiceover.” 

“I am glad we got Noa in our group because he was really into it and on top of his stuff,” said Ramos. 

Audrey Kim, the AmeriCorps VISTA member at SVMC, inherited the project from Fundi and brought it over the finish line. She’s inspired by the people she has found in this community.

“Even if it takes ten times the energy and time and work as their regular day-to-day, they are willing to make that effort,” she said. “It’s been cool to see people go the extra mile knowing it’ll uplift and support the community.” 

“When you stand here today and you see the students who may have started out a little indifferent…. Now they are feeling proud that they got to do this work. They are bringing their friends and showing them,” said Ononiwu. “To get the opportunity to have students actively engage with the community, it’s hard work but it makes it meaningful. We plan to keep doing this, and it will just get better and better.”

For Fundi, who is originally from The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bennington Rising was never only about a program; it is about belonging. “I come from a place where community is how we survive and heal,” she said. “If one person finds a trusted mentor, one college student discovers their purpose through service, or one child begins to believe that their voice matters, then this initiative has already changed the future. Bennington rising is proof that when we choose to see each other, we don’t just build projects. We build hope, continuity, and community that feels like home."