VERMONT VOICES : LAURA WALKER
but a community of people who needed each other and needed information . We built out an investigative unit , and we built out the radio units that were reporting for all the shows , and for the top-of-the-hour news . The other big thing was that we started creating some national programs . We started asking , “ What are the stories we want to tell from New York ?” We had a mission statement that was , “ To make the mind more curious , the heart more open , and the soul more joyful through excellent audio programming that is deeply-rooted in New York .” We launched Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen , we started Radio Rookies , because we wanted to tell the stories of teenagers in New York , and Alec Baldwin came up with an idea for a show called , Here ’ s The Thing . It was all about building a culture of innovation and putting really smart people together .
Sherman : Let ’ s talk about Bennington
College . On June 1 , 2020 , you were announced as the 11th President of Bennington College . How did your experiences at NYPR and Sesame Workshop inform your approach at this new position in higher education ?
Walker : I was so honored to be selected as Bennington ’ s 11th President . I fell in love with Bennington the moment I came on campus . What I bring to Bennington , I think , is a love of the mission that is very similar — in my view — to NYPR and Sesame Workshop . It ’ s about education . It ’ s about making the mind more curious . It ’ s about seeing education as transformative , changing lives and changing the world . What I bring as a leader is the experience of having shaped , led , and helped grow important organizations that are in the field of education . I bring a passion for the mission and for Bennington ’ s approach to education . There is no other school
like Bennington . Its approach is to look at education not just as a kind of intellectual exercise , but as an aesthetic one and a creative one , and to center education around students ’ own interests and put arts at the center of the curriculum . To quote our commencement statement , which is read twice a year at Bennington , “ Bennington regards education as an essential and ethical , no less than intellectual process . It seeks to liberate and nurture the individuality , the creative intelligence , and the ethical and aesthetic sensibility of its students to the end that their richly-varied natural endowments will be directed toward self-fulfillment and toward constructive social purposes .” That ’ s what the founders defined Bennington as , and that ’ s what we still do . And we do it in a way that gives students the agency and creativity to follow their own interests and to create their own narrative and their own lives . We need
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24 VERMONT MAGAZINE