In the middle of the Vanderbilt University campus are the Mayfield Lodges. Unlike traditional residence halls, Mayfields are a series of lodges that include 10 single bedrooms, a common area, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a full-sized refrigerator. However, Mayfields are not only special in their design, but also in their purpose; the Mayfield lodges serve as “living and learning lodges” and the residents at each lodge participate in a service learning project.
One such resident is Jonathan Tomick, class of 2012 and member of Mayfield Five. His Mayfield project is titled “Gender Bending in Education.” Tomick, a secondary education major, along with his nine lodge-mates, is conducting a project that inquires into how gender works in a school setting and how school politics and atmospheres affect perceptions of gender.
One way Mayfield Five approaches its project is by tracking and interviewing current Vanderbilt students who attended Nashville’s University School to inquire about their perspectives on gender in K-12 schools.
“The project is divided into two main groups – one covers the policy aspect and the other the sociological aspect,” Tomick said. “We divide up various individual responsibilities in terms of interviews and data collection, then we come together once a week to discuss our respective progress on our assignments. Typical individual assignments not only include interviewing current students but also include contacting schools and constructing questionnaires in order to prepare us for our interviews.”
When asked whether it is hard to maintain both his coursework and his own research project, Tomick said, “It’s a bit of a challenge, but it’s very meaningful. And this research project actually helps me to gain insight into my own future field of education.”
Aside from the research project, Tomick described his Mayfield experience as “very fun” and a “very cool setup.”
“Because Mayfield lodges have 10 individual single rooms,” he said, “we have the best of both worlds in the sense that we have our own individual private spaces in our singles, but we also have a great sense of a community because all 10 of us still share the entire space of the lodge.”
Tomick added that the Mayfield Five has also been a positive experience after his first year living in The Commons, as Mayfield lodges allow sophomores, juniors and seniors to live together. “It is great to mix in with the other classes while being able to continue a similar living and learning experience that I had at The Commons my freshman year.”
Story by Alfred Chan, a first-year graduate student in secondary education at Peabody College.
Media contact: Melanie Moran, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu