A former Rockford poet laureate will serve the community in another way. WNIJ’s Yvonne Boose sat down with Jenna Goldsmith, Thursday April 3 to learn why she decided to run for a spot on Rock Valley College’s Board of Trustees. Goldsmith will be appointed April 22.
Yvonne
Can you tell me why you were interested in running? You were just the poet laureate. Why this new appointment?
Jenna
As my term of Poet Laureate was coming to a close. I was thinking a lot about how I could continue to serve the community and what that might look like. I knew that I wanted to stay involved in the community in some way. And one of the things that I always do with people in town, when I'm chatting with them is, you know, we inevitably start talking about Rockford and why we love it here, and maybe where we went to high school. And then oftentimes we'll talk about Rock Valley College. You know whether they went there, or they know somebody who did go there, because it's such a big part of my development as a writer, it oftentimes comes up. And so back in the fall, in around October, I was out to lunch with my mom, and we were chatting about the upcoming election at that time, in November. And she said, “When is that Rock Valley College thing happening again?” You know, the, essentially, the Board of Trustees race? Because we had become familiar with a few people who ran last time. And I said, “Oh gosh, I don't know. I feel like I haven't seen anything about it.” And so, we got out our phones and we were looking at the website, and we saw that there were three seats that were opening up, and I needed to get cracking, because the petitions with signatures were due in November. So, we kind of talked about it, and I thought, well, you know, I'll go get the petitions. I'll get some signatures. I'll just see what the vibe is with people and think about this. And then once I had my signatures, I thought, “Well, let's do this.”
I'm a huge supporter of the college. I stayed in close contact with faculty and staff there, and I believe in what they do, so much that I thought I'd like to be a part of it, maybe more formally.
Yvonne
I want to talk about your mom. I know, as I recall, she was the one that kind of nudged you to go for the poet laureate position. How proud is she that you are now on this board.
Jenna
She's very proud. It is funny to think about that, because she was such a part of me running, running... well, she was a part of me running for Board of Trustees, and such a part of my applying to the poet laureate as well. She's extremely tapped into what's going on in Rockford, obviously. She stays very up on the news. She loves local politics. She's a huge supporter of Rockford in general. She loves it here, and she knows I do too, so she's thrilled about it. Obviously, she wants me to remain tied to the community as much as possible, and we are truly people who believe in the power of community. Both of us feel that way, and that the more active you can be, the better you're going to be and your community.
Yvonne
Now, can you tell me when you did the petition and you knew it was okay, it's time to run. What were your first steps? Were you nervous about campaigning? This is something new for you. Tell me what did you do next?
Jenna
I was so nervous. It's a really mysterious process. It is a process that is very intimidating. And you know, I've been in academic circles all of my career, I've been in community, and so even for me, being that involved already and feeling that intimidated, I can't imagine what maybe somebody who is new to the area or new to community involvement would feel, we really need to figure out ways to bring more people into the process of running for election, because it's quite mysterious and intimidating. The steps that you have to take are, you need to get a certain amount of signatures, then you need to file that paperwork, which is extremely confusing. Sometimes if you use the wrong style of paper clip. For instance, your entire petition can get thrown out. If you don't fill out the paperwork correctly, you don't get a second chance at it. So, it's a very challenging process. And then once you're on the ballot, the really hard work starts of getting your name out there, talking to people, deciding how you want to advertise yourself, figuring the money stuff out, opening a bank account, it's a really challenging process. And so, I hope that you know through this process, I can potentially even help more people run for boards and for elected positions. Because I think we need more variety. We need people from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives to be running so that there's more competition and voters feel like they can make more informed choices.
Yvonne
Now, I know you went to RVC. Why was this so important to be a part of this board?
Jenna
At this time, and one of the things that I noticed right away as I was looking at the current board's makeup is there was no educator on the board. One of our board members had taught in the schools for a period of time, but there was nobody from higher education, nobody who had been a professor or an administrator or a long-time staff member in in higher ed, and I think that it's important to have that perspective. The whole board should not be made up of any one type of person. It shouldn't be made up of all academics. It shouldn't be made up of all attorneys, etc. But it's glaring when there isn't somebody from education on a Board of Higher Education. And so, when I realized that I thought, “This is my time. It's a time for me to step in and see if I can bring that important perspective to the board," which is already quite diverse. We have an attorney. We have a couple of small business owners. We have somebody who has worked in law enforcement. We have somebody who has worked in various positions and volunteers throughout the community, but there wasn't that higher education professional, and I think that that really spoke to voters. When I was out campaigning, people were really surprised by that, and I think that helped me a lot.
Yvonne
Now, can you tell me how long is the term?
Jenna
Mine is a six-year term, quite a commitment. There are seats sometimes that'll be like a two-year term, but mine is a six-year term, and really gives you an opportunity to get some momentum and really see things through six years. So, I'm looking forward to kind of seeing that happen. And I was just talking to some voters earlier today and debriefing on, you know, what happened, and telling them about the six-year term, and they said we should take like a before and after picture of me now and at the end of six years. And maybe it, you know, maybe I'll look the same, probably a little bit the worse for wear, but I am looking forward to the length of time, because it does take a long time to kind of see projects through.
Yvonne
What are some of the projects that you are envisioning?
Jenna
So, I'm really excited about the downtown west campus, which has been in the works for quite a while. I'm lucky I'm coming into that as it's happening. We had a groundbreaking ceremony last week, and it's just going to be wonderful. I'm a downtown resident. I live about two or three blocks away from the site where that campus will be, and I can't tell you how excited I am to have a little college campus right near where I'm going to be living. I'm probably going to be down there a lot, so that's really exciting. And just, you know, I'm from Belvidere. Belvidere, I think, has a really special relationship to Rock Valley College, because so many Belvidere kids end up going to RVC. And so, I'm really looking forward to thinking about how even more Boone County students can make their way just up the road 20 minutes to Rock Valley College and take advantage of all that awaits them.
Yvonne
Can you tell me are you going to somehow infuse any poetry into this?
Jenna
I would love to. I think the... I made a joke on Facebook the other day that I gave my running mates, my slate mates, a lot of credit, because I was the one in the group chat who is always, you know, saying something weird or something, you know, because I think about language in maybe different ways than some of my counterparts might think about it. And so, I'm excited about the bringing, the creativity that I might be able to bring to the board. And I don't know if they want that, if they want Board of Trustees poetry, I can certainly get right on that.
Yvonne
I love that. Now, is there anything else you would like to share with me?
Jenna
I'm really excited about what Rock Valley College is already doing and where it's going. I didn't run because I thought "this needs to be changed," or I'm, you know, "I'm going to shake things up." That's not why I ran. I don't think things need to be shaken up, and I don't necessarily think anything needs to change. I just want to be a part of what I consider the circulatory system of this community. It seems like everything sort of runs through Rock Valley in one way or another. And I'm also excited about how I can communicate out what the board is doing appropriately, of course, but how I can ensure that community members feel like they kind of know what's going on? Because let's face it, you know, we're not all watching the YouTube videos of the board meetings. We're not able to make it out to the board meetings. But I do think the people of community college, you know, district 511, which is what we are, which is a huge district, they should have the opportunity to know what choices we're making and why.
