Dani Slabaugh

Dani is intrigued by many things, which include art, and vegetables, as well as bicycles, movie cameras, spray paint, small mammals with fluffy hair, and power tools. She once danced a salsa dance on stilts, only to have her salsa partner do an unexpected and unchoreographed split in front of much of the Hampshire community. This event may have been her proudest Hampshire moment to date.

= Division III =

This article is part of a Climax Div III Issue. By Josh Schneider, Arts &amp; Entertainment Editor.

“I'm collecting stories from bicyclists about their relationship to environmentalism and privilege, and using them to start conversations with communities in the valley about transportation equity and environmental justice,” says Danielle Marie Slabaugh when describing her Division III project. The student from Lansing, MI worked with faculty members Simin Farkondeh and Larry Winship in the formation and completion of her work. Her earliest memory of the school is a humorous and eventually reaffirming anecdote. Slabaugh recounts the experience of “some crazy girl wearing a green apron, explaining that she didn’t work for Hampshire, she just decided to wear a green apron that day. I wanted to run, but we’d paid the bill, I’m glad I didn’t.”

Slabaugh’s favorite memories of Hampshire revolve around personal relationships and the Hampshire discourse. “Bonfires with friends!” exclaims Slabaugh. Speaking to what she will miss the most, Slabaugh says, “I’ll miss my friends and the community of really engaged people.” “Go away and then come back, it changes everything!” said Slabaugh, when asked for advice for Hampshire students. After graduation, Slabaugh will certainly gain a new perspective, leaving the countryside of Western Mass to teach at an afterschool program in Austin, TX.

Here on campus, Slabaugh’s favorite place “by far, is the Community Health Center.” Says Slabaugh, “The fridge always had leftover pizza, and there are free massages and comfy couches.” As a closing though, Slabaugh begs that, “someone needs to replace the ladder at the Hampshire tree please.” Will that someone be you, dear reader?