Meet Kafi Dixon
March 6, 2018
Kafi Dixon is the founder of Seeds of Change, an organization that allows individuals to come together to purchase food items collectively from local farms and wholesale distributors. She is also featured in the documentary A Reckoning in Boston about the Boston Clemente Course.
I never went to high school. I was homeless; it was just too hard. When I was 16, I got pregnant and had my first daughter, and then when I was 19 I had my second daughter. Over the years I was ashamed because I didn’t have an education. I started several small businesses; a bedding shop, a farm stand, anything to get away without having to explain that I don’t have a GED. It was like this dirty little secret I was carrying around.
I really wanted to start a farm, but I needed a business plan to do that. I was paralyzed. I was unable to communicate my ideas for this business in writing. I’m more than capable of running a business, but I lacked confidence to write the plan, and I didn’t have networks of people I could turn to that had skills in writing, research or business planning.
I really wanted to start a farm, but I needed a business plan to do that. I was paralyzed. I was unable to communicate my ideas for this business in writing. I’m more than capable of running a business, but I lacked confidence to write the plan, and I didn’t have networks of people I could turn to that had skills in writing, research or business planning.
That’s when I found Clemente. Clemente took my natural abilities and shined them so that others could see them. The professors and my fellow students also pushed me to recognize my own strengths.
Before Clemente, a simple question like “tell us about yourself” was enough to discourage me from completing an application or a business plan. I had gotten off of welfare; I had raised children who went to college. But I was ashamed of my story because I didn’t have an education.. Through Clemente I gained the skills I needed to write that business plan, and I was able to start The Women of Color Cooperative Farm in Boston. More importantly, I gained the confidence to interact with people across class and cultural lines.
Clemente Receives Largest Grant in its History
Calvin University launches new free humanities course inspired by Clemente
Bard College is pleased to announce that Marina van Zuylen, Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Bard, has been named the first Clemente Chair in the Humanities. This new Chair is funded by a generous gift from two of Clemente’s long-time supporters, John and Marlene Childs.
Bard’s Clemente Course offers free humanities classes, new chances By Maria M. Silva , Times Union, Sept 19, 2023
The Board of Directors of The Clemente Course in the Humanities announces the appointment of its new Executive Director, Aaron Rosen, PhD. Clemente’s Board was impressed by Dr. Rosen’s passion for reaching and supporting underserved communities. He comes to Clemente with an extensive track record working with diverse students, from Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants in London to U.S. military veterans and Native Americans in Billings, Montana to African American and Latin American ministry students in Washington, DC.
Clemente alum Joan Shauri shares her journey