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.
You will live as long as your life has meaning. I embarked on this educational journey to satisfy my life’s desire to learn. This opportunity crossed my path at the right moment and is supplying me with the chance to evaluate my ability to perform on the college level with like-minded people within the veteran’s community, where a person can always find support. All of the instructors and staff are helpful! Thank you for this possibility. – George, Coast Guard, Ocean City, NJ The New Jersey Clemente Course Veterans Initiative (CCVI) launched its second cohort on September 25, 2025, welcoming twenty-four veterans from every branch of service. The cohort includes eight women; and while most come from communities across New Jersey, the course has also drawn participants from New York. Part of the wider Clemente Veterans Initiative and operating in partnership with the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and Atlantic Cape Community College , the CCVI brings transformative humanities education to those who have served.
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The Clemente Course in Worcester, MA continues to thrive through partnerships that bring the humanities to life in unexpected ways. Hosted by the Worcester Art Museum , the course benefits from inspiring classroom space and exclusive after-hours gallery tours led by Art History instructor Elissa Chase, the first of which took place in early October. A new partnership with Indigo Fire Studio in Watertown brought an especially hands-on dimension to learning this fall: the studio donated 25 pounds of clay and kiln space; and under the guidance of Mass Humanities' Sarah Carroll, students participated in a clay handbuilding class that wove together Philosophy of Art, Art History, and creative expression.
Amy Howard on how Clemente changed her life and her community.
25 years ago, The Clemente Course partnered with Illinois Humanities to offer free college-level humanities courses to low-income adults in Chicago through The Odyssey Project and Proyecto Odisea . Clemente Executive Director, Dr. Aaron Rosen, recently joined Dulce Maria Diaz (Odyssey Project alumna and founder of the SHE Gallery ) and Dr. Rebecca Amato (Director of Teaching and Learning, Illinois Humanities) on the Federation of State Humanities podcast Humanities= . In this episode, hear how this transformative program changes lives!
The Clemente Course in the Humanities is proud to announce writer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay as the first recipient of the Public Humanities Prize.