A Call to Serve: Alex Middleton '09

As a junior at Hutchison, Alex Middleton ’09 participated in Bridge Builders, a yearlong program for students in grades 6–12 sponsored by the organization BRIDGES in Memphis. The program was founded by Becky Webb Wilson (grandmother of Olivia Wilson ’18). One part of that experience was spending a week at The University of Memphis with a roommate from Craigmont High School who lived in a different part of the city. Along with about 20 other students, Middleton and her roommate discussed challenging issues that were rising to the surface in the city and in their lives. She said it was enlightening because she and her roommate were “having the same experiences just from different lenses.”

Middleton’s experience with Bridge Builders during high school “changed the way that I saw the world. I fell in love with the program. It pushed me and challenged me in different ways and gave me a chance to meet people from all over the city. That’s where my interest in working with children started … seeing that in a week you could have a life-changing experience.”

After graduating from The University of the South at Sewanee, Middleton gravitated back to BRIDGES, where she is now the Bridge Builders curriculum and training coordinator. She and her colleagues focus on helping youth bridge the gap between cultures, races, and faiths. “Our programs are aimed at community transformation through a youth lens,” she said.

BRIDGES programs are experiential, not lecture-based, so participants are constantly engaged in activities and discussions with one another. She said topics in a workshop might range from building community within their own schools to talking about leadership, economic justice, or environmental justice. “Those conversations can be difficult,” she admitted. “But it’s a learning experience. You should know what other people think, and you should be able to engage with them and hear them without shutting them down.”

One exercise, she explained, has students create their own communities. “We point out what they’ve chosen for their community. You have a landfill right next to your park. Is that going to work for anyone? Is that reflective of Memphis? Are there certain areas in the city where there might be a landfill next to where students are or where families live?

“The idea is to challenge students to think about what’s happening in Memphis, what’s happening in their own communities, and then what we could do in the future to create a more equitable society. Our goal, whether or not you live in a community that’s being directly affected, is that you’re going to leave our workshop wanting to do something, wanting to learn more.”

Bridge Builders connects students with resources to get involved in their communities and provides service-focused work where they can learn more. Students might go to a blighted area and plant a garden, for instance. “From that experience, they’re learning about blight, doing a service, and getting more information about how to continue this work or do it someplace else.”

To read the full story from the April 2018 edition of the Hutchison School Magazine, click here.