Austin Cope OC ‘15

Austin Cope Headshot.JPG
 

Jagori Grameen, India (2018-20)

Austin Cope ‘15, a Politics major, is the 2018-2020 Fellow to Jagori Grameen in Himachal Pradesh, India. For the past 2½ years Austin has been shaping the news for people in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona as the host of a local public affairs program on a National Public Radio station in southwest Colorado. He also teaches a bi-weekly yoga class in his community of Cortez, Colorado. Austin pursued a wide variety of interests at Oberlin through both his coursework and a dizzying array of extracurricular activities, including being head cook in Pyle Co-op, performing in OCircus, teaching Spanish in SITES, being a representative on the Student Union Board, managing the Cat in the Cream, and becoming a teaching assistant in the Environmental Studies Department. Regarding his application to Shansi, Austin states, “As the volume and speed of the world’s electronic data, connections, and opinions accelerates, face-to-face human connections are more important than ever. I am applying to the Oberlin Shansi Fellowship because of it emphasis on building relationships, understanding, and connection between people from very different parts of the world. My experience as a Fellow could deepen my capacity to connect with people in my personal, educational and professional life in the future.”

Featured
The Architecture of Change: Construction, Destruction, and the Meaning of Development in the Himalayas
The Architecture of Change: Construction, Destruction, and the Meaning of Development in the Himalayas

Austin Cope ‘15, Jagori Grameen Fellow

The laborers carry bricks slowly but steadily, placing them in threes or fours on their heads. They move the cement in the same manner, pouring the dry powder from large woven polypropylene bags and mixing it with water and other materials in a gas-powered mixer. They then scoop the mixed concrete into wide plastic bowls, one at a time, and carry them on their heads as they move between the machine and the growing building.

The Simplicity and Complexity of Countless Cups of Tea
The Simplicity and Complexity of Countless Cups of Tea

Austin Cope ‘15, Jagori Grameen Fellow

In India, chai’s preparation and presentation is much less grandiose than in America, but the beverage reflects a much more complex set of global relationships, both historic and contemporary. And although it’s impossible to fully unpack those relationships in one narrative, it is clear that drinking chai in India means so much more than simply a choice of beverage at a coffee shop.