When Leslie Ocker became a student coordinator in Wittenberg’s Community Workshop, she had no idea that her time there would lead to a life of service around the globe.

“The Community Workshop under the direction of Deborah Dillon was the single most influential experience,” Ocker says. “We had the chance to take real responsibility for real projects that affected people in the ‘real’ world: disadvantaged kids, illiterate adults, nursing home patients. We found people who needed us in a different way than our friends and professors.”

Now, 18 years after graduation, Ocker has spent years in service, first as a VISTA volunteer in Salt Lake City, then as a tutor at a school in Cape Town, South Africa, followed by work as a medical assistant with Planned Parenthood. Today, she lives in Germany, where she is once again helping others as the coordinator for the first-ever European Democratic Education Conference (EUDEC).

“In democratic schools, learners direct their own education,” Ocker explains. “Curiosity replaces grades as the driving motivation behind the learning process. All school decisions are made in the school meeting, where students and teachers, regardless of age, have an equal vote. Children come to you by their own will to learn, which is a dream come true for any teacher. I’ve watched my own children thrive in this environment.”

As part of the EUDEC project, Ocker, who also teaches English in a democratic school, has the opportunity to work with “incredibly motivated young people and adults,” from Germany, England, Finland, Austria, Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands.

“They come together every few months to collaborate on creating a network of schools,” she says, adding that “meeting and working with these people has been the most rewarding part of the project.”

With each endeavor, Ocker is also reminded of the education that made her life so meaningful.

At Wittenberg and especially the Community Workshop, “the world opened up, and education become something that didn’t stop when you left the classroom. I left Wittenberg feeling empowered.”

– Karen Gerboth ’93