Photo Caption: The Dappled Light coming through the trees at Pendle Hill Retreat Center.
Madison Rose at Pendle Hill
As I came to the end of my time as an undergraduate at Haverford College, I saw two options for my next step. Either I would become a librarian or I could take advantage of a spontaneous opportunity as it emerged. Conveniently for me, Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS) came along at exactly the right time and turned out to be an incredible fit.
While at Haverford, I had the opportunity to attend Continuing Revolution, an annual Pendle Hill program for young adults. Pendle Hill is a Quaker study, retreat, and conference center welcoming all for Spirit-led learning and community. This conference expanded my worldview and catalyzed my personal and professional journey in Quakerism. At Continuing Revolution, I met some rad people who were Quaker Voluntary Service fellows serving in Portland, Oregon. I was deeply inspired by their justice-centered worldview and commitment to living out their values through a year of service.
I’m grateful I followed this spark of inspiration and became a Quaker Voluntary Service fellow in Portland, Oregon myself. I cannot overstate how transformational that year was for me, in every aspect of my life. I learned how to live in an intentional community with new friends, how to stay spiritually grounded while organizing and advocating on existential threats, and how to put my new-found Quaker values into practice.
My QVS year also served as a helpful introduction to the nonprofit world. My site placement experience organizing for climate justice and nuclear weapons abolition prepared me for my next step at a larger advocacy nonprofit. Following QVS, I transitioned to a role at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) in their Global Security program. It was because of my time in QVS that I ended up in a field that many people my age don’t know exists. After a meaningful five years at UCS organizing to abolish nuclear weapons and living my values, I found myself drawn back to where my journey began.
From the Pendle Hill Archives: QVS Fellows and other attendees of the 2018 Continuing Revolution. Madison Rose far left.
Five years out from graduation, and I’ve circled back to where I first learned about Quaker Voluntary Service. I am currently an Education Program Coordinator at Pendle Hill. I have the privilege of being a part of a welcoming and grounded staff community who supports our mission, “to create peace with justice in the world by transforming lives.” I am grateful to Pendle Hill and QVS for helping me discover communities of people working towards peace and justice…and there’s still a chance that I’ll become a librarian eventually!