Zoe Miller – Cooking with Love!

Zoe came to Beacon Hill Friends House in August, 2016, having recently graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA with a self-designed major in Social Ecology, which she defined as the study of human environmental interactions. Zoe created her own major because she wanted to “take ownership over my education”, and she has always had a deep interest in stewardship of the environment and public health. One project she researched was the impact of suburban public housing policy on the spread of Lyme disease!

Zoe came to Boston with AmeriCorps, the Corporation for National & Community Service. Through them she is working for Vital Village, a network of residents and organizations committed to maximizing child, family, and community well-being. Zoe is helping coordinate new mother and breast feeding support groups, and would like to track demographic data on the participants and their breast feeding rates to evaluate the material needs of mothers in the program and match them with appropriate resources – a worthwhile endeavor indeed!

With Zoe’s care and concern for society it is no surprise that she chose to live at Beacon Hill Friends House, but she found us almost by accident! Zoe was looking for apartments on Apartments.com, an online website, and when she looked at the section for rooms for rent came across our description. She had lived in a communal Hispanic learning house at William and Mary and enjoyed it. Growing up she had always been concerned with social justice, and the opportunity to combine intentional living with Quaker values spoke to her!

Now that Zoe is at Beacon Hill Friends House she has come to appreciate the meditative aspects of Quakerism through our practice of silent worship and our commitment to peace, which reinforces the peace studies classes she took in college. Zoe is working on incorporating moments of silence into her workday, which is empowering her soul and her work. In true Quaker fashion, Zoe is fully immersed in committee life. In just three months she has already organized an event as part of the Retreat Committee, and is now on the Programming Committee and the Holiday Party Committee!

In her free time Zoe loves to bake, and Beacon Hill Friends House residents have been the lucky recipients of her skill. When a large amount of apples were delivered to BHFH by mistake, it turned out to be a wonderful happenstance – Zoe took those apples and made snickerdoodle apple pie, upside down caramel apple cake and apple dutchbabies for all to enjoy!

We are fortunate to have Zoe in our community. From her studies to her work to her community life, Zoe is always cooking with love!