TCNJ

31 WINTER 2021 I do," she said. "But I don't have to give that to you." The gentleman across the street was helpful. "I know the family. They are from a [Caribbean country]. There's a grandfather, a mother and father, and five kids." If not for him, they would have been uncounted. I felt that if I did not dedicate myself fully to counting heads, then why was I there in the first place? Slacking off, compounded many times over by enumerators across the country, would really skew the reality of our population. While out in the field, I often wore a TCNJ cap and, when it got colder, my Lions sweatshirt. I talked to lots of alumni. "I got an actual professor as an enumerator," one said, laughing. I've probably bored students to tears in my Topics in Communication Studies class talking about my experience. I gained a greater appreciation for the backgrounds of my students, which run the gamut of social and economic classes and show why diversity and inclusion efforts are so important. I ran into a young Latina woman, a high school student probably about 17 years old. She asked me if I went to TCNJ. "In my other life, I teach there," I said. We got into what she was interested in and she gave me her name. When I got home, I sent an email to a couple of professors about her. I try to be an apostle for TCNJ. ■ Renée Olson is a freelance writer who lives in Frenchtown, New Jersey. 1790 Year the first Federal Population Census was taken 2020 Year census takers worked completely on smartphones 500,000 Number of census takers hired nationwide in 2020 By the numbers drove 2,200 miles, Bill Healey walked 300 miles, and went to 2,000 homes. On the hoest day Healey worked, the temperature reached 97°

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