Michael Coles, November 18, 2022
Item
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Title
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Michael Coles, November 18, 2022
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interviewee
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Michael Coles
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interviewer
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Laura Santos
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Date
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2022-11-18
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Subject
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Baptist Church of West Chester
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Belief
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Boston, Massachusetts
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Growing up
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Christ/ God
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Christianity
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Church
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College
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Community
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Cooperstown, New York
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Family
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First Baptist Church of Cooperstown
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Homelessness
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Pastor
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Racism
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West Chester, Pennsylvania
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Description
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Michael (“Mike”) Coles works part-time as a pastor at the First Baptist Church of Cooperstown. He also works full-time for Otsego County as an analyst in IT. Coles was born in 1958, and he grew up in an African American neighborhood in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was born during the Civil Rights Era as an African American male, which influenced some of his experiences growing up. Another experience that affected his young life was watching his dad and brother sell drugs and go in and out of jail. While that was going on in his life, he found his faith which he held onto while he was homeless. He was homeless while living in Boston. Generally, African Americans are disproportionately more likely to be homeless in big cities such as Boston. Because of his experience with homelessness, when he was able to get back onto his feet with help from people, he wanted to help others that had experienced similar hardships. He lived in Boston for 10 years before moving back to Pennsylvania when his nephew was born. He worked in IT during the day and then he went to seminary at night starting in 2010. While living in Pennsylvania he worked with churches to help in their outreach programs with hunger and homelessness. He moved to Cooperstown, New York in October 2021. Today, he still continues to reach out in the community to work on many different tasks. His work with homelessness and hunger in poorer communities is a good reason why we should care about his background and history. His personal background led him to the church and his ministry, which in turn has helped so many others.
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Time Summary
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Track 1, 02:09 – Growing up
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Track 1, 05:29 – Family
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Track 1, 05:29 – Christianity
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Track 1, 22:43 – Pastor
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Track 1, 28:03 – Homelessness
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Track 2, 11:27 – First Baptist Church of Cooperstown
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Track 2, 20:15 – Racism
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Creator
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Laura Santos
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Publisher
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Cooperstown Graduate Program, State University of New York at Oneonta
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Rights
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Cooperstown Graduate Association, Cooperstown, NY
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Language
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en-US
