Inter/Intra Group
Relations
Mount St. Mary's College
Urban Engagement and Civic Responsibility
Program
The Hewlett Foundation has provided
Mount St. Mary's College with the significant
opportunity to build into our multicultural
education the next logical step: to
expand development and preparation of
students for active involvement and
participation in the larger context
of community--locally, regionally, nationally,
and internationally--through a program
of teaching and practicing civic competencies.
Specifically the goals of the program
have been:
1) To teach our students problem solving,
conflict management, negotiation, assertiveness,
and organizational analysis skills.
These competencies were deemed important
tools in which every active citizen
should possess in order to enter into
productive public dialogue, as is essential
in our democracy comprised of a rich
diversity of citizens. This skills training
dimension to our program began in our
Freshman Seminar course and was followed
by training workshops by professionals
in the field for the rest of the Mount
students. It was our goal to ultimately
expose virtually all of the student
body to these skills. Several training
modalities were employed in order to
work to accomplish this, such as a two-day
weekend workshop in the first year of
our grant; an all day workshop in the
second year; a leadership training day;
and, a "Hewlett Media Group," which
produced student video vignettes applying
basic problem solving and conflict management
skills. In addition, these same skills
were infused into a sociology course,
Majority-Minority Relations.
2) To provide opportunities for students
(via the Associated Student Body and
student organizations and clubs) to
practice these learned skills by organizing
public events (to be held either on
or off campus), which were required
to be put on through collaboration with
at least one other student group. It
was also required that these events
focus on a jointly agreed upon issue
of public issue or concern, that a written
proposal be submitted to the Director
of the Urban Engagement and Civic Responsibility
Program, and that a follow-up meeting
with the Director be conducted in order
to reflect on both the content and organizational
process of the event. The activities
which developed out of this dimension
of the program were truly extraordinary
for our previously quite politically
quiet campus. These included student
debates on such topics as euthanasia,
women in the priesthood, affirmative
action, and elder care and abuse. Other
public forums addressed domestic violence,
child sexual abuse, international human
rights issues, suicides, and minority
representation in the entertainment
industry.
3) To build bridges with the community
and to become part of the revitalization
of Los Angeles through civic work and
involvement. This aspect of our program
included developing internships with
such community entities as Central Juvenile
Hall, Bresee Youth Center, Locke High
School (located in south central Los
Angeles), the Los Angeles County Probation
Department, and Americorp (through the
Building Up Los Angeles Program). Among
the outcomes of this two year effort
has been the establishment of an ongoing
working relationship with most of these
programs, and, in fact, in most cases
a further expansion of them. The Locke
High School Mentoring Initiative has
been particularly embraced by students
at the Mount, as has the peer counseling
at Central Juvenile Hall and volunteer
work at the L.A. County Probation Department.
At Locke High School, our students have
become peer mentors with the goal in
mind to encourage Locke students to
consider a post-secondary education
and to serve as positive role models
for them. Weekly, they meet with the
Locke students (accompanied by a Mount
faculty member and a Locke faculty member)
to discuss and conduct a variety of
activities, such as career talk, visits
to local colleges, and problem solving
skills which they have learned through
their Mount education.
Along with these three fundamental goals, we have worked
to establish a centralized "network of community resources"
on campus so that linkages between the college and the
larger community can be viably maintained for the purpose
of enhancing our students' education and in order to
serve the community. In this regard, we have found that
the community activities which have increased in number
over time in the region of Los Angeles, even as a direct
result of the Hewlett Pluralism and Unity Program, has
at the same time rendered it a challenge to centralize
information on these resources. Social action has been
generated out of so many diverse departments and organizations,
we are still in the process of developing better ways
to achieve centralization for these important community
resources. To fully achieve this goal, beginning the
Spring semester 1997, the President has called for a
service-learning task force to be formed and to regularly
convene, comprised of leaders of all the college offices
and departments which have been involved in community
work in the past. It will be the goal of this body to
complete the objective of centralization of information
which either consists of community resources which serve
the college, or college programs that serve the community.
The Urban Engagement and Civic Responsibility Program
has greatly benefited our institution in helping us
to better actualize one of our central mission statements:
to educate an active citizenry and to teach students
that oneÁs professional life, regardless of one's field,
be viewed as a life of service to the community. Mount
St. Mary's, comprised of a very diverse student body;
reflecting, in fact, the diversity of the Los Angeles
community in which it resides, has found student engagement
in public dialogue through utilizing a problem solving/collaborative
model, an invigorating, extremely positive and fruitful
experience, both in terms of skills learned and practiced,
and in terms of being able to make a contribution to
the larger community.
Mount Saint Mary's College
Pamela D. Haldeman, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Sociology
|
