practiced, and judge the results. With this emphasis on community-level social change, the department supports the notion that no one person can cure our collective problems. Rather, many problems such as homelessness, gang-violence, drug abuse, etc., may stem exactly from such individualistic thinking and the lack of a communi~y life. Says program administrator Sherry Phillips, "we don't accept the model that our students go out and ride into town with a six-gun and save Tulsa, · ·Oklahoma. The idea here is that we need tO.leapi with groups and group processes." Before students embark on their full-time, six-month field placement, they participate in part-time field placement and classroom discussions. Students choose their own projects, either from Mike Rotkin' s growing.list of thousands of local non-profit organizations and government programs, or from other contacts. For example, Eric Belfort felt everyone should have access to primary healthcare, regardless of their economic standing, administered by local community members in an atmosphere of care and respect. His principles led him to the Westside Community Health Center, where they practice the theory of communityo~ented primary care. During a time of preparation and part-time field work, students begin to develop the ethnographic skills needed for potent participant-observation. They learn how to take field notes describing daily work experiences, relations, and the functioning of a non-profit organization. "Good field notes" says faculty member Pat Zavella, "provide the vehicle needed for effe~tive and fulfilling reflection." What ultimately differentiates CS from other academic pursuits is its six-month long full-time field study. Again, students, with the help of a faculty adyisor, choose a placement with a willing coffimunity group that reflects their interests. Using basic approaches to field study common to anthropology and sociology, students spend 40 hours a week working in and observing a particular social service agency, governmental or non-profit organization, political party, or neighborh~od group. "We hav~ had ... .' . . · . . students work within the system, say inside a welfare department, and we have had students work with organizations battling the welfare department," says field studies coordinator, Mike Rotkin. One student, Jennifer Anderson, who worked with a ·women's group, a youth group, and community economic development projects in southern India, says "I was tired of being in a classroom, taking on too many.issues abstractly, the field study helped me see how the world's problems can be more manageable, and see that I am able to do something. It has given me a lot more confidence in myself, and made the educational process a lot more fun, a lot more relevant, and generally more powerful'-' While getting involved in organizations at home or abroad seems exciting and fun, it doesn't always work out the way students plan. Many get frustrated and disillusioned when they realize most change doesn't occur overnight, or that some activists replicate patterns of injustice. Maria Chua, who worked with an at-risk youth program in the Mission District of San Francisco, says, "a few of the staff seemed to niiss the connection between theory and practice of helping at-risk youth. Fqr example, I had organized a field trip for the youth, that involved a lot of planning and preparation. At the iast minute, a couple of the staff decided to schedule another activity without conferring with the people affected by their decision. Two months of planning and the excitement of going on the field trip got shot down because they felt their work took precedence. And to cover it up, the Director of Education said they had to cancel the field trip because of lack of supervision, which was completely unfounded. It was just an excuse to get what they wanted. In this respect I was disillusioned and disappointed." But Maria also had many positive experiences with the group. She organized and taught a "mini-community studies class" with at-risk youth. "We went through a list of · community organizations to see what interested them," Maria says, "and they came up with such topics as violence against women, substance abuse, immigrant rights, home- -~ •.. RAIN Summer 1994 Volume XIV, Number .4 Page 45
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