less shelters and homeless youth, as well as job-placement." They contacted local organizations and invited them to make presentations. "They were really into it. I remember the first meeting when we were doing the phone calls and the youth were sitting there looking at us nervously. In just a couple of months they could do. it on their own, calling up groups to help with their organizing work." In one class, a staff member asked, "Why isn't anyone from the Mission employed at the PG&E plant? And why is it that our families are having to pay so n:mch? Let's go in there and demand that we get trained and have jobs as youth." From such discussion in class, as well as from the many days and nights getting to know the youth, Maria saw them moving away from urban violence, towards selfdetermination. After such an engagement with reality, returning to ai:i institution filled with big books and arm-chair activists can be quite a shock. "I expe~ienced a sort of cultural 'nausea' upon my return," Jennifer Anderson says half-joklngly, "so it was great to enter a class with 35 of us recounting our experiences. It bordered on group therapy. But seriously, learning about all of the great work people were doing has broadened my horizons even more than the actual field experience." Hearing everyone's stories also fosters an understandfog of the common ground of diverse community work, i.e. how to work together on the big problems. At this poi~t students write reflective papers, distilling lessons from their field experience. In one of her papers, "The Romantic Crusader Finds Both Feet on .the Gro,und," Diane Goodman writes, "after both a part-time and a full-time internship at the Drop-in Center for the.Santa Cruz AIDS Project, my idealism is now joined with a stronger, fuller sense of what AIDS work is ... All those hours af talking about nothing and anything, finding the coffee and the toilet paper, refilling the condom supply and watching my co-workers begin to get sick have taught me patience in this work. I've learned to sit and observe. I've learned that often just my bright hello and pouring the cup of coffee goes a long way.. Page 46 RAIN Summer 1994 Volume XIV, Number 4 While I still have my romanticized ideals, I have begun t o realize that the daily-ness and slow-going small things are , part of AIDS work, too." Another student, Michael Vining, who interned with ,the Homeless Garden Project [see Rain, XIV:3], says "the .Analysis class formed a network of activists that, come graduation, will not only aid our social change work, but will surely help us find meaningful work." When asked about his field study experience, Michael responded, "One lesson I have learned from my in'ternship with the Homeless Garden Project is the importance of a community's ability to.care for itself - that not only the basics of food and shelter and clothing are there, but that meaningful and purposeful work must be there, too. Whil~ this may seem simple, most people today can' t say they are doing.the ~nd / . : J.· ..... ,., of work, or having the quality of life, that they want." Eventually students write a thesis. If s a time to force yourself to sit still, dig deep, think hard, and ask critical questions: "!s there somethfog in my experience that others could learn from? How could I, or the people I worked with, have been more effective? What was successful about the work?" It' s·a time to reflect, and articulate current conclusions for the rest of the world. "While being somewhat of a grueling task," Stefano
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