Princeton Weekly Bulletin May 3, 1999
T H E P R E S I D E N T ' S P A G E
Community-based learning
By Harold T. Shapiro
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Six students in Professor of Molecular Biology Lee
Silver's Human Genetics, Reproduction and Public Policy
developed a course for middleschoolers as a CBLI project.
Held in Lewis Thomas Lab, the course introduced concepts
in molecular biology to 25 students, recruited with the
help of Toby Peterson of the Clay Street Learning Center.
The students were seniors Jaffet Ghebretnsae, Evelyn
Hsieh (c), Toshio Kimura (l), Erica McCormick and Ko
Yamada and junior Asha Yancy.
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This is not a new idea at Princeton. Woodrow Wilson School task forces, for example, have been applying academic studies to the solution of practical problems for many years. One recent task force's proposals for mixed-use development around transit stops were incorporated last fall into Maryland's Smart Growth program.
The Community-Based Learning Initiative (CBLI) seeks to broaden these opportunities to students in other departments while focusing on projects in the greater Princeton area. Since the initiative began, faculty members in sociology, chemistry, politics, African American studies, environmental studies and American studies, as well as the Woodrow Wilson School, have worked with students and community leaders to develop courses that apply knowledge and analytic tools gained in the classroom to pressing issues that affect our local communities.
The courses have succeeded in carrying out the initiative's twofold objective: to make learning itself a genuine form of service, and to enhance both the effectiveness of our teaching programs and the quality of life in the community. Here are examples.
Professor of Politics Eric Oliver's course on urban politics deals specifically with the problems of inner cities. He saw CBLI as a way to offer his students the kind of firsthand exposure to urban environments that he believed was central to their understanding of course material. After examining CBLI's database of community-based organizations, Professor Oliver found two community partners who could work effectively with him and his students. For one of them, the Urban League of Trenton, the students evaluated the impact of the recent political ascendancy of African Americans in the Trenton community on education, health, social welfare, crime and finance.
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Candace Jackson '00 developed
a CBLI project in conjunction with the seminar
Educating a New Majority, directed by Richard
Hope, visiting lecturer with rank of professor
in sociology. Hope described the course as "an
examination of minority education in the United
States in the context of the sociology of
education and intergroup relations." Jackson
described her project: I aided the YWCA of Princeton
After School Program (YWCA ASP) with research
they had neither the time nor manpower to
complete: measuring the effectiveness of its
after school programs in terms of the social and
academic competency of its students. What did I do? I researched
the literature on after school programs, much of
it produced by the US Department of Education.
That was the static library and Internet
work. The fun part was going to the
YWCA ASP. I interviewed the director of the YWCA
ASP, who oversees 13 ASP programs in the area,
and chose one site, Community Park Elementary
School, on which to focus. I visited Community
Park between 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. during the month
of December. I interviewed the five-person after
school staff there, observed the interaction
between children and staff, and played with the
children. I attended a performance the children
gave for parents and talked with parents about
their experience of the ASP. I also interviewed
the school principal. To think that I could
interact with children, who always make me
forget the frequent stress of academics, and
complete my "school work" at the same
time! Then I combined my
observation at Community Park with my research
on after school programs nationally and compared
the mission and practices of the YWCA ASP to the
national ideal of after school programs. I found
that the YWCA ASP was, in many ways, a model
after-school program: it serves a positive role
in the academic and social lives of
students. I am grateful for the
opportunity to write a paper that was locally
relevant and useful. Many students at some point
stop and think "Why am I writing this paper?" In
this case, I had a sense of purpose, a well
defined audience and a lot of opportunities for
fun while completing my project. The CBLI
opportunity also came at a time in my Princeton
career when I had given up volunteerism in an
effort to concentrate more on my academics. The
CBLI paper reinserted community interaction back
into my life!
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One of the most active local environmental groups in the Princeton area, the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, formed a productive connection with Professor Michael Celia's introductory environmental science course on Causes of Environmental Perturbations. Using data from the Watershed Association's extensive monitoring program, students developed course projects on topics related to the association's efforts to identify fair and balanced solutions to the region's environmental problems.
Professor Miguel Centeno of the Department of Sociology thought that the growing community of Guatemalan and Mexican immigrants in Princeton might provide opportunities for his students to learn more about the US Latino population. The students experienced the challenges of conducting surveys on such seemingly simple questions as income distribution. They also came to appreciate a segment of the Princeton community with which few students interact.
Students in Lecturer in Sociology Patricia Fernandez-Kelly's freshman seminar on Race, Poverty, and Public Policy worked with the Apoyo/Princeton Immigrant Rights League to produce a written history of the Guatemalan community in Princeton. One member of the class summarized the mutual benefits of this combination of course work and research commenting: "not only will [this organization] receive valuable research for long-term planning and educational purposes, but the participating students will have a richer understanding of the interrelationships between poverty, education reform, and charter school public policy and of the ways in which public policies affect the lives of immigrants."
This very positive feedback from students is echoed by faculty who characterize experiences made possible by these collaborations as powerful pedagogical tools. Curriculum development grants from the President's 250th Anniversary Fund for Innovation in Undergraduate Education have provided initial seed funding for CBLI, together with a grant from the Corporation for National Service administered by the Bonner Foundation. An endowment to honor Dr. Carl Fields, former assistant dean of the college and the first African American dean in the Ivy League, has been created to support the further development of partnerships between student learning and service, connections that Dr. Fields devoted his career to fostering.
From my perspective, CBLI not only strengthens our commitments to teaching and service, but helps to prepare our students to apply more successfully the knowledge and skills they acquire in the classroom to the needs of the communities in which they will live and work.
To learn more, please refer to CBLI's Web page at www.princeton.edu/~cbli/ or e-mail cbli@princeton.edu.
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