It’s easy to see that the UCLA students who tutor at
Dorsey High School make an impact. But it’s more apparent
that the high school students make an impact on them.
The UCLA students volunteered their time this quarter as part of
a class called Civic Engagement and Democracy, which students say
is a good introduction to community service and provides a social
context to their volunteerism.
Civic Engagement and Democracy is an honors course which is run
by the UCLA Center for Community Learning.
“Service learning is a way for students to get their foot
in the door,” said Christina Kaoh, a third-year geography
student who is taking the class. Kaoh said a previous service
learning class on social justice got her involved in unions, and
she continued to be involved even after the class ended.
Michael Moskovitz, a second-year undeclared student, said he has
done a lot of community service in the past, but the class on civic
engagement pushed him outside his sphere of experience.
Moskovitz and Kaoh both tutored in the center at Dorsey one
afternoon a week this quarter, and they said they were impressed by
the depth of the school’s problems. They said it was often
difficult to tutor students who had gaps in their educational
foundations, but they came away feeling their involvement was
important.
“Everyone knows that our public school system here is not
very good, but you feel like you are doing something about it,
however small it might be,” Moskovitz said.
Most of the high school students who come to this classroom,
which houses a center to help students succeed academically, are
either in the foster care system or are classified as at-risk.
Dorsey had an overall graduation rate of 50.2 percent in 2002, and
44.4 percent in 2003. But last year this center, run by a
non-profit faith-based organization called Children, Youth and
Family Collaborative, helped all of its students graduate, and most
of them went on to college.
Rahmon Cooper, the tutoring center’s coordinator, said
volunteers from places like UCLA and Loyola Marymount University
are a great help. Cooper works with 140 students, and said he
can’t do it on his own.
And as Dorsey students filter in and out of the small classroom
where the tutoring center is based, the small things give them a
better chance to succeed.
Thursday was a slow day at the center. Rahmon checked
transcripts to make sure the students in his program were on track
to graduate, and Moskovitz and Kaoh urged students to concentrate
as they worked slowly through writing assignments. Sometimes it
seems like little is going on, but the high school students, whose
full names Rahmon asked not be used for this article, appreciate
the help.
Trisha, a senior who has been accepted at Humboldt State
University, said the center helped her communicate with her
teachers and successfully apply for financial aid. Taoton, a
ninth-grader who said he comes to the center for two hours every
day, said it keeps him out of trouble in school and helps him get
better grades.
But the civic engagement class aims to do more than just get
UCLA students involved.
“It doesn’t matter if you want to get a pothole on
your street fixed or if you are against the war in Iraq; you have
to learn the skills you need to have your voice heard,” said
Kathy O’Byrne, director for the UCLA Center for Community
learning. “This course talks about how groups of people and
even one person can make a difference.”
Once a week for three hours students in the class meet to
discuss readings about subjects like social capital and practicing
public discourse. O’Byrne said public discourse or debate is
an essential part of democracy.
“It is not required that everyone be a Democrat or
everyone be a Republican or that everyone be anything ““ we
encourage everyone to express themselves,” she said.
Outside the classroom, students volunteer their time at one of
four nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles. They then bring those
experiences back to the classroom and connect them to their
readings in the course with class discussions, exams and writing
assignments.
Students could choose to work for the program at Dorsey, Public
Allies, L.A. Shares or an organization that helps the homeless.
Public Allies is a nationwide organization that places young
people in 10-month-long paid internships with nonprofit
organizations in their own neighborhoods. L.A. Shares is a
non-profit program that collects donations of unwanted items like
old furniture and computers from local businesses and distributes
them to schools and other organizations.
O’Byrne, who is teaching the class for the fourth
consecutive year, said she chose these organizations because they
have gotten real results where other organizations have failed, and
members of the organizations say the students from the class have
been valuable assets.
“It has really helped our organization,” said
Danielle Lafayette, program manager for Public Allies Los
Angeles.
Lafayette praised the students’ enthusiasm, and said their
work boosted the program’s recruitment efforts.
Carrie Chen, program manager for L.A. Shares and a 2003 UCLA
alumna, said UCLA students were able to talk personally with school
principals in order to determine the schools’ needs, which is
something her three-member staff rarely has the chance to do.
O’Byrne said classes like Civic Engagement and Democracy
are very popular, and the Center for Community Learning is
continually adding new classes with service learning components to
answer the demand. She said the Center for Community Learning has
tripled in size since it was overhauled three years ago.
And interest in civic engagement is not an isolated phenomenon.
O’Byrne said she has been contacted by a professor from
Lithuania and four professors from Japan, and on Thursday
representatives from universities in seven states and the District
of Columbia came to UCLA for a two-day conference on civic
engagement.
Judi Smith, UCLA vice provost for undergraduate education, made
introductory remarks at the kickoff ceremony and said UCLA is
developing a minor in civic engagement.
“We live in a troubled world, we live in a troubled
nation, and I think the concept of civic engagement is really
key,” she said.
Wayne Meisel, president of the Bonner Foundation, an
organization which is working with universities to integrate
academics with community service, said civic engagement is
important because without civic education, volunteers do not get
fully involved in the political process. He said studies by his
foundation have shown that active volunteers who are not educated
about the political side of community service are no more likely to
vote than “someone who plays video games 30 hours a
week.”