Connecting Communities

The Research Service Learning Program presents undergraduate students with opportunities to participate in a commnity service project.

by Laurie Mellas

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“If you want a better world, start with the community around you,” says Scott Albright, a UNM senior volunteering at Barelas Community Center in conjunction with UNM’s Research Service Learning Program (RSLP).

RSLP unites classroom theory with community service to address social issues. Program Director Dan Young says the aim is to improve undergraduate student success, especially in core courses, and to establish enduring relationships with surrounding communities. RSLP is privately funded, with significant support coming from the UNM President’s Club.

“We get students involved in seeing education in a different way—in looking at knowledge as something that entails responsibility,” Young says.

Faculty designing curriculum look beyond a single semester, planning for sequences of courses allowing undergraduates to partake in complex academic work, Young says. Ultimately, students will research a problem, develop an action plan, implement and evaluate the plan, and disseminate findings. About twenty community-based courses are developed around themes such as hunger, poverty, health, and sustainability. Social problems are approached from different angles, using cross-disciplinary methods. Entrepreneurial projects also emerge. At present, most RSLP courses are taught by graduate students, providing research and teaching opportunities in fields such as English, anthropology, economics, geography, and sociology. Young is receiving more teaching inquiries from full-time faculty, who recognize the program as a means to mentor promising undergraduates and secure valuable research support.

Photos by Matt Suhre.

“The value of graduate student involvement is that they provide a thread of continuity with the community; they truly engage. We have especially good symmetry with our international students. We have a student who serves as an Asian American Association board member, for example,” Young says.

Albright, the Barelas volunteer, took part in an RSLP public speaking course taught by Communication and Journalism graduate student Hannah Oliha. In addition to more traditional coursework such as reading, writing, and delivering speeches, she required students to volunteer three hours per week at one of four Albuquerque community centers.

“Projects were driven by needs students identified in the community through service experiences and by speaking directly to community members,” Oliha says.

Albright and sophomore Trevor LeVan interviewed children at Barelas Community Center about living in a deeply traditional Hispanic community. They asked the children what they would do to combat gang and drug activity. While producing a video with the youth they also had exchanges about teamwork, sportsmanship, communication, and community.

“It’s a strong place with a sense of history and spirit,” LeVan says. “They taught us a lot, too. Doing nothing about the problems will not make a difference. Our response should be to do whatever we can to help.”

Students working at other community centers developed reading and math programs. They handcrafted puppets and games, such as word bingo, created photo displays, and developed a parent night and volunteer RSLP handbook. When children complained about bland lunches, UNM student Michelle Gutierrez helped them write and create cookbooks.

In the Africana Studies course “Introduction to Urban Issues,” a group of UNM athletes volunteered at Los Duranes Community Center to construct an after-school academic tutorial program aimed at reinforcing concepts such as teamwork, respect, and esteem. Students created a newsletter to inform parents about activities at the center and to encourage more family interaction.

Back at Barelas, students in an anthropology course planted a vegetable garden using high nutritional content seeds in a back alley formerly littered with garbage. Sean Bruna, a doctoral candidate studying diabetes, required students to research the history of such gardens. In turn, UNM students use the gardens to teach children community heritage, agriculture, and mathematics.

Anthropology PhD candidate Patrick Staib led the course “Culture and Agriculture in the South Valley” this past fall. Aiming to teach and involve students in agricultural tradition in the city, students worked at the Dragon Farm, a community farm located on the campus of South Valley Academy, a service learning charter school. As part of the class, students are cooperating with efforts on the farm and applying their experiences to theoretical models learned in the classroom. Ultimately, students will design projects to benefit the Dragon Farm and other community farm projects in the region.

Says Young, “This spring, a collaboration between Africana Studies and the African Refugees Well-Being Project will engage refugees as experts on their own condition and as advocates.”

“Students bring observations from the community to connect with existing disciplines and theory,” he says. “We hope these observations will spin off into other courses based on conditions found in the community.”