Community-Based Learning Initiative elicits mixed responses

Last semester, Ann-Marie Elvin ’12 maintained a regular written and artistic correspondence with prison inmates, which was published in the literary magazine Inside Out as part of her work for SOC 227: Race and Ethnicity.

“It really confronts you directly in the face when you receive a letter from someone and [you try] to relate to a situation so divergent from your own,” Elvin said. “Just [forging] some sort of connection across human commonality ... was a benefit I can’t really explain.”

Elvin undertook the project through the Community-Based Learning Initiative (CBLI), which was launched in 1997 to give students the opportunity to combine academic pursuits and civic engagement. CBLI projects are offered in conjunction with many classes and require students to coordinate course research with local nonprofit organizations.

While several students expressed appreciation for the CBLI as an opportunity to apply their studies outside the classroom, some have criticized the lack of organization and direction in the program.

Elvin, who is currently participating in another CBLI project as part of SOC 340: God of Many Faces, said that her project was largely a success because of the enthusiasm of the professor, Patricia Fernandez-Kelly.

“Professor Fernandez-Kelly is very much involved in the CBLI. She immerses herself in the process and to be a part of that is obviously alluring to me,” Elvin said.

But some students criticized the program’s lack of organization and clarity.

“People in my group felt kind of lost,” said Julie Han ’12, who participated in a CBLI project for ANT 335: Medical Anthropology last semester. Han worked with a local nonprofit organization, “People in Stories,” to research the therapeutic effects of teaching literature to troubled social groups.

“We felt like we didn’t really know what people wanted from us,” Han explained, noting that she felt she did not receive adequate guidance when she encountered difficulties in her research.

Despite these difficulties, Han noted the CBLI was rewarding in that it allowed her to contribute original research to a tangible cause.

“When you’re writing your final paper, you know it’s going to be used for an actual organization, and if you’re lucky, it will help them eventually in their goal to help others,” Han said.

But she added that she and her research group are disappointed that “People in Stories” have not yet acknowledged her paper.

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“We haven’t gotten any feedback — I thought that might be a little helpful if they let us know what they thought about it,” Han said.

Rena Chen ’11, who completed a CBLI project for AMS 381: Social Change and the City: Education, Environmental Justice and Social Entrepreneurship, also characterized the response to her CBLI research last spring as disappointing.

Chen researched ways to increase socioeconomic diversity in a local YWCA, saying, “I’m not sure if they used our paper at all.”

“The research that we did required the [YWCA] to get things they might not have been able to have access to, like more funding,” she added.

Wyliena Guan ’11, who participated in two CBLI projects — one for ANT 335 and one for POL 334: The Politics of Race and Health in America — explained that the lack of direction in her projects caused many students to misjudge the amount of work they entailed.

“[CBLI] emphasizes the deadline after you say you are going to do the project ... I think [CBLI] should let people know what times are available right off the bat so people wouldn’t have to misinterpret the level of commitment required,” Guan explained.

Guan added that because CBLI classes involve group projects and lack close supervision, it is often difficult for the professor to accurately judge a particular student’s effort.

“Sometimes there’s a veil between the students and the professors as to who did what and how much they did,” Guan said, adding that some students who put minimal effort into their projects “got off scot-free.”

Denise Keller, a Princeton-based project coordinator for the CBLI, explained that much of the student criticism stems from scheduling difficulties.

“One of the reasons it’s really complicated is because it’s not just an academic project limited to the academic environment: It crosses over into the nonprofit world, which runs on a completely different cycle, which usually has really intense demands,” Keller explained.

Keller added that students who criticize the lack of coordination in their projects often overlook the fact that the nonprofit organization they are working for has its own demands.

“Timing is often a very challenging issue ... Oftentimes students do not realize that the nonprofit director or staff person is really under enormous pressure of their own ... It isn’t true that the nonprofit just has lots of time and flexibility,” Keller said.

Guan explained that she does not want to undermine the CBLI program with her criticisms, but hopes to inspire changes that will make the program more rewarding.

“I don’t want to say the experiences weren’t meaningful — they were,” Guan said. “But if these criticisms are going to make the problems better, then yeah, I’ll say them.”