Service Learning

“Songs for the Second Half”: One-Act Musical Reveals Humor and Coping in the Golden Years

September 30, 2010 By admin

Many of the retired or semi-retired members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at California State University, Dominguez Hills will undoubtedly see themselves reflected in “Songs for the Second Half,” by Barry Bortnick. A performance of the one-act musical will take place on Oct. 10 in the Recital Hall, Rm. A-103, in La Corte Hall.

“”˜Songs for the Second Half’ deals with themes that OLLI members will find familiar, especially as they look at retirement, other transitions in their lives and the goals they want to set for the ”˜second half,’” says Jim Bouchard, coordinator of OLLI at CSUDH. “The musical has a very positive message about being productive and happy in the second half of life.”

Bortnick is the founding program director for OLLI at UCLA and supervised its humanities programs for 22 years. He began writing “Songs” five years ago based on his own attitudes toward aging and his observations of what others were encountering in their own “second half.”

“This may not be true of everybody but for the people I [portrayed] in writing this, the second half is an awareness of time, getting in touch with a sense of conscious living, the importance of choices, working on relationships with other people, or healing the past–above all, making this a time to pay attention to the meaning and quality of one’s experience,” Bortnick says.

Sharon Newman teaches in the Program for Older Adults and the English as a Second Language program for the Los Angeles Unified School District and has directed “Songs” with Bortnick for the last two years. She is also an acting instructor and talent manager for senior actors. She says that the ability and desire to examine one’s life often surfaces later in life because “many people are living their lives focused on the immediate: on career, finance, family, and solving day-to-day problems. They don’t have time or make time to be reflective.”

Bortnick, who wrote the music, lyrics, and “book” of the musical, describes the “oldest” character in “Songs,” a man named Paul who has recently retired from an executive position and is now faced with finding out who he is without the identity of his career.

“People in their second half are no longer just thinking about the next challenge around the corner tomorrow, but rather what the quality of their life needs to be,” says Bortnick. “Many of them become aware of legacy or what they want to leave of themselves to others. Paul goes on a journey of [finding out] ”˜Who am I?,’ from defining himself only by his job to defining himself by the meaningful relationships he has with his wife, his son, and his grandson. There is meaning in [knowing] you have affected important people in your life in a positive way.”

Newman says that audiences are deeply affected by the experience, as are the actors who audition for “Songs.”

“When we audition performers in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond, they walk out of the audition telling us how much they connect to the story and how much it means to read for characters that are their life’s journey,” Newman says. “The audiences don’t leave the theater when the performance is over. They want to talk about how it’s touched them, and where else we could [present] the show.”

“They become real fans,” says Bortnick, who is also the production’s musical director. “They laugh at all the right places and are moved by the more touching moments.”

According to Newman and Bortnick, the humorous aspects of “Songs for the Second Half” are its mainstay and part of its appeal to audiences of all ages. Newman says that coping with aging includes “the fact that we can look at our lives and laugh at ourselves, laugh at our behavior, mistakes, and choices.”

Bortnick, who will be teaching seniors how to write their autobiographies this fall through UCLA Extension says that the motif of lifelong learning is evident in “Songs,” with twists such as the protagonist and his wife, who discover unexpected quirks in their 45 year marriage while taking a course on using email.

“There’s humor in that because they have to go a long way to really understanding each other,” says Bortnick. “They do a [lesson] on dating and find they like each other better online.”

“Songs” has been performed at the Skirball Cultural Center, CSU Los Angeles, and for both UCLA Extension’s OLLI and an intergenerational audience of UCLA students, parents, grandparents, and community leaders. Cast members have included actor Barry Gordon, a Tony Award nominee and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, and Emmy winning actress Barbara Keegan.

“Songs for the Second Half” is presented with funding from OLLI at CSU Dominguez Hills. To enroll and attend the performance, OLLI members and non-members can call Extended Registration at (310) 243-3741. Tickets are $10.

Space is limited at this venue, so advanced reservations are recommended. Any remaining seats at the time of performance will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Following the performance will be a discussion with the cast and director.

OLLI at CSU Dominguez Hills is an educational membership organization for ages 50 and older that promotes lifelong learning, acquisition of new skills, and cultural enrichment courses and activities. Members can enroll in a variety of courses led by CSU Dominguez Hills faculty or experts in a variety of fields – including fellow OLLI members. Activities include discussion groups, special lecture series, and field trips to museums and other cultural and historical destinations in the local South Bay and Los Angeles area.

For more information about OLLI at CSU Dominguez Hills, click here or contact (310) 243-3208.

Brandilynn Villarreal: Alumna Finds Path to Doctorate By Mentoring McNair Scholars

September 23, 2010 By admin

When Brandilynn Villarreal (Class of ’09, M.A., clinical psychology) took a job as a grad assistant for the McNair Scholars Program at California State University, Dominguez Hills, she had thought the responsibility of helping underrepresented, first-generation college students prepare for advanced degrees was interesting. So much so, that as a doctoral candidate in social and personality psychology at the University of California, Irvine she decided to analyze how that same student population copes with graduate school.

“I had to come here and see that I was really interested in doing that,” says Villarreal, who had earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at UCLA with a focus on social stigma and devalued identities.

In her work as a graduate student at CSU Dominguez Hills, Villarreal branched out into research on preventions of sexual risk taking behavior among underrepresented populations at CSU Dominguez Hills, working with her professors Dr. Karen Mason and Dr. Keisha Paxton, associate professors of psychology. Michelle Waiters, director of the McNair Program, says that Villarreal’s reputation as “a research star” was instrumental in supporting McNair Scholars in their research as undergraduates.

“[The students] really looked up to her in that area because that’s what they were aspiring to,” says Waiters. “Technically, she’s only a few years ahead of them but she was where they needed to be [as researchers], and she could get them there.”

Villarreal’s responsibilities in the McNair Scholar’s program, first as a grad assistant and then as program coordinator, included everything from extensive editing of the students’ writing, assistance with graduate school applications, and providing a lot of moral support. A student herself, Villarreal found that she enjoyed being a coach and role model.

“I always knew I liked teaching, but the concept of being a mentor was something new to me,” she says.

Villarreal says that along with the technical end of helping students with research papers and presentations the most important thing is “to be constantly in contact with the students.”

“If you’re not inquiring about them and caring about them, I feel it doesn’t work as well,” she says. “You’re preparing them for the next stage [of their education]. That’s where my training in clinical psychology comes in. I’m a listener and nurturer so I try to be there for them, whether it’s about school or not.”

For Villarreal, the result of her efforts is that the students are “an inspiration for me.”

“There are so many genius students in McNair, they amaze me,” she says. “They all have their own unique story; a lot of them have had many obstacles. They have shown me for my own research their challenges and success stories.”

For more information about the McNair Scholars Program, click here.

Susan Needham: Partnership with CSU Long Beach Continues With Cambodian History Project

September 23, 2010 By admin

For the last two years, students at California State University, Dominguez Hills and CSU Long Beach have been participating in a unique opportunity to gain field work experience through community-based service learning and hands-on research. The institutions, who signed a memo of understanding in 2008, have been creating the Cambodian Community History and Archive Project (CamCHAP). The project is directed by Susan Needham, professor and chair of anthropology at CSU Dominguez Hills, and Karen Quintiliani, assistant professor of anthropology at CSU Long Beach, with support from the Historical Society of Long Beach (HSLB), which has provided space in their offices for the physical archive and technical assistance for the online archive.

Last month, administrators from the participating institutions were given a tour of HSLB’s offices in Long Beach’s Bixby Knolls neighborhood in preparation of renewing the MOU and launching the completed online archive in spring of 2011. HSLB’s contributions to the project include housing the CamCHAP archive and technical assistance. The project was funded in part with a $20,000 grant from the California Council for the Humanities and $40,000 from the Long Beach Community Foundation.

University President Mildred GarcÃa says that she would like to see the university become engaged in more projects like CamCHAP that collaborate with sister institutions and with local community.

“That’s really been one of our focuses at Dominguez Hills,” she says. “Sue is a role model to help others know that. The community is engaged in building, archiving, and bringing out their own histories in their own ways. When you engage community that way, they see the university as their university.”

“This project provides an enormous opportunity for Dominguez Hills… as a model for studies of other communities and how an archive can be implemented to provide valuable information to the community and scholars,” says Laura Robles, interim dean of the College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences.

Professor of anthropology Susan Needham (at far left) is spearheading a collaboration with CSU Long Beach and its local community to create an archive of the history of Cambodians in the United States. L-R, seated: Needham, Dr. Mildred GarcÃa, president, CSU Dominguez Hills L-R, standing: Richer San (Class of '91, B.S., business administration), Cambodia Town, Inc.; Karen Quintiliani, assistant professor of anthropology, CSU Long Beach; and Evan Braude, board of directors, Historical Society of Long Beach. — Professor of anthropology Susan Needham (at far left) is spearheading a collaboration with CSU Long Beach and its local community to create an archive of the history of Cambodians in the United States. L-R, seated: Needham, Dr. Mildred GarcÃa, president, CSU Dominguez Hills L-R, standing: Richer San (Class of ’91, B.S., business administration), Cambodia Town, Inc.; Karen Quintiliani, assistant professor of anthropology, CSU Long Beach; and Evan Braude, board of directors, Historical Society of Long Beach.

For the last two years, students have participated in research, documentation, and presentation of the culture and experiences of war refugees who have made the Long Beach community of Cambodia Town, Inc. the largest enclave of Cambodians outside Southeast Asia. The next phase of CamCHAP is to launch an interactive website that has been created with the help of CSU Dominguez Hills undergraduate student Elsie Heredia and CSULB graduate students Sarah Cote, Adriana Vigil, and Julia Wignall. The online archive will feature more than 2,000 photographs and more than 1,500 documents in Khmer and English, including newspapers and unpublished manuscripts and reports from researchers, community members, and various organizations that are led by or serve the Cambodian community. Visitors to the site will be able to learn about myriad aspects of Cambodian culture and history, including the arts, business, demographic surveys, education, health, homeland relations, politics, religion, and events.

Needham and Quintiliani have been conducting ethnographic and linguistic research in Long Beach’s Cambodian community since 1988. They are currently completing a book on the establishment of Cambodia Town. Needham, whose students visit community members to scan their personal photos for CamCHAP’s archives, underscores the need to tell the story of Cambodians who fled to the United States in the wake of the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s.

“Most Cambodians who lived through the Khmer Rouge do not talk about what happened with their children,” says Needham. “Children, sensing the stress and emotional pain associated with that time, are reluctant to ask their parents about it. This means most children in the new generation don’t know what their parents lived through or why they left Cambodia. In short, they don’t know how they fit into either Cambodian or U.S. history. This part of U.S. history isn’t covered well in our schools and there are relatively few sources for this new generation to go to for information.”

Needham says that the CamCHAP project fills the information gap for both the older and younger generations. According to Quintiliani, this is the first time that the history of the Khmer Rouge will be available on the Internet. She says that many members of the community had connections to either one or both of the universities, a fact that helped CamCHAP gain trust and momentum.

“We didn’t want to create an archive project or an ethnohistorical representation of Cambodians without looking at what was already established in the community and what expertise we can build on… and create a stronger sense of community here in Long Beach based on the history of the Cambodians,” Quintiliani says.

Needham says that in establishing CamCHAP, she and Quintiliani have had to build not only a relationship with Cambodian residents of Long Beach, but also with the HSLB, city officials, nonprofit organizations, and local business stakeholders. She says that these efforts prove how educators can continue to give their students the best possible experience despite today’s financial challenges to education.

“All educators face the challenge of providing our students with an engaging and challenging learning environment with fewer and fewer resources,” says Needham. “Karen and I have found that collaboration with people committed to research and student learning through community engagement not only helps us accomplish this goal, it is extremely rewarding work. We are happy to share what we’ve learned with other researchers who are working in local ethnic communities and invite them to visit us at the [Long Beach] Historical Society to see what we’re doing there.”

Needham says that the experience that students gain by working with communities through projects like CamCHAP help them to “learn that communities are not homogenous, but are composed of people who, although they identify as part of the community, have differing perspectives on what is best for the group.

“They learn how to value and seek out all points of view and how to integrate these varying views into a more holistic and complex –and I think more interesting–understanding of people, their needs, and how to address these needs.”

For more information on the anthropology department at CSU Dominguez Hills, click here.

CSU Dominguez Hills, Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum Receive National Endowment for the Humanities Grant

August 16, 2010 By admin

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded California State University, Dominguez Hills and Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum a $171,788 grant through its Landmarks of American History and Culture program to offer two weeklong professional development workshops next summer for high school teachers across the country. The proposal also received a “We the People” designation for its “efforts to strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture,” according to an NEH press release.

Professors from CSU Dominguez Hills, along with staff in the university’s Service Learning, Internships and Civic Engagement (SLICE) and Archives and Special Collections offices will partner with Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum to conduct a multiple-disciplined, experiential learning program that explores the history of the Dominguez family from colonial days to the 1920s. Workshop participants will attend lectures, visit historic sites like the Rancho San Pedro, Mission San Gabriel and Olvera Street, and work with artifacts and original documents, all of which will help them gain a deeper understanding of the different cultures that shaped America and further enrich their classroom teaching.

“Family history is the framework, and that opened opportunities to examine a number of issues that are essential to understanding the development of not just California’s, but the nation’s history,” said Laura Talamante, assistant professor of history at CSU Dominguez Hills and project co-director. “It’s an excellent opportunity to showcase what we have here in Carson, at CSU Dominguez Hills and the rancho.”

“As the home of the family who helped shape L.A. and southern California, the rancho is a physical representation of history,” said Dominguez Rancho executive director and project co-director Alison Bruesehoff. “Getting a chance to work with actual objects that go back hundreds of years is a rare experience, and the museum is excited to partner with the university to provide such an experiential learning opportunity for teachers.”

Each week-long session will be open to a maximum of 40 teachers from across the country. Notices about the workshops and how to apply will be sent to schools and through various education venues beginning in early spring 2011. The selected teachers will receive a stipend for travel expenses.

The grant was one of 201 grants totally $31.5 million that NEH awarded to humanities projects nationwide. For details, visit www.neh.gov/news/archive/20100810.html.

For more information about the CSUDH/Dominguez Rancho “American History Through the Eyes of a California Family 1780s to 1920s” project, call project coordinator Cheryl McKnight, director of SLICE, at (310) 243-2438.

Anthropology Students Get a Taste of Cacao Farming In Chiapas

July 29, 2010 By admin

Many students at California State University, Dominguez Hills spend their summers in various internships in a diversity of fields. Not that many students at the metropolitan institution, however, can say they had the opportunity to work on a rural chocolate farm in Mexico.

Anthropology students worked alongside cacao farmers in Chiapas during a two-week ethnoecology study led by Janine Gasco, associate professor of anthropology. Two cacao farmers in Soconusco were assisted by CSU Dominguez Hills students Maria Toral (standing), John Garcia, and Ana Mendoza of CSU Northridge.

In June, associate professor of anthropology Janine Gasco took students in her Introduction to Mesoamerican Ethnoecology class on a two-week excursion to the Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico, for a look at local agriculture. In collaboration with a local nonprofit, La Red Maya de Organizaciones OrgÃ¡nicas (CASFA), Gasco and her students assisted the area’s cacao farmers and studied the methods and culture in which they grow a product famous among chocolate makers worldwide, and whether or not their farming practices were sustainable.

During their trip, Gasco’s class had a unique opportunity to witness CASFA’s efforts to teach cacao farmers how to monitor their cacoa trees for signs of the deadly fungus monilia, and the painstaking maintenance that it would take to prevent em from losing entire orchards.

“We were able to see how people responded to the new tools, plus we were there to help them to go out and actually use the tools,” Gasco says. “A byproduct for the interest of the class was to see how people reacted to new ideas. Some farmers would literally say ”˜Thank you very much’ for the tool, go put it in a corner of their house, and then take us out to their field with their machete. And others… saw in a minute why this was going to help. We did see some entire orchards that had been pulled up because [they were] infected. It’s going to be interesting in the long run because some farmers are not going to take the advice and they’re going to lose everything.”

Gasco says that the methods that CASFA is trying to introduce involve “radical changes for [farmers]. Traditional farmers everywhere are really suspicious of outsiders coming in and telling them what to do.” The nonprofit is encouraging the cacao farmers to begin watching their trees for signs of monilia, removing infected pods before the disease can spread, and pruning the trees to allow more sunlight in the orchards which would prevent the fungus from developing in a dark, humid atmosphere.

Another lesson that Gasco’s students took away from their trip was being afforded a glimpse of daily life among the farmers in Soconusco, which despite the poverty in some villages, was self-sustaining and afforded the visitors great hospitality.

“It was a whole cultural experience,” says Gasco. “We’d work in the cacao orchards, then they would take us back to their houses and feed us. So we got the chance to interact with the whole family, to see how a household works, and how different the houses were. We would get a sense of their lifestyle, their socioeconomic status, and how many people lived in the household. One family [had] a truck, a washing machine, and a stove. Another family had just a few light bulbs and no bathroom. They didn’t have anything electronic and cooked over a wood stove.”

Students observed age-old methods used in the growing and harvesting of cacao, such as the drying of cacao seeds outdoors in the sun.

“People eat what they grow. Even really poor families eat well; we would have these amazing banquets. Nobody’s starving there because things grow like crazy. A few extra people show up for breakfast and [they say], ”˜Tell the kids to get a few more eggs from the chicken,’ ”˜Go cut up a chile and we’ll make some salsa.’ It was really neat to see how you could put together a meal with what they had around the house.”
Gasco has worked with cacao farmers in Soconusco, Chiapas, Mexico to connect them with chocolate makers, most notably Askinosie Chocolate of Springfield, Mo. She has confidence that the ability of manufacturers to know the source of crops like cacao, vanilla, coffee, and tropical fruit holds great cache for niche markets.
“Every chocolate maker knows about Soconusco cacao because historically, it was the best chocolate,” she says. [Trade] is so undeveloped there because there is no infrastructure for marketing and there aren’t a lot of middlemen who are experienced in exporting. I’m just hopeful that… there’ll be other chocolate makers who are interested in having relationships with the actual farmers and meeting them and knowing exactly where the cacao is coming from.
“I came back very optimistic because there really is a growing interest internationally where you are supporting local farmers and organic production, both for your own health, the health of the farmers and the health of the earth. It’s a small thing but I think it’s growing.”

John Garcia, a junior majoring in Chicana/o studies, says that the visit to Soconusco gave him an appreciation for what life must have been like for his ancestors’own rural existence.

“My grandfathers also lived off the land in Zapotlanejo, Jalisco, Mexico,” he says. “One is still living and currently resides here in the states, but still maintains a smaller plot of land. They would grow and often sell sugar cane, corn, beans, onions, and many [other crops]. All of their harvest was grown organically and they also resisted the use of chemical pesticides.”

Garcia values the chance to work with CASFA, “an organization that works directly with communities in Chiapas, supporting people’s right to choose their own way of life.”

“Interacting with the farmers on a personal scale also allowed us to gain insight into their views and outlook on many aspects of life,” he says. “This trip has definitely broadened my experience and has allowed me to gain a new perspective and understanding
of undergoing changes in traditional ways of life that not only Chiapas but most countries in the world are currently experiencing. It was great to be able to understand the changes, and connect the dots which reveal their causes.”

Mike Young, a graduate of the anthropology program at CSU Long Beach, joined Gasco and her students on their trip to Chiapas. Although he visited the area last year, he says that “having done this class, I feel as if [my previous] experience was more as a tourist.”

“I have felt something magical both times I have been to this region of Mexico and I am planning on incorporating Chiapas and ethnoecology into my graduate studies,” says Young. “I fell in love with the people, the landscape, and the energy of Chiapas and plan to be involved with this topic for years to come. My interest has now become a passion and I will continue on the path Dr. Gasco helped me find on this trip.”

Elsie Heredia, a senior with a double major in liberal studies and anthropology, was amazed at seeing the origins of popular foods such as chocolate.

“I was intrigued and became enamored with the antique and very effective techniques used by campesinos (farmers) in the area. Intercropping, using shade, and using organic residue as fertilizers are techniques that are used in the area by traditional farmers only because they have proven to be effective for many generations. When I eat a chocolate now, I close my eyes and have flashbacks of smiling farmers and their families working in the beautiful Chiapas fields.”

Heredia says that her mentors in the anthropology department have been instrumental in shaping the teacher she hopes to become.

“Through my study of anthropology I think I will be a better teacher because I understand and can analyze social interactions and contexts as well biological processes and historical facts which have influenced [these] contexts,” she says. “I chose to double major in anthropology because the professors in the department have led me to realize that humanity is worth studying. I have realized that humans are complex yet simple; all humans differ yet we all have the same needs and desires. Even though I have chosen to take a career in which I will be labeled as an ”˜educator,’ I feel that I will be an anthropologist from now on.”

For more information on the anthropology department at CSU Dominguez Hills, click here.

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