{"id":59186,"date":"2012-04-30T08:26:17","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T12:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=59186"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:13:44","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:13:44","slug":"semester-in-hartford-learning-through-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/04\/semester-in-hartford-learning-through-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Semester in Hartford: Learning Through Service"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chituwa<\/a>
Chituwa Kawimbe '12 (CLAS) at the Legal Assistance Resource Center of Connecticut in Hartford, where she works as an intern as part of the Urban Semester program. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Throughout this semester, one of UConn senior Cassandra Delone\u2019s \u201cclassrooms\u201d has been the bustling office of the Urban League of Greater Hartford, where she\u2019s part of a team helping city residents navigate complex financial and housing issues.<\/p>\n

For junior Jaclyn Dougan, her \u201cclassrooms\u201d include a Hartford nonprofit agency where she helps guide young children past traumatic experiences through a program of therapeutic and educational activities.<\/p>\n

And for sophomore Tekowa Omara-Otunnu, her \u201cclass work\u201d includes tutoring recent immigrants and refugees, and helping tend one of the Hartford Food System\u2019s urban gardens to ensure fresh, nutritious produce for city dwellers.<\/p>\n

These students are among several participating this spring in UConn\u2019s Urban Semester<\/a> program, which was launched more than 40 years ago to combine hands-on education in various fields with community outreach and service to Connecticut\u2019s capital city.<\/p>\n

For the undergraduates, it\u2019s an opportunity to live in a Hartford apartment with others in the program, and work at credit-bearing internships for up to 27 hours a week. Their intern roles range from early childhood education aides to assistants at social service agencies, education programs, shelters, and the offices of legislators representing some of Connecticut\u2019s most struggling urban centers.<\/p>\n

The students also take two seminar-style classes at UConn\u2019s Greater Hartford campus<\/a>, finishing the semester with 15 credits and much broader knowledge of urban problems and potential solutions than they\u2019d find in a textbook or traditional class.<\/p>\n

\"Jaclyn<\/a>
Jaclyn Dougan '13 (CLAS) with students during an after-school program at the Thomas J. McDonough Elementary School in Hartford, part of her internship with Youth United for Survival. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The students say they\u2019re gaining far more than the credits and a line on their resumes, though. Several say the satisfaction of helping improve other people\u2019s lives has been the highlight of their experiences, and has helped solidify the interest in public service that attracted them to the Urban Semester program in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re learning a lot from our own internships, but also from hearing about each other\u2019s internships,\u201d says Dougan \u201913 (CLAS), a Barkhamsted native studying human development and family studies at UConn\u2019s Torrington campus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dougan\u2019s internship is at Youth United for Survival<\/a>, a Hartford-based nonprofit agency where she works in a program that helps children overcome traumatic experiences. She also helps in its after-school program at Hartford\u2019s McDonough Middle School, where students get homework help and work on crafts and other projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing from Barkhamsted, living right in the city has been an education in itself and a really great part of the internship,\u201d Dougan says.<\/p>\n

Channeling students’ desire to help
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Urban Semester program started in 1968 as an outgrowth of students\u2019 desire to work in cities to fight problems associated with poverty, blight, racism, and other social and economic inequities. Now offered under the aegis of the Study Abroad Office, the program draws undergraduates from a wide variety of majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that fits a lot of different people\u2019s interests because we have a lot of options for their internships and learning experiences,\u201d says Louise Simmons, the program\u2019s director and a professor at UConn\u2019s School of Social Work<\/a>. \u201cHartford is quite an incredible setting because we are one of the poorest cities in the country on several measures, but at the same time, it\u2019s a small city so students can meet a lot of people in a short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full-semester internships are designed to give students enough time at the agencies to take on major projects, both so they can learn the responsibilities of those career fields and so they can see their work making a tangible difference in people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Several students have gone on after graduation to work at the agencies or offices where they interned, Simmons says, and some alumni of the program are now supervising this generation\u2019s interns.<\/p>\n

\"Tekowa<\/a>
Tekowa Omara-Otunnu '14 (CLAS) at Hartford Public Library. Her internship there includes working with historical documents on the city, as well as tutoring immigrants and refugees in a citizenship program. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of those past interns, Jennifer Wilder-Jackson \u201903 (BUS), \u201908 MSW is among them. She served her Urban Semester internship at the Hartford-based Our Piece of the Pie<\/a> agency, and now is site facilitator for The American Place<\/a>, a service at the Hartford Public Library to help immigrants and refugees with programs on American citizenship, learning English, and making cultural adjustments.<\/p>\n

Wilder-Jackson now works with Omara-Otunnu, a sophomore from Storrs who is majoring in political science and human rights. She interns at The American Place, along with working on youth programs at the Hartford Food System\u2019s<\/a> office, helping tend its gardens, and working with exhibits and materials at the library\u2019s Hartford History Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Omara-Otunnu was an intern in the fall semester at the Connecticut Fair Housing Center<\/a> as part of a sociology class and, she says, \u201cThat\u2019s when I really fell in love with Hartford and I realized that you don\u2019t have to go to an international site to help people. There\u2019s so much that needs to be done in our own communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interns\u2019 energy and interest in public service in Hartford has also helped scores of agencies and groups over the decades, including Our Piece of the Pie, where Wilder-Jackson interned almost 10 years ago and where two students are currently interning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students have been go-getters who are willing to go out and find information, and that\u2019s very valuable for us,\u201d says Scott Sugarman, director of educational initiatives at the agency, which runs Hartford\u2019s Opportunity High School with the city\u2019s public school system. This semester\u2019s interns have been helping conduct intensive research as the agency considers applying for permission to launch a charter school.<\/p>\n

A well-rounded experience<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Simmons, the Urban Semester program\u2019s director, says the diverse internship opportunities have helped many of its UConn students launch careers in education, social work, public policy, law, labor organizing, nonprofit agency management, and other fields.<\/p>\n

Chituwa Kawimbe ’12 (CLAS), a senior originally from Zambia who expects to graduate in December with a degree in urban and community studies, says she believes her Urban Semester experiences will be beneficial when she eventually enters a graduate program in public health and urban planning. She\u2019s interning on some days at the Legal Assistance Resource Center of Connecticut<\/a> and, on other days, as a constituent services aide in the legislative office of New Haven state Sen. Toni Harp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two courses we\u2019re also taking give you a broader view of the academic side of things, and what issues or policies remain to be tackled. The courses and our internships end up complementing each other well,\u201d Kawimbe says.<\/p>\n

Cassandra Delone \u201912 (CANR), who graduates in May with a degree in resource economics, is also interning in Sen. Harp\u2019s office, while coordinating a financial fitness class for students through her other internship at the Urban League of Greater Hartford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The courses and our internships end up complementing each other well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Delone is considering careers in the insurance and financial industry and, though the Urban League work is more in line with those career goals, she says she also wanted to intern at the senator\u2019s office because she\u2019d had no exposure to state politics and wanted to understand how policy changes occur at the legislative level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was important to be aware of that,\u201d says Delone, a native of Haiti who moved to Hartford with her family in 2006. \u201cAll of the [legislative] hearings I\u2019ve gone to have been so interesting, and it has really given me an understanding of how policies and programs get changed in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Urban Semester interns say the program also provides a valuable social benefit: a way for UConn undergraduates with similar interests in social justice to find each other, despite their different majors, backgrounds, and career paths.<\/p>\n

So while gaining work experience, UConn credits, and the satisfaction of helping children and others who need their employers\u2019 services, many of the Urban Semester interns say they\u2019ve discovered lasting friendships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been concerned with finding other students who are passionate about being socially aware and creating positive change,\u201d Omara-Otunnu says, \u201cso it\u2019s been great to meet some like-minded people that I might not have met otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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