University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Utility Menu
Title Bar

UWM News

Home Page Feature Details

Horizontal Navigation
Glory Banner
Right Content Area
Center Content Area
Bookmark and Share

 

Service learning – and living – in New Orleans
 
UWM students have a Big Easy service learning experience
The UWM students who took part in last January’s New Orleans WinteriM posed in front of the Katrina Memorial with Cheryl Ajirotutu, associate professor anthropology (front row, far right).
The reality of New Orleans hit home for Jill Schaub in a classroom at Martin Luther King Charter School in the city’s Lower 9th Ward – the only public school that has returned to the devastated area. “I met a little girl who was 12. Her mother had drowned during the hurricane [Katrina],” Schaub says. “She was amazingly resilient, but that really brought home to me this was something that happened that is still affecting people. These children and their families are trying to have a normal life, living in FEMA trailers, still waiting for housing or insurance. Everyone else seems to have forgotten about them.”
“It changed my life completely.”
— Erica Lehr, sociology major
Schaub, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in May with a degree in social work, was one of 10 UWM students who went to New Orleans in January 2008 as part of a UWinteriM service learning course. (The second UWinteriM course in New Orleans is being offered in January 2009.) ‘We couldn’t just step away’ The course focuses on the cultural history of New Orleans and the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, says Cheryl Ajirotutu, associate professor of anthropology. “The immediate response was to help bring food and shelter for ongoing needs, but one year later the people of New Orleans were still pumping water and cleaning up,” Ajirotutu says. “At UWM, we decided we couldn’t just step away. This is a national disaster, even if it dropped off the media radar.” Ajirotutu, who is also associate director of UWM’s Cultures and Communities program, began working on a longer range, ongoing initiative with the support of Provost Rita Cheng and Chancellor Carlos E. Santiago. The result was a three-year commitment to a service learning course focused on New Orleans.
With resident Valerie
Students pose with Valerie (front row, left) a New Orleans resident, in front of some of the iconic pink FEMA temporary housing trailers.
The course approach is modeled on the successful Walnut Way project, which brought UWM students and residents together to work on community transformation in Walnut Way, a historic African-American neighborhood in Milwaukee. “There were parallels between New Orleans and Milwaukee in the social and economic dynamics of the situation and the deep racial and community divides,” says Ajirotutu. Double the work, double the impact In New Orleans, the UWM students were immersed in the city’s culture, working and learning primarily in the Lower 9th Ward, a working-class African-American community hard hit by the hurricanes and flooding. Students earned credit for two anthropology courses – Multicultural America and Applications of Anthropology – and were required to commit to a certain number of hours of service in the community. “The students really amazed me,” says Ajirotutu. “Many of them did double the amount of work they were asked to do [for the course]. They met and exceeded all of our expectations.” For example, Anthony Johnson, now a senior in anthropology, worked at the Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (NENA), which is trying to document where residents lived and how many of them are returning. Not only were houses washed away, explains Ajirotutu, but also property records. Residents who’d lived in the area for generations look to NENA for help in documenting their land tenure. In addition to the service learning projects, students interviewed and met with residents and community leaders, and visited Dillard University, a historically black institution. The UWinteriM course is a collaboration with Louisiana State University (LSU) through Joyce Marie Jackson, associate professor of geography and anthropology at LSU. Her class on urban anthropology brings LSU students to New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward during the spring semester to continue the work started by UWM students – thus generating a five-month cycle of student involvement, says Ajirotutu. Their New Orleans experience has affected the students’ lives and career plans.
Dizzy’s
The students at their favorite restaurant.
“It changed my life completely,” says Erica Lehr, a sociology major who decided to join AmeriCorps after graduation. After she returned from New Orleans, she and other Milwaukee students brought a New Orleans brass band to UWM in an effort to both share the music and raise money for disaster relief. Schaub, who graduated in May, is thinking about graduate school, possibly in New Orleans. “The [UWinteriM] course changed my outlook on social work. It gave me a way of going about it differently, figuring out ways to listen to what people need as opposed to what politicians may think they want.” Johnson is planning to return to New Orleans again before heading to grad school. “The course inspired me to concentrate on U.S. urban issues. I see cities become worse and worse, particularly in these hard economic times. The New Orleans experience really showed me our approaches to our cities haven’t been working.” The ‘line’ of a lifetime Along with exploring and helping with community problems, the Milwaukee students got a chance to experience the culture and join in some of the fun that makes the Big Easy unique – crawfish boils and jazz, for example. One day, students got swept up in a “Second Line” parade – a communal mix of music, eating, socializing and community outreach that New Orleans residents use to celebrate birthdays, funerals, baby showers and other family/community events. The UWM students had such a good time, says Lehr, that they marched along for four hours, with a few stops for refreshments. “It was a real mix of people of all ages and races taking part. They had a lot of questions for us, and we felt very welcomed and part of the community. I didn’t even realize my feet hurt until we stopped.” “That’s an experience we need to generate more in Milwaukee,” says Ajirotutu with a laugh. “It a cultural connection moment grounded in civic engagement. That’s part of what this course is all about.” For information on the upcoming UWinteriM course, go to www.uwm.edu/~yinka.