This fall will mark the launch of the first full cohort of students in the combined internship and seminar in community organizing and development that serves as the capstone experience for the informal certificate in Social and Environmental Justice at WSUV. The students will be interning with local groups that organize around such issues as homelessness, workers', immigrants' and prisoners' rights, and environmental health issues impacting low income people and communities of color. Graduating seniors Sonia Seise and Rae Vallejo, who were the first WSUV students to earn the certificate, both interned with the American Friends Service Committee this last spring.
Seise, whose long term career goal is to become a civil rights attorney, states that the "internship helped me get a better idea of the needs within the communities I want to be representing." Seise was inspired by the example of her mentor, Martin Gonzalez, the Portland AFSC's Director of Community Economic Development. Gonzalez, she observes, "empowers people to advocate for themselves. He teaches them what justice and politics is about and how strong the voice of the many can be." The AFSC, she notes, "addresses issues of inequality and injustice in communities of color, including migrant workers.... Our community is not just made up of persons who hold U.S. citizenships," observes Seise. "Many of our poor working force, the laborers within our community, are people who have no citizenship within our country. They work hard and need to be aware not just of their responsibilities within the U.S., but their rights as well."
A complete description of the certificate program can be found in the WSUV
catalogue. Among the fall courses that can be applied to the certificate is
a new course in "Global Feminisms" (cross-listed as Women's Studies
332 and Anthropology 317 and as English 309 "Women Writers"). The
course will be taught by Professor Pavithra Narayanan, who specializes in postcolonial
theory and
literature and is also a documentary film maker. Among her film credits is a
documentary on the Bhopal Union Carbide disaster.
Other fall course offerings that can be applied to the certificate include: Fine Arts 401 Special Topics (which focuses on Latin American and Latino art in the context of social movements), HD 403 Families in Poverty, Sociology 480 Race Relations, and Women's Studies 481 Theoretical Issues in Women's Studies.
Students interested in pursuing the certificate in Social and Environmental
Justice or enrolling for an internship in fall, should contact Desiree Hellegers
at 360-546-9643 or at helleger@vancouver.wsu.edu