Author: Lilliane Ballesteros
If community outreach is an intended part of Occidental’s educational mission-the Oxy website advertises a college experience that combines the resources of Los Angeles with a “rigorous academic program”-then the Center for Community Based Learning (CCBL) is the realization of that goal.
Since its founding in 2001, the CCBL has flourished as a way for students to work with local organizations, both contributing to-and benefiting from-the surrounding community. With a variety of service projects, the CCBL tries to bridge the enclosed world of Occidental with the neighboring community.
It was surely a community affair on the night of Monday, March 3 as parents, Oxy students and local educational organizers met in the Young Dining Room to discuss their involvement with and ideas for furthering the work of the CCBL in the community through the Northeast Los Angeles Education Strategy Group.
The Northeast Los Angeles Education Strategy Group was founded by the CCBL in 2002. The Group is made up of several public schools, charter schools, community organizations and parents. The organization works to build partnerships between these disparate groups and offer organizers resources and the tools necessary to implement educational reform and programs at schools in the Northeast Los Angeles area.
Assistant Director of the CCBL Alexis Moreno began the night by introducing the Strategy Group. “We are bringing together folks working with the CCBL,” she said.
Moreno said the meeting was not based on a strict agenda developed by the CCBL staff, but rather “based on the interests and passions of the people in the room.”
She did, however, say that one thing the group is working on is trying to focus on leadership developments for organizers so that the group can branch out into the individual organizations involved. “We are bringing everyone together and thinking about what it is we want,” she said.
As Moreno said in the meeting, the Education Strategy Group is at a critical point in their development as members are starting to see their projects come into fruition and are looking to build stronger bonds between themselves and other organizers in the Northeast Los Angeles area. “We are coming out of the adolescence of our work,” she said.
She added that the CCBL is hoping to connect people, saying that it is “what we want to accomplish together.”
Dean of the College Eric Frank remarked on Oxy’s unique stance as a small liberal arts college in the Los Angeles area. “We can engage LA in our learning environment,” he said. He added that he sees this as a “thing we can do and we must do.”
Next to address the group was a member of One LA-Industrial Areas Foundation, Mary Beth Larkin. “The point of the organization is focusing on how to build a group that does building that allows us to use our resources,” she said. She said that everyone involved has a public role in the community and a common goal of wanting all students to succeed.
The CCBL has been working on trying to create partnerships between groups that do not always work together, even though they have the same intentions. One major example is the contention that exists between public and charter schools in the LAUSD system. These schools usually find themselves in competition with one another for space, students and funds.
The CCBL is trying to lessen this sense of competition through their work in the Strategy Group. They have encouraged administrators from different schools to start talking to one another, for teachers to share their teaching strategies and to let parents know that they have choices and power in the educational process. “Everyone comes from their own group and [their own way of] thinking,” Moreno said.
After seven years of dedicated work, the CCBL is moving out of its planning stages and starting to strengthen its community impact.
By using the CCBL as a resource center, Occidental students involve themselves in the community through service projects, including after-school programs or gardening projects.
Oxy also offers classes that join classroom learning with community involvement. One example was Physics 168, Energy Conversions and Recourses, offered last semester by Professor Adrian Hightower. The class focused on understanding the mathematical aspects of energy conversions with an emphasis on understanding alternative energy production and recourse management.
But the class went beyond the physics lab. At the end of the semester, students were assigned to groups with the goal of using the technical knowledge gained in the class to help various organizations work towards green, low-energy solutions. Multiple groups focused on Debs Park in Los Angeles, where students worked on the cost effectiveness of buying a green vehicle and the benefits of connecting to the electric grid.
Another example of this is Math 201, the first CCBL class offered in the Math department. The class aims to help local schools with students who are struggling with math at the high-school level.
“The idea is that it is a method by which we can assist Oxy students in learning about their power,” Chair of the Math Department Ron Buckmire said, referring to the program’s aim of putting Oxy students together with local schools. Students in the class tutor high-school students who are failing Algebra 1, which is required for students to graduate.
Buckmire said the class is different than other Community Based Learning courses at Oxy in the sense that whereas other classes incorporate elements of CBL, Math 201 works directly with the community in all ways, offering both Oxy students and students from Franklin High School a way to directly work with each other.
Another way that the Math 201 class worked with Franklin to improve students’ math scores came last semester with Math Mania Monday, an event that involved Oxy students and 1,100 high school students. The event focused on ways to make math more enjoyable for Franklin students.
The day included a math game based on the popular TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, as well as online math exercises in the form of games. Buckmire said all but two teachers let their students participate in the day’s events.
Director of the CCBL Maria Avila ended the evening by encouraging members to continue their work with communities through the CCBL and each other. “We are taking action together,” she said. “I know a lot of you here want to see change.”
Moreno shared this sentiment. “We are making sure that we’re not working in isolation from one another,” she said.With their ever-growing list of projects, it’s clear that cooperation, not isolation, is at the core of the organization. To learn more about the CCBL, visit their new office on the first floor of Johnson or visit their website at http://departments.oxy.edu/ccbl.
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