WASC Testimonials

Cheryl McKnight

Coordinator, Service Learning and Civic Engagement
Office of Community Service Learning, CSUDH

My family is Native American. I came from a family that didn’t believe that women should be educated. That it was a waste of time and money because after all they are just going to get married and have children. They were right, but what they didn’t tell me was that I was going to be left alone to support those children with no education and no job skills. So I value education highly and as a result I really pushed my children. Eventually they did get educated and they work in a field that they love. But I decided eventually that it was my turn. What I did was end up coming to Dominguez Hills because my daughter came here. I was familiar with it and it seemed friendly and I really liked that because I am a really shy person. I got so much encouragement here I ended up majoring in Anthropology and I have found out since, that it is one of the best Anthropology departments in the country. I continued onto my graduate degree in English and once again I was really impressed with the education I got here. I was going through the TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) program. Because I felt it related to my Anthropology degree and if I decided to pursue a doctorate I could go through linguistics using my MA in English and it has been wonderful.

WASC Questions:

Please describe your community service and service learning experiences as a student at CSUDH?

Probably my most memorable service learning was working with Dr. Jeanine Gasco from the Anthropology department on her Argo Forestry Project. What we did with that was travel to Chiapas, Mexico just north of the Guatemalan border to a area that was well known for it cacao (chocolate) production during the Aztec times. A lot of the problem now since Mexico went of the hahido system and shared lands, a lot of the richer farmers are buying off the land and cutting forest to plant mangos. Which is a problem for the whole world; it just didn’t involve stripping the land there. So what happened was we went down and talked to the people and looked at the plants and did a lot of ethnobotany projects. She came up with the idea of hooking up the local indigenes farmers there with chocolate entrepreneurs in the U.S. She chose cacao because it can be grown in the forest and the forest doesn’t have to be cut down. It was an absolutely wonderful experience for me because I felt we weren’t just serving the people there but we were serving the whole world so we could breath!

Please briefly highlight some of the service learning opportunities available to CSUDH students?

We have a variety of opportunity for students. Anything from short term beach clean ups which helps everyone, to one particular agency which I like which is called Media Aid and a young man named Martin Chisparro. What he does is he works with at risk youth teaching them how to film documentaries. It is not on campus, but we partner up with a side contract with them. So if one of our students decides to do this, in gaining more experience in film, they are also helping the community then I can send them to Martin because the will be under our liability policy. I am so impressed with this young man. He has taken that agency from nothing and now he has a couple of satellite offices. The students have a wonderful experience with them because they have an opportunity to become production assistants. Another one is right on campus. We have our family tutoring program. Students that are getting their education to become a teacher can work with family tutoring and tutor the children of our students. So it’s a win-win situation because we are serving the student that is becoming the teacher they get experience that is invaluable, we are serving our students specially since we have so many single parents. To study and get tutoring themselves because so many of them can't because they have to take care of children at home. Most people know that it is really hard to be a mom or dad and study with children in the house. The parents are models for their children. They can see there parents in a university setting. It is absolutely wonderful plus the fact they are getting tutoring. Most parents can’t afford to get that for their children. There was one case when we had a set of twins. Their mother said they are the only ones that can’t write their names, but by the end of the semester those children were writing short sentences. As far I know we are the only university that offers this service. I was really proud to be part of that.

What evidence is there of the benefits of such learning experiences to student success and community benefits?

There is an incredible amount of evidence that it benefits our students. For example, Sean Astin who is known as the most quoted educator in the country he recently gave a talk on campus. He considers service learning to be one of the hallmarks in assisting students completing their education because it helps them become more engaged from their own education. Then again, service learning does things to get positive and personal social development, greater civic responsibly, higher academic achievement, school attendance, more knowledgeable and realistic career exploration and aspiration, improve school climate and respect and more positive perception of the school and the students by the community. This has been well documented by a lot of authors and researchers.

How does your degree in anthropology help you to relate to a diverse student body and faculty as coordinator of Community Service Learning?

Anthropology helps in just about everything I do. Anthropology is the study of human kind. And it was special emphasize on culture and language. The fact that you learn how people have different values and different cultures and they have a different world view. Once you understand that you can relate to people much more effectively and it enhances the communication.

How does service learning enhance the educational experience here at Dominguez Hills for students?

Service learning enhances education here pretty much like everywhere else because they are getting hands on experience. We have some special things going on here. For example, Dominguez Hills is a native California propagation site for plants, animals, and minerals and we are starting a new environmental science program. Already we are working on internships that the students that are going to be in the environmental science program will be out in the community why native California species are important. The plants specially in the light of the water resource are becoming more scarce. They will be out in the community planting these plants. That’s a wonderful experience for them because it not only helps the community but it helps the whole world.

- Donna Cruz