Photo by Dexter Bercero

Fellowship program aids community

Poster boards displaying various community projects ranging from block parties to mural drawings served as the backdrop for a presentation by students participating in the community fellowship program.

The community fellowship program was part of the Cal State Long Beach social work department's Interdisciplinary Training Project.

Jim Kelly, director of social work, said its goal is to enhance and support the goals of the Long Beach Coalition for Juvenile Crime Prevention.

"We work together with the community to change policies and solve problems," Kelly said.

CSULB was chosen by the W.M. Kellogg Foundation from among 200 applicants to receive funding for its project.

Fifteen students from various disciplines including family and consumer sciences, nursing, art, recreation and leisure and anthropology participated in the project.

At the presentation, CSULB President Robert Maxson praised the students for their involvement.

"You have dedicated your educational career to solving community problems," Maxson said. "If we are to solve problems you are the people who are going to solve them."

Maxson added that these students represent another level of maturity for this university.

"You represent the best CSULB has to offer," Maxson said. "I have great respect for you because you are helping people who can't help themselves."

Jose Rico explained how his group got together with a downtown Long Beach resident, Brenda Walker, to help her bring her neighborhood together.

"There are only two black families, and the rest are Hispanic in my neighborhood," Walker explained. "When my kid got harassed, I wanted to do something about it."

Concerned they didn't know each other, Walker rallied neighbors and with the help of Rico, Noriko Ikoma and others, she threw a block party. More than 113 neighbors showed up.

"Since then there isn't a day that they don't say hello or ask me how I'm doing," Walker said.

Walker is now working with the ITP to improve safety in her neighborhood by asking the city council to put in speed bumps in her area, after a girl was run over and killed and Walker's husband was hit as he crossed the street in separate incidents.

Another group included Lee Corbett, Frieda Metwally and Po Winn held.

They wanted to help young people obtain jobs with companies that had approached offering job opportunities by providing a job preparation workshop. Unfortunately, only one person.

Metwally said they still have the materials and possible job connections to help anyone interested.

Jodi Parvin and Christina Miguel-Mullen were part of a third group whose project was to instill confidence in kids.

They worked with 50 children from the Loma Vista area to paint a mural representing their homes and families.

"We explored our roots from Mexican to Native American to African American," said Donre Walker, a student at Savannah Academy. "Ten different cultures worked on it and are represented."

The mural is on display at the Pine Avenue Opinion Center. Miguel-Mullen hopes to have the mural travel throughout the city.

Co-director Julie O'Donell said having 15 students from different disciplines was beyond her expectations.

The other students recognized were Gus Beigi, Lee Corbett, Craig Halpern, Joseph Mapiet, Matt Oppenheim, Sean Stokes, Patricia Warner and David Wisanski.