School of Ed Receives $500,000 Grant
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation granted $500,000 to the School of Education to support its Institute for Social Justice and Education. The money, which will be distributed over two years, will help the institute continue its reform programs in Bay Area public schools.
The institute helps develop school reform pedagogies and strategies that can be implemented through collaboration between school districts and non-profit groups concerned with school reform.
“There’s been a history of school reforms being initiated and then disappearing after awhile,” said Herb Kohl, director of the institute. “One of the important changes we hope to initiate is to develop reforms so that they can continue long-term. We act as a broker between the school districts and the outside reformers.”
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School of Law Mounts 11th Intensive Advocacy Program
From May 20 to June 2, hundreds of law students, professional trial lawyers, judges, and law faculty from around the country participated in the 11th annual Intensive Advocacy Program organized by the University of San Francisco School of Law. One of only a handful of similar programs around the country, the advocacy program puts law students from schools around the Bay Area through two weeks of intense coaching on trial procedure, from depositions to cross-examination. The program culminates in mock trials before real juries of community members. “I’ve been working night and day,” said program participant and USF law student Jamie Schecter. “I really need to work on my skills and the faculty are all encouraging.”
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Literary Readings
Noted writers Elmaz Abinader, Junot Diaz, Ruth Forman, and Gail Tsukiyama will read from their work June 27 at 7 p.m. Quincy Troupe, Chitra Divakaruni, Diaz, and David Mura will appear on July 3 at 7 p.m. Both readings will be held at the University of San Francisco Presentation Theater as part of USF’s Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) Foundation. Now in its third year, the workshop’s faculty is limited to writers of color to help students learn from a minority perspective. The readings are open to the public. For information, call (415) 422-5488.
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17 Faculty and Staff Win Spring Jesuit Foundation Grants
This summer, poor Salvadorians will learn about their legal rights from USF law students through El Salvador’s first street-law program. In the American South, post-conviction defense programs for death-row prisoners will also get assistance from law students. Murals and iconography around The City will be studied this fall by high school students participating in USF’s Upward Bound Visual and Performing Arts program as clues to The City’s community history. On campus, alternative theater groups will perform for USF performing arts students in a showcase of regional talent.
These initiatives are just a few of the 17 projects that received Jesuit Foundation grants this spring. A total of $57,550 was awarded to 17 faculty and staff from the Jesuit Foundation for proposed studies in Ignatian spirituality, pedagogy, research, and community-in-conversation.
Jean Molesky-Poz, one of the grant recipients and assistant professor in the department of theology and religious studies, will be conducting research for her proposal, “Jesuit Mission in the Guatemala Highlands,” an ethnographic study of the work of Victoriano Castillo, S.J. Also called Padre Vico, Fr. Castillo has spent 13 years in his parish in Santa Maria engaged in Gospel inculturation with the Ki’che’ Maya.
“During my project for my dissertation I met Padre Vico,” Molesky-Poz said. “He was studying the emergence of Mayan spiritual practices in Guatemala—looking into the consciousness of the Ki’che.’ He explored how the presence of God was felt from the perspective of these indigenous peoples. The opportunity to observe and take part in this is just wonderful.”
Cynthia Brooks de Martini is another grant recipient and the administrator of the Center for Law and Global Justice at the School of Law. Her project, “Partners Working to Provide Education for the Rule of Law with Justice,” will send seven law students to El Salvador for the summer to assist the Institute of Human Rights and the University of Central America.
“I’ve dealt with the University of Central America in the past, and they expressed an interest in learning trial advocacy skills,” Brooks de Martini said. The summer project also will include translating documents, performing legal research, and developing a community outreach program. A street law program will be established, and Salvadorians will be assisted in locating family members who live in the United States.
Alan Ziajka, director of institutional research, and Tom Lucas, S.J., chair of the fine and performing arts department, will use their grant for the USF sesquicentennial photo research and preservation project. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of St. Ignatius Academy (the original name of the school that became USF), the project involves scanning and electronically archiving historical photographs of the university. The money will be used to cover the expenses of purchasing a scanner, database software, and graduate student assistance.
“These photographs are quite old,” Ziajka said. “Some go back over 100 years, detailing the history of USF and its evolution from St. Ignatius Academy and St. Ignatius College.” The purpose of the project is to preserve the history of the Jesuit tradition at USF and make it accessible to the community, Ziajka said. When complete, the project will have three immediate uses: the sesquicentennial exhibit at USF’s Thacher Gallery, Italian Jesuit studies by the Museo Italo Americano association of San Francisco, and a book of 150 vignettes about the university accompanied by photographs.
Xiaoxin Wu, director of the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, received money for his pedagogical project, “Young Chinese Scholars Project: Study of Christianity in China for the 21st Century.” The Ricci Institute and China’s Center for Study of Religion and Chinese Society will organize a symposium at Chung Chi College at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to explore Christianity in China.
“This grant will take the mission and goals of USF beyond the boundaries of this university, this city, and this country, to China,” Wu said. “This is for the education of the youth. The uniqueness of this project is precisely part of the Jesuit educational mission.”
Other proposals that received Jesuit Foundation grants for spring 2002 are:
Discerning and Enacting an Ignatian Way. Kimberly Conner, assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies, College of Professional Studies. A lecture series directed toward intra-campus communication with a focus on each aspect of the self, society, and the world.
Training USF Staff and Faculty in Ignatian Spiritual Direction. Donal Godfrey, S.J, resident minister, University Ministry, and Carmen Silva, assistant to the provost. A series of workshops for select faculty and staff to build a larger team of directors to help the promotion and practice of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Symposium. Stephen Huxley, professor, School of Business and Management. The first colloquium held in the San Francisco Bay Area devoted to the empirical evidence and apologetic implications of intelligent design, the theory that life may be constructed in accordance with a divine plan or a higher consciousness. Speakers will include scientists, philosophers, and theologians. The conference website can be found at: www.ideacenter.org.
Forward Summer 2002 Bridge program. B.J. Johnson, dean of academic services. To aid in the matriculation, retention, and graduation of students conditionally and transitionally admitted to USF.
Reading, Writing, and Imagining San Francisco. Miguel Lopez, assistant professor, School of Education, and Marc Spencer, associate director, Upward Bound Visual and Performing Arts. Murals, multicultural children’s literature, and digital storytelling will be used to aid youth in understanding diversity and community empowerment in San Francisco.
Experiencing the World of the Poor and the Oppressed. Gerardo Marin, senior associate dean, and Jennifer Turpin, associate dean, College of Arts and Sciences. Faculty workshops will be offered in developing societies in the Americas and Asia to help expose the ideas and experiences of local academics, community and government leaders, and representatives of the poor and the oppressed.
Regional Alternative Theater (RAT) Conference. Peter Novak, assistant professor, and Roberto Varea, assistant professor, fine and performing arts. The conference will expose students to artists whose work focuses on community, social change, and justice.
2002: An Ignatian Odyssey. Charles Piazza, associate program director, information systems, College of Professional Studies. A series of lectures and workshops focused on four themes: “Ignatius and the Info Systems’ World,” “Info-rich/Info-poor—Tearing Down the Digital Divide,” “Spirituality Dot.Com,” and “Professional Codes as Agents of Change.”
Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project. Steven Shatz, professor, School of Law. Six students will go to Louisiana and Mississippi for nine weeks to assist two post-conviction defense programs in representing death-row prisoners.
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