Africana Studies Internship Offers Hands-On Career Experience to UAlbany Students
ByGreta Petry
Rafeek Brown, 23, of Elmira, who will be a senior this spring, works at the Albany County Jail with inmates ages 16 to 20 while he gains experience for a future teaching career. He also works with youth who are on out-of-school suspension.

Kyle Bollar, 21, a UAlbany senior from Huntington, N.Y., is researching the Underground Railroad. He is focusing on two settlements: Eagles Nest in Ulster County, and Success, formed by fugitive slaves and abolitionists in Nassau County. When finished, his findings will be a part of the New York State Freedom Trail Program study, aimed at creating a curriculum about the trail in grades K-12 for the State Education Department. Like Brown, Bollar has his eye on a teaching career.

Tasha Barrientos, 19, a junior from Syracuse, N.Y., transports women who are escaping from abusive husbands or boyfriends. She meets them at a gas station or other location and takes them to the Equinox safe shelter, the address of which remains confidential for security reasons.

Engagement with the community is nothing new for Barrientos, who was named Volunteer of the Year while still in high school for her work with the Special Olympics.

Tracy Jordan, 19, a junior from Brooklyn, N.Y., advocates for battered women in Family Court. She helps them fill out petitions for orders of protection, support, and custody, and guides them in letting their lawyers know about information pertinent to their cases. Her career goal is to become a lawyer, and then a family court judge, handling divorce. Jordan, a native of Barbados, says law is a tradition in her family: A distant cousin once served as the prime minister of Anguilla, a self-governing territory in the West Indies.

All four of these UAlbany students are gaining hands-on experience in their future careers while giving their time and energy back to the Capital Region through the Department of Africana Studies’ Community Service Program directed by Marcia Sutherland. Sutherland, an associate professor in the departments of Africana studies and psychology, takes great care to match students to internships tied to their professional goals. And while this experience is a resumé-stengthener, there is more to it than just enhancing one’s career prospects.

“I tell the students, before they are sent anywhere, that they are ambassadors for the University at Albany, and that they have a responsibility to make a good impression so that we will be able to send other students to those agencies in the future,” Sutherland said. “When we consider our University mission - it is linked to having a relationship with the community. The Department of Africana Studies’ Community Service Program is really tied to that community in a relationship that benefits the community, the students, and the University.”

Since the 1970s, community service has been a part of the Africana Studies program, one that has grown over the years.

“Right now we are working on reaching a long-term agreement with the Freedom Trail Program,” Sutherland said. Under this proposal, UAlbany’s graduate students in Africana Studies may be able to one day earn a partial tuition waiver while they document the authenticity of sites along the Freedom Trail, as part of the process of developing a K-12 curriculum for the state.

Through the three-credit internship, majors, minors, and graduate students in Africana Studies can work with the Homeless & Travelers Aid Society of the Capital District; Albany County Head Start; Equinox; The Center for Law and Justice; Adolescent Employability Skills Plus Program, Inc.; and the Executive Chamber, as well as in a host of other governmental and non-profit agencies.

Internships are open to students who have junior standing and a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5. The student must be sponsored by a full-time faculty member.

In addition to the project, students must fulfill an academic component to complete the internship. “They have to write an academic paper that uses the scholarly literature, addressing both theory and empirical statistical data. Then they must infuse the scholarly literature with their own experiences from the agency,” Sutherland said. “This is a very important component of the internship courses. They must meet with me once a week. I supervise the academic component of the program. I make sure things are running well.” Supervisors evaluate the students twice, once at mid-terms and again at the end of the course.

For Brown, working with young offenders who are in jail for selling drugs or for assault means showing them they can take another path. Having volunteered to join a 12-step program to make positive changes in their lives, many say they want to go back to school.

“I just try to be a role model for them. They see me, and I am 23, and they know that I am in college. So hopefully, they look up to me. I tell them if I can do it - they can too,” said Brown.

Brown’s internship is with the Adolescent Employability Skills Plus Program, Inc., 69 Lexington Ave. in Albany, which seeks to prevent incarceration and reduce recidivism rates for at-risk youngsters by providing early intervention. Students suspended from elementary or middle school also meet with Brown at the AESPP office.

“I have always wanted to be a teacher,” he said.

Bollar’s job is to follow up on leads about slavery’s hidden history in New York State. He has found that his internship requires a greater commitment than the eight hours a week he spends at the Office of Cultural Education at the New York State Museum.

“I take work home with me all the time. I carry the commission report around. It tells you how to find information about the trail. They gave us the foundation and we build on it,” Bollar said.

The study’s executive summary noted: “Enslaved Africans, running away from slavery in New York State from 1625 to 1827, sought refuge outside the state, in Native American communities and in urban areas. After 1827 when slavery was abolished in New York, fugitive enslaved Africans from outside the state looked to black and white New Yorkers and New York State for passage to safer freedom zones, refuge, and protection from slave catchers up to the end of the Civil War in 1865. Places of refuge and assistance, sites of significant events and struggles of resistance, and participants in this struggle for freedom beginning with the enslaved Africans themselves deserve broad public recognition, awareness, understanding, and commemoration.”

The commission’s program is based on a year-long study conducted by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library.

“It’s just fascinating how much information is out there if you do the research,” said Bollar, whose career goals include being a teacher, a guidance counselor, and eventually, a principal. He is considering Teach for America, through which young teachers volunteer for service in one of 15 of the nation’s poorest areas, from New York City to rural Louisiana. Another part of Bollar’s internship is helping to compile the African American Resource Guide for the New York State Museum, which has meant contacting organizations all over the state.

Barrientos plans a career in law. “My mother always told me it is important to help others out. As much as we complain about little things in our lives, it could be so much worse,” she said.

At the battered women’s shelter, “I am there to support them. They are coming from bad situations to live among strangers, and that makes them uncomfortable at first. I also work with their kids,” she said.

While Barrientos helps the clients settle in at the shelter, Jordan explains the process to them in court. She can assure them their addresses will not be revealed to the respondents in court papers; can counsel them to have the landlord change the locks while they are awaiting a permanent order of protection; and can suggest options if they are dependent on their spouses for financial support.

While Jordan’s internship will end in December, her immersion in law will not. During the winter break, she will earn three credits working in the District Attorney’s office in Brooklyn. Next summer, she plans to study abroad in South Africa.

Kellogg Leads CASDA in Training Area Teachers and School Administrators
By Carol Olechowski
Ruth Kellogg’s recent appointment as executive director of the Capital Area School Development Association brings her full circle with the organization: As an administrator with several area school districts, she has had an ongoing relationship with CASDA for more than 25 years.

Kellogg, an adjunct professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies, took over as CASDA executive director last August, succeeding Richard Bamberger, who served in that capacity for 15 years. Through the school, she teaches Administration of the Public School; next spring, Kellogg will teach another EAPS course, Principalship. Through CASDA, which is located at the East Campus, the State University of New York at Geneseo graduate works with the School of Education, meeting regularly with Dean Ralph Harbison and his management team.

Incorporated by the New York State Department of Education in 1949, CASDA - “one of the oldest study councils in the United States” - boasts a membership of 117 Capital Region school districts. Kellogg, who earned her Ed.D. at UAlbany, is quick to point out that the association serves many functions. Through CASDA’s planning and development activities, “affiliated schools and educational agencies more effectively define and fulfill their purposes and functions in serving the educational needs of their communities.” In addition, the organization “promotes cooperative interaction between the University at Albany and the affiliated school districts, educational and social agencies, and businesses. CASDA also responds to requests for information by providing research, as required; and plans seminars, conferences, workshops, and ‘think tanks’ to meet the ongoing needs of school personnel.” Kellogg and her staff also “act as consultants, providing services to affiliated school districts.”

In short, CASDA “provides a variety of programming to meet the needs of teachers, administrators, and support staff in the school districts,” Kellogg continues. “CASDA does offer on-site programs that are ‘custom-designed’ for a particular school. With this model, CASDA selects presenters, prepares the materials, makes meeting arrangements, and conducts follow-up evaluations. I personally facilitate the work for several of the special services, and I present on specific topics related to my background and administrative experience, such as the Principal/Mentor Program, the Select Seminars Series (Developing Teachers for the 21st Century), and Board/Superintendent Workshops, to name a few.”

Kellogg has been well acquainted with CASDA’s offerings for many years. “I have not worked for CASDA previously, but I have been affiliated with CASDA since the early 1970s, when I started working for schools in the area. Capital Region BOCES and the South Glens Falls, Scotia-Glenville, Cobleskill, and Greenville central school districts, where I have been employed, were consumers of CASDA programs and services,” explains Kellogg, who served on CASDA’s executive committee for seven years and chaired that body from 1996-97. (The executive committee, which consists of 13 superintendents and School of Education representatives, governs the organization.)

Kellogg will direct CASDA for the next three years. The assignment marks a homecoming, of sorts, as well as a continuation of her recent career track: three years ago, Kellogg and her husband, longtime Union College professor and physicist Allen Anderson, traveled to Pakistan, where she spent a year as director of an international school in Lahore. In 1998 and 1999, the couple lived in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, where they “actually started a new school enrolling children of 15 different nationalities, including Pakistani, Lebanese, Egyptian, American, and British. It was a real learning experience for me,” she says.

The new executive director sings the praises of her CASDA staff: interim associate director Dee Warner (a new associate director is being recruited); assistant directors Arlene Sampson and Pamela Arnold; office manager Karen Dockal; and secretary Joan Charnews. Kellogg describes them as “truly wonderful people with a great deal of expertise, vision, and commitment.”

And she is “delighted” to be CASDA’s executive director, “since the organization has been very important to me for almost 30 years. I am thoroughly enjoying my position and the opportunity to work so closely with the University’s School of Education and the school districts in the region. It is truly an exciting time to be involved in providing a variety of professional development activities to all segments of the school community.”

Kellogg looks forward to meeting with the executive committee and its chair, Mohonasen Central School District Superintendent Audrey Farnsworth, and with her own staff in early January. At that one-day session, the two groups will “review CASDA’s purposes, discuss the programs and services offered, and project how CASDA can meet the future needs of the changing professional landscape.”

Employee Recognition Honorees 2000

Retirees:
Angela M. Aretakis/Finance, Judith Baskin/Judaic Studies, John E. Benway/Physical Plant, Morris I. Berger/Educational Administration & Policy Studies, Sandra A. Bradshaw/Physical Plant, G. William Bray/Management Science & Information Systems, Herbert I. Brown/Mathematics & Statistics, Bonita I. Bryant/University Libraries, Ellen R. Burke/Purchasing, Arthur J. Burt/Physical Plant, Allan H. Butler/Physical Plant, Judith D. Califano/Alumni Relations, Marjorie A. Corbett/Academic Computing, Joseph R. Cordi/Physical Plant, Frederick L. Dembowski/Educational Administration & Policy Studies, Shirley Devine/Parking Management, Deborah Dorfman/English, Robert Dykstra/History, Elmerinda Fabbri/School of Business, Hugh T. Farley/Accounting & Law, William E. Fettig/Physical Plant, James T. Fleming/School of Education, Martha Fleming/English, Ronald Forbes/Finance, Nathaniel Friedman/Mathematics & Statistics, Alyce P. Gibbs/Academic Computing, Warren S. Ginsberg/English, Anthony Gizzi/Physical Plant, Richard M. Goldman/English, Josiah B. Gould/Philosophy, Marylou Halsdorf/Undergraduate Admissions, Linda Healey/Graduate Admissions, Patricia A. Hedrick/Student Accounts, Charles H. Heller/Arts & Sciences, Nancy Hotaling/Physical Plant, Dolores D. Iacobelli/Equipment Management, Richard T. Jadlos/ Student Accounts, Ann E. Keenan/Physical Plant, Barbara Kellogg/University Health Center, David G. Klingstrom/Physical Plant, Charles LaMalfa/Video Communications, Michele M. Lennon/University Health Center John S. Lucas/Physical Plant, Joseph P. Mascarenhas/Biology, Geraldine Mohyla/Management, Joseph W. Montesano/Physical Plant, Edward P. Morawski/Physical Plant, Isabel L. Nirenberg/Academic Computing, Richard C. Northrup/Physical Plant, Marlene T. Palmer/Physical Plant, Enrico Petri/Accounting & Law, Patricia A. Phelan/Academic Computing, Ingrid N. Porter/University Health Center, Gus J. Prodanovitch/University Health Center, Phyllis G. Rathbun/Biometry & Statistics, Madlyn E. Reid/Student Life, Janina Rudzinski/Physical Plant, Mary Kay Sawyer/Intensive English Language Program, Margaret N. Serra-Lima/Undergraduate Admissions, Joseph A. Simone/Physical Plant, Monika Sobolewski/Physical Plant, Richard E. Stearns/Computer Science, Kenneth Stern/Philosophy, Kathleen M. Stutsrim/Chemistry, Louise Tornatore/Sociology, Mary Louise VanEpps/School of Public Health, Michael P. Vayo/Rockefeller College, Demita C. Warner/CASDA, Marilyn Y. Wetsel/Residential Life, Judith G. Wing/University Libraries, Nancy A. Wisenburn/University Libraries, Patricia Youmans/University Libraries

25 Years:
Ronald A. Bosco/English, Peter E. Coffey/ASRC, Judy Coleman/Parking Management, Gordon G. Gallup/Psychology, Anthony Gizzi/Physical Plant, Robert C. Howell/Philosophy, Stanley J. Isser/Judaic Studies, William J. Krone/Chemistry, John N. Megas/Physical Plant, Michael R. Ramundo/Academic Computing, Mary J. Tarsa/School of Business, Sean A. Walmsley/Reading

30 Years:
Edna Acosta-Belén/Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Hassaram Bakhru/Physics, Donald P. Ballou/Management Science & Information Systems, Vicki Brundige/Arts & Sciences, Robert M. Carmack/Anthropology, Richard L. Collier/Undergraduate Studies, James P. Doellefeld/Student Affairs, Deborah Dorfman/English, Ivan J. Edelson/Undergraduate Studies, Dennis S. Elkin/Athletics & Recreation, Robert M. Ford/Athletics & Recreation, Carrie M. Gamble/University Libraries, Richard Z. Goldstein/Mathematics & Statistics, Martin E. Herlands/General Studies & Summer Session Benton N. Jamison/Mathematics & Statistics, Henry G. Kirchner/Student Affairs, Janet M. Kurposka/Purchasing, Virginia La Tourette/UAS, Carmelo R. Lento/Academic Computing, Louise L. Lifford/General Studies & Summer Session, Lloyd L. Lininger/Biometry & Statistics, Carl G. Martin/Student Life, Anne T. McCartt/Public Administration, Karen A. Mitchell/Athletics & Recreation, Lakshmi Mohan/Management Science & Information Systems, Elaine Moody/University Libraries, Jean F. Mullen/Student Loan Service Center, Jerry Norwood/UAS, Christy A. Peacock/Residential Life, Eileen Pellegrino/Sociology, Judith K. Place/University Libraries, Ramaswamy H. Sarma/Chemistry, Wilfried W. Scholz/Physics, David A. Shub/Biology, Josephine Smith/GSPA, Nancy G. Soanes/Public Safety, Kenneth Stern/Philosophy, James T. Tedeschi/Psychology, Glenn W. Thompson/Physical Plant, Michelle Tillapaugh/School of Education, James Trudeau/UAS, Judith G. Wing/University Libraries, Andrew J. Yencha/Chemistry, Sally Young/Office for Sponsored Funds

35 Years:
Ellen R. Burke/Purchasing, Sorrell E. Chesin/University Advancement, Diva Daims/English, Hugh T. Farley/Accounting & Law, Robert M. Garvin/Philosophy, Joanne V. Lue/Art Museum, Robert M. Pruzek/Educational Psychology & Statistics, Joseph A. Simone/Physical Plant, Ivan D. Steen/History, Joseph F. Zimmerman/Political Science

Fluorescent Desk Lamp is Cited as Origin of Fire
Albany Fire Department officials determined that a fire early Tuesday in a basement office in Cayuga Hall on Indian Quad was electrical in nature and originated in a fluorescent desk lamp. There were no reported injuries.

A fire door confined the fire to the basement office, which was not occupied at the time of the blaze. Equipment and furniture in the office, which is used by plant department staff, were damaged by the fire.

When a fire alarm sounded at 12:47 a.m. Tuesday, 230 students were evacuated from Cayuga and Adirondack halls. Many of the students gathered in the “Skin Room” on Indian Quad while Albany fire officials extinguished the blaze, and the evacuated students were allowed to return to their rooms at 3:50 a.m.

Director of Residential Life Laurie Garafola commended the students for following proper evacuation procedures. “Situations such as this demonstrate the critical importance of paying close attention to and following all fire safety procedures,” she said. Students living in Cayuga and Adirondack halls had practiced proper procedures during two fire drills earlier this semester.

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