SERVICE-LEARNING

During summer 2006, Lee Ann De Reus (associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies and Women's Studies at Penn State Altoona), Lorraine Dowler (head of the Women's Studies program and associate professor of Geography at the University Park campus), and Marla Jaksch (lecturer in Women's Studies), took seventeen students from the University Park campus to Tanzania for three weeks, where they embarked on an intensive service-learning experience.

The trip to the United African Alliance Community Center in Arusha, Tanzania was the culmination of an on-campus Women's Studies course; its goal was to forge new links and ways of thinking to envision creative ways to achieve social transformation through feminist activism as service-learning. The class consisted of critical readings, individual and group projects, creative interventions, films, visiting guests, and the service-learning trip to Tanzania.

One of the unique aspects of this trip was the emphasis on the arts, notes co-facilitator De Reus. There was an art auction before the trip in order to raise money for the student travelers. While in Tanzania, they worked on art projects with the Center's students; upon return to Penn State, the group held an art auction featuring paintings of two young Tanzanian men.

The group encountered valuable learning opportunities during their stay. States De Reus, "There are interesting ethical issues that arise on trips such as these, as we try to empower others but not exploit or corrupt Tanzanian culture with our Western ways and values. This is something we struggled with a lot and included basic issues such as taking photographs."

During their three-week stay, the need for positive social change was illustrated to the group in a dramatic fashion, as they learned of a 12-year-old Masai girl who was murdered by her father for refusing to marry a 30-year-old man. Hoping to address these issues in greater detail during the summer 2007 trip, De Reus will be working with the executive director of the Masai Women's Development Organization, a group dedicated to improving the position of Masai women.