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An opportunity to help in New Orleans
2nd annual service learning program held during Winterim
By Savannah Hunnicutt
“Learning will be enriched as we compare the multicultural literature and history of the U.S. with the real life stories of people we meet in New Orleans” – Cheryl Ajirotutu, Associate Director of UWM’s Cultures and Communities program
The second annual UW-Milwaukee service leaning project to New Orleans, sponsored by the anthropology department, will be from January 5th to the 22nd.
Students who participate will volunteer at five different service sites in the ninth district and nearby where Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the city hardest.
Cheryl Ajirotutu, Associate Director of UWM’s Cultures and Communities program, chaperoned the program last year. She says that the program is “transformative” and that students create lasting relationships with the people they meet.
Students receive three credits for participating, and any student can apply for the program. The two programs that students can attend are through UWM courses Anthropology 150 - Multicultural America, or Anthropology 540 - Applications of Anthropology.
“Both courses will offer a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary exploration of U.S. ethnic and racial identities and experiences, with special attention focused on the cultural history of New Orleans,” said Ajirotutu.
Ajirotutu recalls a memory from the first trip to New Orleans, where students helped Ronald Louis, locally known as the “King of Marti Gras”, with costume making, decorating umbrellas and cutting fabrics.
Last year, the students who went on the trip worked with the Martin Luther King Charter School of Science and Technology, explains Ajirotutu. Students worked as teacher aids in the classroom, helped students write papers, and helped with after school tutoring.
Students also interviewed faculty at the school, and other people who experienced Katrina. Ajirotutu said the students got a collection of oral history of the area, and that they are currently “creating an archive of these stories.”
“Students will thus have an exceptional opportunity to become acquainted with New Orleans’ diversity,” said Ajirotutu. “Learning will be enriched as we compare the multicultural literature and history of the U.S. with the real life stories of people we meet in New Orleans.”
A story that stands out in the mind of Cheryl Ajirotutu is that of a man that her and her students met in the ninth district of New Orleans. He lost both his mother and his granddaughter in Katrina, and is still living in the pain of this loss, she said.
Students interested in the program should contact Ajirotutu at yinka@uwm.edu.
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