It’s not every day professors get a tree planted in their honor, but not every professor has been part of a community-outreach program for 20 years. That’s the case for Drs. Betsy Brenner and Richard Durán from the Department of Education, who recently got to address the anniversary gala for the St. George Youth Center, originally the Isla Vista Teen Center when it began in 1998 in a temporary home that remained that way until 2015.
Brenner and Durán began their involvement purchasing the first computers for the Center thanks to a grant from UCOP through the UCLinks program. In that first year, they also worked with a teacher from Isla Vista School to start an afterschool technology program for sixth graders at the Center. Their work grew from the founding of the Parents Children and Computers Project in 1995 that served immigrant Latino families in Isla Vista, teaching two generations how to use computers for research and electronic publishing.
Both undergraduates and graduate students have supported these efforts since the beginning. Since 2005, Brenner and Durán have sent undergraduate volunteers from ED124, Research on Teaching & Learning in Sociocultural Contexts, to work at the Center every quarter. “I estimate that we've sponsored about three hundred undergraduate and graduate student volunteers over the years,” Brenner asserts. “Some of these undergraduates have continued to work at the Center for more quarters, even years after completing the course.”
Leonor Reyes, Director of the St. George Youth Center stresses “how important partnerships between UCSB and the local community are to everyone involved. I also know that the UCSB students who volunteer with us are very excited to find community within the center, a sense of purpose as well as gain valuable hands-on experience working with youth in an educational setting.”
Brenner and Durán have consistently found funding from UC Links, a network of university and community partners working together to develop innovative after-school programs. UC Links sites bring underserved P-12 youth together with university students in guided activities that engage their minds and connect them to each other, their communities, and the world around them. Their work has also received funding from other sources including CREDE, Verizon Foundation, CRESPAR and Faculty Outreach Grants. Currently the two Department of Education professors have UC Links grants that fund a multimedia program at the Center and Club Proteo, a digital literacy program.
“We have great graduate students who are currently working at the Center, running various activities (e.g. maker activities, mural project, sound project) as well as conducting their research,” Brenner points out. “Each of them—Jasmine McBeath, Stephanie Arguera, David Sañosa—has gone beyond the duties of their jobs and research to become deeply involved in working with the youth.”
Indeed, the youth have become so empowered and educated, a group of them recently published an article in the peer-reviewed journal in:cite, “The Good, the Bad, and the #BestofIslaVista: Community Data Gathering and Research by Our Youth Leadership Group.”