From the Director...
The Institute celebrated a significant milestone this year with its 10th anniversary in the company of our honored guest Marian Wright Edelman. Each program director and staff member had the opportunity to meet with Ms. Edelman and share their work, their enthusiasm and commitment as well as their program’s achievements. As Director of the Institute, I couldn’t have been more proud of their efforts and how they reflect the mission of SFSU and of the Children’s Defense Fund. With the expert assistance of Norma Siani and our committed staff, we hosted a reception in Ms. Edelman’s honor and in celebration of the creative and committed founders who blazed the trail for both the Institute and the Child and Adolescent Development Program ten years ago. For those who were unable to attend or who would like to re-visit the event, a video celebrating 10 years of the Institute will soon be posted on the Institute’s website: http://edelman.sfsu.edu.
A sad milestone was the closing of our Child Study Center, so professionally directed since the 1970s by teachers Carol Fields and Kate Danforth who both retired this year and are greatly missed by us all. When the last round of budget cuts three years ago led to the closing of the Child Study Center, we were motivated to develop a sustainable early care and education center to meet the needs of the faculty and staff. We are now well along in the process of design and program planning for the new "Children’s Campus’ which will be located on the site of the soon-to-be-demolished Lakeview Center.
Marian Wright Edelman (left) confers with Gary Selnow (WiRED) and Juanita Santana (Head Start)
An enthusiastic Children’s Campus Committee, representing experts in the area of early care and education, faculty from departments, and staff from auxiliary units on campus are working steadily to address the myriad of issues required for such an undertaking with a timeline of January 2009 for the opening. The site will enroll 68 infants, toddlers and preschool children. Janet Egiziano, Associate Director of the Institute, is leading this effort and additional information is updated regularly and can be found on the website at http://childrenscampus.sfsu.edu.
From left to right: Julie Law (CAD professor), Mina Kim (Elementary Education professor), and Soyeon Park (CAD professor) look over plans for the new Children's Campus
-Charlotte Ferretti
Kudos Corner: Celebrating the outstanding achievements of CAD students, faculty, and staff
Congratulations to CAD student Kristal Brister, winner of a $1,500 Conference of Minority Transportation Official (COMTO) Scholarship Award.
CAD students Lourdes Pimentil and Mey Saephan won grants from the Child Development Grant Program, a part of the California Student Aid Commission.
Dr. Soyeon Park, CAD Faculty, won a Presidential Award for Professional Development of Probationary Faculty to conduct her research project titled "Cross-cultural Transitions of Korean Children and Parents in the US: Implications for Early Childhood Education" during the 2008-2009 school year.
Janet Egiziano, Associate Director of the Edelman Institute, was admitted to SFSU’s new EdD program.
CAD 310: Early Experience in Child Development (3 units)
CAD 310 (scheduled for Fall 2009) is designed to give new Child and Adolescent Development majors who are entering the Young Child and Family concentration experience observing and working with children under the age of five years and staff in a high quality, NAEYC accredited campus-based facility. This course will provide students with both an experiential introduction to early childhood education as well as a developmental understanding of communicating and interacting with young children in group care. This course will include a seminar as well as practical experience at the ASI Early Childhood Education Center.
CFS 320 Summer Session
CAD professor Dr. Julie Law will teach a section of CFS 320 Children & Families (CAD pre-requisite) during the first summer session R1. If you have had trouble getting into this class before, or you still haven’t taken it, this is your chance!
CAD Students form Youth and Family Networking Group
Students in the Child and Adolescent Development Program’s Youth and Family Services concentration have formed a new networking resource. The new student group, co-facilitated by Dr. Laurie L. Meschke and Amy Ramirez (CAD alumnus), drew 16 students to its first meeting held on February 5, 2008. The group aims to enhance the professionalism of youth workers, specifically those graduating from the CAD program. Future events will include presentations by graduate programs departments, CAD alumni, and other professionals in the field as well as workshops on resume writing. The group also expressed interest in assessing the CAD curriculum and participating in peer academic advising. Social events will weave throughout the annual program of activities. This is an exciting new adventure for the CAD program. Stay tuned to hear much more from students in the Youth and Family concentration.
Photo Gallery: Tokyo Seitoku University Visits SFSU
Jumpstart for a Day Scheduled April 22
An estimated 1,300 preschool children along with their families and teachers will attend Jumpstart San Francisco’s annual Jumpstart for a Day event on April 22 at SF State’s Towers and Seven Hills Conference Center. Student volunteers will join Jumpstart corps members from SF State and City College of San Francisco to staff a wide variety of hands-on activity stations that offer play-based learning opportunities for children from 3-5 years of age.
San Francisco children’s librarians will narrate books alongside costumed storybook characters and Tree Frog Treks will engage the children with science-based activities. Children will be entertained by performances provided by SF State student organizations, San Francisco’s K-9 unit , and can explore a fire truck and meet San Francisco firemen and firewomen. Mark your calendars and contact Jumpstart at 415-405-3593 if you’d like to volunteer or make a donation.
Presentation on CAD Dual Language Program
On February 26, Juanita Santana, Executive Director of SF Head Start, Charlotte Ferretti, Director of the Marian Wright Edelman Institute, and Rene F. Dahl, Director of the CAD Program, made a presentation titled, "Institutionalizing a Dual Language Child and Adolescent Development Program," at the National Head Start Higher Education Grantee Training Meeting in Arlington, VA. In addition, Sharon Cronin, who has coordinated the program the past two years, made a presentation on the dual language model, Soy Bilingüe.
The dual language program is a cooperative venture among SFSU’s CAD Program, Head Start, MWEI, the College of Extended Learning, City College of San Francisco, and First 5 San Francisco. This program serves two cohorts (34 students in each) who are working to complete their BA degrees in CAD using the dual language (English/Spanish) model. It is funded by the Higher Education Hispanic Service Institution grant to Head Start, First 5 San Francisco, and the Mimi and Peter Haas Fund.
Back row, L to R: Nancy
Rivas, 2nd cohort student; Hilary Pritchard, Program Coordinator; Tiffany
Barnes, 3rd cohort student; Charlotte Ferretti, Principal Investigator; Grace
Hardie, Faculty Advisor; Lisa Collins, 2nd cohort student; Skip Davis, Faculty
Advisor. Front row, L to R: Sara Cano, Andrea Japhet, Katia Renderos, all 3rd
cohort students
Diversifying Leadership in Nursing Pilot Program ends successful run
A three-year collaborative effort between the University of California at San Francisco, University of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University comes to an end after successfully recruiting and preparing 23 underrepresented students from SFSU’s Master of Science in Nursing program, and supporting and encouraging them to work toward a PhD in nursing. The program’s strategy was to recruit promising students from the communities and cultures most affected by health disparities and prepare them for leadership roles in the profession where they could address problems that create disparities and focus attention on the research needed to resolve them.
The program provided students with opportunities to work with clinical nurse researchers and to observe how nursing research is applied to improve patient care in the clinical setting. The interests of students cover the full spectrum of health disparities from the plight of patients living in rural settings to teen pregnancy, from prostate cancer to prenatal care to health policy.
The pilot program was funded initially for three years by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute as part of a larger collaborative grant between SFSU and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). UCSF is a premier research institution, and SFSU is a minority-serving institution so the collaboration benefited both schools. Under the initial NIH funding, the program was able to recruit two students per year with clinical and research preceptorships led by nursing researchers at UCSF’s cancer center at Mt. Zion Hospital.
When the initial period of NIH sponsorship ended, the program was able to extend and expand with additional funding from the Health Research Services Administration and the California Wellness Foundation.This funding extended the program to include all clinical nursing areas and expanded recruitment from two students to eight students per year. The additional funding also allowed the program to assist students with living expenses and provided them with
opportunities for professional development ― subscriptions to professional journals, student memberships in professional organizations , and conference attendance ― that they would not otherwise have been able to afford. These enhancements and activities gave students the opportunity for networking and a chance to see the full range of career opportunities available to nurses.
The outstanding participants in this program have had the opportunity to complete their graduate level studies and to experience both the clinical and research sides of nursing. They leave the program prepared to follow whatever career path they may choose and will be able to serve as role models for future generations of nurses. The principal investigators and staff of the Diversifying Leadership in Nursing program are justifiably proud of these students’ achievements. The students will provide first-rate nursing care to their patients, and perhaps pursue their research interests to help resolve the longstanding health disparities that so disproportionately affect underserved communities.
CAD Connections
by Dr. Rene Dahl, CAD Director
Spring greetings to everyone. As you will see in this newsletter, CAD students have been winning awards and we congratulate Kristal Brister, Lourdes Pimentil, and Mey Saephan for their grants/scholarships! CAD faculty are busy teaching courses, conducting research, working with students, and receiving awards. Congratulations to Dr. Soyeon Park who received a Presidential Scholar Award to conduct research in Korea and the U.S. next year. In addition, Janet Egiziano, who coordinates the CAD off campus programs, has started working on her Ed.D. degree in leadership at SFSU.
CAD professor researches youth development in Hmong community
Hmong Circles in Sacramento is an after-school youth program sponsored by Hmong Women’s Heritage Association (HWHA) that serves to promote the teens’ assets and assist them in bridging the gap between Hmong and American cultures. Laurie L. Meschke, CAD professor, recently assisted HWHA in assessment of the impact of the Circles on the participating girls and boys.
The Hmong fought as U.S. allies in the Vietnam War and were granted refugee status in the 1970’s. Today nearly a quarter million Hmong can be found in California. The Hmong face unique challenges given their exposure to war and violence, limited or no exposure to Western civilization, and speaking a language that was unavailable in written form prior to 1955. Hmong teens often serve as cultural brokers for their parents and take on adult responsibilities at an early age.
To conduct the assessment, Dr. Meschke convened nine focus groups with both middle and high school students. Overall, the Circles are very well received by the youth participants and facilitators were repeatedly identified as an important asset to the groups. While many youth shared that they felt threatened in school or their neighborhood because they were Hmong, girls were viewed as facing more challenges than boys within the Hmong culture, including pressures to marry, obligation to be soft spoken or silent, and challenges in finding Hmong men who were motivated to excel academically and occupationally.
Dr. Meschke’s findings will be presented at the Hmong National Development conference in March 2008.
WiRED expands medical information, education services in 2008
WiRED International, in collaboration with the Marian Wright Edelman Institute and other partners, is expanding its efforts to bring medical information and education to war-affected and developing countries in 2008. This year, the organizations are exploring a domestic collaboration to supply healthcare education and information for inner-city populations in California. Many of the information technology-based tools WiRED developed overseas can be adapted to serve populations served by the MWEI.
Recent funding from the U.S. Department of State is allowing WiRED to restart its successful telemedicine program in Iraq. The program connects Iraqi medical professionals who are laboring under extraordinarily difficult conditions with Western medical schools via real-time videoconferencing. U.S. medical schools provide lectures and doctor-to-doctor patient consultation. Collaboration between WiRED and SF State University’s School of Nursing will expand the telemedicine program to include curriculum development for nursing schools in Kurdish Iraq. Nursing programs throughout Iraq suffered severe setbacks under Saddam Hussein and continue to face significant obstacles. The School of Nursing’s contributions will help restore the vital need for qualified and well-trained nurses.
In 2008, WiRED will also develop telemedicine projects for India. With financial support from the Medtronic Foundation, WiRED will provide medical information in live lectures to Indian doctors who will record them and add localized content for retransmission throughout the country. In a ripple effect, smaller medical facilities outside India’s large urban areas will have access to information they could not otherwise obtain.
WiRED will expand its efforts in Central America in 2008 to include the establishment of an additional Medical Information Center in Quilali , Nicaragua, and one in San Marcos de Colon, Honduras. In El Salvador, WiRED will begin providing access for doctors and medical students in San Miguel to connect with their international colleagues and to obtain current medical information. Telemedicine programs in the Balkans will continue and expand. In Kosovo, WiRED will conduct a videoconference lecture/seminar program between U.S. and local medical schools, primarily the University of Prishtina.
Under the guidance of SF State professor Gary Selnow, WiRED has established over 100 Medical Information Centers and Community Health Information Centers in 11 countries. This unique, low-budget collaboration among Western technology, U.S. volunteers and those in countries served by WiRED, and local resources links isolated medical professionals with the global scientific community by providing computer access to up-to-date medical journals and texts, Internet communication, and videoconferencing. WiRED establishes and supports Medical Information Centers for doctors, nurses, and medical students in remote locations and sets up Community Health Information Centers for grassroots populations to learn about health care and prevention of disease, including HIV/AIDS.
In addition to the Marian Wright Edelman Institute and SF State’s School of Nursing, WiRED works with the University of California at San Francisco and California Pacific Medical Center; Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. To learn more about WiRED, please visit www.wiredinternational.org.
Student groups join Jumpstart for Harvest Fest celebration
Pirates, princesses, bears, and bunnies decorated pumpkins and made crafts at Jumpstart’s Harvest Fest last fall. The event was sponsored by the Marian Wright Edelman Institute and was scheduled to coincide with the Institute’s 10th anniversary. Student volunteers from Alpha Phi Omega, Circle K, and Jumpstart prepared a variety of harvest-themed activities for children to enjoy including scarecrow stuffing, autumn crown making, and exploring a giant pumpkin from the inside. The highlight of the evening was a surprise visit from a real life Spiderman.
CAD welcomes new student assistant
Minghao Li, new CAD Office Student Assistant
Minghao Li, a freshman studying Finance & Accounting at San Francisco State University, has recently been hired by the CAD program. The story of his connection to the CAD program is a remarkable one that began last summer with a group of 8 CAD students led by instructor Janet Egiziano, experiencing China through CAD 680: International Experiences in Child and Adolescent Development.
Minghao was a student at the Suzhou Foreign Language School near Shanghai, a school visited by the CAD group. The school is highly rated and sends a great many students abroad to earn degrees from universities in Canada and the United States. Shortly after returning to the U.S. from China, Janet Egiziano received an e-mail from Minghao. He expressed his disappointment that he was unable to meet with the CAD group during our visit, but that he would soon have another opportunity: he had been accepted to SFSU and would arrive shortly in San Francisco. Over the next few weeks, Minghao and Ms. Egiziano exchanged emails about housing angst in San Francisco, English placements tests, enrolling in classes, and more. She invited him to come to the CAD office to meet in person when he arrived.
When Minghao finally arrived, he was without housing for several weeks. The president of the SFSU Chinese Student Association provided him with temporary shelter at her apartment. That student was Li He, a student assistant in the CAD office who was unaware of Minghao’s connection with Ms. Egiziano or the CAD 680 students. When a new student assistant position opened in the office, Minghao was naturally inclined to apply for the job.
Events have come full circle: SFSU’s CAD students studied in China, and now Minghao has come to study at SFSU. The experience really brings meaning to the old Disney song, "It’s a Small World After All".
Please join us in welcoming Minghao.