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2
Into the Fields
A Guide and Resource Manual for
Student Initiatives with Farmworkers
By Carolyn Corrie
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
Into the Fields
THE
---- <
Into the Fields
A Guide and Resource Manual for
Student Initiatives with Farmworkers
By Carolyn Corrie
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
For all of America's farmworkers, in appreciation.
Acknowledgements
The following people are gratefully thanked for their editorial assistance and other
support: Darnell Arnoult, Steve Bader, Barb Baker, Cathy Callahan, Sarah Carroll,
Bob Coles, Kira Dirlik, Matt Hammer, Lisa Hazirjian, Steve Henley, Iris Tillman Hill,
Ann Hockridge, Michael Johnson, Laura Mann, John Ott, Sarah O'Keefe, Sybil
Rhodes, Margaret Sartor, Todd Savage, Julia Scatliff, Shona Simpson, Bobby Tannen,
Ann Thomas, Stephanie Wagner, Lynn Wareh and all the Duke interns.
Special thanks go to photographers Mark Wasmer and Jeff Whetstone and to
essayists Eric Jones, Brenda Kurz, and Jennifer Schradie. All photographs were taken
in the summers of 1990 and 1991 in Newton Grove, Smithfield, or Benson, North
Carolina.
This book was made possible with support from the United States Department
of Education and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.
First Edition
First Printing
A publication of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.
331 W. Main St., Suite 511, Durham, NC, 27701. 919-687-0486.
© 1991 Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
Foreword
In the early and middle 1960's, when my wife, Jane, and I were getting to know
migrant farmworkers and their children, we often wondered whether there was any
way people like us, relatively well-off and privileged, could work to help make a
difference in the lives of people living at the utter bottom in America-extremely
vulnerable socially, politically, economically. Yet, soon enough, we encountered
some extraordinary men and women whose everyday efforts were, indeed, of great
use to migrants-public health doctors and nurses, certain teachers, some alert and
savvy social workers, and not least, some politically awake, activist college students
who had decided to move from words to deeds, from espoused convictions to
stretches of time given over to teaching, to health education, to advocacy work in the
halls of bureaucratic power (and indifference, if not outright callousness).
It is to such a tradition that this manual belongs-one of young idealism given
the expression of a commitment to others that is worked into concrete action.
Migrant families live very much apart from the rest of us, much to their detriment
-even as their hard labor enables the rest of us to eat the food we so often take for
granted. Still, the isolation and human suffering of these hard-working, itinerant
people can be the subject of concern to the rest of us-and can be, too, a challenge to
us if we aim to learn how to reach out and touch their lives in such a way that new
possibilities come to them. To do so is no easy task, but there most certainly are ways
to pursue, as the young people who have recently worked among North Carolina's
migrants have learned: a knowledge and experience they share with us in the
thoughtful and instructive pages that follow-a guide, a series of suggestions, and not
least, a source of much needed moral inspiration.
Robert Coles
Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 1991
Contents
Foreword V
Glossary ix
Introduction 1
A Brief History of the Duke Pilot Project 5
Principles of Good Practice in Combining Service and Learning 7
One: Initiating a Project 15
Assess the need
Find out about farmworkers in your area
Find out about farmworker organizations
Make the introductory phone calls
Have an introductory meeting
Develop support on your campus and build a core group
Develop a written plan for the project
Determine what resources you will need
Two: Developing Internship Sites 21
Share your preliminary plan
Discuss the needs of both interns and sponsors
Create a mutual selection process
Three: Preparing the Interns 23
Goals of the preparatory course
The setting and format
The content/syllabus
Volunteer work
Written assignments
Speakers
Other ideas for the class
Group building activities
Four: Fundraising 27
Determine the costs
Develop a fundraising plan
Individual fundraising
Group fundraising
Five: Housing 31
Start your housing search early
Check out your options
Six: Recruitment 33
Determine the best time to recruit
Publicize the recruitment meetings
At the recruitment meetings
Selection of interns
Seven: The Summer Itself 37
The spring semester before
Choose an on-site coordinator
Organize a pre-internship retreat
Have a day of orientation
Throw an intern-sponsor reception
Hold weekly meetings/seminars
Other ideas for the summer
Eight: After the Fact 41
Send thank-yous and evaluation forms
Create opportunities for reflection, discussion and further action
Insure the continuity of the project
Nine: Beyond the Summer Internships 43
Create year-round activities
Build a network
Ten: Problems and Possibilities 45
The limits of volunteerism
The "problem with college kids"
Common frustrations felt by interns
So why do it?
Appendices
A. Personal Essays 51
Brenda Kurz
Jennifer Schradie
Eric Jones
B. Program Materials 61
Timeline
Survey
Syllabus
Brochure
Applications
Fundraising packet
Fundraising letter
Waiver
Intern evaluation form
Sponsor evaluation form
C. Program Profiles 85
California State University at Fresno
DePauw University
University of Miami
State University of New York at Geneseo
State University College at Oneonta
Vanderbilt University
D. Bibliography 91
Farmworkers, agriculture and rural poverty
Community service, service-learning and community organizing
Resources for organizations
Resources for student leaders
Group-building, reflection, and role playing
E. Organizations 105
National and regional farmworker organizations
National student service organizations
F. Maps and numbers 121
Maps of migration patterns
Estimated numbers of farmworkers
Glossary
agribusiness-the businesses collectively associated with the production, process-
ing and distribution of agricultural products.
coyote-nickname for the person who illegally transports people across the Mexican-
U.S. border for a fee.
crew leader/crew chief/crew boss/farm labor contractor-the person who recruits
workers, brings them to their place of employment, and in some cases provides
them with food and shelter.
Eastern stream-states stretching from Florida to Maine where migrants travel to find
work. Also, "Western stream" and "Midwest stream." See the maps in Appendix F.
ESL-English as a Second Language.
internship-an experience wherein a student learns by taking on a responsible role
in an organization, and observes and reflects on what happens there.
*migrant farmworker-an individual or dependent whose principal employment is
in agriculture on a seasonal basis, and who, for the purposes of employment,
establishes a temporary home.
*seasonal farmworker-an individual whose principal employment is in agricul-
ture on a seasonal basis and who is not a migrating worker.
service-learning-"emphasizes the accomplishment of tasks which meet human
needs in combination with conscious educational growth" (Southern Regional
Education Board, 1969, Service Learning:A Guide for College Students, National
Society for Internships and Experiential Education, 1981).
settle-out-to leave the migrant stream and take up a permanent residence.
volunteer-a person who freely offers his or her time and services to help individuals
or an organization, on a one-time or continuing basis.
*Various govenrment programs use different definitions, usually with time restrictions, for
eligibility. For example, to qualify for Migrant Head Start, the child's family must have
crossed county lines in search of employment in agriculture within the last twelve months.
- 1 / A
Introduction
Susan wakes up and groggily reaches over to shut off her alarm-clock. She hops out
of bed, dresses ina hurry, and just has time to grab an orange on her way to class. After
class, she meets her friends for lunch at the university cafeteria. Susan chooses a salad
and a bowl of tomato soup, finishing off with half a grapefruit. During her afternoon
studying in the library, she snacks on an apple and a pickle. For dinner that evening,
Susan enjoys a well-balanced meal of meatloaf, greenbeans, and potatoes, with
strawberry shortcake for dessert.
Without even knowing it, Susan has nourished her body all day with products
that are harvested by some of the nearly threeand a half million migrant and seasonal
farmworkers across this country. The orange and grapefruit have been picked by
workers in California or Florida, the pickle came from a field in North Carolina or
Michigan, and the tomatoes for her soup were grown in Florida, Ohio or Indiana.
Farmworkers in upstate New York or in Maryland reached for her apple, while her
strawberries were harvested in Oregon or Maine. Every day, Susan and other
Americans enjoy high quality fruits and vegetables that they purchase at very low
cost. In fact, Americans pay a smaller portion of their income for food than people
in any other country of the world.
Yet this "low-cost" food comes at a very high cost to the people who harvest it.
According to the National Safety Council, farmwork is the most hazardous occupa-
tion in the United States, outranking mining in terms of job-related injuries and
deaths. However, most farmworkers lack health insurance and remain uncovered
by workers' compensation and basic employee benefits that many other workers
This "low-cost" food
take for granted. The average life-expectancy for farmworkers is just forty-nine
years, compared to seventy-three for the U.S. population as a whole. Infant mortality
comes at a very high
rates and incidence of malnutrition are higher for farmworkers than for most other
cost to the people
sub-populations in this country (North Carolina Primary Health Care Association).
Farmwork is a difficult and demanding job, but due to low wages and the sporadic
who harvest it.
nature of the work, the average household income for farmworkers is only $5,291
(Economic Research Service, USDA, 1988). Many farmworkers have little opportu-
nity to find a different occupation, as nearly fifty percent of migrant children are
forced to drop out of school before they complete the twelfth grade (National
Commission on Migrant Education, 1991).
Although farmworkers are in great need of the social services that are usually
available to other community members, several barriers prevent them from receiv-
ing assistance. In recent years, growing numbers of Spanish-speaking workers have
joined the migrant population, mostly Mexican-Americans, Mexicans or Central
Americans. Coming from a different culture and in some cases lacking legal
Into the Fields 1
residency, these farmworkers are unable to find or use health care resources, legal
services, educational resources or social welfare programs. Geographic isolation,
lack of transportation and lack of child care also increase the difficulties of the
migrant farmworker family.
Yet we also should look beyond the statistics that portray the hardships of
migrant life and remember that farmworkers are people. Despite the many adversi-
ties they face, they are proud of the work they do, proud of their culture and heritage,
and proud of their children's accomplishments. They too lead full lives. Their
situations may deserve our compassion or anger, but farmworkers themselves are
people who deserve our respect.
Although there may be thousands of farmworkers within half an hour of Susan's
college, she and other students remain unaware of their presence. American society
has managed to marginalize and keep hidden the men, women and children who
play a crucial role in our agricultural economy and in the very nourishment of our
bodies. Yet Susan and others like her have much to gain from linking their lives with
those of the migrant families in their area.
Who is this book for?
This book is written primarily for college students who are interested in initiating a
service-learning project for students to work with farmworkers either during the
The manual is meant
summer or the school year. It is also for faculty, administrators, farmworker
to be a starting point
advocates, service providers, and anyone else who is interested in developing
opportunities for students to join with farmworkers in the effort to create a more
and a springboard
humane and just life for the thousands of people who provide food for our tables.
from which you will
What is this book about?
dream and scheme
and innovate and
This book is designed to be a resource manual for organizing or improving a college
student volunteer effort working with farmworkers. It can easily be applied to
create.
student internships or volunteer projects in many other settings. It is written by a
former intern and coordinator of a project at Duke University, with a great deal of
advice and assistance from others knowledgeable about student volunteerism. The
manual is meant to be a starting point and a springboard from which you will dream
and scheme and innovate and create an effort that will be unique to your own
campus and the farmworker community with which you work.
How is this book organized?
This introductory section deals with the philosophy of the project: Why create such
a project? What are its goals? What's in it for college students? What's in it for
farmworkers? What's in it for the organizations that work with farmworkers?
What's in it for the long-term health of our democratic society? This section also
includes a short history of the migrant internship project at Duke University, and an
article on "Principles of Good Practice in Combining Service and Learning."
2 Into the Fields
The body of the work provides the details of the steps necessary to establish a
summer internship project working with farmworkers. This section includes chap-
ters on initiating a project, developing internship sites, creating a preparatory class,
fundraising, finding housing, recruiting interns, and experiencing the summer itself,
ending with the post-internship wrap-up.
The third part of this manual, chapters nine and ten, suggests other kinds of
projects to involve college students with farmworkers, for the summer or year-
round, and then discusses some of the potential problems of college student
volunteer projects.
The last section is a series of important appendices: personal essays from three
former interns, materials to help you with your program design, profiles from
projects at other colleges, a list of resources to help you learn about farmworkers,
service-learning, community organizing, and the student service movement, a list
of organizations working with farmworkers and those working with college stu-
dents, and a glossary of some of the terms used in this manual.
Who benefits from an internship project?
This manual outlines a plan for organizing a service-learning summer internship
experience for college students to work with migrant farmworkers and their
families. Service-learning is commonly defined as "a particular form of experiential
education, one that emphasizes for students the accomplishment of tasks which
meet human needs in combination with conscious educational growth." (Kendall,
Jane, et al. Combining Service and Learning, Vol. III, Raleigh, NC: National Society
for Internships and Experiential Education, 1987, p. i). The Duke project is different
from most internships because the focus is on providing service to members of a
community while at the same time providing structured opportunities for a group of
students to learn and grow from the experience. In an ideal project, students,
farmworkers, the organizations that serve farmworkers, the university, and the
In an ideal project,
society at large all benefit.
In this mutually beneficial relationship, college students can assist farmworkers
students, farm-
by helping with transportation, serving as translators, joining a health screening
workers, the
team as outreach workers, and providing extra hands in a migrant day care center
or public school program. Farmworkers, in return, have much to teach college
organizations that
students about a different way of life, a different language and culture, and the
serve farmworkers,
importance of work for social change and justice. The overburdened and financially-
strained organizations that work with farmworkers, such as legal services pro-
the university, and
grams, health clinics, schools, labor unions, and other community-based groups, can
the society at large
benefit from the energy and talents of student interns. In return, the staff of such
all benefit.
organizations can help students learn and encourage them to enter public service.
The university benefits when students return to campus and share what they have
learned, encouraging more students to join the community service movement. The
society benefits when migrant children receive a better education, when health care
Into the Fields 3
is available to more farmworkers, when people of different backgrounds and
cultures interact and develop greater respect for one another, and when people from
all cultures become involved and move on to socially responsible leadership roles.
We are all teachers and we are
all students, and each of us
has something to say to each
other and each of us can learn
from everyone else.-Intern
1990
4
Into the Fields
A Brief History of
the Duke Pilot Project
Many of the ideas in this guide are based on the experiences from a two-year pilot
project at Duke University sponsored by the Center for Documentary Studies. The
project grew out of the interests of Dr. Robert Coles, a psychiatrist, writer, professor,
and long-time migrant advocate, in combining student service, migrant education
and documentary work. During the 1970s, Coles had inspired a group of Duke
students to spend several summers working with farmworkers in eastern North
Carolina. In 1989, when Coles and others founded the Center for Documentary
Studies at Duke University, his ideas developed into a plan for a summer internship
project in which students from Duke would be both classroom helpers and observ-
ers, documenting the existing conditions and needs in the lives of migrant children.
With the backing of the U.S. Department of Education, the two main goals of the
internship were laid out: first, to try to understand the lives of the migrant children
and families who would be affected by any government policy decisions, and
second, to explore the possibility of using college student volunteers to improve
migrant education.
In the fall of 1989, Dr. Coles, the staff at the Center for Documentary Studies, and
several current and former students began to create the Migrant Children's Educa-
We realized that
tion and Documentation Project (referred to as "the Migrant Project"). They arranged
for opportunities for students to work at an East Coast Migrant Head Start center and
there were many
a public school migrant summer program. Fourteen students were recruited; I was
factors outside the
one of them. We participated in a spring semester class to begin to learn about some
of the issues of migrant life, the history of service and advocacy efforts in North
classroom affecting
Carolina, educational philosophy, community organizing and other topics.
the education of
When we arrived in eastern North Carolina in May, the school program hadbeen
shortened due to funding cuts, and we had to look for other ways to become invol
migrant children.
in the lives of farmworkers. We began to work at a health clinic, a legal services
program, and through churches and individual tutoring projects. As we went out
to labor camps and accompanied families and individuals through the social services
bureaucracies, we realized that there were many factors outside the classroom
affecting the education of migrant children. The issues were all intertwined. A
parent's immigration status too frequently determined whether or not a child
attended school. Health problems interfered with learning. Low wages, unsteady
work and lack of child care created an economic imperative for children to work in
the fields. Language barriers and lack of transportation only added to the difficulties
of the migrant child. It was clear that college students could not only be an important
addition to a Head Start or public school program, but could assist migrant families
in many other ways.
Into the Fields 5
The second part of the experience, the "documentary aspect," involved several
components. We published a book of photographs, essays and poems entitled
"Migrant Summer." We hung an exhibit of our work as well as art made by and
photographs taken by the migrant children themselves. Several of us produced two
videos, one about a migrant family and the other about the internship project itself.
We hope these works will convey our experiences to people in the broader
community, many of whom are unaware of the lives of migrant families. We also
hope to inspire others to become involved in the lives of farmworkers, and to think
more generally about how to work for change to create a better, more just society.
While continuing the internship project at Duke, we hope to expand this effort
to involve more students, at more schools, in more areas, in work with communities
of farmworkers. This manual is intended to help start that process, but it will take
the work of many people to make it happen. Welcome aboard!
6 Into the Fields
"Principles of Good Practice in
Combining Service and Learning"
(Please read this article and keep these principles in mind as you consider the other suggestions
in this manual.
From Kendall, Jane C. and associates. Combining Service and Learning: A Resource Book
for Community and Public Service, Raleigh, NC, NSIEE, 1990. Reprinted with permission
from the National Society for Internships and Experiential Education. 3509 Haworth Dr,
Suite 207, Raleigh, NC 27609-7229. 919-787-3263.
In 1987 the National Society for Internships and Experiential Education (NSIEE)
began a process of articulating and refining principles of good practice for programs
that seek to combine service and learning effectively. This was in response to the
burgeoning growth of community service programs for youth, students, and adults
and the increasing awareness among thoughtful practitioners that effective service
and learning do not necessarily happen automatically.
As programs of the 1980s experienced the same challenges about program
quality that programs of the 1960s and 1970s had also faced, NSIEE began a broad-
based process of articulating the principles learned by experienced practitioners.
We reviewed the advice of leaders in the community and public service movement
of the late 1960s and early 1970s. We asked members of the NSIEE Service-Learning
Special Interest Group to reach into their group's 15-year reservoir of experience.
We asked more than 75 other national and regional organizations to do the same;
the staffs and members of most of the organizations responded by adding their
diverse perspectives, experiences, and advice. Nine drafts were circulated over an
intense, 12-month period of refinement.
Then in the spring of 1989, the Johnson Foundation generously agreed to host a
Wingspread conference to hammer out the final product. Several national organi-
zations co-sponsored the May 10-12, 1989, working session: the American Associa-
tion for Higher Education, Campus Compact, Constitutional Rights Foundation,
Council of Chief State School Officers, National Association of Independent
Schools, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Society
for Internships and Experiential Education, and Youth Service America. The 75
national and regional groups that had participated in the review process also
provided examples of the implementation of the ten principles that resulted from
the Wingspread working session.
What follows here are the Introduction, the Preamble, the ten principles refined
from this two-year collaborative process, and an explanation of each. Examples of
each principle as used in actual programs are provided in Volume I of this resource
Into the Fields 7
book. Ellen Porter Honnet and Susan J. Poulsen of The Johnson Foundation
graciously produced the final copy.
We invite you to use these principles in the context of your particular needs and
purposes. You may decide to reject some of them, but we hope this work least helps
you ask some of the right questions about combining service and learning in an
effective, sustained way.
-Jane Kendall, NSIEE
Introduction
The level of interest and sense of urgency in community and public service grows
greater every day. In every community, programs are being designed for partici-
pants from kindergartners to the elderly. Is there a set of guiding principles by which
service programs can be designed and by which their effectiveness can be judged?
Is there a set of ideas which have the potential for deepening and sustaining the
current movements?
The principles described in this section reflect the grassroots experience and the
thinking of thousands of people, hundreds of programs, and numerous national
organizations over the last two decades. They are offered with the hope that current
initiatives to create service programs will benefit from this rich history.
The combination of service and learning is powerful. It creates potential benefits
beyond what either service or learning can offer separately. The frequent results of
the effective integration of service and learning are that participants:
develop a habit of critical reflection on their experiences, enabling them to learn
more throughout life,
are more curious and motivated to learn,
are able to perform better service,
strengthen their ethic of social and civic responsibility,
feel more committed to addressing the underlying problems behind social
issues,
understand problems in a more complex way and can imagine alternative
solutions,
demonstrate more sensitivity to how decisions are made and how institutional
decisions affect people's lives,
respect other cultures more and are better able to learn about cultural
differences,
learn how to work more collaboratively with other people on real problems,
and
realize that their lives can make a difference.
The emphasis on learning does not mean these Principles are limited in any way to
programs connected to schools. They relate to programs and policies based in all
settings-community organizations, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, corpo-
rations, government agencies, and research and policy organizations. They relate to
people of all ages in all walks of life.
8 Into the Fields
Preamble
We are a nation founded upon active citizenship and participation in community
life. We have always believed that individuals can and should serve.
It is crucial that service toward the common good be combined with reflective
learning to assure that service programs of high quality can be created and sustained
over time, and to help individuals appreciate how service can be a significant and
ongoing part of life. Service, combined with learning, adds value to each and
transforms both.
Those who serve and those who are served are thus able to develop the informed
judgment, imagination and skills that lead to a greater capacity to contribute to the
common good.
The Principles that follow are statements of what we believe are essential
components of good practice. We invite you to use them in the context of your
particular needs and purposes.
Principles of Good Practice in Combining Service and Learning
An effective and sustained program:
1. Engages people in responsible and challenging actions for the common good.
2. Provides structured opportunities for people to reflect critically on their service
experience.
3. Articulates clear service and learning goals for everyone involved.
4. Allows for those with needs to define those needs.
5. Clarifies the responsibilities of each person and organization involved.
6. Matches service providers and service needs through a process that recognizes
changing circumstances.
7. Expects genuine, active, and sustained organizational commitment.
8. Includes training, supervision, monitoring, support, recognition, and evaluation
to meet service and learning goals.
9. Ensures that the time commitment for service and learning is flexible, appropriate,
and in the best interest of all involved.
10. Is committed to program participation by and with diverse populations.
See the following pages for an explanation of each principle.
Into the Fields 9
Principles of Good Practice In Combining Service and Learning
1. An effective program engages people in responsible and challenging actions for
the common good. Participants in programs combining service and learning should
engage in tasks that they and society recognize as important. These actions require
reaching beyond one's range of previous knowledge or experience. Active partici-
pation-not merely being a spectator or visitor-requires accountability for one's
actions, involves the right to take risks, and gives participants the opportunity to
experience the consequences of those actions for others and for themselves.
2. An effective program provides structured opportunities for people to reflect
critically on their service experience. The service experience alone does not insure
that either significant learning or effective service will occur. It is important that
programs build in structured opportunities for participants to think about their
experience and what they are learning. Through discussions with others and
individual reflection on moral questions and relevant issues, participants can
develop a better sense of social responsibility, advocacy, and active citizenship. This
reflective component allows for intellectual growth and the development of skills in
critical thinking. It is most useful when it is intentional and continuous throughout
the experience, and when opportunity for feedback is provided. Ideally, feedback
will come from those persons being served, as well as from peers and program
leaders.
3. An effective program articulates clear service and learning goals for everyone
involved. From the outset of the project, participants and service recipients alike
must havea clear sense of: (1) what is to be accomplished and (2) what is to be learned.
These service and learning goals must be agreed upon through negotiations with all
parties, and in the context of the traditions and cultures of the local community.
These goals should reflect the creative and imaginative input of both those providing
the service and those receiving it. Attention to this important factor of mutuality in
the service-learning exchange can help keep the "service" from becoming patron-
izing charity.
4. An effective program allows for those with needs to define those needs. Theactual
recipients of service, as well as the community groups and constituencies to which
they belong, must have the primary role in defining their own service needs.
Community service programs, government agencies, and private organizations can
also be helpful in defining what service tasks are needed and when and how these
tasks should be performed. This collaboration to define needs will help insure that
service by participants will: (1) not take jobs from the local community, (2) involve
tasks that will otherwise go undone, and (3) focus their efforts on the tasks and
approaches that the recipients define as useful.
10 Into the Fields
5. An effective program clarifies the responsibilities of each person and organiza-
tion involved. Several parties are potentially involved in any service and learning
program: participants (students and teachers, volunteers of all ages), community
leaders, service supervisors, and sponsoring organizations, as well as those individuals
and groups receiving the services. It is important to clarify roles and responsibilities
of these parties through a careful negotiation process as the program is being
developed. This negotiation should include identifying and assigning responsibility
for the tasks to be done, while acknowledging the values and principles important
to all the parties involved.
6. An effective program matches service providers and service needs through a
process that recognizes changing circumstances. Because peopleare often changed
by the service and learning experience, effective programs must build in opportuni-
ties for continuous feedback about the changing service needs and growing service
skills of those involved. Ideally, participation in the service-learning partnership
affects development in areas such as intellect, ethics, cross-cultural understanding,
empathy, leadership and citizenship. In effective service and learning programs, the
relationships among groups and individuals are dynamic and often create dilem-
mas. Such dilemmas may lead to unintended outcomes. They can require recogniz-
ing and dealing with differences.
7. An effective program expects genuine, active, and sustained organizational
commitment. In order for a program to be effective, it must have a strong, ongoing
commitment from both the sponsoring and the receiving organizations. Ideally, this
commitment will take many forms, including reference to both service and learning
in the organization's mission statement. Effective programs must receive adminis-
trative support, be an ongoing part of the organization's budget, be allocated
appropriate physical space, equipment, and transportation, and allow for scheduled
release time for participants and program leaders. In schools and colleges, the most
effective service and learning programs are linked to the curriculum and require that
the faculty become committed to combining service and learning as a valid part of
teaching.
8. An effective program includes training, supervision, monitoring, support,
recognition, and evaluation to meet service and learning goals. The most effective
service and learning programs are sensitive to the importance of training, super-
vision, and monitoring of progress throughout the program. This is a reciprocal
responsibility and requires open communication between those offering and those
receiving the service. In partnership, sponsoring and receiving organizations may
recognize the value of service through appropriate celebrations, awards, and public
acknowledgement of individual and group service. Planned, formalized, and
ongoing evaluation of service and learning projects should be part of every program
and should involve all participants.
Into the Fields 11
9. An effective program insures that the time commitment for service and learning
is flexible, appropriate, and in the best interests of all involved. In order to be useful
to all parties involved, some service activities require longer participation and/or
a greater time commitment than others. The length of the experience and the
amount of time required are determined by the service tasks involved and should
be negotiated by all the parties. Sometimes a program can do more harm than good
if a project is abandoned after too short a time or given too little attention. Where
appropriate, a carefully planned succession or combination of participants can
provide the continuity of service needed.
10. An effective program is committed to program participation by and with
diverse populations. A good service and learning program promotes access and
removes disincentives and barriers to participation. Those responsible for partici-
pation in a program should make every effort to include and make welcome persons
from differing ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds, as well as varied ages,
genders, economic levels, and those with disabilities. Less obvious, but very
important, is the need for sensitivity to other barriers, such as lack of transporta-
tion, family, work and school responsibilities, concern for personal safety, or
uncertainty about one's ability to make a contribution.
12 Into the Fields
Into the Fields
Into the Fields 13
14 Into the Fields
1
Initiating a Project
Assess the need
You must first establish that there is a need and a desire for student involvement in
farmworker service, advocacy or organizing groups. You may think that the needs
are obvious: farmwork is one of the lowest paid, least secure and least protected jobs
in the country; migrant children lag far behind their peers in level of education; the
health status of the farmworker population is similar to that of people in developing
nations; and barriers of language and lack of transportation prevent many
farmworkers from obtaining the basic services they need. Surely, it seems, a group
of energetic, caring and capable students can offer significant help to improve these
situations. In turn, clearly, most colleges and universities provide too few oppor-
tunities for their students to engage in "real world," hands-on, experiential learning.
However, students and school administrators must temper their desires to help
with clear thinking about the reasons for such a project. You should not decide to start
Listen to what
a student volunteer effort without giving any thought to whether the farmworkers
farmworkers define
or service agencies want your assistance. This does not mean that you need to wait
for a personal invitation to help out. It just means that you need to listen to what
as their own needs.
farmworkers define as their own needs and how they and their advocates feel you
can and should be involved.
Find out about farmworkers in your area
Find out about the farmworker population in your state or region. Many college
students remain unaware of what is happening out in the fields beyond their ivy-
covered walls. But it's fairly easy to find out. First, look at the list and maps in
Appendix F. How many farmworkers are in your state? At what time of year do they
come to your area? Is there a community of farmworkers near your school? Even if
there is not a farmworker population near your school, you should consider the
possibility of organizing an internship or spring break project in another state.
Geography will certainly play a role in the nature of your project. The "downstream"
or "homebase states" -Florida, Texas and California-are where most farmworkers
spend the majority of the year, usually from October to April. In the late spring,
farmworkers begin to travel north to the "upstream" states where they spend the
summer. However, many states have a seasonal farmworker population who
remain all year long. Be sure to consider migration patterns when planning your
project. Next, start to look in your library for books, articles, or videos about
Into the Fields 15
farmworkers and read and view as much as you can. Also see the suggested reading
list in Appendix D.
Find out about farmworker organizations
Look up the names of organizations that work with farmworkers in your area and
find out what they do. Be aware that there are different kinds of organizations. Some
are funded and run by the state, federal, or local government, while others are private
non-profit groups, and still others are based in religious institutions. Agencies and
groups are operated on national, state or local levels. Many are directed and staffed
by non-farmworkers and focus solely on providing services for farmworkers—
whether they are legal, medical, educational or job-training services. Some govern-
ment agencies will focus on the policy-making aspect of farmworker assistance
programs. Advocacy groups work to raise awareness and lobby the government to
change laws and policies that affect farmworkers. Other groups work with
farmworkers in organizing efforts to empower farmworkers themselves to make
fundamental changes in the agricultural labor system.
Of course, many organizations defy easy categorization, and you don't want to
try to pigeon-hole people and groups. For example, a church group may provide
clothing for farmworkers (service), organize a letter-writing campaign to the state
legislature to raise the minimum wage in agriculture (advocacy), and raise funds to
help a farmworker organizing effort (organizing). While you should make contact
with as many organizations as possible, be aware that their philosophies and
agendas may be different and that the experience students have while working with
them will vary widely. The following list will get you started.
your state Department of Education for public school programs
your state Office of Migrant Health for health clinics
national networks of health, legal, education and job-training programs
churches with migrant ministry committees or outreach programs
statewide networks/committes
a directory of farmworker agencies in your state
national farm labor unions, like FLOC and the UFW (they may know of
unions or organizing efforts in your area)
grassroots organizations that focus on immigration, rural poverty, health,
worker-safety, or other labor issues
the list of national organizations in Appendix E
16 Into the Fields
Make the Introductory phone calls
Once you have a list of organizations, go ahead and call them. Ask to speak to the
director, or the person responsible for working with volunteers, if there is such a
position at their organization. Introduce yourself; tell him or her that you go to X
college and are concerned about farmworker issues; and you would like more
information about farmworkers in your area. Let this person know you want to raise
awareness at your school, and would like to get students involved. Ask for
information about their work and references to good educational materials about
farmworker issues both nationally and locally. When you receive the materials, look
them over and then call to set up a meeting to discuss the possibility of student
involvement with area farmworkers.
Have an introductory meeting
Your primary purpose at this meeting is to introduce the idea of an internship pro-
ject to determine the level of interest. Find out the history of the organization, their
mission, the day-to-day work they perform, and what options are available for
internships. Look at the survey in Appendix B for further ideas on the kinds of
I think it's a great program.
questions you might want to ask. You may have to chose between potential sites, so
It hasn't just been free labor;
have in mind what criteria you will use.
it's been a very active
Be sure to outline for the agency the potential benefits of having student interns
exchange of ideas and
or volunteers at their organization, such as:
backgrounds.
extra workers at low or no cost to the agency
-Director, Migrant Head
an infusion of energy and creativity
Start Center
special talents that students may possess, such as computer skills, language
skills, and legal or medical training
a way to encourage young people to go into careers in public service
an opportunity to help develop future leadership for long-term change
There are several excellent guides written specifically for organizations that
sponsor interns (see Appendix D). Remember to listen to what the director or staff
member of the organization is saying about their needs and the ways they think
students can help out. Together establish a preliminary plan, including how many
interns they might want, when, and with what backgrounds or skills. See if you can
talk to some of the farmworkers with whom the organization works to hear their
perspectives on how students can become involved in their lives.
Develop support on your campus and build a core group
If you now know that there is a need for more student involvement, it's up to you to
set the process in motion. But you'll need help. Recruit supporters wherever you can
and then pull together a smaller core group of people who are committed to mak-
ing it happen. You and another student should be the coordinators of the project.
Into the Fields 17
Be inclusive-reach out to as many people as possible. You'll be surprised to find
that the people you thought most unlikely to jump on the idea will be your biggest
supporters. Talk to students, faculty, administrators, staff and alumni. Some sugges-
tions for people to target are listed below.
your campus volunteer center director (also known as the "green dean")
leaders (or members) of campus volunteer groups
political groups on campus
Be inclusive-reach
religious youth groups
out to as many
ethnic and cultural groups
fraternities/sororities
people as possible.
faculty of departments such as public policy, sociology, history, education,
Spanish, Latin American Studies, social work, public health
the Dean of Student Life, Student Affairs or Campus Life
Residential Life staff, Resident Advisors
leaders of your student government
dorm presidents
your friends
staff of community organizations
You may want to meet with these people individually and then set up a planning
session for the core group. The ideal core group, who are committed to meeting
regularly, will include a faculty member, an administrator, two or three students,
and a member of the community. The other supporters you have recruited can then
be called on when needed.
Develop a written plan for the project
At the first meeting, you'll want to write out at least a preliminary sketch of the pro-
ject using the suggestions of all the core group's members. Some important questions
to consider are listed below, and the timeline in A ppendix B may be helpful as well.
What are the goals of your internship project?
How many students will be involved?
How will students be recruited?
When will the internship happen, and for how long?
What geographic area will you focus on?
What organizations will you want to sponsor interns?
Where will the interns live?
How will the preparatory course be structured?
How will meaningful reflection be incorporated into the summer experience?
How much will it cost?
How will you raise money?
Obviously, you will need more than one meeting to cover all these items. However,
try to arrive at basic answers for as many questions as possible.
18 Into the Fields
Determine what resources you will need
Two of the most important concerns are what resources you will need and how you
will obtain them. These resources include:
office space
telephone
photocopying machine
computer and printer
paper, envelopes, a stapler, other office supplies
mailbox
You may want to consider affiliating with an existing institution on campus,
such as the volunteer center, student government, the chaplain's office, or an
academic department, in order to have access to their resources. Or, ask your
supporters in the administration if they know of office space you can use. An
internship "sponsored by the _" also will give credibility to your project and will
help later with fundraising. The project could even be co-sponsored by two or three
different departments or campus groups.
Into the Fields 19
I think it's important to find
teachers who understand the
lifestyle of these children and
who will build upon the desire
in them to continue learning
despite the odds against them.
It is important to find teachers
who show them that they can
do it.-Intern 1991
TEACHERO
10040534d
20
Into the Fields
2
Developing Internship Sites
Share your preliminary plan
Once you have a basic outline of the project, go back to the organizations you have
selected to serve as sponsors to develop the specifics of the summer internships. First
of all, make sure you know what the agencies' needs are, how many students they
will want to sponsor, and what work the interns will be doing. Tell them the goals
of the internship project, the number of interns you plan to recruit, the basic elements
of the preparatory class, the dates for the internship, and whatever other information
you have. Get their feedback on these preliminary plans.
Discuss the needs of both interns and sponsors
You need to discuss both the interns' needs and the organization's needs. Some of
the interns' needs include:
financial assistance: a stipend (if possible) or free housing, mileage reimburse-
ment, etc.
mix of meaningful "hands-on" work with office/clerical work
clearly defined responsibilities, supervision, and structure
respect from the staff members
an orientation period to learn about the agency and its work
a mentor-a person willing to spend time with the intern each week to talk
over problems or questions and to serve as a role model and supporter
The internship can be valuable for all involved, but it does take time and energy
on behalf of both parties. Organizations that have not had interns may not realize
The internship can
that it means a commitment of staff time to develop projects for interns to work on
be valuable for all
and to supervise and support the interns. It is critical to keep the channels of
communication open between the sponsors, the interns and the coordinators of
involved, but it does
the project. The goals for both students and sponsors should be established and put
take time and energy
in writing before the summer begins.
on behalf of both
Keep in contact with the sponsors at the various organizations. Ask them for help
in locating housing, in fundraising, in selecting readings or videos for the class, and
parties.
in thinking of other possible internship sites. Most people will be overjoyed that you
are interested in the work they do and will be glad to help in whatever way they can.
Into the Fields 21
Create a mutual selection process
Once the interns decide where they want to work, it is important for them to meet
with the sponsors personally or to talk with them over the phone if the distance is too
great. Try to work out some sort of reciprocal selection process, where both interns
and sponsors are choosing to work with each other. For example, interns could
narrow their choices down to two sites and send a cover letter and resume to each
one. Sponsors could then send the coordinators a "ranked" list of their preferences
for student interns. This is mainly to insure that each student's interests and skills are
well-matched to the organizations' needs. In some cases the coordinators will need
to facilitate the process, matching interns' preferences to the sponsors' needs.
Not only did they help fill the
basic classroom requirements,
but they also gave additional
gifts of attention, positive
interaction, self-image
support, humor, and genuine
love for the children.
-Administrator, Johnston
County Public Schools
22 Into the Fields
3
Preparing the Interns
Goals of the preparatory course
In order for the internship to be a true "service-learning" experience, it is important
to provide a formal structure in which learning takes place. A great deal of learning
emanates from service itself. For example, the student who volunteers once a week
at the community homeless shelter is exposed to people and situations not found on
It is important to
the college campus. But the experience is limited without some forum for personal
reflection, analytical thought and the opportunity to look into the root causes of
provide a formal
homelessness.
structure in which
While there is some truth to the comment that "nothing can really fully prepare
learning takes place.
you for the internship experience itself," most students who have participated in the
migrant farmworker internship project at Duke agree that they were glad to have
had a preparatory class. You may decide to have a weekly meeting instead of a
recognized class, but either way it should be a requirement for all interns. The goals
of the class (or meeting) are to:
educate interns about problems facing farmworkers and their causes
discuss policy issues and potential solutions
encourage interns to get to know one another and build a group spirit
explore with interns their motivations for participating
establish goals for the summer
learn skills necessary for the summer
involve interns in the planning of the project-fundraising, housing, and
orientation
The official structure of the class will depend on your school. At some colleges,
this course could be developed into a full-credit class under a department's spon-
sorship. At other schools, students may be able to count the class for partial credit.
Or it may simply be a required weekly gathering of the interns that will not count for
academic credit. A faculty member could lead the class, or a student instructor under
faculty supervision. You will need to explore your school's policies on accreditation.
Some schools are very open to the idea of integrating service and experiential
learning into the curriculum, while others have less expertise in this area. There may
even bea Center for Service Learning on your campus. Check COOL's new resource
book Education and Action (see Appendix D) for suggestions on ways to develop an
accredited service-learning course at your school. You should also look into the
possibility for students to receive academic credit for the summer work itself.
Into the Fields 23
The setting and format
Help establish the idea that this course is different than a typical class through the
setting and format. An informal setting is best-try to reserve a dorm commons
room or carpeted classroom where students can feel comfortable and sit in a circle
on the floor. The role of the teacher is to facilitate discussion, not to lecture. Encourage
student input on format and content of the class. The class can last anywhere from
eight to twelve weeks, with each session lasting an hour and a half to two hours. Use
the time well, so you cover all the material, yet keep it interesting. Keep the
"business" part of the meeting limited to the first twenty or thirty minutes to discuss
housing, fundraising, and intern placements. If there are any non-interns taking the
class, they can come afterwards and be spared the administrative details. The
speaker or film will take the next half hour to an hour of class time, and at least the
last half hour should be reserved for discussion.
The content and syllabus
The classes should contain a mixture of films, speakers, readings, discussions, and
group activities. Some places to look for materials include: the bibliography in
The house course introduced
Appendix D, farmworker organizations in your area that may have suggestions,
me to all the opportunities
and recent newspaper and magazine articles (clip year-round and file!). Try to
available for my internship
combine factual, policy-oriented materials and more interesting stories of individual
farmworkers or families. If you have too many reading assignments, people won't
and then through group
keep up. Think about what you yourself would want to know. Keep a list of all the
discussion and reflection
articles, books and films that aren't required and give the interns a recommended
papers helped me to formulate
reading list at the end of the syllabus. You may want to alternate speakers and films
expectations for the summer.-
each week, but be sure to have a few weeks that are "open" so the group can have
Intern 1991
good rap sessions. The coordinators should always complete all the reading and
have a list of questions prepared to spark discussion. Or, have students take
responsibility for certain weeks and lead the discussions. Reserve a week half-way
through to evaluate how things are going and what changes need to be made.
Volunteer work
If students are not already involved in some sort of weekly volunteer work in the
local community, provide opportunities for them to become involved. You may
want to make it a requirement for the course. This is one way to give them an idea
of what the summer will be like. They may want to work in an area that will be good
practice for the summer, such as tutoring if they are going to be working in a school
program. Provide a variety of specific options: tutor at a local elementary school,
teach ESL (English as a Second Language) at a community college, or do fundraising
for an organizing project. If you live close enough to a farmworker community, why
not go ahead and set up opportunities with agencies there?
24 Into the Fields
Written assignments
One of the best ways to start the reflection process is to ask students, at the very
beginning of the class, to write a brief essay exploring their reasons for choosing to
spend the summer working with farmworkers. Ask them to share their expectations
and anxieties. Then require that they keep a weekly journal of their reactions to
speakers, films, readings, or their volunteer experiences. Another option is to assign
short, bi-weekly reaction papers. In either case, make sure these are collected
regularly so students will keep up with them. You may want to photocopy an
especially interesting essay or journal entry by each student and distribute them to
the others in the class, with or without names attached, and with the permission of
the authors, of course. These beginning essays are also great for interns to look back
on when they have completed the internship.
Speakers
Try to have a wide variety of speakers with different perspectives and opinions.
Make sure to ask the speakers to discuss a specific issue such as immigration, health,
or child care, as opposed to the general topic of "migrant farmworkers." Otherwise
they will all start to sound the same after a while. Call them well ahead of time to
find out what they have planned and to let them know what your expectations are.
The following list provides some suggestions for speakers:
farmworkers
legal services attorneys or paralegals
community organizers
health care providers
ESL teachers
teachers who work with migrant children
farmers
students who have done the internship or have had similar experiences
someone in state government who works on agricultural or labor issues
a member of an advocacy group
Be sure to write thank-you letters to the speakers. If your budget allows, provide
a small honorarium or pay for their travel costs. Or, you may want to take them to
dinner before or after the class.
Into the Fields 25
Other ideas for the class
Be creative! Try to keep the class as interesting as possible and as useful as possible
for the soon-to-be interns. Some suggestions:
role play situations you might encounter in the summer (for example, one
student is the health intern, and the other is the worker who comes into the
clinic after being sprayed with pesticides)
group projects (for example, split the class into small groups and ask them to
develop a plan for the ideal migrant education program)
Spanish lessons or small practice groups (hire a farmworker to teach?)
workshops on teaching ESL
workshops on child care
field trips to the agencies, a farm, a packing shed, or a processing plant (to
better understand how the food gets from the fields to your table)
group lunches or dinners
Group-building activities
The group is an
From the start of the class you should encourage people to get to know one another
and feel comfortable as a group. The group is an important support structure for the
important support
summer, and part of the learning experience is dealing with group dynamics. For the
structure for the
first couple of classes, start with some "name-games" or "ice-breakers." These are
summer.
tried and true methods of building group cohesiveness and remembering every-
one's name. There are whole books full of games like this listed in Appendix D.
The following suggestions will give you an idea of how they work:
The Tennis Ball Name Game: Everyone stands in a circle and says his or her
name. Then one person starts out by throwing a tennis ball to someone else
as he or she calls the name of the person it's headed to. That person catches
it and throws it to another person, saying the new person's name. Gra-
dually add a second and third ball to the circle. Play until everyone seems
to know each other's names, or everyone is bored, whichever comes first.
Bean bags and oranges may be substituted.
Adjective Annie: Sit in a circle, and everyone says his or her name preceded
by an adjective of the same letter. The next person says the first person's
adjective and name, and then adds his or her own, and so on and so on. Ex:
Crazy Cathy, Wonderful Wanda, Marvelous Mike, etc.
The Interview: Pair off with someone you don't know, and interview your
partner for five minutes. Then come back and introduce each other to the
group. Try to find out something really unique or interesting about the
person.
26 Into the Fields
4
Fundraising
Determine the costs
The answer to this question will depend on several factors: the number of students
participating, the cost of housing for the summer, and how many "in-kind"
contributions you find for the resources you need. You will need to have a budget,
which will be difficult the first year but not impossible. The following is a sample
budget:
Office Expenses:
Phone
$300
Mail
$200
Xerox
$200
Publicity
$300
Intern Stipends
10 students at $1200
$12,000
Housing
10 Students at $500
$ 5,000
Group Emergency Fund
$500
Miscellaneous
(seminar support, sponsor reception,etc.)
$500
$19,000
These figures may seem high, but remember it is possible to run a program on much
less money, and it is possible to successfully fundraise all that you need. It has
been done!
Creativity and
Develop a fundraising plan
persistence are key
words.
Creativity and persistence are key words. The sooner you start thinking and acting
on the funding front, the greater your chances are for success. There are several ways
to approach fundraising. One is for the coordinators to try to raise the whole amount
through grants from corporations or foundations. Another is to ask the interns
Into the Fields 27
themselves to pay their own way. A third approach, which has worked well for the
Duke interns, is to divide the fundraising responsibility between the individuals
who are participating and the group as a whole. For example, the interns take
responsibility for raising their own stipends, and then everyone works together to
raise the administrative, housing, emergency fund and miscellaneous expenses.
The group money could also be used for stipends, if enough is raised. If individual
efforts are more successful, students could pay for housing out of what they have
raised. Set reasonable, achievable goals, but set them high enough so that there is a
strong incentive to keep pushing.
Individual fundraising
It is definitely possible for each student to raise the $1200 stipend. In fact, students
often are able to raise more than this amount. The stipend covers food, transporta-
tion (students will be driving many miles in this project), and other living expenses.
In addition, many students will need to be able to contribute something to the costs
of school in the fall. Some students will need more than $1200, some will need less.
This is simply an estimated figure, and you will need to set a target for your interns,
either as a group or individually.
The primary reason students are asked to raise their own stipends is that the non-
profit agencies where they will be interning are simply unable to afford to pay them.
There are, however, several real benefits to individual fundraising:
It forces students to articulate their motivations and goals for the project early
in the process.
It provides opportunities to educate others about the farmworker situation.
It brings a commitment to the project by a wider community.
It encourages students by giving them substantial responsibility.
It builds students' self-confidence.
It deepens students' own commitment to the summer experience.
There are several drawbacks. Some students do not have connections to indi-
viduals or groups who might sponsor them, and despite great efforts some students
will not reach their goal. These students should still be able to participate in the
Work with each
project, and it is possible to make this happen. You might create a special scholarship
fund for students who demonstrate financial need. Also, you could try to get
student to develop
matching funds. For example, the university, a foundation, or a corporation would
an individual
agree to match the money raised by the student, up to a certain amount. For example,
fundraising plan.
the maximum might be $600, if a student raised $600 or more.
Prepare a fundraising packet for the interns, which includes suggestions of
where and how to start and some sample letters. (Please see the sample packet in
Appendix B). After the recruitment meeting in November, hold another meeting for
potential interns to discuss fundraising in more depth. Be upbeat and encouraging,
and brainstorm with them about potential places to ask for support.
28 Into the Fields
You may want to work with each student to develop an individual fundraising
plan, based on his or her particular contacts and needs. Students can start over win-
ter break with phone calls and personal meetings, and then follow up with letters
from school in the spring. In January, have a session to see how everyone is doing,
and another in March or April.
Students should be encouraged to approach as many people as possible in their
hometown, such as friends, family, local businesses, churches, and civic clubs. Some
students originally express discomfort at the thought of asking friends, family or
their church members for money. One way of looking at it is that these people often
donate to charity in some way or another during the year. Now, instead of sending
a check to an organization and not knowing how it is used, they can give more
directly to those in need by supporting your summer work. Plus, you have
something to offer them in return-a written and/or verbal report of all that you
accomplish and learn over the summer.
Another option is for students to research scholarships that are available for this
type of summer service-learning internship program. Some students may be eligible
for work-study money. Also, try to work out an arrangement with the financial aid
There are a million
office to waive or lessen requirements for those students who need to bring back a
certain amount of money for tuition in the fall.
and one ways to try
Donations can be made to the student directly, or checks can be made out to the
to raise money.
program so the donor can count it as a tax-deduction. Be sure to check with your
university's gifts and development office if you wish to obtain tax-deductable
donations.
Group fundraising
The money raised through group fundraising efforts is used for the costs of running
the program-photocopies, a telephone, mail, advertising-and for housing. There
are a million and one ways to try to raise money-see some of the resource manuals
published by COOL for more suggestions. Here are some ideas to start with:
See if there is money available from your state or local government.
Ask corporations or small businesses in your community.
Apply for grants from private foundations.
Find out what money may be available at your university (or if your school
can provide free housing for students, office space, a phone, etc.) The
following are potential sources of support:
-student union/student government
-the president or other administrators may have discretionary funds
-the campus chapel/chaplain's office-maybea special collection could be
taken for your group
-campus organizations such as fraternities, sororities, and dorms
-faculty, staff and community members
-alumni
Into the Fields 29
Hold a campus wide canvass (a door-to-door solicitation campaign). If there
are 5,000 students at your school and only half of them gave $5 each, you
would have $12,500-not bad!
Show movies, hold a concert, or a talent show.
Have a carwash, raffle, walk/jog/rock/etc-a-thon.
Have a "build-a-thon" where students get sponsors for four hours of build-
ing with Habitat for Humanity-a great way to be of service and raise
money at the same time.
Ask the sponsoring agencies for a small contribution-some may have
money budgeted for interns.
Two special notes:
For some of these activities, you'll need to ask permission, espe-
cially for a student canvass and a mailing to alumni. Be sure to find
the right authorities, such as the development or alumni office, and
get their permission in writing.
Remember to write thank-you letters to those who donate money
or help in some other way with fundraising.
30 Into the Fields
5
Housing
Finding housing for the interns can be one of the most difficult parts of organizing
a summer internship project. It's hard, especially in rural areas, to find someone who
is willing to rent to college students and/or to rent for just three months. It's best for
the group to all live together in one house or apartment building or dorm, but
sometimes this will not be possible. Living together insures that the interns will be
in frequent contact with one another and will be able to provide support for each
other.
Start your housing search early
Begin looking as soon as you know the general area in which you will be working.
You may have to move the internships if you can't find housing! You'll want
something that is safe, relatively comfortable, and inexpensive. Try to be as close as
possible to all the organizations where the students will be working. Here are some
suggestions to start you in your search:
Ask the sponsoring agencies for leads (maybe staff would be willing to
house an intern or two if a group house is not located).
Call colleges in the area (your own if it's close enough!) to see if they have
housing.
Call realtors.
Put ads in the local newspapers.
Write a letter to the community in the local paper, explaining your mission
and needs.
Contact churches to see if they have a suitable space.
Even if someone doesn't have housing for you, be sure to ask for other
suggestions of where to look
Check out your options
Onceyou have located several potential options, the intern coordinators (and interns
themselves, if possible) should go look them over. Never accept anything without
seeing it first! Make sure the costs are clearly defined. How much per month? Are
utilities included? Draw up a lease, show it to your university counsel, and have both
the homeowner and intern coordinators sign it. Make sure that the housing
providers understand what the internship program is all about, and that the interns
Into the Fields 31
understand all the rules and regulations stipulated by the housing provider.
Another idea is to live with a farmworker family for all or part of the summer.
This would probably have to wait until the internship program was a few years old,
Te to see things
when program coordinators would have more contacts. It might work best just to
ple don't get to
have students spend two weeks with a family at the beginning (or end) of the
summer. It would be especially helpful for those interns who want to learn Spanish
people most
to get such an intensive introduction at the start of the summer. Be sure to pay the
get to meet.-
families-they are offering a service, and you would be paying rent anyway. Even
if they politely refuse, find someway to return the hospitality by buying groceries or
some other gesture.
Attheendofthesummer, makesure everything inthe group house or apartment
is spotlessly clean, and write a thank-you letter from the whole group. You want to
be invited back next year!
32 Into the Fields
6
Recruitment
Now that you have the basics of the program decided, you need to recruit students
to participate. Don't worry if every detail isn't finalized-the new interns can help
with all that! In fact, it's doubtful that you will have housing determined or all the
group money raised by the time you need to find participants.
Determine the best time to recruit
November is a good time to start your recruiting efforts. This is early enough so
students can talk to their parents over Thanksgiving and start fundraising. It allows
them time for serious thought before committing to the class and the internship. You
can try to recruit earlier, but many students aren't even thinking about the following
summer in September or October.
Publicize the recruitment meetings
First, set two dates and times for recruitment meetings, on different days of the
I've always wanted to do
week, so more people will be able to attend. Reserve a centrally located room that is
large enough to hold forty to fifty people (Be optimistic!). Hold an awareness event,
something with my life that's
open to the campus and the community, a week or two before the meetings to draw
a response to what I see as a
attention to the issue and to announce the formation of the internship project and the
real problem. That's the
dates of the recruitment meetings. In all your publicity, have a name and number to
reason I did two internships,
contact for further information, in case someone is unable to attend either meeting.
because I wanted to see who I
You may want to design a logo or catchy slogan so people will become familiar with
am in the world and what I
your project. Some ideas of how and where to publicize:
can do with my life.-Intern
1990
Post flyers all over campus.
Hang a large banner (spray paint on an old bedsheet works well) in a
prominent spot on campus.
Run newspaper ads.
Spread the news by word of mouth.
Get spots on campus radio/tv stations.
Convince the school newspaper to write an article about this exciting new
project a few weeks before the meeting.
Post notices at job-placement or internship offices.
Make presentations to:
-campus religious groups
-sororities/fraternities
Into the Fields 33
-other dorms/living groups
-community service groups
-cultural groups such as the black student alliance or Latino student group
-classes-especially education, sociology, Spanish, history, law, or health
policy.
Before you make presentations, approach the professor, president or group
leader to explain the project and ask permission to speak to the class or group. You
should practice what you will say in front of a few friends to gain confidence. When
you do the presentations, send around a sheet to get names and numbers of
interested students. Call to remind them of the meeting a few days in advance.
Be sure to be broad in your recruitment efforts and reach out to the many
different populations at your school. A mix of different ages and backgrounds is
highly desirable. The diversity of the students will add to their own experience
during the summer and bring different perspectives to the project. In addition, a
diverse group will have more to offer the farmworker community. Overall, diversity
can only strengthen your project.
At the recruitment meetings
Be well-organized and be enthusiastic. You want to convey the sense that this is a
service project, a learning experience, and a fun thing to do for the summer! Keep
these things in mind when planning your meeting:
Have a written agenda-and stick to it.
Dress nicely-you'll be taken more seriously.
Serve refreshments.
Show the "Into the Fields" video, or another short video about farmworkers.
Have written material on the project (such as a brochure) with a description
of each internship site.
Enlist former interns to come and answer questions and meet with small
groups after the meeting.
Get everyone's name, address and phone number, and ask how they heard
about the project.
Distribute application forms with a due date.
Announce the date for the follow-up fundraising meeting.
Be as clear and informative as possible.
Introduce yourself and the goals of the project. Outline all the details: the
required class, the kinds of work the interns will be doing at the various sites, the
fundraising component, the group housing, and the dates of the internship. If there
are requirements for participation, let students know. In some areas, students will
need to have a car or team up with someone with a car to get to work and to do
outreach to isolated migrant labor camps. Some internship sites may require that
34 Into the Fields
students speak some Spanish. While you don't want to discourage interested peo-
ple, you want to be honest and up-front about what the internship involves.
FOLLOW-UP CALLS ARE CRUCIAL! The coordinators should be in touch
with everyone who came to the recruitment meeting and should meet with each one
individually if possible. This will be helpful if it becomes necessary to selectthe group
from a large number of interested applicants.
Selection of Interns
You'll need to decide how you will select the interns. It can be a simple process, where
anyone who wants to go (and can raise the money) gets to participate. On the other
hand, you may have fifty interested students and only spaces for ten or fifteen
because of internship placements or housing. In that case, you'll have to make some
decisions. In either case, you should have students fill out an application. It can be
a simple form with their name, address, phone, year, major, interests/hobbies,
reasons for wanting to participate, and current choice of site placement. If you'll be
choosing between applicants, you'll probably want to know more: What skills can
they offer? What experience do they have? You could also take people ona first-come
first-served basis or through a lottery or a priority system giving upperclasspeople
first choice. Chances are that you won't have these problems when you begin your
program. People tend to self-select for such a challenging commitment! (Please see
Appendix B for two sample application forms.)
I want opportunities to meet
people with whom something
is going to happen because
they are who they are and I
am who I am, not just because
they are migrants and I am
Orange
here with the Duke group to
do whatever internship it is.
-Intern 1991
Into the Fields 35
M
M
7
The Summer Itself
The spring semester before
Basically, all you need to know and do has been outlined in the previous chapters:
the preparatory class starts, you work on fundraising, you look for housing, you
finalize intern placements with the various sponsors, etc. The timeline in Appendix
B should help keep you on schedule.
You need to look into the issue of liability before the summer starts The
department or program you are working with at your university may want the
student interns to sign a waiver, basically stating that the students will not hold the
university liable for accidents that occur during the summer. Please see the sample
form in Appendix B, but be sure to have your university counsel approve the final
form of what you ask your interns to sign.
Choose an on-site coordinator
There should be someone who lives with the interns who takes on the responsibility
of group coordinator. This person might be one of the people who coordinated the
project during the school year. It could be a faculty member who decides to live with
the group for the summer or an intern who wants to take on the extra responsibility.
The role of the coordinator should be: 1) to keep in touch with all the sponsors and
interns to make sure the internships are running smoothly, 2) to put together the
weekly meetings/seminar and be responsible for other special events, and 3) to be
the contact person for housing arrangements.
Organize a pre-internship retreat
A great way to kick off the summer is to have a retreat for all the interns. This is a
time for some serious group bonding before the internship begins. If the internship
is scheduled to begin on a Monday, hold the retreat Saturday and Sunday. You may
want to have it at the place where you'll be living for the summer, or it might be
more fun to go away to a new place (especially if you end up living on your own
campus). See if anyone has a house you can use. Or, check to see if state parks or
Into the Fields 37
county parks have a suitable place, such as a group camping area or shelter. Dur-
ing the semester, break the interns up into small groups, each responsible for
planning a part of the weekend-meals, games, group discussions, movies, etc.
Have a day of orientation
Although each agency should plan an orientation for the interns who will be
working there, it helps to go around to visit each site with the whole group. That way
you get a better sense of where everyone and everything is. The coordinator should
have good maps of the area for everyone, which you can probably get from your state
Department of Transportation. You'll need them to find migrant labor camps! Point
out any places of interest-the laundromat, the tobacco warehouse, the best place to
get ice-cream, and the local hang-outs.
Throw an intern-sponsor reception
At the end of the orientation day, or later in the summer, have a party for all the
interns and the staff of the organizations where they work. This is a great chance for
everyone to get to meet each other and have fun.
Hold weekly meetings/seminars for group reflection
It is important to reserve some time each week when the group can come together
The intern experience was far
to share their experiences, accomplishments and frustrations. Often interns get
more personally challenging
caught up in their individual work and lose track of what everyone else is doing.
than I expected it to be. I had
Bringing the group together allows everyone a chance to reflect about the summer
not realized in how many
and compare what they are seeing and doing with other students. This time is
ways I was needing to learn.-
important to help interns analyze and process their experiences. Problems or
Intern 1991
frustrations can often be worked through with the help of the group.
The session can take different forms: a group dinner and meeting, a more formal
seminar led by a faculty member, a discussion of a weekly reading or the events of
the week, a presentation by a speaker or the showing of a video. However, you want
to have time for each student to contribute to the discussion, and also for the group
to have fun.
It is also important for students to have time alone to reflect individually on their
summer experiences. Students should keep journals of their activities as well as
their thoughts about all they are doing and seeing.
Some other ideas for the summer
The summer is what you make of it! In addition to structured internships at
particular agencies, you may want to add some additional optional activities, or
even create an alternative summer experience. Here are some other suggestions for
ways to involve student interns in the farmworker community. Don't let this list limit
you or prevent you from more ambitious or creative plans:
38 Into the Fields
Arrange with one or two local farmers to have the students work in their
fields for a few days or a week (if they last that long). They could be paired
up with a farmworker, who would get part (or all) of the student's earnings.
Invite faculty or administrators from your school to spend a day or a week of
the summer at your project in order to raise their awareness and increase
their support.
Work part-time at the agencies and spend the remaining time with specific
camps or families.
Set up your own summer program for kids-in the camps, at a church, or at
your university.
Have students pair up into tutoring teams, and spend several evenings a
week working one-on-one with kids or adults in the camps.
Have an English-speaking student pair up with an Spanish or Creole-
speaking farmworker to teach one another their native languages.
Work with farmworkers to organize a weekend recreation program at a
church, school, or health clinic with activities for adults and children. Be
sure to provide food and transportation.
Work with farmworkers to organize an all-day farmworker festival-
games, music, dancing, a pot-luck supper.
Also check out the Program Profiles in Appendix C to see what students at other
schools are doing.
WOTTER
Ll
I
have
College volunteers add a spirit
and adventure no other group
can give. They bring in new
ideas as well as enthusiasm to
the classroom.-Teacher,
Johnston County Public
Schools
Into the Fields 39
It was frustrating to see a
six-year-old go out into the
fields to work instead of going
to class.-Intern 1990
40 Into the Fields
8
After the Fact
Send thank-yous and evaluations to all the Interns and sponsors
The week before the internships end, the coordinator should hand out evaluation
forms to all of the interns to get their feedback on the organization of the whole
internship from the class through the end of the summer, as well as more personal
reflections about their summer. Try to get these back before the interns leave. If not,
you'll have to keep trying to follow-up in the fall.
The week after the internship, send a thank you letter and an evaluation form
(with a self-addressed stamped envelope) to each of the mentors at the sponsoring
agencies. If you haven't heard from them in two weeks, follow-up with a phone call.
(You want to ma kesure it didn't tgetlost in the mail.)See the sampleevaluation forms
in Appendix B. These evaluations are critical to improving the program for future
generations of interns as well as for the sponsoring organizations and the farm-
worker community.
Create opportunities for reflection, discussion, and further action
You may want to have several small group discussion sessions in the first few weeks
of the following semester to help ease the transition from the intense summer
experience to being back in the normal routine of school. People may need to work
I feel like I have learned so
through some of their feelings from the summer. It mighteven help to use facilitators
much through the internship,
who were not part of the internship, to have a new face to stimulate thought and
discussion.
and it is only the beginning.
You might hold a day-long or weekend-long retreat for interns when they get
Through this experience, I
back to campus. Try to get everyone together during the first three weeks of school.
have found much greater
Take a Saturday or Sunday and go to a nearby lake or park. Ask people to bring
courage to help others.
photos from the summer or any stories or essays they want to share with the group.
-Intern 1991
Break up into small groups for discussion. Some possible topics are listed below.
How did the summer influence my future career plans?
How did the summer influence my political beliefs?
Did the summer change my relationships with my own family or friends?
Where do we go from here?
How can we still be involved while being full-time students?
How can we continue and improve this project for future interns?
Into the Fields 41
The retreat will hopefully be a chance for people to talk over some of their ideas for
further action.
Help insure the continuity of the project
All too frequently, new student initiatives don't last more than a year or two. The
students who begin them graduate, and no one else is interested in keeping them
going, or students are unable to obtain the necessary funding. In order to avoid this
problem start thinking early on about who is going to continue the work you have
This is the kind of learning
begun.
that's never going to happen
You can create a long-term structure through an advisory board or steering
on a campus. This is the kind
committee for the project that will include students but also people who will be
of learning where you say,
around longer, such as faculty and administrators at the university and staff
"Get in the situation and
members from community organizations. This could be an outgrowth of the core
act." There's not too much
group you brought together to start the project. The purpose of this group is to offer
advice and expertise, talk about the project, and help make contacts for fundraising.
thinking about it-there's just
This group, even if it's not officially incorporated as a board, should meet each
enough. Because there's only
semester to help give general direction to the organization.
that thinking that allows you
In addition, you may want to have a coordinating committee made up of
to act.-Intern 1990
students who have done the internship and students who are preparing for them.
This way, during each academic year there would be members who have done the
project already. Each member could take on one main area of responsibility: housing,
fundraising, the class, relations with the sponsors, and group activities.
Don't forget to create a filing system and save all memos, notes, letters,
evaluations, names of contacts, and any other relevant information for the new
leaders of the project!
NO SMOKING
42 Into the Fields
9
Beyond the
Summer Internships
Create year-round activities
There are lots of ways other than a summer internship that college students can
become involved in the lives of migrant farmworkers and their families. It may even
make more sense for schools in the downstream or homebase states, such as Florida
or Texas, to begin a program during the academic year when the majority of
farmworkers are in their state. In many states, both up-and downstream, there is a
farmworker population present all year long who may be unemployed or tempo-
rarily employed in another industry. There are usually many needs to be met during
this off-season. Refer to the chapters on recruitment, fundraising, and site develop-
ment when planning year-round programs. Be sure to read the program profiles in
Appendix C. Some ideas for year-long projects are outlined below:
Organize a tutoring program for migrant children in the schools or camps.
Organize a big sibling program, matching college students with younger
migrant students.
Create an adult literacy project, and provide learners with the choice of what
language they would like to learn literacy skills in.
Send volunteers to the health clinic or legal service programs.
Lately, the college students
Set up field trips for migrant children-maybe high school students could
from Duke have been coming
spend a weekend with students at your college.
Hold education/ awareness events on your campus or in the community-
here, and they're really
have speakers come or show films about farmworkers.
interesting to talk to and get to
Hold a food or clothing drive.
know. You sort of have an
Help farmworkers who are trying to organize a group of their own-you can
idea of what it's like to go to
make phone calls, provide transportation, or hold fundraisers.
college, and you give yourself
Begin an advocacy campaign on one or more issues-write letters to mem-
more goals to shoot for.-
bers of Congress, write editorials in the newspapers, have information
Student, Johnston Co.
tables on your campus, hold hearings or speak at them.
Monitor the activities of the government agencies responsible for enforcing
Public Schools Migrant
farmworker laws, such as housing inspections or field sanitation.
Education Program
Help farmworkers organize a festival or a farmworker appreciation week.
Write articles about your work for the school magazine or newspaper.
Hang a photo exhibit from college interns' work.
Hang an art or photo exhibit from migrant students' work.
Publisha documentary work including art, photographs, oral interviews and
essays done by migrant students and college students together.
Into the Fields 43
Plan a spring or fall break trip to work with farmworkers in another area. For
help, contact BreakAway: The Alternative Break Connection (see Appendix E).
Work with your university's medical or law school to send their students out
to the camps or to set up a mobile clinic.
Provide semester or year-long internship opportunities.
Work on "action research" projects for farmworker agencies-find out what
projects they haven't had time to do but would be useful. For example, a
study of agricultural land ownership in the area, or a study of pesticide use.
Some students may be able to receive independent study credit for
performing this useful research.
Help build a network
Please inform the office of Student Action with Farmworkers what you have created
at your campus or if you find out about other university's efforts. We want to keep
track of where and how student involvement with farmworkers is growing and
improving. Your project will be part of a network of student activity across the
country.
I learned from the volunteers,
and I think they learned from
us. Everything can sound
good on paper, but nothing
beats HANDS-ON experi-
ence. Migrant children need
a lot of love, encouragement,
self-building activities, and
some success-oriented
motivating work. They need
hugs and people who really
care about helping them
become the best that they can
be.-Teacher, Johnston
County Public Schools
44 Into the Fields
10
Problems and Possibilities
While summer internship projects and year-long volunteer efforts have many
benefits, there are also some potential questions and difficulties that students should
be aware of.
The limits of volunteerism
A service-learning internship project such as the one outlined in this manual can
provide just what it describes: service to people in need and learning for college
students. The recent increase in volunteerism in our society, by students and others,
is a positive change. Citizen involvement is important in maintaining a strong
democracy and a healthy society. But volunteerism does not in itself solve the
problems it aims to address, and should not be seen as a substitute for the provision
of paid professional human services or long-term strategies that focus on the root
causes of the deep inequalities and injustices present in our society.
Students should think deeply about their role as volunteers and what the
limitations of that role are. What can volunteers realistically accomplish? What needs
remain unmet? How can these needs be better met? What is the responsibility of the
government in solving the many social and economic problems this nation faces?
What should be the role of the private sector? How can these various parties work
together more effectively?
Other questions will no doubt arise as students become involved in the lives of
farmworkers. How does the way we define certain terms such as "aid-recipient" and
"aid-giver" affect the provision of services to those in need? Should college students
be working in migrant head start programs-or should migrant farmworkers
themselves staff these centers? Why aren't farmworkers or former farmworkers
doing outreach from the health clinic to migrant camps? Why don't older migrant
students tutor younger children? Why don't we focus on people's strengths instead
of emphasizing the labels of "the needy," "recipients," or "clients"? Why aren't there
more farmworkers on the governing boards of the service agencies and programs
designed to benefit them?
Students may also question the value of the whole structure of government
services and look to alternative solutions such as the empowerment of farmworkers
themselves to improve their situations. How can farmworkers join together in
organizations of their own, which they create, build, run, and define to determine
their own needs and the means to meet them? What factors stand in the way of the
creation of a strong movement among farmworkers? How can students most
effectively support those farmworkers who are organizing?
Into the Fields 45
PRIVATE
HOME
NOT A CAMP
KEEPOUT
These questions have no easy answers, and are only a few of the many tough
issues student volunteers will encounter. However, it is important to consider just
what can and cannot be accomplished by a student community service project, and
what other solutions need to be developed.
The "problem with college kids"
While many staff members of agencies that work with farmworkers will welcome
your interest and desire to help, others may be wary of student involvement. Perhaps
they have been disappointed in the past by students who failed to fulfil a commit-
People are so distanced from
ment they made. Or perhaps the staff feels that they put a great deal of time into
training and supervising interns and do not get as much out of it. Some agencies are
it, it's amazing. That's
worried that colleges students who may make waves in the community will be long
something I remember about
gone when the repercussions come back to the service agencies. You should beaware
myself before I did this
of the potential for distrust and strive to prove you are sincere, committed, and
internship. It's in our
sensitive to these issues.
backyard, it's in our front
Much more than service agency personnel, the residents of the community you
yard. And we don't even see
are entering may be very resistant to your efforts. Obviously, each community will
it.-Intern 1991
be different, and it is difficult to generalize. However, the farmworker population in
a county often is hidden for a reason. You may find that local residents would just
as soon not know about them or hear about them. Migrants are the "other." These
attitudes may be based on ignorance, fear, or racism. This is not to say that all
residents of a rural community are mean-spirited. In fact, many honestly do not
know that farmworkers are living in their backyards and would be willing to help
46 Into the Fields
if they did know. It's just that most people live in their own worlds, are busy with
their own lives, and do not take time to find out about problems or try to make
changes. The permanent residents may resent "outside agitators"-such as student
volunteers-coming in to "tell them how to run things." Farmers complain that
students just "don't know how things work around here." This may be true. Students
It's a very awkward situation
may not be well-informed about the difficulties of agriculture which hurt both
farmers and farmworkers. But "the way things run" can also mean KKK meetings
to know you're coming to a
and deep-set expressions of prejudice-things students should not have to remain
place for just ten weeks. We
quiet about.
came as students-we wanted
This manual cannot give answers to the problems and tensions that may arise
to learn. But we also came as
between a group of inquisitive, active college student "outsiders" and the long-term
helpers-we wanted to help in
residents of a community. Students are coming in as guests-of the farmworkers,
whatever way we could. But
the year-round community, and the organizations that work with farmworkers.
it's hard if you're just there
These various players already have some sort of relationship with each other, one
that may be precarious, difficult, and suceptible to damage when students begin to
for ten weeks and you know
speak their minds.
you're going to leave.-Intern
For example, the health clinic may need the cooperation of grower X and
1990
crewleaderY in order to provide health care to the workers living in their labor camp.
A student interning at the clinic finds out that the crew leader is abusing or cheating
the workers in some way. She calls in the police and the media and raises a fuss in
order to help bring justice to the farmworkers. However, this action damages the
trust between the clinic and the grower, and the grower or crew leader will no longer
bring workers into the clinic when they need health care. A broader underlying
question: is illustrated by the above example: How does one balance the need to speak
out against injustice and the need to work within the community and within existing
structures?
Another problem with college students is that most of their schedules and lives
are unpredictable and changing. Most go home for the summer or on breaks, and
they all eventually graduate. Most are not there for the long-term, and this situation
can be problematic in developing relationships with people, especially children. Be
careful of what expectations you set up. You are there to tutor this child only for the
summer, or the semester or the year. In some ways, migrant children know a lot
about unreliability and change because of the constant mobility of their own
lifestyles. In some cases, they are likely to leave before the college students. On the
other hand, migrant children may face more disappointments and let-downs than
other children. Be sure to keep your side of any commitments.
Two general reminders for students
You are there to learn from agency staff and farmworkers, and you do
not have all the answers.
Finish what you start and don't promise things you are unable to pro-
vide or do.
Into the Fields 47
Common frustrations felt by Interns
While agencies, farmworkers and local communities may find fault with students,
students themselves may at times find fault with the internship. The experience is
bound to have some frustrations and failures as well as successes and rewards, and
students should be prepared for both.
One frequent frustration felt by interns is that nothing is changing! Students
frequently say to themselves: "Here we are working all these long hours and people
are still not getting paid what they should, kids are still working in the fields instead
of going to school, and young children are still left home alone because their parents
cannot find child care." Students come with a proper idealism. After all, someone's
got to believe that things can get better! One of the hard lessons of the internship is
how slow and incremental positive change is in our society.
On the other hand, often students are making a real difference, but one that is not
always visible, widespread, or long-term. They are providing transportation so a
family can apply for food stamps. They are translating papers so a worker can bring
his family into this country. They are providing better care for young children by
giving extra attention and love in an overcrowded day-care center. They are helping
migrant teenagers learn about college and think about more options for their own
lives. These are no small contributions, and students should be proud of what they
can accomplish in a summer. At the same time they should realize that it will be a
long time before the overall conditions for farmworkers improve.
Cultural barriers can be another frustration. The farmworker population in this
country is made up of people from many different backgrounds, from many
different countries, speaking several different languages. This can clearly be a
positive factor, in that students will be greatly enriched by learning about cultures
different from their own. However, misunderstandings may also arise, from literal
misinterpretations between speakers of different languages to different cultural
understandings of what is or is not acceptable behavior.
So why do it?
These observations are not meant to stop students from becoming involved, but to
Students can learn an
let students know what some of the potential obstacles may be. With adequate
enormous amount about the
preparation and good communication among all parties, these problems can be
country they live in, about the
avoided. In addition, discussion and reflection on the part of interns can help ease
communities that are not so
many of these frustrations.
very far away from where they
There is a potential for great things to happen when college students become
involved with acommunity of farmworkers. Students can indeed provide important
are getting an education.
human resources when they assist in the work of farmworker service, advocacy, or
They can learn this way.
organizing groups. At the same time, they are learning from this work and their
Otherwise, they won't learn at
relationships with farmworkers and their families. People who don't ordinarily
all.-Dr. Robert Coles
interact will begin to understand each other better, and together work toward
48 Into the Fields
changing the unjust conditions that many farmworkers face. New friendships will
be formed. Hopefully, this manual will help you shape a project that is a fun,
worthwhile experience for all involved.
GO FOR IT!
Now that you have some tools and ideas to proceed, go ahead and
do It! You already have all the talent, energy and capability to make It
happen. Good luck, and let us know what you create. If you have
suggestions for how this manual can be improved, please tell us.
Into the Fields 49
Appendix A
Personal Essays
Brenda Kurz
Jennifer Schradie
Eric Jones
Into the Fields 51
52 Into the Fields
Brenda Kurz, Duke 1978
In 1978, Brenda decided to continue and expand the original migrant project at Duke which
had begun in the summer of 1976. She is now a psychiatric social worker at a clinic for low-
income children in Durham, North Carolina.
I first became involved with migrant farmworkers as a teenager. I grew up in the
Connecticut River Valley in Western Massachuesetts and, like many other kids,
picked local crops to earn money. Tobacco was the real big money-maker there.
Teens from "the Valley," West Virginia and Florida worked side by side with men
from Puerto Rico in the fields and the barns. The out-of-state teens and the men lived
in university dorms and had their earnings monitored and manged by the various
crew leaders. I was fortunate enough to live at home and did not have someone
withold money from my paycheck.
As a local I did not experience the prejudice the other workers faced. Locals were
at the top of the tobacco farm social hierarchy. I was often told to stay away from the
Puerto Rican men because there was no telling what things they might do to me. But
instead I would talk and joke with these men while we worked. The fear people had
of them made little sense to me.
After three summers in the fields, I was old enough to get other jobs, and soon
I went off to college. At Duke, I learned that Bruce Payne and Dr. Robert Coles had
set up a project that enabled Duke students to work with migrant and seasonal
farmworkers in North Carolina. I wanted to know how the experience of North
Carolina's farmworkers compared with that of the workers I knew in Western
Massachusetts. I decided to get involved and continued to work with migrants for
the next three years, devoting each summer and much of the academic year to the
project.
In the summer of 1978 I spent many hours simply driving around the state,
visiting the various agencies that worked with migrant and seasonal farmworkers,
and spending time at the migrant health clinics. During the intervening year I
identified the North Carolina Student Rural Health Coalition as a group that might
be interested in working with migrant farmworkers. Together we began to develop
a larger scale project.
Our goal for the summer of 1979 was to more rigorously assess the needs of
migrant farmworkers-particularly those needs that a group of well-intentioned
undergraduate, graduate, and medical students could meet. Various projects per-
taining to health, nutrition, and legal rights were carefully planned, and a group of
energetic and committed students dedicated themselves to the project. Unfortuna-
tely, much-promised funding for the interns' living expenses fell through. I had to
Into the Fields 53
tell my crew of idealists that I would not be able to pay them. I expected all of them
to leave, but every single person remained. Some got jobs at McDonalds. Others
used their savings. We did live quite meagerly indeed and became experts on the
many variations of the peanut butter sandwich. I have never felt more proud of a
group of people.
That summer, we developed the idea of conducting preliminary medical
screenings for farmworkers at their labor camps, since many had no transportation
or access to health care. This project utilized the medical students from Duke and the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Psychology and law students were also
recruited for legal and educational efforts. By the next summer our numbers grew
to fifteen and we set about the business of trying to be effective volunteers in the
unwieldy and complicated systems imposed on farmworkers. Despite the obstacles,
we were quite successful, screening over 500 farmworkers for health problems and
informing many of their legal rights.
After many months of service, I passed the project on to the next generation of
idealists, and I went on to graduate school, finishing my masters in clinical social
work and doctorate in epidemiology. My experience with migrant farmworkers
influenced my decision to combine these two seemingly disparate degrees. My
work with migrants clearly indicated that socio-economic problems, and even
health problems, cannot be adequately addressed in either solely a clinical or solely
a research manner. Both are necessary. The clinical work keeps you "honest. "People
you treat will always tell you what the problems are, if you have an open mind and
listen to what they are saying. Once you have listened, then you can pursue the
indicated and appropriate research.
After graduate school I did a little migrating of my own and joined the Peace
Corps in Zaire as a public health volunteer. My migrant work prepared me well for
this experience. I was ready and able to adapt to a lifestyle that was very foreign to
me. Now, I am back in the United State, working as a clinical social worker and
researcher in a clinic that serves low-income children and their families. Again, my
experience with migrant farmworkers has prepared me for my work in yet another
complicated system, difficult to navigate.
The culmination of my experience is anger and questing for solutions. Through-
out my years of working with migrants, I saw no real change. Indeed, Edward R.
Murrow's 1960 documentary, "Harvest of Shame," looked no different to me than
the scenes I witnessed many years later. In my present work I also see little change.
I help some children and their families some of the time, but it is not enough. In
addition, there is an extreme contrast between my life and the lives of the people I've
seen in the migrant camps or the lives which I hear about every day in my office. For
this reason, I am now seeking work that will be preventative rather than reactive in
nature. For me, the migrant project was a fundamentally profound experience
which forced me to acknowledge this discrepancy and seek out solutions to the
injustices I saw.
54 Into the Fields
Jennifer Schradie, Duke 1989
Jennifer participated in the Duke Interns in Conscience Program at the Florida site in the
summer of 1987.
The spring of 1987, I participated in a pre-internship class that introduced me and
a group of other Duke students to the lives of farmworkers. At that time, I was also
writing a research paper on the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)
for a political science course. When I arrived in Florida that summer, these
intellectual endeavors were ripped from my brain down to my soul as I saw the
impact of this federal law. Yes, many undocumented farmworkers were "legalized,"
but at an enormous price. Application fees were $400 for a family! In addition, many
farmworkers decided not to travel northward up the migrant stream and sacrificed
a season's wages so they could stay in Florida to track down the paperwork that they
needed to get a shot at avoiding the oppression of being undocumented.
As I was slowly learning, even IRCA and other farmworker legislation that is
passed through Congress or state legislatures (over the protests of agribusiness) is
rarely enforced and hardly ever improves the rights of farmworkers. In this instance,
it also produced waves of discrimination for anyone who looked foreign, since
another part of this legislation mandated that employers hire U.S. citizens or
documented workers. In other words, without a groundswell of empowered and
organized farmworkers who would themselves enforce any legislation or contracts
they would continue to be exploited.
That summer in Florida I researched the electoral system in Belle Glade. Belle
Glade is a small town of African-Americans, Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, Hai-
tians and Anglos. The town is basically controlled by a "good ol' boy" white power
structure, with questionable election results-often by two or three votes. I was
trying to determine the impact of IRCA to see if there would be an increase in the
number of people of color who could vote in the next election, and in general to
determine the chances of more black political power.
In the midst of this research, both the Miami Herald and the Palm Beach Post
printed articles on the Duke interns, disappointingly but not surprisingly annointing
us White Knights to help these poor people. In one of the articles, I was quoted as
saying that Belle Glade politics were very conservative. That same day, the white
mayor called me in for a meeting. I took the sound vice of an attorney and brought
a fellow student in with me.
The mayor tried to tell us how liberal he was, since he was a Democrat. He really
thought that I would throw away my views of him and his administration when he
Into the Fields 55
told me, "You know, I don't support Reagan." I could barely keep from laughing.
I asked him why he opposed accepting the thousands of dollars that the county
was donating to the town to construct and fund an AIDS hospice. When I was living
in Belle Glade, it had the highest AIDS incidence rate in the country, especially
among farmworkers. AIDS victims had to travel at least an hour to get to the nearest
hospital for care. Trying to appeal to me as a college student, he said "How would
you feel when you went away to college if you had to say that you were from Belle
Glade, where there is a big neon sign that says "AIDS" ? You wouldn't be able to
make any friends. I don't want my son to go through that. Would you? That's what
would happen if we built that thing here."
On my own, I discovered a dynamic grassroots organization called B.O.S.S.-
Blacks On the Serious Side. Comprised mostly of farmworkers, they are organizing
to force the town's elected officials to be accountable to the people of color of Belle
Glade. While I was there, I helped out with grantwriting to hire full-time staff. I was
delighted to discover that as of September of 1991 this organization is thriving. BOSS
recently led the community's fight to prevent the town board from building a school
between a dump and a prison. Since almost all of the white students attend private
schools the majority white town board had no interest in this issue until forced to
respond by the members of BOSS.
Because of my experience in Florida that summer, I continued to grapple with
the most effective way to bring justice to farmworkers and end the oppressive
conditions that they faced. I knew that legislation wasn't the answer and that food,
health and housing programs were helpful but failed to address the underlying
conditions that perpetuated poverty. On the larger scale, these programs were mere
crumbs thrown to farmworkers while they still labored in the fields.
The following school year, I worked with a local organization called Triangle
Friends of the United Farm Workers which supports farmworkers who are organizing
for better conditions. organized a group of professors and concerned administrators
to petition the Duke University Food Services to support the UFW grape boycott.
This boycott was called to stop the use of toxic and deadly pesticides used on grapes
and to force grape growers to bargain with the UFW in good faith. We were
successful in this effort the following year.
The next summer I worked with FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee) in
Ohio as an intern. I learned how farmworkers who organize and come together to
fight for justice can succeed. Members of FLOC have won contracts to increase their
wages and general working conditions. It's a slow battle, but I was able to witness
an extraordinary FLOC constitutional convention when hundreds of farmworkers
came together to make decisions about how their organization is going to continue
to fight for their self-determination and justice.
Through these experiences working with farmworkers, I have decided to
continue to support oppressed and exploited people who are organizing for better
conditions and a decent life. Ilearned through these experiences that only the people
themselves know what they need and what a powerful force they can be when
organized to realize those needs.
56 Into the Fields
Eric Jones, Duke 1992
In the summer of 1991, Eric interned at the Tri-County Community Health Center in
Newton Grove, North Carolina where he workerd as an outreach intern and helped to
organize a weekend recreation program for farmworkers.
"The Power of the People"
I wanted to cry as I looked at the boy facing me. His skin was burned from the waist
up, his face like a tattered brown cloth. He was my age, Hispanic, and he sat on a
bed in the corner of the room with his back erect. His brother held his outstretched
hand and wrapped gauze around the arm. The flies in the room settled on the boy's
cheeks and eyelids, seeming to know that he had no way of swatting them. Though
the window fan spun its hectic rhythm behind him, the air remained static. I turned
off my brain, determined not to ponder the causes, nor the consequences, of the
scene.
Still, I wanted to cry.
It was my first visit to one of the camps where the migrant farmworkers of
Sampson County, NC passed their summer nights. My "guide" on this day was
David Thomas, an outreach worker for the East Coast Migrant Health Project. I
remained quiet while David spoke in Spanish to the brother, a small man save for his
thick forearms, whose long hair hung from the back of his Desert Storm camouflage
cap. The brother described what had happened: The car the boy had been driving
broke down in South Carolina; when he opened the radiator cap, boiling water
spurted over his torso and face. He went to the nearest hospital but he couldn't stay
because he had no health insurance, the brother said.
Isaw the boy a few times in the following weeks at the Clinic where I worked with
the Substance Abuse Prevention and Health Outreach staffs. I would sit down next
to him, and though I could not speak enough Spanish to have an extended
conversation with him, I could tell by his ready smile that he recognized me. Over
the course of his visits, I saw his face lose its charred texture, turning pinkish, then
regaining its original tan color. In this boy, I witnessed first-hand the healing power
within human beings. The vision repeated itself throughout the summer. Many
times I would encounter people in pain-pain caused by physical malaise or by
psychological frustration and uncertainty. But tears never again threatened my eyes.
Instead, the promise of recuperation-and the hope for regeneration-filled my
spirit.
On that same day late in May when I first met this boy, David and I stopped at
a gas station to greet a Hispanic woman holding a boy of three or four on her hip.
Into the Fields 57
Divots of scab lined the child's forearms and blisters checkered his face. He too was
a burn victim. He smiled as David offered him a small box of raisins, and he giggled
as he tried to shake hands with David, who would pull it away as the boy reached
for it. The woman's six year-old daughter also joined the laughter. She had been hit
by a car the previous summer. She lifted her shirt and pulled back her hair to show
us the scars. They seemed not to remind her of the horror: They were more like a
birthmark, a forgotten part of her being that represented no stories and required no
explanations. As David worked the children into raisin-chewing giddiness and their
mother beamed, it occurred to me that these children healed the wounds in this
woman's life, wounds caused by unending travel and poverty.
My classmates and I tried to prepare ourselves for this kind of lesson during the
past semester at Duke. Always, we had stressed the importance of getting to know
migrant farmworkers as people. So many times when we sit down to eat fruits and
vegetables, we forget the men and women who get them from the fields to our tables.
And if we do stop to think for a moment, the first images that come to mind are bent
backs in the searing sun or crowded vans with Florida license plates.
Now, I think of the people of the fields as I never could have in May: As people
who love and laugh; who teach and learn.
One of these people is Melvin Haines. The black American crew leader of a Johnston
County migrant camp, Melvin struck me as misanthropic and fatalistic when I first
met him. Once a woman there was saying she would like to return to school and
improve her math skills. "Sheeeit," Melvin said, "You can't teach an old dog new
tricks." Another time Melvin lounged his 6'6" hang-bellied frame on the hood of his
car while I played catch with a couple of the men. "Sheeeit," he observed, "Where'd
y'all learn to throw likea girl?" And when came with the bus to transport the camp's
interested workers to the Clinic's first Sunday afternoon Recreation Program,
Melvin took me aside. He had a soft, almost dreamy voice for such a huge guy. But
he had wide the luster of cue balls that always looked straight past and made
me feel like someone was about to jump me from behind. "I'm not knocking you for
trying to do this," he said. "But you're wasting your time. All them are a bunch of
drunks."
Ten people got on the bus. And they kept getting on each Sunday.
Weeks later, the bus broke down on its way to Melvin's to pick up folks for a trip
to see the Fayetteville baseball team. I ran into the camp and asked for help. Melvin
had one of his workers drive me back to the Clinic. Half an hour later, I returned with
a van, and with many thanks for Melvin. "Anytime," he said, flinging his cigarette
down and looking at it in the grass. "I'm glad to do anything I can. I wish I could
go along."
I brought back a team picture from the game that night for Melvin. Later in the
week I handed out snapshots from the trip for those who went along and Melvin
asked me to open the trunk of my car. He and some others filled my trunk with
watermelons and cantaloupes they'd picked that day. "Anytime," Melvin said,
watching me through the kitchen's screen door. "I'm glad to do anything I can."
One of these people is Larry Winters. Larry spent the summer on the Haines camp,
a place where (not unlike other camps) nothing except a flickering television set
58 Into the Fields
broke up the long periods of boredom, where the only constant was the day-to-day
unpredictability of having work. A tall, muscular man with sideburns flecking
silver, Larry showed everyone his ability on the Clinic's basketball court. And his
ability to poke fun at himself. At the Recreation Program, he had a domineering
presence when he ran the offense and when he partook of the picnic fare. "If I quit
smoking," Larry would say, "T'll blow up to 300 pounds." He would grin through
a mouthful of cake or cole slaw when I said, "And let's hope you don't, we'd all
starve."
Larry volunteered to write a thank you letter to the local Grange (a social
organization for farmers) which paid for our trip to the baseball game. He gave
language to the emotions I feel in looking back upon the summer, in remembering
the part a person like me could play in his life and that of others:
We all enjoyed the game as well as the trip. We are very happy to know that there
is people who care, and look upon us as people also. It's people like you that give us
hope and motivation to strive for a better way in life. Tri County Community Health
Center (the staff) is a group of fun loveing and true caring people. They have made
it possible for many camps to come together. We are happy to be a part of the Farmers
In Prevention Planting the seed for a Drug free harvest. We will work hard to add
Haines people that really want to have a drug free life. Life was boreing here before
they started this program. Now we all have something to look forward to doing, as
well as meeting new people.
One of these people is Besula "Betty" Green. Born in Tahiti the daughter of a woman
who did laundry at a U.S. military base there, she ran off with one of the soldiers when
she was eleven. Now, nearly forty years later, her eyesight is failing, and she and I
spent several days feeling our way through the social service system to get her a pair
of glasses. She told me in her staccato, off-cadence voice about the countries she and
her husband had visited. "Japan was my favorite," she said. "It was beautiful." But
after his death five years ago, Betty entered the migrant stream. In the camp she lives
with a Jamaican man named Royan. She gives him lessons on how to read and write
in English when they have a day off from the fields. Royan married an American
woman 25 years his elder many years ago in hopes of gaining citizenship. "It didn't
work," Betty told me. "He's trying to get his divorce now. Royan and her never lived
together or even had any children together."
On my last day in the area, I went to tell Betty her glasses would be ready early
in the next week. She stopped me as I got up to leave her room and said, "Royan's
divorce came through last week. We're married finally." She smiled, showing her
gold front tooth with the crescent moon shape cut out. "Well, you may now kiss the
groom!" Isaid. Blushing, she walked to where Royan sat by the window, and kissed
him on the temple.
One of these people is Emilia Guerrero. On August 10, she turned eleven years old
on the camp where she and her family live near Benson, NC. The second half of the
summer, I spent nearly every evening at the camp learning Spanish, playing with
Emilia and her four sisters, and dancing to Mexican pop music after nightfall. I
Into the Fields 59
became close enough with the family to earn the honor of sharing their meals and the
nickname "el Payaso"-the Clown.
Emilia would cover her face in embarrassment whenever I or her sisters chimed,
"feliz cumpleanos "on her birthday. But her palms couldn't hide her smile and it
infected us all. One of her sisters taped a sign on the door of the family's room that
said in English: "Emilia Guerrero THIS IS YOUR DAY August 10, 1980." It had
the look of a workbook cut-out she'd picked up in one of the many schools the child
of a migrant family attends in her travels. brought eleven balloons with me that day
and plopped them down on her head, "Uno dos tres. and she covered her face,
eyes shining through the cracks between her fingers. In the afternoon, Emilia, her
father, and I went to buy a cake and bottles of orange soda for the celebration. Upon
our return to the camp, the family set up a table normally used for sun-drying chili
peppers and covered it with a bed sheet. Emilia blew out the candles on the cake in
two tries and I asked if she'd made a wish. "No, but I make one now," Emilia said,
closing her eyes for a moment.
It being Saturday, several of the men on the camp were drunk, and I worried that
they would ruin her party. One old Mexican thrust out his fists and barked
incomprehensibly while we sang "Happy Birthday". But no one in the family paid
attention to him, except for when Emilia put a piece of cakein front of him on the table.
And he turned out to be quite entertaining when we finished eating and all got in a
circle, punching a beach ball across the dirt to one other. The drunk man insisted on
standing in the circle. But when the ball came near him, it would hit him in the head
or, if saw it coming, bounce out of the path of his flailing arms. The children would
laugh to the point of falling down, as if they too were drunk. And Emilia would race
after the ball, shrieking with delight, not bothering to cover her face. There were no
photographs taken of her blowing out the candles, no wrapped gifts, and the rest of
the people on the camp seemed to ignore the scene as they sipped their malt liquor.
But it didn't matter to Emilia. After all, this was her day.
I felt like everyday of this summer was my day. I have never before seen so
vividly the way faith and hope work. All of these people have become my friends.
And I've absorbed their lesson: That human beings cure the deepest of wounds in
the course of everyday life, using what we all have-our smiles, our laughter, our
dreams.
So as I think back to how so many of these people have touched me, again my
eyes want to cry. But the tears come from my understanding of the healing power-
not the capacity for suffering-I've witnessed.
60 Into the Fields
Appendix B
Program Materials
Timeline
Survey
Syllabus
Brochure
Applications
Fundraising packet
Fundraising letter
Waiver of liability
Intern evaluation form
Sponsor evaluation form
Into the Fields 61
62 Into the Fields
Timeline
July, August and September
February
initiation of the project
interns meet sponsors
field trip
September
develop sites
March
core group development
hold group fundraising event
locate needed resources
final site selection
write up plan of action
field trip
October
April
write/submit grant proposals
plan retreat
develop brochure/info. sheet
class ends
develop individual fundraising
finalize housing agreement
packets
interns sign waivers
plan the class
advertise recruitment meeting
May
hold awareness events
intern retreat
begin housing search
orientation
intern-sponsor reception
November
hold recruitment meetings
June/ July
follow-up calls and meetings
internship
fundraising meeting
seminar/weekly meetings
plan class
August/ September
December
send thanks and evaluations to
individual fundraising begins
interns and sponsors
application process/selection of
retreat for returning interns
interns
set-up volunteer activities for the
spring semester
January
class begins
plan group fundraising events
Into the Fields 63
Survey
(This survey is meant to give you an idea of the kinds of questions to ask potential sponsors.
The spaces for responses have been eliminated.)
Name and Title
Organization
Mission/Goals
1) Do you currently have, or have you had in the past, college students working with
your organization?
yes
no
(if no, please skip to # 12)
For how many years?
2) What is the time frame for their involvement? How many students?
(Please
<
all that apply)
summer interns
semester-long interns
year-long interns
weekly volunteers
hours per week
special times
spring break
fall break
Jan. term
other
3) What have been their responsibilities within your organization?
4) From what colleges/universities have the students come?
5) How have you recruited interns/volunteers? (please
all that apply)
advertise at local colleges
advertise in local papers
individual students have contacted us
word of mouth
through churches/religious groups
I
other
continuing relationship with a specific campus group
name of organization, school and contact person:
64 Into the Fields
6) What kind of financial support have you been able to offer interns?
stipend
room
board
work-related travel (mileage)
we are unable to provide such support
7) What kind of orientation or training do you provide for your student interns/
volunteer?
8) What kind of effect have students had on your organization and the work it does?
9) How could students be better utilized within your organization to meet the needs
of farmworkers and their families?
10) What are the primary benefits of having student volunteers/interns?
11) What problems or drawbacks are involved with having student volunteers?
How could these be overcome?
12) Would your organization or its affiliates be interested in involving more college
students in the work you do with farmworkers?
In what capacity?
How many?
When are they most needed?
What skills are needed?
What kind of time commitment? (full-time in summer, all-year, once a week?)
What support (financial or other) would or might be available to them?
13) What other ways, outside of your organization, could college students most
effectively work with migrant farmworkers and their families?
14) What do the farmworkers that you work with identify as their most pressing
concerns? (number in order of importance, if possible)
immigration status
living conditions
learning English
discrimination
day care
job training
wages
education
working conditions
access to health care
access to legal assistance
worker safety issues
- transportation
nutrition
other (describe)
15) Do farmworkers or former farmworkers have a role in the planning or operation
of your organization?
If yes, please describe.
Into the Fields 65
Syllabus
(This is a sample of a half-credit course at Duke)
Migrant Farmworkers in North Carolina
Description and Goals of the Course:
This course seeks to enhance students' understanding of the lives of the migrant
farmworkers and their families who plant, tend and harvest crops each year in North
Carolina. We will examine the following topics as they relate to farmworkers: health
care, legal issues, education, working and living conditions and labor organization.
The course is geared toward, but not restricted to, those students who will
participate in the Migrant Farmworker Summer Internships sponsored by the
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. For this reason the course will
highlight the various documentary approaches taken to explore and announce the
situation of farmworkers.
The course will consist of twelve weekly two-hour sessions, with possible
optional activities, speakers and/or films. Students will be required to keep a weekly
journal which will be collected twice during the semester. Students may elect to write
two 4-5 page critical reaction papers if they prefer not to hand in their journals.
Students will be graded on attendance at class meetings, participation in class
discussions and evaluation of the two written assignments.
January 17
Introduction
Film: "Harvest of Shame" CBS, 1960
January 24
Who Are the Migrant Farm workers?, a discussion of the composition of the
farmworker population and the experience of farmworkers in North
Carolina during the past two decades.
Speaker: Thom Myers, Director of Telamon Corporation, an organization
which assists migrant workers in "settling out" of the migrant stream.
Readings: "Migrant Farmworkers in the East Coast Stream" published by
North Carolina Primary Health Care Association.
"Bent, But Not Broken: What a reporter found among America's mi-
grants," by Michael Satchell, Parade Magazine, Oct. 10, 1982.
Video: "Season of Suffering" WTVD-11, 1980.
66 Into the Fields
January 31
Legal Rights of Farmworkers
Speaker. Mary Lee Hall, Attorney with Farmworkers Legal Services
Readings: Sections on North Carolina and Federal Farmworker Protective
Laws from Farmworker Protective Laws: A Guide for Farmworkers in
the US and Puerto Rico, edited by Brian Craddock, 1988.
"N.C. Farmers want foreign field hands, by Matthew Davis, Wilmington
Morning Star, Monday April 9, 1990.
Video on Perkins Reserve: "H-2 Worker" by Stephanie Black.
February 7
Occupational Hazards: Pesticides and Field Sanitation
Speakers: Caroline Arvani-Cordona, Farmworkers Legal Services
Gustavo Salidas, Director of the Worker Safety and Health Program,
Farmworkers Legal Services
Video: "The Wrath of Grapes" United Farm Workers.
Readings: "N.C. Hearing Brings Debate On Further Pesticide Rules," Durham
Morning Herald Sat. March 27, 1982.
"Farmhands' leaders cite high rate of poisonings" by Joan Oleck, Raleigh
News and Observer May 28, 1982.
"The Health Effects of Agricultural Production," by Molly Joel Coye,
Journal of Public Health Policy, Sept. 1985.
February 14
Early Childhood Migrant Education: Existing Programs
Speakers: Maria Horan, Recruiter for the East Coast Migrant Head Start
Program
Rogelio Espinoza, Chairperson of the Parents' Committee for East Coast
Migrant Head Start in Smithfield, NC.
Readings: "Uprooted Children," Chapter 3 from Volume II of Children of
Crisis by Robert Coles.
February 19
Migrant Women and Children
Speaker: Dr. Robert Coles
Readings: "Living on the Road," from Women of Crisis by Robert and Jane
Hallowell Coles.
February 28
Migrant Education: Federal and State Programs
Speaker: Sarah Carroll
Readings: "Significant Factors in the Migrant Experience" by Billie Davis, in
The Ripe Harvest: Educating Migrant Children.
"Migrant Education in North Carolina 1988-89" published by NC Dept.
of Public Instruction.
Into the Fields 67
March 7
Migrant Health Issues and Existing Programs
Speaker. Jay Zimmerman, UNC School of Public Health
Readings: Information from Tri-County Community Health Center.
"An Overview of The Growth and Development of the U.S. Migrant Health
Program" by Helen J. Johnston in Migration Today
"Health Problems Among Migrants" by E.L. Matta, Jr., in The Ripe Harvest:
Educating Migrant Children.
First Written Assignment Due
Deadline for Choosing Summer Worksite
March 21
Mental Health and Psychological Assessment
Speaker: Dr. Janis Kupersmidt, UNC Department of Psychology
Reading: "The Lives of Migrant Farmers" by Robert Coles, M.D American
Journal of Psychiatry ,Vol. 122, Sept. 1965.
March 28
Housing and Living Conditions
Speaker: Amy Trester, Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry
Readings: "History of North Carolina Council of Churches Farmworker
Housing Development, 1980-1986."
"Church council buys land as site for worker housing," Raleigh News
and Observer, August 27, 1986.
"Migrant Housing is Controversial," Hendersonville Newspaper
(unknown date)
April 4
Modern Slavery?
Speaker. Carolyn Corrie, author of a thesis on North Carolina's farmworker
slavery trials.
Film: "Plantation Legislature"
Readings: "Drugs and Debt: Shackles of Migrant Worker" by Peter T. Kilborn,
NY Times, Oct. 31, 1989.
"Farmer is Charged with Enslaving Mexicans," NY Times, April 1990.
Crime of Involuntary Servitude, General Assembly of North Carolina
House Bill 864, Session 1983.
Optional coursepak reading: "Food and Justice," January 1990 pub-
lished by the United Farm Workers.
April 11
Farmworker Labor Organizing and Organizing Community Support
Speakers: Jen Schradie, North Carolina Student Rural Health Coalition
68 Into the Fields
Joan Preiss, Triangle Friends of United Farm Workers
Readings: Selected materials from United Farm Workers and the Farm
Labor Organizing Committee.
"Collective Bargaining Agreement between Farm Labor Organizing
Committee and Vlasic Foods, Inc. and Growers Under Contract to Vlasic
Foods, Inc." March 15, 1986 to December 31, 1989.
"Raising the Rights of Farmworkers Up to Those of All Other Laborers,"
by Jennifer A. Schradie, October 16, 1987, Duke Journal of Politics Spring
1988.
****** Second Written Assignment Due ******
April 18
Course Conclusion
Speaker. Dr. Robert Coles
Readings: Student reflections
Course Requirements:
Students will be graded on attendance at class meetings, participation in class
discussions and evaluation of two written assignments.
Students will keep a weekly journal to record the evolution of their thoughts. To
complete the two required written assignments students may either turn in their
journals or write a 5 page critical reaction paper on one or more of the topics covered
in class.
Optional and encouraged class activities include
opportunities to learn and practice Spanish speaking skills,
the Project WILD ropes course,
community work, volunteer tutoring of Hispanic students
Required readings will be available in coursepak form. The following is a list of other
recommended readings: (Please seee the bibliography for examples.)
Into the Fields 69
BROCHURE
(This is a sample from the Duke program)
An Invitation and A Challenge
The goals for interns in this ten week
This summer Duke students will have
summer project, sponsored by Duke
the opportunity to make a difference in
University's Center for Documentary Stud-
the lives of migrant farmworker children
ies, are three-fold:
and families living in Eastern North
To help improve the lives of migrant
Carolina, and to change their own lives
farm worker children and families
by learning from the experience of people
through education, health care and legal
living in extremely difficult circumstan-
services.
ces.
To document migrant farmworkers'
In recent years, an estimated 40,000
lives in order to raise awareness of the
migrant farmworkers havecometo North
conditions in which they live.
Carolina during the growing season to
To learn about situations of powerless-
swell the ranks of the nearly 140,000
ness and to find out what role we can
seasonal farmworkers who live in the
play in changing them.
state year-round. These people work in a
state notoriously hostile towards labor,
A Mutual Education
in an industry traditionally non-union-
This program began last year with a
ized and hazardous.
focus on migrant farmworker children's
Migrant families are forced into mar-
education. While the project is still very
ginal lifestyles cut off from political, eco-
concerned with the problems of migrant
nomic, and social institutions. On the
education, the experience of the first
road eight to ten months of the year and
group of interns taught us that a child's
constantly moving from farm to farm
"education" is much more than the time
and state to state, the children of migrant
that she or he spends in school. We can-
farmworkers are often unable to partici-
not begin to think about the problems of
pate in regular school programs. As a
migrant education without understand-
result, these children remain among the
ing the difficulties that migrant families
most poorly educated in the country.
face-problems of inadequate health care
Ultimately, when these children enter
and housing, subminimum wages, lan-
adulthood, they find that their lack of
guage barriers and more.
education leaves them with little oppor-
The coming summer's interns will be
tunity to choose a life for themselves or
able to work at one of five agencies, each
their children other than the one that they
educating the intern about a different
have known as migrant workers.
aspect of migrant farmworker experience,
each serving a particular need.
70 Into the Fields
The East Coast Migrant Head Start Project
Because 80% of migrant farmworkers in
was initiated in 1974 to provide continu-
North Carolina are Hispanic, some
ity of pre-school services to the children
Spanish speaking ability is strongly re-
of migrant farmworkers. The recipients
commended for people who intend to do
are pre-schoolers, toddlers and infants,
outreach work.
sometimes as young as two weeks ofage.
Working through these different or-
Without this program, most of these chil-
ganizations, intems will provide invalu-
dren would be in the fields with their
able service to migrant farmworkers.
parents. Interns at Head Start will be
And, through the effort to understand
classroom aides and outreach workers.
the lives of others, interns inevitably will
come to a different understanding of
NC Migrant Education is administered
their own lives.
through North Carolina's public schools.
The aim of this summer elementary
school program is to provide supplemen-
A House Course
tary education for migrant children, who
only a springboard)
encounter many interruptions in their
During the spring semester, interns will
schooling. Interns in the public schools
participate in a house course in order to
will be teachers' aides and special subject
examine some of the issues that they will
teachers (P.E., Art, Music, Computers).
encounter in eastern North Carolina.
Interns will meet and talk with people
Tri-County Migrant Health Center serves
who work in each of the participating
the health needs of the farrnworker
agencies.
population. Farmworkers face thespecial
health hazards of repetetive motion dis-
order, poor nutrition and exposure to
An Important Word About Fundraising
pesticides. Interns at Tri-County will be
Because the organizations sponsoring
involved in outreach, health screenings,
students cannot afford to pay them, and
health education and prenatal care.
because part of the philosophy of the
internships is to give students substantial
Farmworkers Legal Services addresses the
responsibility, interns will raise their own
legal needs of farmworkers in cases in-
summer stipend, usually set at $1200.
volving immigration legislation, work-
Don't be put off. Students in this and
ing conditions, housing and other issues.
other similiar internships have raised
Interns with FLS will be involved in legal
money successfully for many summers.
education and outreach.
They are happy to pass on the methods
they have used. Fundraising is a way for
Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry operates
interns to include more people in their
a bus service to the Tri-County Health
summer efforts and an invitation to
Center. EFM sponsors classes in English
educate their sponsors about their expe-
as a Second Language and will be orga-
rience when they are through.
nizing a community center and a daycare
facility in Newton Grove, NC.
Into the Fields 71
Sample Application Forms
This background information will be kept on file at the Migrant Farmworker
Internship Program office.
Please fill out and return by the end of the meeting.
Name:
Mailing Address:
Campus Address:
Phone:
Year(Class):
Major(s):
Special interests or hobbies:
Past experience within or outside your community:
Are you interested in any particular internship site(s)? If so, what are they and why
do they interest you?
How did you hear about this program?
Anything else you want to tell us?
Thank you!
72 Into the Fields
(These are some examples of questions you could include on a more involved application.
Reprinted with permission from Alternative Spring Break at Vanderbilt University.
Spaces for answers have been eliminated.)
Please check your first four choices in number of preference. (1,2,3,4)
Nashville
Washington, D.C.
Rose's Creek, TN
Minneapolis, MN
Glen Jean, WV
McClellanville, SC
Monterrey, Mexico
South Dakota
Indiantown, FL
Marks, MS
Immokalee, FL
Atlanta, GA
Please be complete in your responses and feel free to use the back. We hope you take
some time to reflect on the questions before answering them. There are no correct
answers, so just be honest and tell us what you think.
I) What good do you hope to accomplish in one week? What qualities and/or skills
do you possess that would help you accomplish this?
2) A group of your close friends are planning a Spring Break trip to an exotic and far
away island. They really want you to join them and ask you to explain why you want
to participate in ASB, instead. Give your response.
3) While helping clean up an area in a poor community by picking up pieces of glass
and rusty debris, a poor stranger, possibly homeless, asks you for your gloves. You
are currently wearing them and they are protecting your hands from both the cold
and the trash you are picking up. How would you react? Discuss why.
4) What do you think the overall goals of Alternative Spring Break should be?
5) During spring break, you live and work with a small family. The father, you notice,
is never home; his absence is not mentioned by the mother. At dinner, with the
mother present, her child asks you, "Is your daddy in jail, too?" How do you
respond?
6) While working at your ASB site, you hear another participant make a comment
that is clearly racist. How do you react?
Into the Fields 73
Fundraising Packet
(This is a sample originally used by the Duke Interns in Conscience Program.)
To: Folks thinking about migrant farmworker internships for the summer of 1991
From: The Coordinators
Re: Fundraising strategies for the holidays
I wanted to put in writing some thoughts about steps you might take over winter
break to initiate your fundraising efforts. Ideally, you will contact these people
sometime before you get home for break to set up a time to meet with them when
you're home over the holidays.
1. First things first. Think of at least 5 people or groups that you will contact the first
few days you are home. If you cannot think of at least five, ask your parents or friends
for help. If even after that, you can't come up with 5, go with what you can.
2. Before you call, THINK. Take some time and think about who you're going to call
and what you're going to say. How do you know this person? Do your parents know
them? What do you know about them and/or their organization? How will you
initially get their trust on the phone? It's absolutely critical that you sound organized
and confident on the phone. I would suggest roleplaying the phone calls with your
siblings, friends, dog, or someone a few times before you make them.
3. Remember: The purpose of the phone call is to get a meeting. If at all possible,
you want to avoid making a presentation over the phone. Why? For several reasons.
First, it's easier to say no over the phone than it is face to face. Second, it's hard to know
if you have their full attention over the phone, and even harder to explain all of the
details of your request. Third, it's much harder to be creative on the phone, to explore
other options than just yes or no. When you move to ask for a meeting time, always
indicate how long you expect the meeting to last (never longer than 45 minutes,
probably closer to 30 minutes). These are busy folks and they need to know that
you're not going to tie up their entire day.
4. If you have to make the presentation over the phone, do so crisply, confidently, and
concisely. Yes, you should rehearse this presentation. Also, you should know
beforehand whether you are going to ask for a specific amount (e.g., $50, $100, $1200),
or simply tell them that you are trying to raise $1200 and are asking for whatever they
feel is appropriate. See discussion below. AND, you should never end a phone
presentation, regardless of whether you have received a "yes," "no," or "maybe"
before you have asked them for suggestions of who else to call.
74 Into the Fields
5. OK, so now you have a meeting. Now what? The more you can find out about the
person you are going to meet with and his/her organization, the better. The crucial
decision you need to make before you go in is what concretely you're going to ask
for, and what you're going to offer. So how do you decide how much to ask for? Who
knows? There are no hard and fast rules, but there are some guidelines. I personally
think that asking for a specific amount in the context of the total amount you're trying
to raise is best. What do I mean? Something like: "Each intern has to raise $1200. What
I'm asking from organizations like yours is $X." Such a statement conveys a great
deal of information: the total amount you have to raise; that you are not just
depending on this organization to raise it; that you want a specific commitment from
them. You need to tailor your request to the organization. If you are going to a church
that meets in a one room shack and has 50 members total, you probably won't want
to ask for all $1200.
6. "Wait a minute. Just above you said that I had to decide what I was going to offer.
What does that mean? I'm not going to give them money, am I?" No. But you can give
them other things. For example, you can offer to come speak at a meeting during or
after the summer about your experiences. In the appropriate circumstances, you
might offer some work in exchange for the contribution. You might have a number
of other ideas, but the important point is that you seek to develop a relationship with
these folks, and indicate that you are interested in them for more than just money.
7. So now you've made the decision about what to ask for, you've done as much
research as you can on the organization and person with whom you will meet,
you've reviewed the facts about the summer program. Now what? Roleplay, what
else? Develop your presentaion and go over it with aforementioned dog, friends, etc.
until you are comfortable with it. It's actually better if you don't use your dog; you
need your partner to ask you questions so that you can anticipate the questions that
others will ask.
8. So now you're ready. Good luck. Remember to be creative. If they can't help you
with money, do they have ideas about who might be able to? What would they do
if they were you? AGAIN, never leave the meeting without at least asking them who
else they would suggest you talk to.
9. One final point: If you're doing cold calls— i.e., calls to organizations with whom
you have no contact person- you need to find out who the person(s) is (are) who
can make the decision about money. If you don't find this out first, you may waste
your time making several presentations only to be told that you have to make yet
another one because you haven't yet talked to the person who can make the decision
about money.
10. A second final point: As soon as you get your feet wet and begin to get some sense
of what works for you, you should develop a personal fundraising plan, complete
with target dates, amounts, and expected sources. Developing this plan will force
Into the Fields 75
you to become excruciatingly concrete (if done well) about where you are going to
get your funds, and by when.
11. A third final point: Fundraising is hard, but it isn't impossible. Most of all it takes
creativity, perseverance, pluck, and a little luck. If you've raised only some of the
money by the end of break, don't be discouraged. Obviously, the most important
thing is to raise the money, but second to that is having tried. Because you're having
difficulty doesn't mean that there is something inherently wrong with you, or that
the task is hopeless. Remember, everyone else is almost certainly in the same
predicament. Questions before or during break? Call:
76 Into the Fields
Sample Fundraising Letter
January 1, 1991
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Johnston,
With the end of my junior year fast approaching, I find myself wrestling with the
big question: What am I going to do with my life? Although I am still of a changing
opinion each day, I have developed considerable interest in the area of education. At
this point, a position working with and helping children seems especially attractive
to me. During my years at Duke, I have worked with terminally ill children at the
Ronald McDonald House in Durham, and more recently tutoring and keeping
professors' children after school. Personally, I think another strong incentive for my
interest in teaching comes from being the oldest in a family of nine grandchildren!
Whatever the reason, these experiences have taught me the importance of a solid
education and I have decided to explore teaching more thoroughly this summer.
Through the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, I have found an internship
which provides an education for hundreds of children who have previously been
denied this opportunity.
This summer, I will work in Eastern North Carolina's terribly important but
understaffed educational programs for the children of the migrant farmworkers
who come to our state each summer. Migrant families are forced into marginal
lifestyles cut off from political, economic and social institutions. On the road eight to
ten months of the year and constantly moving from farm to farm and state to state,
tens of thousands of migrant children are unable to participate in regular school
programs. As a result, these children remain the most poorly educated in the
country, frequently finishing school with less than a third or fourth grade education.
Ultimately, when these children enter adulthood, they find their poor educations
leave them with little opportunity to choose a life for themselves or their children
other than the one that they have known as migrant workers.
My goal for this summer is to fight against this continuing cycle. I will be
woorking with the preschool children in the mornings through the East Coast
Migrant Head Start Project, and will work in the afternoons with elementary age
children through the public schools' N.C. Migrant Education program.
Because the organizations sponsoring students cannot afford to pay them, I am
asking for your monetary support. Each participant is required to raise his or her own
stipend for the summer, set at $1,200. This money will cover all housing food, and
transportation costs for the 21/2 month stay in Johnston County, North Carolina.
Into the Fields 77
Any help would be greatly appreciated, however, a gift from you of $25.00 would
insure my raising the necessary amount. Checks should be mailed directly to me at
the Durham address listed above. They should be made out to the Center for Docu-
mentary Studies and are tax deductible.
I realize that my internship for the summer will bea challenging one, but Ibelieve
it will give me direction which will be useful upon my graduation from college. More
importantly, I look forward to providing an opportunity to learn which might not
otherwise be available. One of my favorite English professors at Duke has always
maintained that many of the problems in our world today have come about because
people do not understand one another. Ibelieve one of the keys to understanding one
another is education. It is a mutual process. If you have any further questions about
the program, I would be happy to answer them for you. I can be reached at the
address above. Again, thank you for your time and consideration. I hope this letter
finds you and your family well.
Sincerely,
Jane Doe
78 Into the Fields
Waiver
Waiver for Students Participating in the Center for Documentary Studies' Migrant
Farmworker Internship Project
Name
I am participating in the Migrant Farmworker Internship Project, and I understand
that the program involves working with migrant farmworkers and their families
through the following agencies: Tri-County Community Health Center, Farmworkers
Legal Services, St. Martin's Children of the Land Migrant Head Start, the Johnston
County Public Schools, the First Baptist Church, and La Casa Maria. I will assist the
staff in these programs and may make visits to various migrant camps in Johnston,
Sampson, Harnett and other neighboring counties. I will be traveling frequently
between Buies Creek and Newton Grove, NC.
In consideration of the opportunity given to me to participate in this program to deal
directly with migrant families, I recognize that I have undertaken this project
voluntarily, and I recognize that it is under my own volition that I will take whatever
risks to myself and others that my actions entail. I therefore waive any right or course
of action of any kind whatesoever, which may or could accrue from any liabilities,
claims, damages or losses stemming from injury to person or property that arise from
or in any way relates to my participation in the Migrant Farmworkers Internship
Project, against Duke University, its trustees, officers, employees, or agents and
against the Center for Documentary Studies, and its directors, officers, employees or
agents.
I HAVE CAREFULLY READ THIS WAIVER, FULLY UNDERSTAND ITS CON-
TENTS, VOLUNT SIGN IT, AND REALIZE IT WILL BIND ME, MY HEIRS,
AND MY PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES.
Date
Signature
Into the Fields 79
Intern Evaluation Form
(This sample is from the Duke program. Spaces for responses have been eliminated)
** Please complete and return to the coordinators on Mon. July 29th at our 6 pm
meeting **
Take time to read through all the questions before answering.
Name:
Internship Site(s):
The House Course
Please write an evaluation of the spring semester house course. Use any form you
wish, and use the following questions simply as guidelines for your reflections.
* In retrospect, how well did the course help you to understand the policy isues
involved in your internship?
How well did the course help you to understand the personal issues and challenges
involved in your internship?
What would you absolutely want to preserve about the house course? What would
you want to change?
* What else could be added to improve the class?
The Summer Internship
What staff member(s) did you work with the most at each agency? What was their
position at the agency or title?
Do feel that your sponsor (the person you worked with most closely) and the agency
in general were well-prepared for you and the other interns?
Did the agency have an orientation for interns? Please describe and evaluate.
Please write a brief summary of your role within your sponsoring agency, including
any particular projects you developed or coordinated
What days/hours did you work at each agency, for a total of approximately how
many hours per week?
Do you feel that you were given (or took on) enough productive work to occupy your
time? Explain.
80 Into the Fields
Were you ever asked to do anything you felt uncomfortable with or did not like?
Explain.
Did you ever feel that you were being asked to do too much? Explain.
Please write a personal evaluation of your internship experience. Take adequate
time to reflect and organize your thoughts. You may use any form you wish. The
following questions are offered only as guidelines for your reflections. Use as much
space as necessary.
* How did the actual experience differ from your initial expectations?
* What were some of your successes?
* What were some of your frustrations?
* What did you learn from your sponsor?
* What strengths did you see in the agency you worked with? What weaknesses?
The Documentary Component
Please describe how, if at all, you incorporated documentary work into your
internship. What problems did you encounter in relation to documentary work?
How could some of these be resolved? Do you feel there is a role for documentary
work in an internship such as this?
Do you feel the Center for Documentary Studies offered adequate support for the
interns? How could this relationship be improved?
Other
Please evaluate the housing situation. Would you recommend Campbell for next
year's interns? Other suggestions?
Please evaluate the "group experience". What are the benefits of living/interacting
with other interns? How well do you feel the group functioned as a group? How
could this situation be improved?
What was the best part of the internship, overall? The worst?
What are your suggestions for improving the internship program?
Into the Fields 81
Sponsor Evaluation Form
(This is a sample from the Duke program. Spaces for responses have been
eliminated.)
Please take some time to read and answer the following questions. Return the
completed form to:
Name:
Agency:
Student Intern(s):
A. We would like you to evaluate the work of the student interns at your agency
this summer and to suggest improvements.
I. Please describe the responsibilities of each Duke student intern within your
organization and how well they performed these responsibilities.
2. How would you assess the impact the students have had on your organization?
3. What problems did you encounter with the interns this summer?
How could these problems have been avoided?
4. In what ways were the interns from Duke most useful to your organization this
summer?
4. In what other ways could college student interns contribute to the work at your
agency?
5. In general, could you suggest other ways college students can assist migrant
farmworker families?
6. How many Duke interns could you use at your agency next summer?
7. Would you prefer interns with a particular background or skills? If so, what?
8. How can interns be better prepared for their work at your agency?
82 Into the Fields
B. We would also like you to evaluate your own experience with the Center for
Documentary Studies Migrant Farmworker Internship Project.
1. Would any specific information about the project or the Center have better
prepared you to assume your role as an internship sponsor?
2. In what ways did your involvement as an internship sponsor benefit you
personally or benefit others in your organization
3. Would you like to continue a relationship with this internship program? How can
this relationship be improved?
C. In general, what are your suggestions for improving this internship program?
Thank you again for your help and participation in this program!
Into the Fields 83
Appendix c
Program Profiles
California State University at Fresno
DePauw University
University of Miami
State University of New York at Geneseo
State University College at Oneonta
Vanderbilt University
Into the Fields 85
Program Profiles
California State University at Fresno
Contact: Raul Diaz
University Migrant Services
5150 North Maple
Fresno, CA 93740-0067
209-278-4768
Through a program called College Ambassadors, college students who come from
migrant or seasonal farmworker families visit junior high and high schools in the
community to encourage younger migrant students to continue with their educa-
tions. The program began in the fall of 1990, when several students from Fresno's
Migrant Student Alliance went to talk to junior high students. Soon other schools
requested their time, and they decided to create the College Ambassadors Project: A
Bridge to Success, College, the World. The program includes one-on-one presentations,
small group discussions, assemblies, conferences, and college tours. The goals of the
college ambassadors are to: "help students succeed, make a difference, encourage
higher education, reduce the drop-out rate among migrant students, make students
aware of their options, motivate future generations, and to let students know we care
about the future, the world and the environment." The Ambassadors speak to both
parents and their children to tell them about all aspects of college life, encourage them
to continue on to college and to address some of their concerns. In 1990-1991, over
500 junior high and high school students were reached by the College Ambassadors.
DePauw University
Contact: Dr. Fred Lamar
Campus Ministries Center
DePauw University
Greencastle, IN 46135-0037
317-658-4615
Depauw's 4-1-4 academic calendar lends itself to several novel service-learning
programs such as the Winter Term in Mission Program and the Voluntary Service
Projects for which students can receive academic credit. Each year, 200 students
spend the month of January at eight sites thoughout the nation and world, providing
service to a wide variety of social welfare agencies. For the past five winters, students
have gone to Immokalee, Florida to work with Habitat for Humanity, the Redlands
Into the Fields 87
Christian Migrant Association, The Guadelupe Center, and the Immokalee Child
Care Center. The students both live in and work at the Friendship House, a
temporary homeless shelter. Students perform a variety of tasks, including helping
to prepare for and implement two major events held by Habitat each January
(Awareness Day and House Raising Day), working with children, and publicity and
grant writing for the various organizations. The goal of the DePauw winter term
programs is to enhance the awareness of the students and challenge them to make
deeper moral, religious, and social commitments to the world in which they live.
University of Miami
Contact: Carrie Edmonston
Univeristy of Miami Volunteer Services Center
PO Box 249116
Coral Gables, FL 33124
305-284-4483
With help from a grant from Florida's Office for Campus Volunteers, residents from
a University of Miami living area created the HOMES (Helping Others to Milestones
in Education) program to work with migrant children from a Homestead migrant
labor camp and from the after-school program of an organization called Centro
Campesino. The program was first started when fifty migrant children were brought
to the Apartment Area of the University of Miami on Halloween to trick-or-treat, get
their faces painted and play holiday games. The following Easter Apartment Area
residents again hosted the children from Centro Campesino. The group has decided
to become more involved in the lives of these children. Now after-school tutorials,
big siblings programs and homebuilding projects connect students from the
Apartment Area with migrant families in Homestead. One of the goals of the project
is to "benefit both groups of participants by allowing them to share their diverse
backgrounds."
SUNY Geneseo (State University of New York)
Contact: Anne Salerno
BOCES Geneseo Migrant Center
Holcomb Building 210-211
Geneseo, New York 14454
716-245-5681
Students from SUNY at Geneseo volunteer with farmworkers in a variety of ways
through the BOCES Geneseo Migrant Center. Several students each semester
participate in for-credit internships, a few interns work in the summer, and other
students volunteer for special projects on an occasional basis. Student interns come
from a variety of academic departments, while volunteers come through campus-
based groups such as fraternities and sororities, the Hunger Task Force, and
88 Into the Fields
Hispanos Unidos. Volunteers and interns have helped with food and clothing
drives, organized special events, worked on promotional materials, tutored in the In-
Camp Adult Basic Education Program, worked with children and parents in a
literacy project, served as members of a health outreach team, and helped to plan and
mount exhibits of migrant art and culture.
State University College at Oneonta and Hartwick College
Contact: Lorrie Wolverton
Oneonta Tutorial Program
Bugbee Hall Room 310
SUCO
Oneonta, NY 13820
Students from Oneonta and Hartwick College work with migrant farmworker
families through the New York State Tutorial Outreach Program (TOP). The
program offers full or half-time internships to students during the fall, spring and
summer semesters for which they receive academic credit. Students are involved in
a variety of activities, particularly in making weekly home visits to migrant families.
They tutor adults and school-age children, teach parenting skills, counsel teens on
career education, and work with pre-school children to prepare them for school.
Students also serve as liaisons between the families and other human services
agencies, as well as counselors, support people and friends. The main goal of the
internship is to provide the college students with "an opportunity to learn and
practice skills necessary to be an effective helping professional."
Vanderbilt University
Contacts: Renee Smith, Brady Brown, William Aaron
Alternative Spring Break
PO Box 7065-B
Nashville, TN 37235
615-343-7878
Vanderbilt University is a national leader in developing alternative spring break
projects in which students spend their mid-semester break working on volunteer
projects while living in communities in sites all over the US and in Mexico. Each year,
thirty students go to Immokalee and Indiantown, Florida where they work on
homebuilding projects, tutoring, grantwriting and immigration assistance. In
Indiantown they work with and learn from Guatemalan refugees, many of whom
are migrant farmworkers, through an organization called Corn Maya. The Alter-
native Spring Break (ASB) program includes a pre-break orientation and training,
a focus on community involvement during the week, and a reorientation period for
reflection and local action after the break. The goals of ASB at Vanderbuilt are to
expose students to different cultures and to provide students for service projects on
a local, regional, national, and international level.
Into the Fields 89
90 Into the Fields
Appendix D
Bibliography
Farmworkers, agriculture, and rural poverty
Community service, service-learning, and organizing
Resources for organizations
Resources for student leaders
Group-building, reflection, and role playing
Into the Fields 91
92 Into the Fields
Farmworkers, Agriculture, and Rural Poverty
Agee, Jamesand Walker Evans. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. New York: Ballantine
Books, 1941.
Allen, Steve. The Ground is Our Table. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1966.
Cheyney, Arnold B. The Ripe Harvest: Educating Migrant Children. Coral Gables,
FL: University of Miami Press, 1972.
Coles, Robert. Migrants, Sharecroppers, Mountaineers: Volume II of Children of
Crisis. Boston: Atlantic, Little and Brown, 1967.
Coles, Robert. Uprooted Children: The Early Life of Migrant Farm Workers. Pitts-
burgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970.
Coles, Robert and Jane H. Coles. Women of Crisis: Lives of Struggle and Hope. New
York: Delacorte Press, 1978.
Daniel, Cletus E. Bitter Harvest: A History of California Farmworkers 1870-1941. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1967.
Daniel, Pete. The Shadow of Slavery: Peonage in the South, 1901-1969. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1973.
Dunbar, Tony and Linda Kravitz. Hard Traveling: Migrant Farmworkers in
America. Cambridge: Ballinger Publishig Co., 1976.
Emmet, Herman LeRoy. Fruit Tramps: A Family of Migrant Workers. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 1989.
Fitchen, Jane. Poverty in Rural America: A Case Study. Boulder: Westview Press,
1981.
Galarza, Ernesto. Merchants of Labor: The Mexican Bracero Story. Charlotte, CA:
McNally and Loftin, 1964.
Galarza, Ernesto. Spiders in the House and Workers in the Fields. Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1970.
Into the Fields 93
Goldfarb, Ronald. A Caste of Despair. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1981.
Goldschmidt, Walter. As You Sow: Three Studies in the Social Consequencs of
Agribusiness. Montclair: Allanheld, Osmun and Co., 1978.
Harrington, Michael. The New American Poverty. New York: Penguin/Viking, 1984.
Hightower, Jim. Hard Tomatoes, Hard Times. Cambridge: Schenkman Publishing
Co., 1978.
Hintz, Joy. Poverty, Prejudice, Power, Politics: Migrants Speak About Their Lives.
Columbus, OH: Avonelle Associates, 1981.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1978.
Johnston, Helen. Health for the Nation's Harvesters. Farmington Hills, MI: National
Migrant Worker Council, 1985.
Judson, Horace A. Reflections of a Former Migrant. Baltimore: Maryland State De-
partment of Education, Division of Compensatory, Urban and Supplementary
Programs, 1978.
Kusher, Sam. Long Road to Delano. New York: International Publisher, 1968.
Levy, Jacques E. Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa. New York: WW Norton,
1975.
Light, Ken and Diana DePerna. With These Hands. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1986.
London, Joan and Henry Anderson. SoShall Ye Reap. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell
Co., 1970.
Manley, Roger. Into the Light/Hacia La Luz: Images of Hispanic Migrant Farm-
workers in North Carolina. Raleigh: Telamon Corporation, 1990.
Martin, Philip. Harvest of Confusion: Migrant Workers in US Agriculture. Boulder:
Westview Press, 1988.
Matthiessen, Peter. Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution.
New York: Random House, 1969.
McWilliams, Carey. Ill Fares the Land: Migrants and Migratory Labor in the United
States. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1942.
94 Into the Fields
McWilliams, Carey. Factories in the Fields. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1969.
(1935).
Meister, Dick and Anne Loftis. Long Time Coming: The Struggle to Unionize
America's Farm Workers. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1977.
MENTOR (Migrant Educator's National Training and OutReach). Harvesting the
Harvesters. This ten-unit series of pamphlets and tapes is designed to teach you
about migrant children and education. An excellent bibliography is included.
Available from: Pat Davis, c/o ESCORT, 107 Satterlee Hall, SUNY Potsdam,
Potsdam, NY 13676.
Moore, Truman. The Slaves We Rent. New York: Random House, 1965.
Palmer, Barbara C. Migrant Education: An Annotated Bibliography. International
Reading Association, 1982.
Parker, James P. and David C. Hemingway. Crewleader Violence Against Farm-
workers in North Carolina. Prepared for the North Carolina Chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild, 1982.
Prewitt-Diaz, Joseph, et al. The Effects of Migration on Children: An Ethnographic
Study. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Department of Education, Division of Migrant
Education, 1989.
Shotwell, Louise. The Harvesters: Story of the Migrant People. New York: Doubleday,
1961.
Smith, Patrick D. Angel City. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Valkyrie Publishers, 1978.
Sosnick, Stephen H. Hired Hands: Seasonal Farmworkers in the United States. Santa
Barbara: Mc Nally and Loftin West, 1978.
Steinbeck, John. In Dubious Battle. New York: Modern Library, 1936.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Viking Peguin, 1986 (1939).
Taylor, Ronald B. Chavez and the Farm Workers. Boston: Beacon Press, 1975.
Taylor, Ronald B. Sweatshop in the Sun. Boston: Beacon Press, 1975.
Thomas-Lycklama a Nijeholt, G. On the Road for Work: Migratory Workers on the
East Coast of the United States. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Press, 1980.
Into the Fields 95
US Commission on Civil Rights. Where Mulkes Outrate Men: Migrant and Seasonal
Farmworkers in North Carolina, Report of the NC Advisory Committee to the
US Commission on Civil Rights. Washington, DC: U.S. GPO, May 1979.
Weiner, Sandra. Small Hands, Big Hands: Seven Profiles of Chicano Migrant
Workers and Their Families. New York: Panteon Books,
Wilkerson, Alec. Big Sugar: Seasons in the Cane Fields of Florida. New York: Vintage
Books, 1990.
Wright, Dale. They Harvest Despair: The Migrant Farm Worker. Boston: Beacon Press,
1965.
Articles
Satchell, Michael. "Bent, But Not Broken: What a Reporter Found Among America's
Migrants" Parade Magazine, 10 October, 1982.
Coye, Molly Joe. "The Health Effects of Agricultural Production," Journal of Public
Health Policy, Setember 1985.
Coles, Robert. "The Lives of Migrant Farmers," American Journal of Psychiatry Vol.
122, September 1965.
Horgan, James. "The Union Makes a Difference: The UFW Organizes in Florida."
Southern Exposure XI, 6 (1983): 62-65.
Johnston, Helen. "An Overview of the Growth and Development of the US Migrant
Health Program" Migration Today
Kilbourne, Peter. "Drugs and Debt: Shackles of the Migrant Worker," The New York
Times, April 29, 1990.
Rust, George. "Health Status of Migrant Farmworkers: A Literature Review and
Commentary," The American Journal of Public Health. October 1990, p. 1213.
Videos/Films
Videos and films are available from the following organizations. Call them for the
latest information about rental fees.
Triangle Friends of the United Farm Workers (TFUFW).
2722 McDowell St., Durham, NC 27705. 919-489-2659.
96 Into the Fields
United Farm Workers (UFW.)
Public Action Department, PO Box 62, Keene, CA 93531. 805-822-5571.
Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry (EFM).
PO Box 1514, Dunn, NC 28335. 919-567-6917.
North State Public Video (NSPV).
PO Box 3398, Durham, NC 27702. 919-682-7153.
National Migrant Resource Program (NMRP).
2512 South IH35, Suite 220, Austin, TX 78704. 512-447-0770.
Penn State University (PSU).
Audio Visual Services, University Park, PA 16801. 814-865-6314.
Texas Migrant Interstate Program(TMIP).
Drawer Y, Pharr, Texas, 78577. 512-787-9994.
"Aspiracion de Una Hija." Depicts a migrant family trying to cope with oftentimes
frustrating conflicts of culture and tradition versus today's values and lifestyle.
TMIP.
"Canne Amere." ("Bitter Cane") 1983. Haitian-Creole with English subtitles. EFM.
"Day Without Sunshine." 1976. Documentary color film by WPTB Public TV Miami,
Fla. about three farmworker families in Florida. TFUFW.
"El Norte" Drama about Central American refugees in Southern California. Avail-
able from Festival Films, 2841 Irving Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55480.
"Farmworkers' Contributions to Agriculture." This 12-minute video depicts the
many contributions the migrant farmworker population has made to American
agriculture. TMIP.
"Fields of Dignity." This 30-minute documentary provides a brief history of migrant
and seasonal farmworkers from the bracero program to the present influx of
Mexican aliens. TMIP.
"Fighting for Our Lives." 50-min color film or video. Tells the story of the Teamsters/
UFW struggle in 1973. UFW.
"49 Years in the Land of Plenty." 30-minute documentary on pesticide exposure and
health problems among farmworkers with field interviews, actual spraying
footage, and testimony from health experts.
Into the Fields 97
"Grapes of Wrath." John Ford's 1940 film version starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad.
Available from The Classics Collection of Films, Inc. 440 Park Ave. South, New
York, NY 10016. 212-889-7910.
"H-2 Worker." Produced by Stephanie Black, 1989. The story of Jamaican sugar cane
workers in Florida brought in under the H-2 A program.
"HarvestofShame." Classic CBS Reports 1960 documentary with Edward R. Murrow.
PSU.
"Health for America's Harvesters: The Migrant Health Program." 1989. A 13-minute
video which provides an overview of the federal migrant health program.
NMRP.
"Letter to a Georgia Mother." A 60-minute documentary shot during the 1950s
tracing the movement of a migrant crew up the East Coast which ends with the
formation of a farmworkers union in New Jersey.
"A Migrant Experience." Provides a student's perspective as he travels with his
family and moves from school to school. TMIP.
"Migrant: An NBC White Paper." 53-min color film by NBC 1970. PSU.
"New Harvest, Old Shame." NBC Frontline special from April of 1990 follows a
migrant family from Ohio to Florida. A thirty-year follow-up to "Harvest of
Shame." EFM.
"Plantation Legislature." This 20-minute video traces the legislative history of North
Carolina's santi-slavery law, passed in 1983. Includes interviews with farmworkers
and lawmakers. NSPV.
"Prisoner of the Harvest." 30-min documentary from Tampa, Fla. after a five-month
investigation of the Warren family crewleaders, which resulted in their eventual
conviction on federal slavery charges.
"Reflections of Fifteen Years," "Fields of Dignity," A Migrant Experience." All are
available from TMIP.
"Season of Suffering." WTVD 1980. 25-minute documentary about farmworkers in
North Carolina.
"Si, Se Puede." Film by the UFW that tells the story of Arizona Governor's recall
campaign and Cesar Chavez's fast of 1972.
98 Into the Fields
"The Wrath of Grapes" UFW 1986. 14-minute video in English or Spanish. Docu-
mentary about the UFW grape boycott and the harmful effects of toxic pesticides
used on grapes. UFW; TFUFW.
"Something in the Rain." 1991. 5-minute music video follows singer/song-writer
Tish Hinojosa as she walks through fields sprayed with pesticides and visits
migrant families at work and at home. NMRP.
Community Service, Service-Learning, and Community Organizing
ACTION. Service-Learning: A Guide for College Students. Washington, DC: Na-
tional Center for Service-Learning, 1981.
ACTION. TheService-Learning Educator: A Guideto Program Management. Wash-
ington, DC: National Center for Service-learning, 1979.
ACTION. Evaluating Service-Learning Programs: A Guide for Program Coordina-
tors. Washington, DC: National Center for Service-Learning, 1978.
ACTION. It's Your Move: Working with Student Volunteers-A Resource Book for
Community Organizations. Washington, DC: National Center for Service-
Learning, 1976. (all ACTION guides are available from the National Society for
Internships and Experiential Education))
Alinsky, Saul. Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals. NY: Vin-
tage Books, 1972.
Bok, Derek. Beyond the Ivory Tower: Social Responsibilities of the Modern Univer-
sity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Bellah, Robert N. et al. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in
American Life. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.
Boyte, Harry. Backyard Revolution: Understanding the New Citizen's Movement.
Philadelpia: Temple University Press, 1980.
Boyte, Harry, Boothe, H. and Max, S. Citizen Activism and the New American
Populism. Philadelpia: Temple University Press, 1986.
Coles, Robert and Tom Davey. "Young Activists of the 1970s." New Republic. Sep-
tember 25, 1976, pp. 14-16 and October 16, 1976, pp. 20-24. The October article,
"Working with Migrants," describes the Duke Migrant Project of the mid-1970s.
Into the Fields 99
Coover, Virginia et al. Resource Manual for a Living Revolution. Philadelphia: New
Society Publishers.
Couto, Richard and Anne Zuberer. Education-For a Change! : The Principles and
Practice of Service-Learning. Center for Health Services, Vanderbilt University,
1989. This book also has an excellent bibliography.
Dass, Ram and Paul Gorman. How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.
Evans, Sara and Harry Boyte. Free Spaces: The Source of Democratic Change in
America. New York: Harper and Row, 1986.
Foley, J. et al. National Service and America's Future. Washington, DC: Youth Policy
Institute, 1984.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum Publishing Co.,
1989.
Gaventa, John. Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an
Appalachain Valley. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980.
Goldfarb, Ronald. A Caste of Dispair. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1981.
Goodwyn, Lawrence. The Populist Moment: A Short History of Agrarian Revolt in
America. NY: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Greenberg, E.M. (editor) New Partnerships: Higher Education and the Non-Profit
Sector. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc, 1982.
Gutierrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Mary-
knoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1973
Ignatieff, Michael. The Needs of Strangers. New York: Penguin/Viking, 1986.
Kahn, Si. How People Get Power: Organizing Oppressed Communities for Action.
New York: McGraw Hill, 1970.
Kahn, Si. Organizing: A Guide for Grassroots Leaders. Revised edition. Silver Spring,
MD: National Association of Social Workers Press, 1991. vailable from Grassroots
Leadership, PO Box 36006, Charlotte, NC 28236, 704-332-3090.
Kendall, Jane C. and Associates. Combining Service and Learning: A Resource Book
for Community and Public Service. Raleigh, NC: National Society for Intern-
100 Into the Fields
ships and Experiential Education, 1990. This three-volume series is a must!
Volume III is an annotated bibliography of service-learning material, much of
which is available from the NSIEE. Contact: NSIEE, 3509 Haworth Dr, Suite 207,
Raleigh, NC 27609, 919-787-3263.
Layton, D.N. Philanthropy and Voluntarism: An Annotated Bibliography. New York:
The Foundation Center, 1987.
McKnight, John. "Why "Servanthood" is Bad." The Other Side. January/February
1989, pp. 38-41.
Nisbet, R. A. Community and Power. New York: Galaxy Books, 1962.
O'Connel, Brian. America's Voluntary Spirit: A Book of Readings. New York: The
Foundation Center, 1983.
Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. Poor People's Movements: Why They
Succeed, How They Fail. NY: Pantheon Book.
Wigginton, Elliot. Sometimes a Shining Moment: The Foxfire Experience. New York:
Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1985. Useful to those interested in oral history and
education.
Youth Service America Educational Advisory Committee. Youth Serving the Young:
A Policy Blueprint for Youth Service to Educationally At-risk children. Wash-
ington, DC: Anne Lewis, 1987.
Resources for Organizations
Miller, Tracy Ilene and Claudia Kurac. Successful Internships: A Guide for Public
Interest Groups. Montana: Northern Rockies Action Group, 1987. Available fron
NRAG, 9 Placer St, Helena, MT, 59601, 406-442-6615.
Leland, Carol and Bonnie Neuman. Effective Internship Supervision. San Diego: San
Diego State University Division of Undergraduate Studies.
ACTION. Evaluating Service-Learning Programs: A Guide for Program Coordina-
tors. Washington, DC: National Center for Service-Learning, 1978.
ACTION. It's Your Move: Working with Student Volunteers-A Resource Book for
Community Organizations. Washington, DC: National Center for Service-
Learning, 1976.
Into the Fields 101
Resources for Students or Internship Coordinators
The following guides are published by COOL and can be ordered by writing or
calling COOL at 386 cNeal Hall, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108-1011.
Phone: 612-624-3018.
Alternative Spring Break at Vanderbilt University. BreakAway: Organizing an Al-
ternative Spring Break, 1991.
Connolly, Kathleen and Tanya Lieberman. Education and Action, 1992?.
Hoogterp, Bill and Jason Lejonvarn. Hunger and Homelessness Action, 1990.
Meacham, Louisa B. Literacy Action: A Resource Book for Colleges and Universities,
1990.
Meisel, Wayne and Bobby Hackett. Building A Movement: A Resource Book for
Students in Community Service, 1986.
Meisel, Wayne and Juila Scatliff. On Your Mark, Go! Get Set: From Campus Ideals
to Community Involvement, 1988.
ACTION. Service-Learning: A Guide for College Students. Washington, DC: Na-
tional Center for Service-Learning, 1981 .
ACTION. TheService-Learning Educator: A Guide to Program Management. Wash-
ington, DC: National Center for Service-Learning, 1979.
ACTION. Evaluating Service-Learning Programs: A Guide for Program Coordina-
tors. Washington, DC: National Center for Service-learning, 1978.
Henley, Stephan. A World of Difference: A Builder's Guide for Campus-Based
Community Service Programs. Tallahassee: Florida's Office for Campus Volun-
teers, 1991.
Kendall, Jane et al. Strengthening Experiential Education in Your Institution. Ra-
leigh: NSIEE, 1986.
Stanton, Tim and Kamil Ali. The Experienced Hand: A Student Manual for Making
the Most of an Internship. Cranston, RI: Carroll Press, 1987.
102 Into the Fields
Group Building, Reflection, Role-Playing
Bristin, Richard et al. Intercultural Interactions: A Practical Guide. Yarmouth, ME:
Intercultural Press.
Fluegelman, Andrew, editor. The New Games Book. New York: Headlands Press
Book/Doubleday and Co., 1976.
Fluegelman, Andrew. More New Games and Playful Ideas from the New Games
Foundation. New York: Dolphin Books/Doubleday and Co., 1981.
Landis, Dan. Theories and Methods in Cross-Cultural Orientation. Yarmouth: Inter-
cultural Press. Available from Intercultual Press, PO Box 700, Yarmouth, ME
04096, 207-846-5168.
Rohnke, Karl. Cowtails and Cobras II. Hamilton, MA: Project Adventure.
Rohnke, Karl. Silver Bullets: A Guide to Initiative Problems, Adventure Games,
Stunts and Trust Activities. Hamilton, MA: Project Adventure, 1984.
Available from: Project Adventure, PO Box 100, Hamilton, MA 01936.
Into the Fields 103
Appendix E
Organizations
National and regional farmworker organizations
National student service organizations
Into the Fields 105
National and Regional Farmworker Organizations
Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP)
Diane Mull, Executive Director
408 7th St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
202-543-3443
AFOP is a national network of over 250 offices that serve migrant and seasonal
farmworkers in rural agricultural communities across the United States. AFOP's
member organizations provide farmworkers with education, training and employ-
ment opportunities both within and outside of agriculture. AFOP serves as a
clearinghouse for information about programs and services that address the needs
of farmworkers, assists other agencies and the general public to better understand
the purpose of farmworker programs, provides technical assistance to member
organizations, and serves as a liaison between member organizations and funding
sources. AFOP publishes a monthly newsletter, AFOP Washington Newsline, and an
annual publication that analyzes issues related to farmworkers.
East Coast Migrant Head Start Project
Geraldine O'Brien, Executive Director
4200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 740
Arlington, VA 22203
703-243-7522
East Coast Migrant Head Start Project establishes, provides and promotes continuity
of Head Start services to migrant children and their families. Their mission is :
"Through enabling children to reach their full potential, parents are challenged to
become more self-actualized by being involved with their own child's development
and in decision-making structures through ECMHSP." ECMHSP distributes fund-
ing through delegate agencies in twelve states. Each year, nearly 5,000 children from
ages one month to five years are served at over seventy child development centers.
Into the Fields 107
East Coast Migrant Health Project
Norma Rivera, Executive Director
1234 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20005
202-347-7377
The ECMHP recruits volunteers and staff to operate out of community health centers
which serve migrant and seasonal farmworkers in thirteen states from Florida to
Maine. The primary emphasis of its work is on outreach and empowerment. Field
staff work through existing migrant health clinics to make sure health services are
available, accessable and acceptable to the migrant population. Through its provi-
sion of health care, its outreach social services and its promotion of preventative
health care, ECMHP seeks to direct its energies towards the empowerment of
farmworkers and their families. To this end, the ECMHP asserts its role as agents of
social change to enable farmworkers to claim and achieve their just place in society.
worker Justice Fund, Inc.
Michael Hancock, Executive Director
2001 S. Street NW Suite 210
Washington, DC 20009
202-462-8192
The mission of the Farmworker Justice Fund is to provide Ivocacy for farmworker
interests. Their work includes litigation, education, and public policy advocacy at the
state and federal levels. FJF publishes a quarterly newsletter, Farmworker Justice News.
Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)
Baldemar Velasquez, President
714 1/2S. St. Clair St.
Toledo, OH 43609
419-243-3456
FLOC is a labor union founded in 1967 by Baldemar Velasquez that primarily works
with farmworkers in Ohio and Michigan. A Florida office is open during the winter
months to maintain contact with members. During the 1980s, FLOC won the nation's
first tri-party contracts among farmworkers, growers and major processing companies
such as Heinz and Campbell's. Three of FLOC's programs are the campaign against
sharecropping, the Family Leadership Development Project, and the US-Mexico
Exchange, which seeks to link FLOC's leaders with labor union leaders in Mexico.
In addition, FLOC's parallel arm, the Farm Labor Research Project, develops projects
on issues such as health care, migrant education, housing and improving the overall
living conditions of farmworkers.
108 Into the Fields
Interstate Migrant Education Council
Dr. Jim Gonzales
Education Commission of the States
707 17th St., Suite 2700
Denver, CO 80202-3427
303-299-3680
The goals of the Interstate Migrant Education Council are to: 1) develop broad-based
understanding among education, business and government decision makers in
order to create an awareness of the unique needs of the migrant student population,
2) facilitate opportunities for interstate cooperation through the sharing of model
programs in migrant education, and identify major barriers and develop alternative
solutions for minimizing the difficulties attributable to student mobility, intermit-
tent attendance, limited English proficiency and other factors.
Midwest Migrant Health Information Office
Sister JoAnn Marusa
Lourdes Building 4th Floor
6131 West Outer Dr.
Detroit, MI 48235
313-966-6894
The primary goal of the Midwest Migrant Health Information Office is to empower
farmworkers to be responsible for their own health. Through the Camp Health Aid
Program, this organization initiates pilot projects on the local level and trains
farmworkers to become resources and liaisons between their community and health
services.
Migrant Legal Action Program
Roger Rosenthal, Executive Director
Bea Bobotek, Librarian
2001 S. Street NW, Suite 310
Washington, DC 20009
202-462-7744
Since 1970 the Migrant Legal Action Program (MLAP) has provided legal represen-
tation to migrant and seasonal farmworkers. MLAP provides litigation support,
training, resource materials and advice to the more than forty migrant legal services
field programs which serve farmworkers. MLAP also assists a number of less
specialized legal services programs and private practitioners in their representation
of farmworkers. In addition, the MLAP staff is actively involved in federal court
litigation and engages in administrative and legislative advocacy. The program
publishes a manual and a bi-monthly newsletter.
Into the Fields 109
National Commission on Migrant Education
Lisandra Carlos, Policy Analyst
8120 Woodmont Ave., 5th Floor
Bethesda, MD 20814
301-492-5336
The National Commission on Migrant Education was established in 1988 by the U.S.
Congress to study issues relating to the education of migrant children and to report
to Congress and the President with recommendations for improving services for
migrants.
National Farm Workers Ministry
Sister Pat Drydyk
1337 West Ohio
Chicago, IL 60622
312-829-6436
The National Farm Workers Ministry is an ecumenical organization composed of 44
denominations and religious groups. Their purpose is to stand with farmworkers as
they organize themselves to improve their working conditions and to win contracts.
They have historically supported the United Farm Workers (UFW) and Farm Labor
Organizing Committee (FLOC) and now support the UFW of Washington State. The
National Farm Workers Ministry links churches and farmworkers together. They
seek to involve church people in support of farmworker boycotts and other
campaigns. The NFWM has an administrative office in Chicago, offices in Florida
and California, and staff members working in Texas, Michigan and New York.
One special program of the NFWM is Witness for Farmworker Justice, which
sends delegations to live with farmworkers in Delano, CA for three to five days to
learn first-hand about farmworkers' struggle for justice. Students should contact the
Chicago office for more information. The NFWM also publishes a quarterly news-
letter and has other resources available for community groups.
Migrant Head Start
Administration for Children, Youth and Families
US Department of Health and Human Services
Frank Fuentes
330 "C" Street SW
Washington, DC 20013
202-245-0455
The federal Migrant Head Start Program distributes and oversees grants to over
twenty grantee organizations in the nation providing early childhood services to
preschool migrant children.
110 Into the Fields
National Migrant Resource Program
Roberta Ryder, Executive Director
2513 South IH 35, Suite 220
Austin, TX 78704
512-447-0770
The mission of the National Migrant Resource Program is to improve the health
status of migrant and seasonal farmworkers through the effective application of
human, technical, and information resources. This mission is carried out through the
collectionand distribution of migrant health informational and educational materials,
technical assistance to migrant health providers, and the development of collaborative
working relationships between agencies serving farmworkers. NMRP produces a
bi-monthly newsletter Migrant Health Newsline and publishes an annually updated
Migrant Health Centers Referral Directory.
Telamon Corporation
Richard Joiner, Executive Director
4917 Waters Edge Dr., Suite 220
Raleigh, NC 27606
919-851-7611
Telamon Corporation provides services to migrant and seasonal farmworkers
through 53 offices in eight states (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Indiana.) These service include
employment training, housing, nutrition, counseling, English as a Second Language
classes, Head Start, literacy programs and emergency services.
Triangle Friends of the United Farm Workers
Joan Preiss
2722 Mc Dowell St.
Durham, NC 27705
919-489-2659
The Triangle Friends of the UFW is a volunteer organization dedicated to improving
farm worker conditions by supporting the work of the United Farm Workers and the
Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and by vocating for better conditions
for all farm workers. TWUWF is involved with advocacy campaigns, educational
and informational services and programs, fundraising, and networking. They also
serve as a resource, research and referral center.
Into the Fields 111
US Migrant Health Program
Sonia Reig, Director
Bureau of Health Care Delivery and Assistance
Room 7A-30, Parklawn Building
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
301-443-1153
The Office of Migrant Health oversees the provision of primary health care services
by clinics across the country for migrant and seasonal farmworkers.
US Department of Education
Office of Migrant Education
Francis V. Corrigan
400 Maryland Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20202-6135
202-401-0740
The Office of Migrant Education oversees several federal programs providing
services to migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their dependents. These progams
include: CAMP (College Assistance Migrant Program), the High School Equivalency
Program (HEP), Migrant Even Start, and the State Basic Education Program.
United Farm Workers of America- AFL/ CIO
Cesar Chavez. President
PO Box 62
Keene, CA 93531
805-822-5571
The United Farm Workers of America is a labor union founded in California in 1962
to fight for more just living and working conditions for farmworkers. The UFW
primarily works in California and has staff members in several other states.
112 Into the Fields
National Student Service Organizations
From Meisel, Wayne and Robert Hackett. Building a Movement: A Resource Book
for Students in Commuity Service. Campus Outreach Opportunity League, 1986.
Reprinted with permission from COOL, 386 Mc Neal Hall, University of Minnesota,
St. Paul, MN 55108-1011.
ACCESS: Networking in the Public Interest
96 Mt. Auburn Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 495-2178
Jim Clark, Executive Director
ACCESS is the only comprehensive national clearinghouse of jobs and internships in
the nonprofit sector. Each month ACCESS collects more than 250 new opportunities
from a wide spectrum of nonprofit organizations, including arts, education, environ-
ment, health/human services, international, and housing. These listings are published
in a job register called "Opportunities in Non-Profit Organizations," which is sent to
subscribing college placement centers. public libraries, foundation centers and
private referral centers. Contact ACCESS for more information about its programs
or a regional office near you.
ACTION
1100 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20525
(800) 424-8867, (202) 634-9445
Jane Kenny, Director
ACTION is an independent federal agency that operates a series of volunteer
programs. These include: Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). the Student
Community Service Program, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), the
Foster Grandparent Program (FGP), the Senior Companion Program (SCP). and
the Older American Volunteer Program (OAVP). College-age students can apply 10
be VISTA volunteers and receive a living stipend to support their work with a local
community service agency.
American Association of University Students
3831 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6195
(215) 387-3100
Thomas Goldstein, Executive Director
AAUS is a network of student governments at more than 200 major research colleges
and universities. Modeled as a student "think tank" and clearinghouse, AAUS tracks
various trends, including federal and state legislation, that impact students and
institutions of higher education. AAUS has recently developed a minority leadership
development program to promote cultural awareness, philanthropic spirit and a
sense of community at AAUS member schools, and an annual student leadership
seminar exchange for U.S. and Soviet students. AAUS offers student internships in
its national office.
Into the Fields 113
Association for Volunteer Administration
P.O. Box 4584
Boulder, CO 80306
(303) 497-0238
David Tobin, Executive Director
AVA is a membership organization that promotes volunteerism as a profession and
fosters the exchange of knowledge and experience in the field. Services include a
certificate program, regional and national workshops, a newsletter, and current
professional information. Special membership plans are available for students.
Break Away: The Alternative Break Connection
Peabody Campus, Box 18
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37203
615-343-0385
Laura Mann, Michael Magevney, Co-Directors
Break Away is a national organization whose mission is to "promote service on the local,
regional, national and international level through break-oriented programs which immerse
students in often vastly different cultures, heighten social awareness, and advocate life-
long social action." Break Away grew out of Vanderbilt University's Alternative Spring
Break (ASB) program. The staff provides technical assistance to schools starting a break
program or trying to improve an existing one. In addition, they publish a resource book
and newsletter, operate a Sitebank (a database of community organizations that want to
host students for break projects), work on special projects and sponsor regional conferences.
Campus Compact
The Project for Public and Community Service
Box 1975, Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
(401) 863-1119
Susan Stroud, Director
Campus Compact, a project of the Education Commission of the States, is a national
coalition of 230 college presidents founded to create public service opportunities for
college students and to develop the expectation of service as an integral part of
student life and the college experience. The Compact provides information and
technical assistance to member campuses; creates incentives for student involvement
in service by helping to shape policy at the federal, state and local levels; and
promotes a national awareness of the important resources college students offer in
the public interest.
114 Into the Fields
Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL)
386 McNeal Hall, University of Minnesota
St. Paul, MN 55108-1011
(612) 624-3018
Julia K. Scatliff, Executive Director
COOL is a national nonprofit organization that promotes and supports student in-
volvement in the community. COOL's staff of recent college graduates has developed
resources to help build stronger, more comprehensive student-based community
service organizations. These include consulting and training programs (on-site
technical assistance, peer consulting and COOL Fellowships); publications (a
bimonthly newsletter and resource guides and manuals on issues of literacy, hunger
and homelessness); meetings (regional workshops, the COOL Summit and the annual
COOL National Conference); and special projects (a minority outreach initiative
and a community service awards program). COOL recently initiated a Campus Af-
filiate program for campuses seeking closer ties with the COOL National Office.
The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education
7th and D Streets, S.W., Room 3100
Washington, DC 20202-5175
(202) 732-5750
FIPSE is an organizational unit within the U.S. Department of Education's Office of
Postsecondary Education. FIPSE assists educational institutions and agencies by
administering grants for innovative new programs or to reform existing programs.
Many campuses receive FIPSE support under the "Innovative Projects for Student
Community Service" program.
Independent Sector
1828 L Street, N.W., Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 223-8100
Brian O'Connell, President
Independent Sector was created to preserve and enhance the national tradition of
volunteering and charitable giving. Members of the Independent Sector focus on
national interests and policies that affect philanthropy, volunteer action and other
activities, including education, science, health, welfare, and the cultural and reli-
gious life of the United States.
National Association of Student YMCAs (NASY)
101 North Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60606
(800) 872-9622, (312) 269-1142
Jean Burkhardt, Director
NASY coordinates a network of 50 college-based YMCAs. The YMCA is the world's
largest social welfare agency with 30 million members in 52 countries. Campus
Into the Fields 115
YMCAs concentrate on community service, leadership development and social
change, with a strong focus on internationalism and community development. The
national office provides training, a newsletter, a national conference and services to
member associations, as well as consulting services to new organizations.
National Society for Internships and Experiential Education
3509 Haworth Drive, Suite 207
Raleigh, NC 27609
(919) 787-3263
Jane C. Kendall, Executive Director
NSIEE is a national organization that promotes learning acquired through experi-
ence-based opportunities. It has a long history of supporting active learning through
community and public service work. NSIEE provides assistance in developing expe-
riential education programs. NSIEE is a membership organization.
National Student Campaign
Against Hunger and Homelessness
29 Temple Place, Fifth Floor
Boston, MA 02111-9907
(617) 292-4823
Leslie Samuelrich, Director; Claudia Horwitz, Assistant Director
The Campaign works with high schools and colleges in the fight against hunger and
homelessness. Staff members conduct school visits and phone consultations and
provide organizing manuals, fact sheets, a newsletter and an Opportunities Cata-
logue, which lists domestic and overseas travel, and internship and career
opportunities. The Campaign sponsors three major events - a Leadership Conference
(October), Campus Hunger and Homelessness Week (November), and the Hunger
Cleanup (April). the country's largest student-run community service work-a-thon to
raise funds for the impoverished - as well as SPLASH (Students Pushing for Legisla-
tive Action to Stop Hunger and Homelessness), a legislative action program.
National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC)
1910 West County Road B, Room 216
Roseville, MN 55113
(612) 631-3672
Jim Kielsmeier, President
NYLC is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to-develop service-
oriented youth leaders. NYLC provides intensive, experiential training for educators
and young people (K-12 and college) who are interested in developing effective
youth servicelleadership programs, and publishes related materials. NYLC also
serves as a national youth service resource center and is home to the Minnesota
Campus Service Initiative, the first intensive state-based effort to promote and
support college student involvement in service-learning.
116 Into the Fields
Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs)
29 Temple Place
Boston, MA 02111
(617) 292-4800
Founded during the early 1970s by college students, PIRGs today are the fastest-
growing network of environmental and consumer organizations in the country. With
offices in 24 states and Washington, D.C., PIRGs combine the power of student
activism with the expertise of a professional staff to research and advocate on issues,
including toxics, hunger and homelessness, clean air, clean water, pesticides, safe
energy, and consumer rights. PIRGs provide students at more than 90 campuses
nationwide with the opportunity to attack social problems, learn from experienced
professionals. and assume organizational leadership. The existing PIRGs provide
assistance to students working to start new PIRG chapters at their campuses. PIRGs
hire more than 250 graduating seniors each year for positions as campus staff,
canvas directors, and project coordinators.
Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Education (SCALE)
c/o Campus Y Building
Campus Box 5115
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-5115
(919) 962-2333
SCALE, a project of Project Literacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill and the Campus Outreach Opportunity League, is a network of college and
university students, administrators and faculty who are committed to increasing
literacy. SCALE works to support established literacy organizations while providing
the impetus for the formation of new campus literacy organizations. Founded in
1989, the initial SCALE goals include working to facilitate current campus literacy
efforts through the SCALE network and creating a systematic program for develop-
ing new literacy organizations around the country. Recent projects and plans
include a survey of existing campus-based literacy programs, an information bank, a
peer consulting network, a legislative alert, and an opportunities listing.
Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC)
c/o Campus Y Building
Campus Box 5115
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-5115
(919) 962-2333
Begun in the spring of 1988, SEAC is a national network of student environmental
groups and a clearinghouse for information on recycling, rainforests. global warm-
ing, toxics, and grassroots environmental organizing. The coalition includes more
than 450 groups and individual members representing all 50 states and seven
countries. SEAC's aim is to amplify the voice of students who have the most 10 gain
from the wise use of our planet's natural resources and whose future will be deter-
mined by the environmental decisions being made today.
Into the Fields 117
United Way of America: Young America Cares!
701 North Fairfax Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-2045
(703) 836-7100
United Way of America (UWA) is a national organization serving more than 2,300
autonomous United Ways nationwide. UWA provides a variety of support services
for its members, including technical assistance and publications. In 1987, UWA
created YOUNG AMERICA CARES ! (YAC!). a program that supports United Ways
across the country in their efforts to engage young people in community service.
Since 1987, YAC! staff have organized an annual Young Leaders Conference and
gathered information about how young people are currently involved in their
communities through the United Way.
Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA)
1100 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20525
(800) 424-8867, (202) 634-9445
Patricia A.E. Rodgers, Director
VISTA is a full-time, year-long volunteer program for individuals 18 years of age
and older from all backgrounds, who commit themselves to increasing the capability
of low-income people to improve the conditions of their own lives. Volunteers are
assigned to local sponsors which may be state or local public agencies or private
nonprofit organizations. VISTA Volunteers receive a monthly subsistence allowance.
Volunteer: The National Center
1111 North 19th Street, Suite 500
Arlington, VA 22209
(703) 276-0542
Frank Bailey, Executive Director
Volunteer acts as the national center for more than 400 local Volunteer Action
Centers around the country. Volunteer offers a variety of membership plans for or-
ganizations and individuals. It publishes several regular publications, hosts a
national conference held each spring, and establishes and administers national dem-
onstration projects. Volunteer provides leadership in promoting and supporting
volunteerism on the local, state and national levels.
118 Into the Fields
Youth Policy Institute (YPI)
1221 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 638-2144
David L. Hackett, Executive Director
YPI is a research center that monitors national youth policy and other issues that
concern or impact youth. YPI publishes a number of publications, including two
monthly magazines, Youth Policy and American Family, the bimonthly Youth
Record, Future Choices and Student Press Service. YPI hires high school and
college-age interns who work on these publications with full-time staff.
Youth Service America (YSA)
1319 F Street, N.W., Suite 900
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 783-8855
Roger Landrum and Frank Slobig, Co-Directors
YSA is a national organization that seeks to make community service a universal
experience among America's youth. YSA provides technical assistance for emerging
problems. publishes a newsletter, provides an informational and policy guidance
network, and promotes mission-oriented programs for the elderly and academically
at-risk children. Most recently, YSA convened a working group on national service.
which was composed of members of the many different streams of the youth service
community, to help guide legislators in the development of state and national youth
service legislation.
White House Office of National Service
Old Executive Office Building, Room 100
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
(202) 456-6266
Gregg Petersmeyer, Deputy Assistant to the President
The Office of National Service advises the President on community service policy
and strategy; communicates the President's community service strategy and the role
that every individual, group and organization in the United States can play in the
evolving community service movement; proposes ways for the President and other
government officials to highlight outstanding community service leaders and
initiatives; participates in the solution of problems such as drug abuse, education
reform and others whose solution is largely dependent on community action; and
recommends government reform policy in such areas as tort law and the tax code to
remove impediments to community service.
Into the Fields 119
Appendix F
Maps and Numbers
Maps of migration patterns
Estimated numbers of farmworkers
Into the Fields 121
122 Into the Fields
Maps of Migration Patterns
From Prewitt-Diaz, Joseph O. et al, The Effects of Migration on Children: An Eth-
nographic Study, Harrisburrg: Pennsylvania Department of Education, 1989.
PUISTO 1.00.
VIRGIN ISLANDS
Map 1: Shows the traditional pattern of migration
identified by the U.S. Government
PUSETO NCO.
VIRGIN ISLANGE
Map 2: Shows the current patterns of migration
identified by the ethnographic data
Into the Fields 123
Estimated numbers of farmworkers
From: An Atlas of State Prrofiles Which Estimate the Number of Migrant and
Seasonal Farmworkers and Their Dependents. U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, March 1990.
ADJUSTED STATE PROFILES
(FARMWORKERS PLUS DEPENDENTS)
STATE
MIGRANT SEASONAL TOTAL MSFW POP.
ALABAMA
4,083
2,400
6,483
ALASKA
-NA-
ARIZONA
21,189
10,606
31,795
ARKANSAS
-NA-
CALIFORNIA
426,831
935,703
1,362,534
COLORADO
20,220
29,127
49,347
CONNECTICUT
4,756
4,665
9,421
DELAWARE
1,651
3,746
5,397
FLORIDA
182,790
252,583
435,373
GEORGIA
28,081
65,523
93,604
HAWAII
-NA-
IDAHO
44,513
75,455
119,968
ILLINOIS
17,508
3,332
20,840
INDIANA
6,506
1,210
7,716
IOWA
1,728
32,502
34,230
KANSAS
5,460
13,073
18,533
KENTUCKY
-NA
LOUISIANA
- -NA
MAINE
5,580
3,080
8,660
MARYLAND
1,416
2,851
4,267
MASSACHUSETTS
4,721
3,092
7,813
MICHIGAN
59,831
7,396
67,227
MINNESOTA
11,965
1,379
13,344
MISSISSIPPI
-NA-
MISSOURI
1,343
18,981
20,324
MONTANA
10,417
2,609
13,026
NEBRASKA
4,030
14,726
18,756
NEVADA
-NA-
124 Into the Fields
STATE
MIGRANT SEASONAL TOTAL MSFW POP.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
526
200
726
NEW JERSEY
6,377
7,145
13,522
NEW MEXICO
6,706
2,549
9,255
NEW YORK
19,209
11,602
30,811
NORTH CAROLINA
44,062
300,882
344,944
NORTH DAKOTA
9,000
6,000
15,000
OHIO
9,058
2,563
11,621
OKLAHOMA
- -NA -
OREGON
89,412
39,152
128,564
PENNSYLVANIA
14,734
9,977
24,711
PUERTO RICO
99,046
132,843
231,889
RHODE ISLAND
281
178
459
SOUTH CAROLINA
10,760
7,800
18,560
SOUTH DAKOTA
-NA- -
TENNESSEE
2,894
3,677
6,571
TEXAS
281,778
218,360
500,138
UTAH
7,220
1,763
8,983
VERMONT
1,515
270
1,785
VIRGINIA
5,731
9,348
15,079
WASHINGTON
175,595
266,849
442,444
WEST VIRGINIA
-
-
2,700
WISCONSIN
7,792
407
8,199
WYOMING
5,560
1,240
6,800
TOTAL
1,661,875
2,506,844
4,171,419
Into the Fields 125
126 Into the Fields
Tell us about your program!
We want to hear about what you have created on your campus and your
ideas for improving this manual. Please fill out the following form and
return to:
Students Action with Farmworkers
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
331 W. Main St., Suite 511
Durham, NC 27701
919-687-0486
Name:
Organization or institution:
Address:
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Description of your program:
Comments or suggestions for Into the Fields:
Into the Fields 127