Hello from Spain!

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to say a quick hello from Barcelona!!! This city is amazing (I am so stimulated by all its art and architecture)!! I love it here, but I miss home and I'm looking forward to winter quarter (when I finally get to be back with our ArtsIN family)!! I'm so excited to see the developments of your projects when I return!! As some of you may know, I will begin my internship at the Garment Worker Center in the winter, and will be working on two fashion shows in the spring (one through UCLA's Fashion Club and one through the Labor Justice Center).

I hope everyone is doing fabulously well!!

Kisses,
Stephanie

whats been going on....

Ok so check it....right now I'm still in the process of figuring out what exactly my internship is going to entail.
Once I hear back from Ronald from 18th Street, I'll figure out what exactly I can be doing there.
I then have to figure out how my research (srp) will connect to that. Right now I'm still looking into Guatamalan migration in Mexico.

Tomorrow I start my work study job at UCLA live.....we'll see how that goes....I'm really looking foward to it : )
Besides that I have the band (we have a show this friday), and I'm actually working another job only for this month (its at a huanted maze) because I NEED the money right now.

I want to get my internship going asap, and basically right now I'm just trying to get my schedule together...hopefully it will all fall into place soon.

My Project So Far

The basic premise for my project has changed last year. The idea for the conference while impressive-sounding, revealed why it was so impressive-sounding—it would have killed me. Thus, the new tentative plan is to create a website. An online conference has been mentioned, but pending McNair decisions and other such things, that idea is something vague and future-ey. For now, the website if probably going to be a resource website for slash fiction scholarship. I know that people have posted links in fanfiction resource pages. In fact, amateur scholarship on fanfiction itself has its own name online: “meta”. However, meta and serious scholarship are very different and few people are in touch with actual scholarship on the subject. And that’s a ramble about what I know so far as to how this subject has been explored online before.

Now, for the moment I’m collecting scholarship on the topic to put in the resource section. Anna Alves recommended some books to me that I’m checking out. One of which is “Harry Potter and the Ivory Tower” a book that I picked up a year ago at a library, and am having fun reading fully. I already know that the website will be geocities, as I am not a web designer. However, so near as I can tell, geocities doesn’t have a template for a forum, so I’m trying to figure out how to set one up. I’m either going to put one on the page, or I’m going to set one up separately on livejournal or facebook. The latter option seems the most palatable, as my desired audience is already on those sites.

That’s all for the moment. Right now much of my time is going into my McNair application, but even if I get in, I hope to still maintain the website and to post my own paper on the subject at the end of next year.

week 3- making contacts in New Zealand

I am taking an independent study with Amy Shimshon-Santo and further developing my internship for New Zealand. After many emails to countless professors and community arts members in Auckland and throughout New Zealand I have two prospects: Marilyn Kohlhase, Director o'kaioceanikart, and Herman Pi'ikea Clark, a member of the faculty of the College of Education at Massey University in New Zealand. I asked myself the following questions to help me clarify my intentions for this internship. My answers follow each question.

Note: One of the distinguishing features of New Zealand Arts education has been
the inclusion of Maori and Pacific cultural perspectives within the content
and teaching orientation of the national arts curriculum and teacher
education processes. (source: Herman Pi'ikea Clark, Massey University)

1.) What do I need prior to my arrival in New Zealand? (Preparation)

I am trying to make find a professor and community member (culture bearer or art teacher) in New Zealand that I could develop an internship with that involves me working in the community in either a school setting or youth center setting that has children/teenagers learning and or practicing Pacific Island culture/dance/language/customs. Since my specialty is in dance in arts education, I would like to find the opportunities to not only observe other art teachers in their processes, but I would also like a chance to teach a dance course myself to students utilizing my own knowledge and experience of U.S. arts education practice and the California art strands. I would need mentorship from the professor and community member to guide me in this internship and through my research. At this time, I need the professor and community member that I decide to work with to assign to me books/articles/readings based around New Zealand’s national arts curriculum and dance as pedagogy that I should study now before I arrive in New Zealand.

2.) What campus will you be at in New Zealand? (Location)

I am not sure what Massey University campus I am going to be attending. It depends on what classes are being offered at each particular campus. However, I specifically want to take classes on Arts Education, New Zealand’s national school system curriculum, Pacific Island (Maori) Studies/History/Society, and or Pacific Island art, music, and dance. These areas of study would particularly assist in my research and internship work. I am working on this part of the paper work (choosing classes and campus location) for EAP at the moment.

3.) What is the purpose of the internship? (Purpose)

The purpose of this internship is to compare specific similarities and differences between the school systems here in the United States and the school system in New Zealand. I am aware that the New Zealand school system believes in carrying on traditional Maori traditions such as language, dance, chants, and the arts by teaching it in the classroom. I want to know why this is. (This section may grow into my core research questions) What is the condition of their society that makes it work in New Zealand (or the condition of their school administrations)? Is this only in private school or all schools including public? Is every student required to learn about the Maori culture in school? Why can’t this work in the U.S.? What is the effect or impact of bringing in Pacific Island culture and arts into the classroom (in New Zealand vs. in the U.S.)? Furthermore, I would specifically like to have a focus on dance as pedagogy (Pacific Island Dance).

4.) What do I want to get out of this internship? (Holistic Development)

I hope to attain a better understanding of how the national arts curriculum functions in New Zealand and why. (I may just focus on dance education if “arts” education is too broad) I want to learn how it came to be this way. What are the strengths and weaknesses of New Zealand’s national arts curriculum and how can knowing this assist us in the U.S. with improving our own school systems?
The rich experience of teaching and learning Pacific Island culture and dance in the Pacific Island region, specifically New Zealand, will strengthen my knowledge about modern Pacific Rim societies and strengthen me as a teacher, dancer, and advocate for arts education. I will study first hand the idea of Trannationalism in reverse by practicing it- myself who has been trained in Polynesian dance in the U.S. who now will be bringing back this Pacific art to the Pacific (New Zealand).

5.) How long will the internship need it to be? (Duration)

I would like this internship to last the whole 6 month duration that I am studying abroad in New Zealand, February thru July of 2008. My research is a year long project that includes the internship but essentially is just a component to my entire 3 year fellowship with Arts IN. My goal is to analyze the lessons from cultural dance education and cultural arts education in both contexts (of New Zealand and the US) to contribute to intercultural understanding about arts education/dance education.

Now that I figured all of this out hopefully i can make Marilyn Kohlhase and Herman Pi'ikea Clark my cultural bearer and professor contacts/research mentors. This week (besides attending Amy's artsbridge class) i will begin reserching and reading about migration, immigration, and transnationalism to articulate the “fluxo e refluxo” the active back and forth relationship between the U.S. and the countries where our ancestors came from. Amy suggests that I read Lisa Lowe and Aihwa Ong. She also says that the Latino Cultural Citizenship book is really good for regional identity construction and migration

Curriculum Ideas

I have been taking theArtsBridge course for 3 weeks now and I am learning so much about an arts integrated program. We had a guest speaker two weeks ago and she presented her work on political posters. She also showed the class political posters that 7th and 8th grade students at Los Angeles junior high schools created. I have to say that the students work was amazing. The images they created had such powerful messages.
My project is coming along. As I attend Amy's class, I am gaining more ideas for my curriculum. I plan on taking my class to the farmer's market at their school so they get a chance to see what fresh food looks like. I remember going to farmer's market with my mom on Saturday mornings and I want my students to get a chance to do that with me and their families. I also want to include a cooking lesson into my curriculum. I plan on creating cultural meals for my students. This will allow my students to eat something healthy, but also learn the history and culture behind the meal. I hope that this aspect of my curriculum will inspire the students to cook at home with their parents.

What is Arts IN?

AAP Mentoring Program's Arts Initiative (Arts IN) works to engage artists with the larger University and Los Angeles community while bringing art into disciplines and communities that normally do not access arts activities. We do this by supporting students from a variety of departments in specific arts related projects with established partnerships including- Arts IN Civic Engagement, Arts IN Education, Arts IN Global Health, Arts IN Labor, and Arts INternational. Our objective is to mentor under-represented and under-resourced students who would normally not consider the arts as a viable area of study leading to a career in the arts. Students will receive academic, professional and financial support over a required two year commitment providing the academic and practical background required to advance into a variety of successful careers in the arts including graduate school, education, activism, therapy, entertainment, production and management.

Arts IN Partners

Arts IN Civic Engagement
Center for Community Learning

Arts IN Education
Artsbridge

Arts IN Global Health
Center for the Arts and Global Health

Arts IN Labor
Center for Labor Research and Education


Arts INternational
Center for Intercultural Performance

Program Description

Students are funded $2000 during their first year as an Arts IN Fellow, and $3000 during their second year as an Arts IN Scholar.

Year One

Fall - Applications Due!
Winter - Honors 193 Careers in the Arts
Spring - Honors 193 Internship Proposals

Year Two

Year-long Internship with Arts IN partner with an emphasis on Professional Portfolios and Graduate School Applications.

Getting Started

Good Morning Arts IN scholars! Please take a view minutes to introduce yourself and write a short description about your internship. You are required to blog about your internship every week (week 3-week 10 of the Fall Quarter). Entries are due on Sunday of each week. Good luck! Have Fun! AND STAY IN TOUCH!

For more information on UCLA Mentoring Programs Arts INitiative, please visit:
http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/aap/mentoring/artsin.html