Pitzer in Ontario

Overview

Pitzer in Ontario is a comprehensive, semester-long, community-based education and cultural immersion program with theoretical foundations in the social sciences and a strong emphasis on experiential education. The program integrates extensive internship experiences in city, private or non-profit organizations with interdisciplinary coursework that provides the analytical framework from which social and urban issues can be effectively evaluated. The program creates space for students to collaborate with leaders and organizations throughout the diverse communities of the Inland Empire to learn to recognize competing demands facing their communities and to collectively implement solutions. Through internships in Ontario and the surrounding area, and through interactive fieldtrips, which provide insight into major urban issues of the region, students have the opportunity to engage firsthand with diverse perspectives and to better understand the many layers of engaged citizenship.

Location

California's manufacturing, high tech and knowledge-based sectors have made the state a major player in the world market. With a $1.2 trillion economy that ranks it as the eighth largest in the world, California draws its strength from a diverse population of 34 million. Latinos, Asian/Pacific Islanders, African Americans and Native Americans represent half of California's population. This rich cultural tapestry is augmented by many diverse immigrant communities in cities like Ontario, California. Yet, even with all of the state's prospects, California faces tremendous social challenges. Immigrants, women, and large portions of the working class have been excluded from the promise of the new economy. Communities have organized to demand that private and public sectors better address the issues that shape their lives. This evolving social, political and cultural location is of particular significance for environmental issues, race-relations, immigration and labor politics and other, often controversial, critical issues.

The Core Course

Critical Community Studies: The core course provides a transdisciplinary, theoretical and contextual framework for the Pitzer in Ontario program. Through coursework, experiential learning and reflective activities, students are asked to grapple with the issues that impact and shape communities in Southern California and the structural or systemic nature of urban crises such as: the housing crisis, environmental racism and degradation, education, immigration policy and the prison-industrial complex. Students are also asked to explore and understand the dynamic and varied forces that define the nature of citizenship and community, and to consider the role they play in its production.

Social Change Practicum

The intensive internship experience provides students with a focused exposure to the roles particular agencies play in addressing urban issues and a hands-on experience in playing a proactive role in the local community. Internship placements are arranged in a variety of private, public, and educational agencies according to the student's interests. In addition to the 10 or 15 hour per week internship, students learn about local and global strategies for creating social change—from grassroots organizing to transnational coalition building.

Qualitative Methods in Applied Research

This course provides two traditions of research in social science: 1) participatory action research and 2) person-centered ethnography. The class both practices and critiques these methods, blurring the lines of practitioner, participant, and researcher. The primary goals of the course are to use the classroom itself to generate empathy toward conditions of research, and to enable the creation of a mutually beneficial research project at your internship site. This course also serves as a space to discuss the ethics and politics of research and methodology.

Study Trips

Several field experiences are integrated into the core course that reinforce and support the themes addressed in it.

Toxic Tour of the Inland Empire

On this trip, the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) will introduce students to the toxic and super-fund sites in the Inland Empire, focusing on Riverside and San Bernardino. This trip and this organization will help contextualize the environmental history of this region and provide a model for community-based organization and action.

Housing Tour

Lack of affordable housing and homelessness comprise a crisis that is transforming the way people utilize and value urban spaces. This trip will introduce students to skid row, as well as to housing solutions and alternatives that are being implemented in local communities.

U.S.- Mexico Border and the Tijuana Squatter Settlements

Our trip to the border will explore many factors involved in understanding immigration and border economies. Particular emphasis will be placed on examining the connection between global market integration, neo-liberal economic policies, migration and anti-immigrant movements.

Prison Tour: California Youth Authority

Prisons are often cited as the fastest growing industry in the United States today. During this trip, students will be asked to grapple with issues related to incarcerated youth and adults, and how this affects communities.