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| At the beginning of the Spring 2007 semester, we discussed at length the complexities of community-university partnerships and our approach regarding best practices to foster relationships with local residents. Are we partners or clients? Are we here to provide a service to one particular organization or the community at large?
As the project progressed, a dynamic web of relationships was created, leading to new partnerships and successes as well as to logistical and communicative challenges. PODER was identified early on as the principal community partner, and we spent several hours over the course of three workshops establishing trust with each other, discussing project goals, and developing research methodologies. The twelve students in the applied Geographic Information System (GIS) course were then divided into three teams handling various aspects of the project: GIS, Design and Visual Media, and Fieldwork and Volunteer Coordination. Added to the collaborative effort were three American YouthWorks Computer Corps volunteers, two PODER interns, and faculty members at Zavala Elementary School. Team members soon experienced the fluid nature of creative vision and malleable end-goals due to the participatory nature of the project. The team reassessed how best to design the research tools to meet those goals in light of feedback from PODER, class discussions, and logistical realities. For example, because of its active schedule, PODER was only able to participate in one of the two weekend activities. The UT students also became the de facto liaisons with Zavala teachers, who became critical partners in the data collection. However, differing levels of interest amongst the teachers and their other scholastic obligations proved challenging when only one student showed up at the second workshop. This was in contrast to the previous workshop where 15 students had attended, most likely due to their teacher’s emphasis on the value of the project and his willingness to assign grade points for their completion of the activity. The semester-based timeframe of the project also placed pressure on scheduling options and deadlines for the UT and Zavala partners. Inter-class dynamics have matured as well as each team has worked through creative and stylistic differences. The GIS team has faced the difficult task of how to organize and represent data gathered through the mapping exercises in a way that best represents the overall goals of the community colleagues. The Design team has struggled to visually represent the project while considering the need to speak to the academic community, city officials, and local partners. The Fieldwork team has worked to maintain meaningful learning opportunities for the Computer Corps Volunteers, maintain communication with PODER and Zavala Elementary, and coordinate with class members. We have learned that the dynamic nature of community-university partnerships demands flexibility, patience, and the ability to release ownership of a joint effort where many partners are involved. The goal of serving the community through common effort has led us to spend much additional time reviewing our vision, maintaining our levels of communication, and refining our research methodologies; however the relationships fostered and the learning experience have become as rewarding as the findings produced by the act of collaboration. We hope that this project will serve as a stimulus for future community-university partnerships. For further reading: Video:
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