LTNS in the Community
Community Service Learning Internships
Supervised local community service learning (CSL) internships offer unique learning opportunities for students that enrich and expand their academic experience. Students are required to complete community service as part of the Latina/Latino Studies major requirements. Students choose internships from a wide variety of community-based organizations, government agencies, research and policy organizations and schools. The internships are designed to enrich the academic experience and to prepare students for future careers, as well as to establish empowering mutually beneficial contacts within the Latina/o/x/e communities of the greater Bay Area. It is a goal of the CSL program to instill in our students a lifelong commitment to community service and civic engagement.
LTNS 694 Community Service Learning
The internships are designed to enrich the academic experience and to prepare students for future careers, as well as to establish empowering mutually beneficial contacts within the Latina/Latino/Latinx communities of the greater Bay Area. It is a goal of the CSL program to instill in our students a life-long commitment to community service and civic engagement. Students may enroll in a 3 Unit online course, LTNS 694, to complete additional assignments related to their community service learning internship.
Prerequisites: Upper-division standing or permission of the instructor; must be taken concurrently with any LTNS course supporting community service learning. Course may be repeated for a total of 6 units.
Acción Latina
Acción Latina is a community organization that promotes cultural arts, community media and civic engagement as a way of building healthy and empowered Latino communities. Their programs include El Tecolote newspaper, the Juan R. Fuentes gallery and Paseo Artístico. El Tecolote is a bilingual newspaper. The Juan R. Fuentes gallery seeks to showcase the work of established and emerging Latina/o/x artists, as well as that of non-Latina/o/x artists whose work reflects the nuances of Latino life locally, nationally and internationally. Paseo Artístico is a bi-monthly community art stroll that brings free arts programming — live music, poetry, crafts workshops, readings, performances, film and mural tours — to the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District.
Clínica Martín-Baró
Clínica Martín-Baró is a student-organized free clinic based out of San Francisco's Mission District. It is a collaboration between medical students and faculty from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and undergraduates from the SF State Latina/Latino Studies (LTNS) Department. It was created and established in January of 2007 by two SF State alumni, Dr. Caro Monico and Dr. Zoel Quinonez, former students of LTNS Professor Felix Kury. While completing their studies at UCSF medical school, Monico and Quinonez began forming the organization with Professor Kury in 2005. The commitment among the volunteers has grown over the years. Dedication has grown because student volunteers want to be a part of something bigger than themselves, have the power to make their own decisions and do something that they have wanted to do their entire lives.
Clínica Martín Baró offers service-learning internships to students considering careers in the health and medical fields. Students must first pass or concurrently enroll in course LTNS 210.
El Tecolote
El Tecolote is a bilingual newspaper that circulates online and in print throughout the Bay Area. It began in 1970 as a project in one of our LTNS classes (then called La Raza Studies). Latinos and other people of color were virtually invisible in the major newsroom, so professor Juan Gonzales created a class as a way to channel more Latinos into journalism. As a final project, the class produced a bilingual newspaper called El Tecolote, which hit the streets on Aug. 24, 1970. The newspaper soon moved to San Francisco's Mission District and became a training ground for the community to learn advocacy journalism. Journalists who got their start at El Tecolote have established careers in outlets that include the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times, among others.