Three IU Ph.D candidates speak to a group of Mandela Washington Fellows at the IU School of Global and International Studies.
Post by IU Newsroom intern Amanda Marino
When Ph.D. candidate A’ame Joslin was growing up in rural Indiana, her family relied heavily on the government and members of their community to help them with financial troubles.
Despite their needs, Joslin said she and her sister were still actively involved in community service. She said her mother would bring them to nursing homes and ask which people didn’t have any visitors or family coming to see them.
Joslin and her sister would sing songs and play games with those people, serving in a way not limited by their financial situation. Spending time with the elderly cost the family nothing and was a great service to people otherwise left alone at the ends of their lives.
She was one of three Indiana University Ph.D. candidates who met with 25 Mandela Washington Fellows for Young African Leaders to discuss their personal experiences with civic engagement and community service in the United States.
This meeting was one of many stops the Mandela Washington Fellows have made so far during their six-week academic and leadership development institute at the IU Bloomington and IUPUI campuses.
The session on Tuesday focused on how people in the United States address community issues and what roles volunteers can play in serving the people around them.
Service experience
To begin, the three doctoral candidates described their personal community service and volunteering experiences. From these anecdotes, the group would go on to pose questions about both the people and the program aspects of volunteering.
Kirk Harris, a Ph.D. candidate in political science, said his service began at a young age through his church in Seattle. He said messages about the importance of service and volunteering are typical in the United States.
As Kirk Harris, right, looks on, A’ame Joslin discusses her experiences as a volunteer in her community and in the Peace Corps.
“The messages I heard as a child are sort of embedded in American culture,” he said.
Joslin, a Ph.D. candidate for comparative education, said that thanks to her experience as a young person, she realized it didn’t take a lot to make a difference.
During her time in the Peace Corps, Joslin said she observed community interactions worldwide, searching for ideas she could bring home and implement.
For her, it was never about trying to make a global change. Instead, she was inspired to do small things in communities around the world.
Unlike his counterparts, Justin Wild, a Ph.D. candidate in comparative education, said his youth did not involve civic engagement. Because he never asked why he wasn’t doing something service-oriented, he never really understood its importance to the community.
Wild later wondered how to get a student like himself, caring but not inquisitive, involved in community service. To him, it isn’t a matter of capability as much as engagement with children.
“Children are capable of much more than we give them credit for,” he said.
By directing programs toward children and getting them involved from a young age, Wild believes a passion for service can be instilled early and made to grow throughout a person’s life.
Practical applications
As soon as the presentations were finished, hands shot up in the air, ready to pose questions to the three Ph.D. students and the group at large.
It was evident from the presentations and the questions that the needs of communities through the United States and Africa are not all that different. Basic human needs like food, water and shelter need to be provided. Opportunities to engage socially with other people and to become educated are vital to a healthy community.
Several Mandela Washington Fellows asked repeatedly if and how volunteers were paid and how people were kept involved and motivated.
Sophie Ranaivoharisoa of Madagascar shared concerns that people value money over volunteering
Landry Guehi, a Mandela Washington Fellow who leads the Network of Associations for Voluntary Service in Cote d’Ivoire, said his civic engagement experience also began with his parish as a young person. His concerns revolved around whether young people were engaged in the community for a payment received and not because they were passionate about serving.
Harris said that might be the case, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even if a person gets involved with a program for the sake of a stipend, both the volunteer and the community will still benefit.
Sophie Ranaivoharisoa, a Fellow from Madagascar, shared similar concerns that people value money over volunteering. While she thought it might be something that people could overcome, Wild suggested the two could go hand in hand.
“Volunteering is definitely a gateway into employment,” he said.
Common themes running through the discussion were the importance of encouraging people to learn and be culturally aware because they will naturally become involved when a sense of community or shared identity is present. Once they are there, seeing their work make a difference in any way will keep them coming back to serve.