Conservation Education in Rural Sichuan: The Road to Conservation Social Work is Not Paved—but Filled with Good Interventions

(Apologies for the cheesy title)

It’s been an exciting 9 days, having just returned from traveling in 2 rural counties in Sichuan province. On the 5th of July I set out with Professor Sarah Bexell, another staff member from the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding’s Conservation Education Department, and 6 college students. We’d already spent 3 days together training for the summer camps we were going to lead (LINK) and we were ready to get started. Our first day involved a charter bus ride to relatively nearby Le Shan (famous for its giant stone Buddha carved into the mountain side), a bus across the city, another charter bus to E’Bian, and a city bus ride– and the trip took all day. The trip was a good opportunity for me to see Sichuan outside of Chengdu. The region is incredibly mountainous and has a lush green environment due to heavy rainfall and excellent clay-rich soil. Our ride took us winding through mountains very different than the Rockies. These mountains bore more of a resemblance to cliffs or ridges rather than gradually sloping mountains. As we snaked on roads along the Dadu and Min rivers, we cut across ridges that generally had grades steeper than 45 degrees. This region is home to the Yi people. The Yi are an ethnic minority who live in the southwestern provinces of China. The dominant ethnic group in China is the Han. Like whites in the United States, Han control most of the wealth, power, and official positions. Yi speak their own language, in addition to Mandarin, and have a distinct culture. Traditional clothing incorporates a black vest or jacket embroidered or brocade with gold and bright colors. Adult women also wear headdresses of a similar style.

The children from our first camp, in Ha Qu. Pictured are several boys in traditional Yi clothing (embroidered black jackets or vests).

In E’Bian we met the staff of Heizhugou nature reserve, who would collaborate with us to plan the nature hikes and bird watches in the camp. The next morning we set out for a 2 hour bus ride into the mountains to reach Ha Qu (pronounced ha-choo), a village less than 10 miles from the nature reserve. (Nature reserves in China are protected lands where only staff are supposed to be admitted and even they are restricted from the centermost regions. In reality, illegal collection of wildlife and plants is present; poachers and mushroom and bamboo shoot collectors illegally enter reserves.) We had 20 students from a nearby village and their teacher join us in Ha Qu—meeting us there as the village could accommodate the camp’s needs. Half of the town had recently been reconstructed with western development funds. While eastern and coastal China has seen huge development and modernization, central and western China has remained a network of small villages. While Ha Qu had electricity and plumbing before the redevelopment, even afterwards few people had cell phones and many homes still had earthen floors. We were informed that $4 million RMB (roughly $626,000 US) had been invested to construct 2-dozen houses complete with balconies and multiple indoor bathrooms, a restaurant, a plaza, a general store, and a community center. The village lay in a river valley surrounded by mountains and we took several hikes up to ridges similar to wild panda habitats. The high mountains were also inhabited by leeches, which we encountered on our second day.

The redeveloped region of the village of Ha Qu.

We ran similar camps at both sites for 8-12 year olds: scavenger hunts, nature hikes, water and bird walks, games involving animals, camouflage, or habitats, and a final performance which resembled a talent show. Videos below shows a bird watching trip and camp members performing in Ha Qu. My role in the camp was that of an English teacher. The Ha Qu campers had some preliminary knowledge so we went over basic introductions and phrases, animals local to Sichuan, words for the environment (tree, leaf, etc.), colors, and numbers. We played the hokey pokey (a huge hit) and sang nursery rhymes. We performed “I’m a little teapot” for the finale. Each camp lasted 3 days.

After the first camp we drove back to E’Bian, took a bus to Ma’Bian (the next county), and a car to Sha Qiang The trips together took nearly 2 days. The most exciting part was the road to Sha Qiang, the village where we held the second camp. We spent the trip winding through the mountains, half of the time on unpaved roads while traveling 40 miles/hour (video posted below). Sha Qiang was a small village with one a single road that deviated from the main thoroughfare. We stayed in the local school’s dormitory with half of our 26 campers—because some of them lived as far away as a 2-hour walk. Our second set of campers were just as friendly and engaged as the first. While they had less experience with English, they still loved the hokey pokey (and danced it in the final performance). The area had experienced heavy rain and storms the day before our arrival. As mentioned Sichuan is a fertile region with steep mountains, this is combined with an intense harvesting (one might categorize it as pillaging) of natural resources. Nickel mining is an especially prevalent industry—on our trip we passed more nickel-laden trucks than all other vehicles (although motorbikes were the dominant presence). Agriculture and construction have also increased in the region. Mining and logging has resulted in a loss of natural growth, resulting in rock falls and land slides after heavy rains. While these are natural occurrences, human activity has greatly increased their frequency. When traveling, our car frequently had to dodge fallen rock. This also extended our travel time as traffic was often limited to a single lane on a two-directional road. Overall the trip was an extended roller coaster ride that was quite fun and worth filming.

A view from one of our nature walks in Sha Quang, Ma’Bian.

The trips gave a great perspective on how large Sichuan province is. The shortest route between Sha Qiang and Chengdu was 7 hours total although both cities are in the same province. Coming from the East Coast, it was still surprising that one could travel 7 hours in one direction and remain in a single state. The camps were also a great opportunity to spread basic information on animal welfare and conservation with the aim to have children teach their peers and families. Our counselors were local college students in order to help spread conservation education at the university level as well. One significant barrier to the camps, however, is the cultural attitude towards animals in China. While many people in the US have pets and can be tempted to appreciate animals when shown pictures of cuddly, baby mammals, Chinese culture is overall very different. Domestic animals in rural areas are working cats and dogs—or sources of food or income. Wild songbirds are caught in cages for singing competitions. Pets are often luxury objects appreciated for their ability to act cute and move. Very few people I’ve encountered treat animals as Americans would, making it difficult to increase the human-animal bond. That’s not to say that our campers were apathetic to animals though—quite the opposite. They just needed a little extra education—and have their work cut out for them. We wish them the best.

A bird watching walk in Sha Qiang, MaBian. This shot was taken after I crossed this delightful bridge.

I’ll be off to visit a few sites in Chengdu and travel around the country for the next week. My internship is winding down but ahead are still visits to Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve, the Le Shan Buddha, and the terracotta warriors of Xi’an—and one final blog post.

Videos:

Here is a video taken during a bird-watching nature hike nearby Heizhugou nature reserve.  We had 20 campers from a nearby village.  On our hour-and-a-half trek we climbed up a nearby ridge and spent time looking at the wildlife.

The finale of our camp performance included a group song with all Chinese counselors and all 20 campers.  This is taken in the village square at Ha Qu near Heizhugou nature reserve.

This video was taken on our route back from the village of Sha Qiang, where we held our second camp.  We’re en route to the county seat, Ma Bian.  The trip lasted nearly two hours- half of which was on unpaved roads.

The Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding

Cubs spend a lot of time playing at the panda base. In the wild, pandas only rear a single cub at a time so cubs typically play with their mothers rather than siblings.

For the past week I’ve finally gotten my opportunity to experience the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.  I’ve had a variety of experiences at the base—including daily opportunities to see giant and red pandas.

For two days this week I’ve participated in a training program for conservation education summer camp counselors.  Next week I’ll be joining one staff member from the Conservation Education Department and six undergraduate/ graduate student counselors in two summer programs in rural panda reserves.  The student counselors have been recruited from a network of clubs, called Green SOS, present on many college campuses.  They’ll be assisting the base staff during the camp to alleviate staff workloads and to help bring young adults into the conservation education field.  Our trainings included a combination of biology, educational techniques and games to get children excited about nature.  The children in these camps (8-12 year olds) live close to two protected areas, Heizhugou and Mabian, which are natural panda habitats.  The camps will last three days at each location and include nature hikes, bird watching, games, educational activities about wildlife, and a final production or talent show.  My contribution (as someone who does not speak Mandarin) will be teaching English each day through games and activities.  I’m excited to see these other regions of the province and work with the other students.

The counselors for our summer camps in Heizhugou and Mabian, including me (far left), Professor Sarah Bexell (second from left), and panda base staff member Liu Fei (behind banner in green shirt), and students from various Green SOS clubs.

I’ve already had an opportunity to visit another panda habitat outside of the city, Dujianyan.  Dujianyan, or Panda Valley, is the field research site for the Chengdu panda base.  It is located over an hour outside of the city in between two mountainous ridges.  In the wild, panda’s typically live on mountain ridges and are native to areas such as Panda Valley.  The site is relatively recently constructed and no pandas live on the ridges currently.  I visited the location with members of the Conservation Education Department as members from a teen summer camp will be visiting there for several days.  The camp is similar to those offered in Heizhugou and Mabian, except it is for teenage students near Chengdu.  We toured the facility and met with staff to organize details of the camp.  Touring the facility involved an hour-long nature walk where we saw wildlife such as snakes, salamanders, and caterpillars (including both benign and the venomous/poisonous snakes and caterpillars).  Currently the site only has several pandas but plans to expand the scope of their work.

A view of Dujianyan, or Panda Valley, the field research site of the Chengdu panda base

Additionally this week the base hosted two biologists from the Chester Zoo, Roger and Simon.  The Chester Zoo, a partner of the base, has given grants to the base and nearby nature reserves to expand education, rehabilitate enclosures, and fund various projects on the reserves.  For example, they have funded alternative economies for residents near the reserves to deter from collective wildlife products (bamboo, mushrooms, and timber) and constructed clean-burning gas powered stoves to reduce logging.  They’ve also structured their funding to build the capacity of the rural reserves, increasing collaboration between reserves and building partnerships with surrounding communities.  They visited the panda base on Friday to see how several grant projects came to fruition and discuss potential future projects.

In between my trainings, visits, and tours I had opportunities to explore the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding.  The base is an extensive park that includes a lake, egret nesting colonies, restaurants, and a panda cinema in addition to the giant and red pandas themselves.  Adult giant pandas do not live together and leave their mothers once they become “adolescent” sub-adults (between 1-5 years old).  As a result, cubs on the base interact with each other or with their mothers but adults typically have their own enclosures.  All told there are over a dozen enclosures and quite a few panda cubs on the base.  I had an opportunity to see them active in the early-mid-morning period when they typically begin their long day of eating.  I had a blast watching the pandas but honestly my favorite part of the base was the second red panda enclosure.  In this area, many red pandas live together in a large enclosure.  A boardwalk for visitors runs through the middle of the enclosure and has many openings in the fence so the red pandas can move freely about.  Regularly accustomed to people, I had several red pandas walk within inches of me (they’re roughly larger than an average house cat but smaller than most dogs)!

I had several days to explore the base through opportunities to collect research data for an upcoming exhibit.  The panda base and the Chengdu Zoo will partner to create an exhibit on the international wildlife trade, featuring information on how wildlife is used for food, medicine, or curios—or harmed in the process of other forms of trade.  Over 600 surveys of native-Chinese visitors will be conducted in the coming months.  My role was to begin surveying English-speakers (on a smaller scale) to gauge their interest or knowledge in this field.  It is important to note that while China is the largest consumer of wildlife products, the United States is the second largest consumer!  Unfortunately I won’t be able to see this exhibit as it is just in the planning stage but I am excited to learn from the data I collected.

My visits to the panda base are largely over now and I am headed out to the rural reserves shortly!

Videos: Chinese Organic Farming and Community Mobilization

Hello!  With the help of the GSSW tech team, I was able to upload several videos of my visit to Anlong Village co-operative farming community (see post below).  Enjoy!

Chinese Organic Farming and Community Mobilization

My host grandmother and my colleague weeding on the Quan family farm

Hello!  This is Jocelyn Durkay, concentration year, community track student at GSSW.  I’m spending 6 weeks this summer in southwestern China studying global social work practice with Visiting Professor Sarah Bexell.  I’m blogging about my experiences this summer- this is post number 2.  During this past week I had the amazing opportunity to visit a co-operative farming community in Anlong county outside Chengdu, Sichuan province.  I’ve always had a penchant for gardening and growing produce and held my foundation year internship with GreenLeaf, a youth-led urban farming program in northeast Denver.  I found this week to be a valuable social work experience, as well as a valuable farming experience.

The co-op community of Anlong Village was launched in 2006 with the help of Chengdu Urban Rivers Association (CURA) and other NGOs.  The project involved collaborating with farmers, who lived upstream of a major river that feeds into Chengdu, to switch from chemical farming (using of pesticides and herbicides) to eco-farming.  Eco-farming in China refers to a number of different practices including organic farming and high land productivity in order to avoid pollution and environmental degradation, to conserve resources, and to create healthy food.  In practice this means creating almost zero waste, growing organic produce, and selling the food to urban residents while educating them about the importance of chemical-free produce.  Even human and livestock waste is converted into clean-burning methane gas and organic fertilizer!  One of the larger farms in the village offers eco-tourism opportunities where visitors can stay at the farm in order to work, explore, or play on the nearby river’s beach.

Anlong Village is a pilot project that many organizations hope to duplicate.  I learned a great deal about Anlong and its farmers during my stay there from Monday – Saturday of last week.  I stayed with the Quan family (pronounced Chen): a grandfather, grandmother, and their teenage granddaughter.  It was a fantastic homestay experience where I was able to enjoy local, fresh, organic food at every meal and had some opportunities to work on the farm.

Me with my hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Quan

As I mentioned earlier, this was not just an opportunity to experience nature, culture, and agriculture but also a social work learning experience.  I had the opportunity to speak with four heads of households about their switch to eco-farming, through the translation assistance of a colleague.  These farmers had spent all (or most) of their lives as farming– initially participating in traditional farming techniques, then chemical farming, and now eco-farming.  Chemical farming rose to popularity in the 1980s because of the high demand for food to combat mass starvation from a population boom.  Chinese colleagues informed me that with the rapid rise in China’s urban development and modernization, farming has become somewhat synonymous with peasantry.  These farmers are reclaiming the occupation, however, through technical knowledge and concerns for public health.   Young people in Anlong are remaining on their family farms instead of moving to cities, helping slow the loss of a generation of Chinese farmers.   As mentioned, the initial impetus for the formation of Anlong Village stemmed from river pollution.  This river is used for laundry and for swimming by residents and guests alike.  The river water is also diverted to water the fields and has a direct connection to human and animal consumption.

Health benefits extend to farmers’ daily lives as well.  One farmer spoke of the positive health his mother has experienced since switching to organic farming.  Previously, she’d needed daily medication and had poor reactions to breathing pesticide-ridden air.  Now her health has improved enough that she does not need medication.  Another farmer spoke of how he made the decision to protect his family’s health, helping feed others healthy food was a secondary consequence.  That same farmer spoke of the concern he now felt for others who consumed chemically treated produce.  He’d seen farmers spray food with pesticide in the morning and sell the same produce later that day.  All four farmers spoke of feelings of pride they’d developed for their produce and their customers.  Previously they’d sold their produce to wholesalers while now they know their CSA customers by name and feel a concern for their health.  Farmers also spoke of their connection to their land, wildlife, and the act of farming—aspects they did not speak of when explaining their previous use of chemicals.  Several of them spoke of new responsibility they felt to the larger environment, demonstrating feelings of empowerment.  Farmers discussed the sense of community they felt with other eco-farmers, recognizing they had collective power and strength.  Additionally, all four farmers spoke of how they enjoyed their lifestyle and would not choose another occupation than eco-farming.  After completing my Research Methods & Design assignments on horticulture therapy, I found this last point particularly interesting and wondered if this supported research on positive mental health affects of horticulture experiences.

The Anlong Village co-operative was incredibly inspiring but they are currently fighting a losing battle against hyper-industrialization and urbanization.  The Chinese government is attempting to buy farmer’s homes in order to demolish them and relocate families to urban high rises (requiring a long commute to their farmlands).  Additionally, I could not see the sun through Chengdu’s smog clouds until my fifth day on the farm.  When showing my hosts’ granddaughter photos of Denver, she commented on how blue the sky looked and how she’s never seen sky like that in her hometown.

MORE ON ANLONG VILLAGE:

CURA’s official site, http://www.rivers.org.cn/en/

An article about the community, featuring the eco-tourism farm, http://zesterdaily.com/world/travel/going-organic-in-china/.

 

WORKS CITED & RESOURCES:

Dammon Loyalka, M. (2012). Eating bitterness: Stories from the front lines of China’s great urban migration. Berekely, CA: University of California Oress.

Wang, H., Qin, L, Huang, L, & Zhang, L. (2007). Ecological agriculture in China: Principles and applications. Advances in Agronomy, 47(10): pp. 181-208. DOI: 10.1016/S0065-2113(06)94004-8.

My host preparing lunch on a traditional Chinese stove while I feed the fire underneath to cook the food

China, Pandas, and Global Social Work Practice

An image of a Red Panda in the wild

My name is Jocelyn Durkay and I’m a community track student at GSSW- and I have the amazing opportunity this summer to attend a GSSW internship in China with Visiting Professor Sarah Bexell.  As a participant in Professor Sarah Bexell’s International Social Development course (co-facilitated by PhD student Eric DesMarais) I had the opportunity to learn of her work at the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding.  Professor’s Bexell’s expertise is wildlife conservation but she also focuses on education.  Conservation education is vital because if residents near a protected area or urban residents (in Chengdu or in the United States) do not know their role in wildlife and habitat loss, they cannot mitigate or prevent further loss.  Her course also gave me the opportunity to design a development project on conservation and community development training for staff in Myanmar’s protected areas.

This research opportunity aligned with my first internship experience in China: shortly after my arrival, I joined Prof. Bexell in Beijing for Red Panda Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA), a red panda conservation planning meeting.  Red pandas are smaller than giant pandas, resembling more of a raccoon than a panda although they share the same habitat and food (see attached picture).  I was able to observe two sessions of the event, which involved 26 individuals from China, several Western nations, and Myanmar.  (Myanmar and the Chinese Yunnan province share red panda habitats.)  After designing a vision for red panda conservation, the group broke into two focus groups to explore red panda population dynamics and threats to the population.

I attended the threat breakout group sessions, which identified bamboo collection practices, poaching, road and dam construction, mining, ecotourism, and timbering as leading sources for population loss.  Attending these sessions was helpful in learning the direct implications of rapid industrial development on ecosystems and animals.  I found myself also examining the United States’ role in this habitat and wildlife loss, as China produces so many of the products that our country consumes.  Even though I live far from China, my lifestyle and consumption has a direct impact on Chinese ecosystems.  Not only am I responsible for loss that has already occurred but by continuing to live the way I do now, I am responsible for future loss that will result as the country works to satisfy global product demands.  I have already seen this in person through my initial visit to Chengdu, the industrial capital of southwest China, where visibility is measured in hundreds of feet, not miles, due to smog and pollution.  (In fact the city is constantly congested, placing into perspective the smog cloud I have seen over Denver when returning from the front range.)  Relatively young buildings are stained by pollution and the rain is acidic.  This is a city of 14 million people and I can only imagine the health consequences this generates for residents.

On a more positive note, I also had the opportunity to explore several areas of Beijing.  Our hotel was located near the 2008 Summer Olympic complex.  I visited Tian’namen Square, the Forbidden City, the summer palace, the Great Wall, and one of the Ming dynasty tombs.  While these experiences were breathtaking and enjoyable, they also provided me with historical knowledge and an understanding of current cultural perspectives.  For example, despite the large number of foreign tourists visiting the Great Wall many Chinese citizens still have limited contact with foreigners.  This is especially true as foreign visitors were restricted during the Community Revolution and subsequent years.  I had Chinese tourists ask to take their picture with me, including entire families, which was a very surprising experience.

I am excited to experience what this internship has to offer.  Next week I will be visiting a rural area outside Chengdu where 8 families have began an organic farming cooperative to attain greater control over their food and health!

Jocelyn

Snogging with Giraffes

Over winter break, I was lucky enough to participate in the Conservation Social Work course in Kenya.  It was a life-changing experience that has completely changed my outlook on life as well as impacted my professional goals.  The Conservation Social Work in Kenya course is offered to concentration year students and is part of GSSW’s animal-assisted therapy program (although you are not required to be in the animal-assisted social work certificate to participate).  Throughout the fall quarter, we met every couple of weeks for class and then we traveled to Kenya for 2 weeks over the winter break.

It would take me pages and pages to describe my entire Kenya experience, but here are a couple of stories from my trip:

• This is the fun story…We had the opportunity to visit the Betty and Jock Leslie-Melville Giraffe Center where we got to feed and pet rescued giraffes.  After getting to know them a little bit most of us chose to get up close and personal with the giraffes, allowing them to eat pellets of food off of our lips.  It turns out giraffes are quite slobbery kissers and have large, black, sand-papery tongues.  (If you would like more information about the Giraffe Center, you can go to www.giraffecenter.org.)

 

 

• This is the sad story…We had the chance to explore Kibera, which is the largest slum in Africa (and the 2nd largest in the world, behind India).  As we walked through the slum, we heard children chanting, “How-are-you?” and “Muzungo, muzungo!” (“white person, white person!”); we saw mounds of trash, mangey dogs, and lots of people; and we smelled cattle legs being grilled on fires.  It was extremely intense and like nothing else I have ever seen in the United States.  All of the homes were made of mud and sticks with sheet metal as rooves.  Most of them had a “store” on their front porch and when you walked into the home there was generally one 10 foot by 10 foot room that 5-7 people lived in with no bathroom.  Most of us were completely speechless and even now, it is hard to really describe what it was like to visit Kibera.  Although it was sad and emotional, it was also frustrating on a larger scale.  The Kenyan government does not acknowledge that there are 3 million people living in Kibera (they say there are only several thousand).  They do not have any kind of medical care or job security.  In fact, the only time the government pretends to care about what is going on there is during election season.  Overall, it was an amazing experience to interact with the community and to see the struggles they are experiencing.

• This is the perspective-changing story…In one of the villages we visited called Kasigau, I spent some time interacting with a family in their home.  When it was time to make lunch, they said that it was customary for the visitor to slaughter a chicken.  I had no idea how to react–I didn’t want to be disrespectful to the family, but there was no way I was going to be able to kill a chicken by myself.  Thankfully, one of my translators actually did the slaughtering, but I did help with the rest of the process.  While the whole thing was going on, one of the 13 year old girls asked me if I didn’t eat chicken.  I told her that of course I eat chicken, so then she asked me why this was such a big deal for me if I ate chicken.  I then had to explain to her that in the United States, we generally go to a grocery store to buy packaged chicken that no longer resembles a bird.  She could not understand this whatsoever–it just did not make sense to her that there were factories that supplied this type of food to us as consumers.  It really made me think about how disconnected we are from the food we eat in the United States.  As I have reintegrated into our society, I find myself passing by the meat sections in the grocery store and feeling sick because of how inhumanely those animals were most likely treated.  This experience really changed the way I think about the food I am putting into my mouth.

 

Overall, Kenya was an amazing experience and there are plenty more stories where these came from.  While we were in Africa, our class actually attempted to blog about our experiences.  So if you are interested in learning more about the things we did while we were there, you can visit http://learn2conserve.wordpress.com

Project Bosnia and Herzegovina: International Service Learning and Social Work

My departure for Bosnia and Herzegovina is fast approaching. With 3 class sessions at DU, participants in this year’s 8-week international service learning experience in Bosnia have the opportunity to learn about one another and build a historical context around the Balkan Wars and genocide. In-class discussions are often overwhelming, revealing the despair and pain continually endured by the Bosnian people. However, as I personally prepare for an international internship and begin to understand the complexities of the human spirit, specifically the resilience that propels people forward in their lives, I am excited to engage in a learning process grounded in individual and community experience.

From readings, film clips, and images, Sarajevo appears to be a vibrant community, touting a coffee culture, cobblestone roads, and mountain greenery. Though Bosnia’s recent conflict leaves an unsettling feeling and uncertainty of how to tread in a culturally responsive way, maintaining focus on the totality of human experience, a holistic perspective that enables me to understand human experience in all of its relationships and connections, reminds me to be open to and aware of those facets of Bosnian life that maintain and create meaning.

I am excited to begin my learning journey in Bosnia, with local Sarajevans, fellow classmates, and the broader environment. It is an opportunity to explore how I, as a social worker, fit into the international community. It is also an opportunity to grow as an individual, to simply be, and develop social, emotional, and physical connections with my surroundings.

Check out the following Lonely Planet video about Sarajevo:

A Double Attraction…

I’ve been pulled in two directions… I have to balance a tug of war between my competing attractions: international human rights and social work. One day, my thoughts slowly drift into an international world of theory. My brain is twisted in a million ways, forced to conceptualize the complexities of human rights and human wrongs. And then, the cloud that surrounds my thoughts dissipates and forces me to fall to land where community social work practice is my mantra.

It has been difficult to balance this double attraction, this multidimensional gravitation that seems to make my life incredibly complicated and incredibly interesting simultaneously. But…it is a worthwhile endeavor. I feel like my brain is being worked in every way possible, forced to understand the delicate and necessary balance between theory and practice. Who says I can’t have the best of both attractions?

Studying both international human rights and social work has opened my eyes to the diversity of options that lay before me as I enter the professional world. This coming summer, I will have to opportunity to spend two months in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where I will have an international social work field placement that integrates my intersecting interests. It will allow me to explore international opportunities for professional development and understand the complexities of NGOs and international nonprofits. Importantly, knowledge from my international human rights education has opened my eyes to transnational migration flows that lead many people to the United States, people with whom I interact daily in my current field placement with a community organizing nonprofit. A global knowledge base contributes greatly to my understanding of social work practice and is increasingly important in our transnational world. Ultimately, I hope it leads me to an academic social work position, where I can work with future students in the classroom and contribute to scholarly knowledge about the intersection of globalization and social work.

Girl Scouts of Colorado – Earth Hour

Hi all!

This weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a unique activity with my internship. I intern with Girl Scouts of Colorado. Since Denver is the capitol of Colorado our local Girl Scouts have the opportunity to participate in numerous events that involve our political atmosphere. Last Saturday they participated in “Earth Hour.”

Xcel Energy sponsored our event and offered each Girl Scouting family to bring in their old incandescent light bulbs to trade out for Compact Fluorescent Bulbs that use less energy and create less waste. Also at the event our local Council staff (myself included) hosted a table where the girls could fold paper cranes to send to Japan in support of the recent tsunami and earthquake that happened March 11th. Each girl was able to make a few cranes to send off and then also received a instruction sheet  for how to make more if they choose to.

It was powerful to be a part of this event – mostly because I got to witness young girls being involved in important issues like energy conservation and international support efforts. If young people make a habit of things like this early on, they are more likely to continue doing it in their future. Yay for empowering young girls!!

Here are some pictures from the event:

Happy Trails!

Cori

GSSW scholars explore cutting behavior among sexual minority youth

GSSW faculty scholars N. Eugene Walls and Julie Laser collaborated with GSSW doctoral student Sarah J. Nickels and GSSW alum Hope Wisneski to examine the factors that are associated with increased likelihood of engaging in cutting behavior among lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender youth and young adults.¹ Across various statistical models, they found that female- and trans-identified LGBQT youth and young adults were at significantly greater risk of cutting than their male-identified counterparts.  Other factors associated with greater likelihood include victimization, homelessness, depression, suicide attempts, smoking tobacco, and having friends in their close friendship network who attempted suicide. The risk for the behavior appears to decrease with increased age and with having an adult teacher, social worker, or other school personnel with whom the youth can talk about sexual orientation and gender identity.

One interesting finding is that youth who were more out about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity were at increased risk of engaging in the behavior.  Since being out is typically associated with greater mental health and resilience, this finding may seem counter-intuitive. However, the researchers point out, that the impact of coming out is frequently contextual – so if youth come out in an environment that invalidates or stigmatizes their identities it would not be surprising to find such a result. More research on the topic of cutting and other non-suicidal self-injurious behavior among LGBQT youth is clearly warranted.

¹Walls, N. E., Laser, J., Nickels, S., & Wisneski, H. (2010). Correlates of cutting behavior among sexual minority youth and young adults. Social Work Research, 34, 213-226.