Carballo, MakennaMagnus, Schuh
Samantha, Urrutia

Title:
Community Organizing Through Undergraduate Research

Abstract:
Through the use of student research, we worked with two community organizations in Flagstaff, the Northern Arizona Interfaith Council (NAIC) and the Hood Initiative to tackle issues around immigration. Through NAIC, Magnus Schuh and Makenna Carballo worked with parents and staff at local Flagstaff Unified School District schools in order to facilitate parent involvement at the schools and to learn more about the translation and interpretation services available to teachers. Through the use of a survey and follow up interviews we gathered information on the accessibility, or lack thereof, of translation and interpretation services. Many teachers were entirely unaware of district provided services, and more did not know how to access them. Through the use of parent meetings, NAIC helped to support spanish speaking parents with translation and opportunities to get their concerns heard in a language they were comfortable with. With the Hood Initiative, Samantha Urrutia worked on collecting information from the public in order to find ways Northern Arizona University can improve their counseling services, and how NAU can provide the tools in order to help minority students, especially those within the LatinX community, succeed. These results demonstrate how student research can be combined with community organization to engage the community on a variety of issues.

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