Naomi Akers spends every Friday handing out condoms to prostitutes in the Tenderloin, as well as letting them know about support groups and other resources.
Akers, a senior in women studies, is taking part in the Community Service Learning Scholarship program, a cooperative education program recently established at SF State. The scholarships allow students to earn up to $1,000 and three units of credit during a semester-long internship.
Students involved in the program must volunteer a minimum of 200 hours at one of 12 community service organizations.
The agency's goals range from advocacy for the homeless to promoting environmental education.
"We have a diverse range of opportunity for students coming from every background of study," said Susan Anderson, the CSLS coordinator.
According to Akers, the CSLS program has helped her bridge the gap between the school and work.
"It has been a perfect complement to school because in the classroom one doesn't really get a feel for the real world," Akers said. "It helped me see clearly where I want to go in life."
She also volunteers at PROMISE, an organization designed to help women trying to escape prostitution in San Francisco. Akers said that she hopes to start her own advocacy group that helps women with multi-issues.
She would like to focus on drug addiction, incest, prostitution and domestic violence. Through her work she has come to believe these issues are often inter-related.
Akers has encountered some opposition during her outreach work.
"I've been followed around by pimps in the neighborhood," Akers said. "One pimp asked to read one of my flyers, then started laughing and tore it up."
In addition to doing outreach work and condom distribution, she does advocacy work for prostitutes, putting them in touch with other agencies and resources.
Akers and other recipients of the scholarships work in the community, receiving hands-on experience.
At the beginning of each internship, the students, in conjunction with program coordinators, develop three goals they hope to achieve during their internship.
Cheryl Cronin, a junior in social work and communications, developed her goals with the CSLS program into a major research project for her senior thesis.
Cronin works with Homebase, an advocacy group for low-income and homeless people. She is currently working with Bay Area homeless shelters on a study of the possible effects of the recent Welfare Reform Bill.
"I am going to dispel some of the myths about people who are on welfare and who have low-incomes," Cronin said about her research.
Cronin has participated in Bay Area regional meetings of Homebase to help devise community solutions to homelessness.
Students interested in applying for the CSLS must have at least 52 undergraduate units and a GPA of 2.75 or better. Graduate students must have at least a 3.0.
Students must also have a strong interest in community work and a letter of recommendation from a faculty member.
The scholarship program was established in June of 1995, at SF State, under a grant from the Radin Foundation. To date, the foundation has donated $20,000 to the program, according to Jim Cheng, director of Cooperative Education at SF State.
Cheng said the Radin Foundation is reluctant to comment on their sponsorship of the CSLS program.
"The Radin Foundation doesn't want to preclude any other group interested in donating money," Cheng said. "They intended the donation to be seed money."
[ Golden Gater Online September 5, 1996 ]
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