Waltham nonprofit organizations joined Brandeis students and faculty Tuesday in a workshop co-sponsored by the Community-Engaged Learning program and the Health: Science, Society and Policy program to explore increased collaboration between community groups and Brandeis students through class projects and internships in the area of community health. Prof. Thomas Mackie (Heller) explained that hands-on experience is required for all HSSP majors. As an example, he introduced Elaine Chan '09, who completed an internship this summer at Project Health, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the connection between poverty and health problems by addressing concerns such as lack of food, high prices for heating and other utilities and access to housing.

She presented her internship structure as a model for future projects that involve nonprofits and Brandeis students. During her internship, student-run coordinators acted as supervisors, and the program involved orientation and weekly reflection sessions, where students and supervisors discussed difficult interactions the interns encountered.

Several Waltham-area nonprofit organizations invited by the organizers subsequently presented their work and the specific health challenges they address.

Judy Fallows, project director for Healthy Waltham, an organization that addresses the environmental, economic and social factors of health, explained that in one project focused on healthful eating the organization helped to grow a garden at a local middle school. She pointed out that "keeping . things alive in gardens over the summer" could be another task for interns. Other projects could exist to help youth avoid risks such as substance abuse, cyberbullying and depression by mentoring students to avoid peer pressure and do well academically. "You guys are all potential supports in schools," she said.

Professors, students and community members recognized many challenges in realizing their goal of collaboration with classes and emphasized the need for the kind of reflection opportunity that Chan's internship offered. "As the instructor of the class 'Women in the HealthCare System,' it would be a tremendous assistance, if ever a percentage of those students had seen what . a clinic [is like]," Prof. Lorraine Klerman (HELLER) said. "I can't go out there and organize it, [but] I'd be willing to do the reflective part at the end."

During an open discussion, one student recalled a negative experience with an internship that lacked an orientation. "I had to pick up things as I went along. I wasn't confident at the job until I was leaving," she said. "Learning from your peers . helps you ask questions and understand what is expected from you."

Many HSSP students intern 110 hours over the summer, which "is a lot for one person," Prof. Peter Conrad (SOC) said. He suggested that there should be "larger groups of smaller investments," where each student in a class of 20 Brandeis students spends about eight to 10 hours at a community location during the school year.

Fallows agreed: "If we have more than one student working on the same project, the reflection can happen," she said. She said that barriers to having interns for organizations are unfamiliarity with the Brandeis calendar, the availability of students and their requirements. Prof. Mark Auslander (ANTH) suggested that Community-Engaged Representatives, students who have previously interned in the local area, could help establish initial contacts with advocacy groups off-campus through research and their connections.

After organizing several larger events focused on the Waltham community last year, such as "Justice Continues at Home," students and organizers from the CEL program decided to hold more issue-targeted workshops this semester, Auslander, the CEL?director, said. The focus of the first meeting was on community health due to the large number of students in the prehealth track at Brandeis, he said. Other focuses could be immigration, youth and education efforts, as well as theater and the arts, he said.

Elizabeth Shteyn '10 attended the meeting as a representative of the Waltham Group and as a coordinator for Companions to Elders, the club's program through which volunteers visit the elderly in nursing homes. She said she liked the event overall but was disappointed that the workshop neglected the elderly population, which makes up 12 percent of the nation's population and 13 percent of Waltham's.

"They are very frequent visitors of the hospitals and primary care physicians. . Those are the people that also should be targeted," she said.

Laura Von Zandt, executive director of Refuge, Advocacy, Education and Change, a group that advocates for victims of domestic violence, has also previously worked with Brandeis students but said it was hard to keep track of all its offerings. "I didn't know about the HSSP school, and the idea of that level of focus is exciting, [as is the fact] that there are students who are really thinking about health, not just in terms of premed, but in terms of public health," she said.