(L-R) Ines Maturana Sendoya, Dorrie Siqueiros and Warren Chiang oversee the Office of AHANA Student Programs’ nationally recognized Community Research Program. (Photo by Christopher Huang)
Plaudits for AHANA Program
AHANA Student Programs’ Community Research Program gains national recognition in only its third year
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Connections across the University, and across the larger Boston community, have helped propel the Office of AHANA Student Programs’ Community Research Program (CRP) to national recognition in only its third year.Coordinated by Office of AHANA Student Programs Director Ines Maturana Sendoya and Program Administrator Warren Chiang, CRP offers leadership research and public policy training to juniors and seniors interested in, and committed to, the Latino and Asian communities. Students enroll in a yearlong research methods seminar, produce a research paper, volunteer in a local community organization, and participate in a Summer Leadership Institute.
Earlier this year, the program received a Promising Practices in Student Affairs and Academic Affairs Collaboration honor from NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, a prominent international professional association.
Maturana Sendoya says the early success proves the program is needed on college campuses. “It’s a good boost of confidence that shows we’re moving in the right direction. More importantly, it shows that collaborations between student affairs, academic affairs — all departments — are needed in service to students. This program meets a need for AHANA students, through research and service with the communities to which they belong.”
Assoc. Prof. Ana Martinez Aleman (LSOE), who teaches the research methods seminar, says, “This is a way to have students talk and think beyond undergraduate work. The aim is to create academic leadership.”
CRP administrators note that the program entails a strong role for faculty, who assist students in determining a research topic and using research methods to explore their subject. “Our students come from all undergraduate schools and departments at BC and their faculty advisors do as well,” says Dolores Siqueiros, a Lynch School of Education graduate student who is a CRP administrator.
Over the summer, students present the completed research at national conferences in Washington, DC, dedicated to Asian or Latino issues.
This year’s research topics include political party preferences among Asian voters, translation services at Boston area hospitals, obesity issues and domestic violence in the Latino community. [CRP administrators say the program is looking to expand its focus to include the African American community.]
Susan Choy,’11, has been studying cross-cultural health care in the Boston area and focused on translation services “because it was an issue that affects many families in this area, including mine.” Choy, who hopes to work with nonprofits, possibly in the public health sector, after she graduates, praises CRP: “This has been a really worthwhile program and a good way to learn the basics of research.”
Because events at which the research is presented draw members of Congress and other social and political leaders, Martinez Aleman said CRP provides a means for students to see “how research informs policy so they can hit the ground running.”
Siqueiros said the service component — where students volunteer at various programs including the Allston-Brighton Community Development Center and the Boston College Neighborhood Center — also is a vital part of CRP.
“One of the goals of the program is to make participants realize that they are not just students at BC, but they are part of a larger community,” said Siqueiros. “That hits home for many of them and is a really meaningful part of the program. They see that whatever they do after BC, they can play an active role in their community while doing something that interests them.”
Melissa Beecher can be reached for comment at melissa.beecher.1@bc.edu.