Getting the youth involved

By: Michael Pasaoa

Posted: 5/6/08

"How many of you know what social justice means?" asked Maribel Martinez, program coordinator for the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center.

Fifteen students from Ocala Middle School, who took part in the first social justice tour hosted by the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center as part of their Cinco de Mayo filed trip, couldn't think of an answer at the beginning of the tour.

Justine Ouano, senior sociology major and Campus Organization Outreach coordinator, said the center wanted to host a social justice tour of SJSU that highlights all the monuments and significant aspects on campus that promote community involvement and social justice.

"That's something understated in a normal tour," Ouano said. "People don't realize how much history and involvement we've been apart of, so we decided to bring that to light and this is the first one that we're doing."

Ouano said it's great that they've gotten the youth involved in San Jose's significance in history and contributions to society.

"If they decided to come here, they'd have this knowledge already," Ouano said.

Roberto Garcia, a junior sociology major, teaches these students in Entourage, a community service, leadership and service-learning program as a part of the After-School All-Stars.

Garcia said he wanted his students to be exposed to the history that represents San Jose, and a tour would be a great start.

"It represents a lot of the heritage in the city and that would be motivating for them to come to college," Garcia said, "and social justice is another motivating factor."

The students visited the Cultural Heritage Center on the fifth floor of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, Yoshihiro Uchida Hall and the Tommie Smith and John Carlos Statue.

"Have you guys seen him before, the guy in the statue?" one of the middle school students asked. "Oh my God, I want to see him now."

Timbó Temblador, a junior sociology major and program assistant for the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center, said the campus has a lot of cultural and social justice aspects that are rarely heard.

"A lot of times on campus, we don't really talk about racial injustices that are still going on in America," Temblador said.

He added that bringing youth to the campus and talking about what the monuments stand for is a main goal of the community action center.

"We are planting a seed what would be for the years to come," Temblador said, "a college experience for them in which they would contribute back to the community and be socially and politically aware of what's around them."

He said he wants the youth to walk away with a cultural awareness from learning about the socially diverse monuments.

Rochelle Jackson-Smarr, volunteer coordinator for the community action center said she wants this type of tour to be organized at least once every semester.

"A lot of the volunteers at our center volunteer at middle schools so we could bring students back to our campus," Jackson-Smarr said.

She said she hopes this encourages the younger generations to get involved.

"The social activism of yesterday's generation is still part of our generation today," Jackson-Smarr said.