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Seeking Tools For A Change

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By MARINELLA MOZZICATO, Tribune correspondent

Published: January 30, 2008

USF CAMPUS - Leaders from several Latin American countries have come to the University of South Florida searching for the tools to bring change in their homelands.

Eighteen people from the Dominican Republic and Central America will spend the next six months at USF learning skills in social work they hope will benefit their countries. They recently kicked off the program with a reception at the College of Education.

Teresa Arely Nolasco-Villanueva, a coordinator for a youth crime prevention program in Guatemala, enrolled in the program to be an agent of change.

Many people in Central America face problems such as domestic violence, poverty and a lack of resources, said Nolasco-Villanueva.

"They are people from the bottom that are doing what they need to do, probably for free," said Aliris Alicea, a project coordinator from the Jim Walter Partnership Center. "The heart of these people is amazing."

The Cooperative Association of States for Scholarships program in conjunction with the Jim Walter Partnership Center at USF's School of Social Work provides students with the training they need to start programs for youth in their countries.

Alicea hopes that by providing these 18 people with different models, they will go back to their communities and spread the word. "It will be like multiplication," she said.

Professors at USF will teach doctorate-level courses in business, health, education, social services, legal and justice systems, disaster preparedness, housing and economic development, grant-writing, nonprofit management and computers.

Students also will have the opportunity to learn how to speak English. They will live at The Edge at 42nd Street, off-campus student housing.

This is the second time the CASS program is being offered at USF. Last semester, students came from Haiti.

Betty Castor, former USF president and executive director for the Patel Center for Global Solutions, spoke to program participants at the kickoff and said the center plans to help them look at environmental issues.

Miguel Angel Sanchez-Jimenez of the Dominican Republic runs two community youth programs. He's helping more than 6,000 kids and their families.

"We're doing the job," he said. "What we'd like to know is why and how other people are doing it and the reasoning behind all their work."

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