Ph.D. Student In Family Social Science And Public Health, of Johannesburg, South Africa
WHAT: As part of her Ph.D. research, Nkosi worked with low-income rural families in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal to improve their quality of life. She focused on housing, sanitation, preventing HIV/AIDS and TB, and other issues. Nkosi, who speaks five languages, will finish her Ph.D. in late spring 2005 and then return to South Africa.
PROFILE: Nkosi is amazed by the resilience of KwaZulu-Natal families. One of the most humbling experiences about working with these families is observing their ability to make something from nothing and to persevere in the daily grind of life, she says. She recalls one woman she interviewed: She wanted to buy a house, but she had bad credit, had lost her job, and had a daughter she was struggling to get through school. In spite of her destitute condition, she was extremely hospitable and refused to feel sorry for herself. She was thinking long-term and was determined to find the money. Nkosi also studied sanitation systems in KwaZulu Natal and concluded that disease prevention depends on the availability of clean water and toilets which should be the responsibility of the government. She notes that these experiences have intensified her interest in working with rural communities and spurred her to explore global issues as part of her Ph.D. program. According to her Ph.D. adviser, CHE professor Paul Rosenblatt, Nkosi is working with people who have been vastly neglected. She is putting a human face on these people and the policies that affect them.

’97 M.A. And ’00 Ph.D., Family Social Science, of St. Paul
WHAT: CHE graduate Xiong is an assistant professor in General College—and the first Hmong full-time professor at the University of Minnesota. He’s also the first Hmong person in the country to hold a tenure-track position in a major research university. Xiong teaches social science courses, and his research focuses on parent-adolescent relationships in immigrant families.
PROFILE: Xiong worked with former CHE professor Dan Detzner (now in General College) to develop the “Helping Youth Succeed” parent education program. The curriculum—delivered by social service agencies to Hmong, Laotian, Vietnamese, and Cambodian familes—incorporates real-life stories of parent-adolescent conflicts. One example is the story of Ra, a 15-year-old Cambodian boy who attends a large, inner-city St. Paul high school with a diverse student population. In step with his peers, Ra prefers wearing baggy pants, or “going sagging”—but Ra's parents are unhappy with his choice of clothes. A facilitator leads parents a discussion to identify possible solutions that blend aspects of both cultures. With the arrival in Minnesota this fall of an estimated 5,000 Hmong refugees, Xiong’s interest is more than academic: he and his seven siblings are sponsoring two families. “My family has been very successful here, and we believe that we can make a positive difference for these newly arriving families. We want to be good role models and make sure that they have the resources they need.”

’01, Family Social Science And Spanish; current M.S.W. student
WHAT: Loge is working in Peru with an organization that steps in to help children who work on the streets. She landed fellowships from the University’s Human Rights Center and the Office of International Programs for this internship, which began in August. When she completes her internship, she’ll have earned an M.S.W. She hopes to go on to work with immigrant communities in Minnesota.
PROFILE: Loge developed a passion for working with diverse populations as an undergraduate, when she worked for three summers as bilingual teaching assistant with the Migrant Head Start program. Part of the job involved home visits at a migrant camp in Brooten, a tiny town in west central Minnesota. “Families lived in white circular huts that surrounded an open area where the kids played. The huts were very basic with cement floors, and were usually shared by two or three families. Even though these families didn’t have much, their generosity was overwhelming—they would want to serve you a meal when you visited! Their priority was their kids and family, and in spite of their living conditions, they were so positive,” marvels Loge. Her goal in Peru is to understand the feeling of being in the minority so she can learn how to better advocate for people and help them gain access to support systems and overcome barriers. “I look forward to an exciting future of service within immigrant communities while continuing to learn more about the world and myself,” she says.

’00 Ph.D. Family Social Science, of Thailand
WHAT: Wachwithan (back center in photo) is a faculty member at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University in Thailand, which specializes in distance education. She teaches undergraduate and graduate-level child, family, and social development courses. She also collaborates with CHE’s Cathy Solheim on research related to Asian family caregiving.
PROFILE: Wachwithan’s research highlights the caregiving dilemma now faced by a growing number of families in rural Thailand and other Asian countries. Greater longevity, combined with declining fertility rates and the migration of young people to the cities, means fewer family members are available to care for an increasing number of older adults. Yet elderly adults expect their families to support them in their old age. “More government and private programs are needed to support family members,” says Wachwithan. Especially needed, she says, are more professionals and paraprofessionals to help family caregivers with elderly parents. Wachwithan herself is exploring possible solutions; recently she was asked to consider creating a research/training center in northern Thailand. The center would train students and rural professionals to take into account social, cultural, and economic factors as they work with families. “Poonsuk’s work is cutting edge in Thailand because of the timeliness and importance of her research on aging, and because of the family systems approach she is introducing to scholars, practitioners and policymakers,” says the college’s Solheim. Wachwithan now is in China for several months to conduct similar research there.

’78 M.S.W., of Minneapolis
WHAT: Givens Copeland founded ethnicHome in 2000, a Web-based enterprise providing ethnicoriented products for home design, entertaining, and heritage celebrations. Having spent 25 years as a home developer, Givens Copeland passionately believes that culturally sensitive housing improves quality of life in Minnesota. She recently taught a graduate-level course in the college called The Changing Face of Housing.
PROFILE: “I invited Ali Khalif Galaydh, former prime minister of Somalia, to be a guest lecturer for one of my classes. Somehow word got out, and some architects who were beginning a housing renovation project in north Minneapolis came to listen,” says Givens Copeland. Galaydh described simple housing modifications that accommodate Somali cultural practices and satisfy landlords. For example, because the spices used in Somali cooking can stain white laminate countertops, stain-resistant, darker-colored countertops offer a practical alternative. Repositioning smoke alarms can eliminate false alarms triggered by the burning of incense and by the boiling methods used in cooking. And careful placement of radiators and registers can ensure adequate ventilation even given the heavy draperies preferred by the formerly nomadic Somali people. Says Givens Copeland: “The session was eye-opening to students, and our architect guests were excited about implementing some of the strategies discussed.”

’85 Ph.D., Family Social Science, of Haifa, Israel
WHAT: Lavee is a senior lecturer at the School of Social Work at the University of Haifa. He is an expert on how Arab and Jewish families and couples function in times of stress and has contributed to crosscultural research on Israeli families.
PROFILE: “I was exposed to a fascinating line of research on family stress by family scholars such as Pauline Boss, Rueben Hill, and David Olson, so when I returned to Israel where people and families are repeatedly exposed to war and terrorism, I focused my work on them,” says Lavee. Boss, in turn, notes that Lavee’s work has enriched her own research related to ambiguous loss, trauma, and resilience in families of the missing after terrorism and war. “His research is extremely useful in advancing the shift by trauma specialists from individual treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder to treating whole families in their communities. His studies of how Arab and Israeli families perceive the same stressor differently is groundbreaking. For scholars who need to design research and clinical interventions for culturally diverse families, Dr. Lavee’s writings have become essential reading.”

Community Program Assistant With the University Of Minnesota Extension Service’s Minnesota Latino Financial Literacy Program, of Clarence, Minn.
WHAT: Burke teaches Spanish-speaking families in southeast Minnesota about money decisions, banking, credit, debt reduction, and home ownership. The bilingual curricula is based on the DollarWorks program developed by CHE professor Jean Bauer. Burke also teaches the RentWise program to help families in rental housing understand their legal rights and responsibilities.
PROFILE: “The opportunity to take classes in Spanish about managing finances, renting, and homeownership (the biggest class I teach), is a great advantage to Latino families,” says Burk. “Minnesota has good programs for families to obtain their first home, but if you do not understand the language, it can be difficult.” Many people who attend her classes have a lot of work to do to adjust their budgets, reduce their debt, and work on their credit ratings, Burk says. “But people learn that if they have the proper legal status within the United States, owning a home may be possible. I see this as a big success because everyone in the class now knows what they need to work on. It is so rewarding for me to do this work within my community; these classes are helping families become more secure.