February 12, 2003

ISU student helps DIVA GIRLS earn respect

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Indiana State University student Valerie Craig knows the challenges facing inner city youth. She grew up in a single parent family in the Terre Haute Housing Authority's Lockport project and became a single mother herself before marrying and having three more children.

At 36, the senior sociology major is in her second stint as a college student. She says she is more focused now than when she first attended Indiana State as a teen-ager and she's helping girls from the city's Central East Side gain focus and boost their self-esteem.

Three days a week Craig heads to the 14th and Chestnut Community Center for an after school program called DIVA GIRLS, a name that plays on the popularity of divas - female singers.

"It stands for Determined Independent Vivacious Adolescents Gaining Intelligence, Respect and Leadership Skills. That came from my grandmother who was always complaining about 'Nobody's got any respect nowadays'," Craig said.

"We learn the simple things like how to stand like a lady, how to sit like a lady," she said.

DIVA GIRLS also involves hands-on projects such as assembling "diva bags," colorful bags containing health and beauty products and such items as "Divas Don't Smoke" stickers. DIVA GIRLS, aimed at elementary school children, is an offshoot of Excellence is My Presence, a self-respect project for high schools that Craig does as part of her work with the Vigo County Minority Health Coalition.

Such initiatives are important because today's television shows and video games do not always send the right signals to adolescents, Craig said.

"The problems that these little kids have now are - even though I was raised by a single mother - totally different from what I had to deal with as a child. They have a lot more in their head with the advent of technology," she said.

"Despite the program's name, Craig addresses participants as "young ladies" and the ladies say they are getting the message.

"The biggest thing I learned was to respect other people and their property and respecting myself," said Lisa Grinstead, a seventh-grader at Chauncey Rose Middle School.

"The girls in your community, you can treat them with respect but not be bossy to them," added Jasmine Lynette Smith, a fourth-grader at Davis Park Elementary School.

Bill Felts, executive director of the 14th and Chestnut Community Center, has seen the impact Craig and DIVA GIRLS has had on the youngsters since the program began in September.

"This provides the experiences that they need to learn about caring for others and learning to respect their bodies. She teaches them etiquette, things that these girls - most of them - just don't have that experience and it really helps to round them out and they feel better about themselves," Felts said.

"The girls that Valerie works with are much more manageable. They respond more quickly to instructions. You can just tell that she's put a little discipline in their lives and it really makes a difference."

Craig will graduate from Indiana State in May. Her second stab at college has been more successful than her first.

"I wasn't mentally prepared," she said of her first try in the 1980s.

"Back in the day, I was trying to find out when the party was," she said. This time around she gets to class early and heads home as soon as class is over. "I don't have time to hang out. I've got to get to business," she said.

She also likes Indiana State's emphasis on real world experiences and service learning.

"I feel like I'm really doing something within my department … more than just taking notes and taking a test here or there. I feel like I'm really hands on in the world of sociology and that's pretty good. That's pretty cool," she said.

Service learning is not a new concept but is receiving increased support, said Charles Norman, associate professor of sociology and director of undergraduate internships.

"Simply put, it is a method that places students in the community so they can learn by doing," Norman said. "Students participate in activities that meet actual community needs while developing their own abilities and skills."

Indiana State's sociology department has adopted a new policy that will increase service-learning opportunities and the department is making an effort to develop community partnerships.

"These partnerships will invite not-for-profit agencies to take an equal role in initiating and defining projects."

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Contact:
Charles Norman, associate professor of sociology, (812) 237-3433 or
c-norman@indstate.edu or Bill Felts, executive director, 14th and Chestnut
Community Center, (812) 232-3126

Writer:
Dave Taylor, ISU Public Affairs,
(812) 237-3743 or devtaylo@isugw.indstate.edu

ISU Public Affairs:
(812) 237-3773 or http://isunews.indstate.edu