Meet the researchers:
A lot to learn from Worcester
Interview with Brian Rosa, Teresa Sarroca, Karen Webster and graduate student Trina Hamilton
Each year, the concentration in Urban Development and Social Change awards four fellowships for undergraduate summer research. Below is a summary of a recent conversation with three of the 2003 summer fellows, Brian Rosa '05, Teresa Sarroca '04, and Karen Webster '04, and graduate student advisor Trina Hamilton, in which they discuss their research experience in the South Worcester neighborhood.
Trina, could you give a brief description of the UDSC summer program?
The purpose of the program is to provide undergraduates with an intensive research experience, and to generate research that's useful to the local community. We choose four undergrads (who each receive a small stipend) as fellows for an intensive eight weeks of fulltime work. Working with local community organizations, the students come up with a research question that the community is interested in having answered. The students help formulate the methods and the research program.
How did you, as a graduate student, get involved with this project, and what is your role?
Ever since the UDSC concentration started three years ago, a geography graduate student has been assigned as program assistant. The role of the graduate student is to coordinate related speakers and events during the school year, and to manage the research project in the summer. In that latter capacity I was with the students everyday to answer any questions and to help move the project along. I'd previously done work on urban issues as a research assistant for Dr. Susan Hanson, who's director of the Graduate School of Geography. So that's how I got involved.
Brian, I understand you're a sociology major with a UDSC concentration. Why did you decide to apply for this fellowship?
I'm really interested in urban issues, especially those of inequality. There's a lot to learn from Worcester. And while I had been learning in the classroom, I wasn't really applying that knowledge to anything. I wanted to do something in the community.
It sounds like you wanted something that was more hands-on.
Exactly. This was my first experience with getting out and speaking to people as part of a research project. I had some previous experience with community organizing, although it wasn't for a course. I was able to combine research and course credit with this.
Teresa, what's your major, and how did you get involved with the UDSC summer program?
My majors are geography and international development (ID). I'm not concentrating in UDSC. I knew that I wanted to be in Worcester over the summer, and to be involved in something relating to the city. I had met some students who had been UDSC fellows the summer before, and they told me it had been a good experience. I liked the idea of having a job that included research. I had taken Dr. Hanson's research methods class earlier and thought it would be really neat to do research.
Were you thinking of having an urban focus in geography/ID, or is this subject area a switch for you?
It was a switch in the sense that up until this summer I had never really studied urban issues, something I lacked compared to the other students. But Sharon Krefetz, the program's faculty director, was really good about that. In the beginning she gave us an introduction to urban issues in the U.S. and Worcester, and to city politics. That was really good for me because it put things into perspective.
Karen, a couple years ago I profiled your participation in psychology research here at Clark. Are you still a psychology major, and if so, why did you decide to apply to the UDSC summer research program?
I am still majoring in psychology, but am also completing a concentration in UDSC. My career goal is to work in an inner city school system as a counselor. So combining an urban studies program with psychology was the best bet for me.
Can you describe this year's project?
Trina: In part it's a continuation of a project begun in the summer of 2002, the goal being to measure changes in the Main South neighborhood that have been the result of two large-scale, multi-million dollar redevelopment projects implemented by the Main South Community Development Corporation. Last year's UDSC fellows developed a baseline profile of the economic, demographic and physical characteristics of the neighborhood, as well as neighborhood pride and commitment, against which future change could be measured. This summer we decided we wanted to establish a control neighborhood for comparison, so we looked for a Worcester community whose demographics were similar to those of Main South, that didn't have any major community development activities. We chose South Worcester, a neighborhood between the Holy Cross and Clark neighborhoods.
It turned out that Worcester's new city planner was actually starting a planning process for the South Worcester neighborhood. We added some additional research questions to our summer project in order to provide input into this planning process. We went to an early planning meeting at the beginning of the summer project and conducted neighborhood surveys asking South Worcester residents about their priorities for neighborhood improvement, and what they saw as the major problems in the neighborhood. Some of our research is actually going to be incorporated into the plan for the neighborhood, which was an exciting development. Now the Worcester city planner has asked the UDSC program to join in a long-term relationship to conduct research projects in other Worcester neighborhoods in the future. So it was a great summer.
Brian: Community members were already discussing issues of neighborhood development. We wanted to make sure that the people involved in the planning process were representative of the neighborhood. There are all sorts of constraints that might keep people from going to meetings.
Teresa: I had never been to community planning meetings before and it was really interesting to see the dynamics of what was going on and what people were talking about. We took note of the people at the meeting, their racial affiliation and what income level they appeared to fall into.
Trina: The hard part was figuring out what type of information we needed to collect to answer our research questions. For example, what questions are you going to ask neighborhood residents to make sure they're giving you their real priorities, and not just telling you what they think you want to hear.
Brian: We worked carefully with the wording of questions, because initially we weren't getting the kind of answers we needed. You can change the wording of a question the slightest bit, and it's going to make a huge difference.
How, if at all, did your UDSC research involvement change your perception of Worcester?
Karen: I don't know that it changed my perception of Worcester. I got to know Worcester better.
Teresa: It didn't change my perception of Worcester, because I was already feeling pretty good about Worcester and I have a lot of warm feelings toward Worcester, It did give me proof that it's all about perception. We went to streets that were considered the "bad" part of the neighborhood and there were really nice front yards and houses and people. In the part where people were the most scared for us to go there, it's where they were the nicest. I thought it was a great experience just to meet some people from neighborhoods that I don't otherwise have much of a reason to visit. For me it added a different dimension to Worcester. I feel I know it a little bit better, or at least I know one more part of Worcester.
Brian: Like Teresa said, the same places where people told us that we should be careful were places where people were the friendliest. I feel the same way about Worcester. I really have nothing but fond feelings for this city. I really like it. I feel comfortable here. I wasn't concerned at all about going around and speaking to people. If anything, I was excited to get to see a new part of the city.
Did you find anything in your research that surprised you?
Teresa: I was surprised to see racial differences in the answers. We thought this difference could benefit from more research. Neighborhood priorities were very different between the Hispanic and non-Hispanic white populations.
Karen: We had decided to look at neighborhood pride and commitment. The Hispanic families who hadn't been in the neighborhood very long had a lot more pride and generally felt safer in the neighborhood than the people who had been there for a long time. Those folks seemed to have more pride in and commitment to the neighborhood as they claimed it used to be.
Can you comment on the advantages and disadvantages of participating in research as an undergrad?
Teresa: It was a great experience. I hadn't realized how much was involved in doing research. I really realized exactly what it takes to do research. It's a lot of hard work! It gave me the experience to say I know what research is about, and what it would entail if I wanted to take on another project of this sort. That was my most positive result. And I wasn't really expecting that when I started the summer fellowship.
What was also pretty neat was the practical side of it, learning to use Excel and Powerpoint and statistical analysis software.
Brian: I had a similar experience. I had already taken social research methods in the sociology department, and had learned about the ins and outs of research to a certain point. But to write up a survey and think of all the things you want to ask, and to actually get out there and go to people's houses and interview them is a very different experience. It was really interesting, and a lot of hard work.
I was pretty sure when I started the UDSC summer program that this was the sort of field I'd be interested in going into. I'm particularly interested in urban sociology, development, and ethnography. The fellowship was really good experience for what I'm trying to do. Now I'm applying to graduate school, and I can show that I have some actual research experience.
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Additional Resources
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Clockwise from top left: Trina Hamilton, Teresa Sarroca, Karen Webster and
Brian Rosa
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Seeing what research is all about