CWU Board of Trustees c/o Linda Schactler, Secretary Office of the President 400 E. University Way Ellensburg, WA 98926-7501 Phone: 509-963-1384
May 6, 2020
Dear CWU Board of Trustees,
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Department of Anthropology & Museum Studies 400 East University Way • Ellensburg WA 98926-7544 • Office: 509-963-3201 • Fax: 509-963-3215 Dean Hall, room 341 • E-mail: Anthro@cwu.edu • Web: www.cwu.edu/anthropology EEO/AA/TITLE IX INSTITUTION • FOR ACCOMMODATION E-MAIL: CDS@CWU.EDU These are only a handful of ways that APOYO has helped our department provide significant hands-on, immersive learning opportunities for our students. As a form of service learning, working at APOYO instills the kinds of values, perspectives, and habits we hope to see in our students after they leave • Non-Spanish speakers in our department (both students and faculty) have volunteered at APOYO in order to practice their conversational Spanish—a necessary learning experience for those of us doing fieldwork in Spanish-speaking contexts or who would like to enhance museum exhibits/programs with Spanish-language features. The Department of Anthropology & Museum Studies is proud to be part of a University with a long tradition of promoting hands-on learning and valuing diversity. APOYO is a keystone holding together these two traditions, each at the heart of what makes Central Washington University (CWU) distinct within our region. This is why APOYO is a vital pedagogical resource. Students who volunteer at APOYO as an extension of the classroom are immersed in a transformative, hands-on experience where they learn that diversity is essential: • Museum studies students come to understand how centers of social exchange, such as APOYO, inform the development of museum programs and exhibits on issues relevant to the community, such as food insecurity and economic inequality. During the Museum of Culture & Environment’s (MCE) exhibit Miracles of Mexican Folk Art: Retablos y Ex Votos (2016), museum studies students and APOYO volunteers/clients came together for an expressive arts project that addressed housing inequality. And each year, museum studies students volunteer at APOYO in order to better understand how museums are integrally connected to other community centers. • Students in anthropology benefit from relationships with community members and students they meet at APOYO. Through organizing clothing and putting together food boxes, they bear witness to the everyday impacts of global systems of economic and racial inequality. Students in the Anthropology of Globalization (ANTH 446), for example, contemplate the ironies of the global food chain; that the very workers who make possible the plethora of fresh produce in our grocery stores cannot always afford to buy those foods for themselves and their families.
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