The Community Research Needs Database is part of a new independent studies initiative launched this semester, aimed to match students with local nonprofit organizations and help them with research, according to the Curricular Resource Center website.
“A lot of local nonprofits are short-staffed, and they would benefit from research to better inform their policies,” said Nikhil Kalyanpur ’13, who worked with fellow CRC coordinator Laura Ucik ’13 to create the database. At the same time, Ucik said, many Brown students are interested in contributing to the Providence community.
Students are eligible to receive academic credit for the work they do with the nonprofits.
The idea for establishing the database stemmed from a group meeting hosted by members of Brown Conversation in November, Kalyanpur said, adding that students embarked on the project in a subsequent discussion.
“We decided to help fill that void which existed,” Kalyanpur said.
The database’s organizers have contacted departmental listservs and seminars whose syllabi correspond to nonprofit research interests. On Tuesday, Kalyanpur and Ucik hosted an information session to provide independent concentrators details about the program, including ways to use the database as part of larger projects.
The database logistics are fairly simple, Kalyanpur and Ucik said. Nonprofits state their research needs on a Google-hosted site, and students scan blurbs describing projects on the database and handpick an organization. They can convert the project into a Departmental Independent Study Project, Group Independent Study Project, course term paper or long-term thesis, according to the CRC website.
This semester, six students will receive course credit for participating in research with a Providence nonprofit organization based on information they found from the database, Kalyanpur said.
To obtain academic credit, students must take a few logistical steps such as contacting an interested professor and community organizer, according to the CRC website.
Ucik is conducting a Departmental Independent Study Project with Lundy Braun, professor of Africana studies and medical science, an arrangement she set up at the beginning of this semester, she said. “We met this semester and she agreed to work with me,” she said. “That’s all it took and a Banner override, which she submitted.”
Ucik’s community research partner is local nonprofit Direct Action for Rights and Equality. Along with two other Brown students, Ucik researches prison-related activism and the state of mentally ill individuals at the Adult Correctional Institute in Providence.
Ucik’s research benefits their organization, which is short on manpower, said Fred Ordonez, executive director of DARE.
“There are so many issues and so many things that we’re juggling that we don’t have the time or capability to do good research that’s needed,” he said.
Three Brown students are helping compile data for DARE’s campaigns, including substance abuse and mental health and foreclosure-related eviction prevention, he added. The students conduct legal research, visit correction facilities and compile data on rates of recidivism and foreclosure.
None of Brown’s Ivy League peers offer similar structures for independent study course credit for partnering with local nonprofits. Kalyanpur said there are only a handful of similar programs at Oxford University, Tulane University and Portland State University.
“Most schools don’t allow you to take independent studies on a semester basis,” he said. “I would like to make clear how appropriate this is to Brown, how many opportunities there are for independent studies. I think it’s something we don’t take advantage of.”
On campus, the Swearer Center for Public Service has helped coordinate communication between students and the organizations, but many nonprofits are directly contacting the database, said Roger Nozaki MAT’89, director of the Swearer Center and associate dean of the College for community and global engagement.
“The whole database started with student interest and student initiative,” Nozaki said, as the Swearer Center “is trying to help students integrate community work with their curricular pursuits.”
“We’re hoping that some students incorporate questions from the CRND into their seminar work,” Kalyanpur said. “This program has such high potential for students to change the way that Brown engages with the Providence community. It really fits an unmet need in a tangible way.”
“If students want to get involved now, they should definitely check the website and contact the organizations that they’re interested in working with,” Ucik said. “It’s too late to get credit this semester but you can do summer work, do something in the fall or do something on (your) own because you want to be involved in the community this semester.”
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