By Linda J. P. Mahdesian
How does a sociologist find out about teenagers when she's encased in the ivory tower of academia? Fayneese Miller, associate professor of education and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, decided to recruit teenagers and train them to be junior sociologists. Miller started the Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) five years ago, recruiting teens from area high schools for the six-week intensive summer training and surveying program.
Last summer the students helped design and conduct a survey about teenagers' attitudes toward affirmative action and the American Dream. This summer, Miller's study focuses on interracial friendships. "I want to find out how these friendships are formed and maintained," says Miller. "The ultimate purpose is to better understand and improve race relations in the United States ... learning from these kids is our best bet for the future of race relations."
Miller says she uses teens as research assistants for a variety of reasons. "My specialty is looking at adolescents, so if I'm going to be current, I need to be in constant contact with them. I don't want to be one of those researchers who thinks she knows what's going on, but hasn't had any contact with the people she's researching."
She adds, "I also learn from them, how to frame questions so their peers understand, whether or not something is an issue. They keep me honest, and I enjoy being around them."
Eighteen young people from public high schools in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls and Barrington are participating in this year's program, which began July 8 and will run through Aug. 16. They learn how to critique ideas, how to respond to and identify important questions as well as how to conduct surveys in an objective manner. And they get paid $4 an hour to do it.
Each student must keep a journal during the program and read the materials in preparation for weekly seminars. Miller reads their journals as her way of researching her researchers. "I also study my students," she says. "I look at how they're growing and changing over the course of the program." Three Brown minority undergraduate students serve as mentors to the students and help in their training.
The surveying segment will be done in the RAPers own neighborhoods - at community centers, street corners, basketball courts and playgrounds. All of the interviewees will be of high school age. Miller estimates that more than 100 teens will be interviewed for the study. "We want a wide range of racial and economic backgrounds, which is why we've included Barrington, so we get a suburban viewpoint as well as an urban one," says Miller.
One of Miller's agenda items is to encourage the RAPers to go to college, and not necessarily Brown. Her program includes a college selection and financial aid workshop, lead by a Brown admissions officer. So far, Miller has a 100 percent college acceptance rate with RAP alumni. Her former students have gone to schools such as Barnard, Hampton Institute and New York University. Some have applied to Brown, but so far, none have been admitted. "One of the things I'm most proud of," she says, "is that some kids who never thought of applying to college, after being in this program, not only do they apply, but they get in and do well." She adds proudly, "I've taken students with C minus averages and after this program, they become B plus/A students. Their whole perspective about themselves and what they can do changes."
Roxanne Ramirez, a rising senior at Barrington High School, is already decided on going to college: "I came to this program to learn research skills, computer skills, and how to talk to people and do interviews." Manuel Colón, a junior from Central Falls Junior and Senior High School, says his mother appreciates his paycheck as much as his new skills: "I'm the oldest male, so I have to help support the family."
Colón admits to "hating" school and says he was tempted to drop out and get a GED, "a Good Enough Degree," as he calls it. Now he says, "I'm learning about Providence, meeting new people, and doing research...everyone's great - the people, the mentors, they're doing a great job."
Nou Kue, a junior at Feinstein High School in Providence, one of 12 children in her family, sums up the RAP experience this way: "It's a great program for teenagers, it gives us opportunities to experience new things we never experienced before and to get help along the way."
Several of the RAP students will be hired part time to assist Miller throughout the academic year in analyzing the data gathered this summer.