In Pursuit of Justice
Psychology course internships provide students with real-world social justice experiences while tackling community challenges along the way.
By Jennifer Anderson
Esme Lezama Ruiz, a psychology major, has given a lot of thought to her future. She’s made plans for graduate school, and after that she wants to earn a doctorate in forensic psychology and work for the FBI. But for all her carefully formulated goals, Ruiz felt that the part of her plan that was missing was real-world experience. This is where the yearlong Field Studies course helped round out Ruiz’s résumé and give her a chance to take up Marquette’s challenge to all of its students to become men and women for others.
For the past seven years, Dr. Ed de St. Aubin, associate professor of psychology, has thoughtfully developed a number of internships with nonprofit organizations throughout Milwaukee, internships where Marquette students come face-to-face with many of the most challenging issues facing the city. Doing much more than making coffee and taking out the trash, students in Field Studies work alongside community leaders doing meaningful work and make deep personal connections in the process.
“The prison experience needs to be much more rehabilitative than debilitative. It’s not working if people leave worse than when they came in.” — FRANCISCO TEJEDA
Last year, Ruiz interned at the Sojourner Family Peace Center, Wisconsin’s largest nonprofit provider of domestic abuse prevention and intervention services. There she worked within its Beyond Abuse program, comprised of group education sessions for women who have been physically abusive and want to develop the skills to stop. “These women are trying so hard to become better for themselves and for their families,” Ruiz remarks. “Many of them had been dealt such an unfair hand and had developed a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms.”
As part of her internship, Ruiz helped to facilitate a three-day retreat for the Beyond Abuse members, an experience she calls “intense” but invaluable for helping her gain an understanding of how she could best be of service to these women.
“Most of them just needed someone to listen to them,” she adds. “I got to be that person.”
The Field Studies course currently includes five nonprofit organizations and internships for 17 students. Students are matched with an organization for which they work eight hours per week and are paired with a mentor there who can work closely with them throughout the year. Students also meet weekly with de St. Aubin to discuss what they’re working on and what they’re learning. He also has students read relevant content and write frequent reflections on their work.
Francisco Tejeda interned at Project Return, a 40-year-old Milwaukee organization that helps ex-inmates find stability. The experience has been eye-opening, and Tejada has been struck by the difficult challenges these men face when they return to life after incarceration.
“It’s been humbling,” Tejeda says. “These are people who are a lot less fortunate than I am, and it’s made me feel compelled to do something and not just turn a blind eye.”
The experience with Project Return clients impressed upon Tejada the importance of addressing issues of mental health, especially in minority communities where the issue is often neglected. Tejada, a cognitive science major, has subsequently added a psychology major in hopes of becoming a therapist. “The mental health needs of inmates are often neglected,” Tejeda says. “The prison experience needs to be much more rehabilitative than debilitative. It’s not working if people leave worse than when they came in.”
Marquette intern Casey Kleeman has become deeply engaged in Table of the Saints, a small, faith-based group that runs Family House, which provides temporary housing for men coming out of prison. Kleeman organized the group’s monthly “Let’s Talk About It” meetings. Open to anyone in the community, these meetings bring in professionals to cover stigmatized issues such as depression and addiction.
Kleeman hopes to work in criminal justice social work either in reintegration services or victim advocacy. “It’s been great to have an experience in the field before graduation,” said Kleeman in a Riverwest Radio interview. “Having the chance through Marquette and through [Dr. Ed de St. Aubin] to try this out before we get into the real world has been invaluable.”
De St. Aubin has also arranged for Marquette students to intern at EXPO (EX-Incarcerated People Organizing), an advocacy group focused on changing the laws that pertain to former felons and led by men and women who have been previously incarcerated. In addition, de St. Aubin has installed interns who help develop dossiers on parolees, attend sessions between parolees and the judge, and collect data and evidence on high-risk cases in Milwaukee’s U.S. Probation and Parole Office.
The Field Studies internship program continues to grow as students learn of the unique real-world opportunities it can offer and as area nonprofits learn of the free skilled labor they can access. De St. Aubin plans to add internships in the areas of local LGBTQ organizations, as well as with faith leaders who focus on social justice issues. Building the course over the years has clearly been a labor of love for de St. Aubin.
“I’m lucky that I’m a professor, so I know how fabulous 20-year-olds are,” de St. Aubin says. “I get to watch their growth over the year, and it’s really a privilege to witness.”
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