University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

NEWS RELEASE

CSUN Students Lead Discussions with
Local High School Students to Reduce Prejudice

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Nov. 15, 2006) -- As prejudice creates conflict within society, early education provides the weapon necessary to fight the battle. Students Take Out Prejudice (STOP), a program at Cal State Northridge, is helping lead this fight.

Though the CSUN students who lead STOP number less than ten, their objective is large -- to challenge high school students to critically consider their personal values and beliefs, in an effort to combat prejudice and prevent inter-group conflict in schools.

The program is currently being implemented at Northridge Academy High School, fulfilling the state-mandated life skills section required of all ninth grade students.

"The goal of the STOP program is to reduce prejudice and to increase tolerance," said psychology professor and STOP coordinator Michele Wittig. "With CSUN students acting as facilitators, we also hope to inspire high school students to go to college."

The program’s strength lies in the student-to-student interaction. Dialogue with a college volunteer -- as opposed to a teacher’s lecture -- evokes an atmosphere that facilitates honest discussions regarding real issues, Wittig said.

STOP volunteers meet every Monday to discuss the theories and applications integral to the program. Later that week they visit the high school in pairs, leading conversations and small group activities among the students.

One such activity asks the students to view a number of photographs and then to identify the locale of each picture. The correct answers are surprising to both facilitators and students. Beautiful, metropolitan streets in the Middle East, paralleled with barren, dry deserts of California, inevitably question regional stereotypes. STOP leaders then prompt the class to discuss the purpose of the exercise, creating the opportune segue for group discussion.

The STOP volunteers are also benefiting from the program.

"I have learned as much as the kids through this program," said Adam El-Amin, a Northridge senior who is participating in the STOP program for a second year.

Junior Salin Meleki-Petrossian agrees with El-Amin. "Through this program I am learning to have a better understanding of other groups," she said.

"People who receive information and communicate that information to others tend to become confirmed in those beliefs," said Wittig.

Graduate student and project assistant Jonathon Zeledon has discovered that the program has helped cultivate his "professional development."

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"Being a STOP facilitator has strengthened my public speaking skills," said Zeledon. "I’ve also realized how much I enjoy imparting information to others."

The diversity of STOP’s facilitators helps to reaffirm their cause. The CSUN students identify Taiwan, Iran, South Africa, Armenia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico and the United States as their countries of birth, creating a multi-ethnic body representative of the high school classrooms which they visit.

"When we are unfamiliar with a person or place we rely on a stereotype," said Wittig. "It’s important to remember those stereotypes aren’t always accurate. Hopefully, individual attitude change will have ramifications for group level change."

For more information, contact Wittig at (818) 677-2805 or e-mail at mwittig@csun.edu.

California State University, Northridge has 34,000 full- and part-time students and offers 62 bachelor’s and 50 master’s degrees as well as 28 teaching credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.