College of Communication & Fine Arts

Outreach Assessment

MARITAL AND FAMILY THERAPY

Mission and Purpose:

CFA’s Graduate Department offers an innovative and creative program leading to a Master of Arts in Marital and Family Therapy with a specialization in the art therapy modality. Students are trained to integrate their art backgrounds and use art processes to provide psychotherapeutic services to clients, including children, adolescents, adults and families. The training fully prepares students to become practicing marital and family therapists skilled at integrating art processes in their work as psychotherapists.

CFA offers the only art therapy training in psychiatric hospitals, day treatment programs, medical hospitals, mental health community clinics, therapeutic schools, residential treatment centers, in therapeutic programs in schools and substance abuse treatment facilities in Southern California.

The department provides a full-time two year education that combines rigorous academic course work with two clinical traineeships. A modified three-year program allows students to fulfill program requirements at a slower pace.

Community Outreach:

The first year traineeship consists of 16 hours per week, while the second year traineeship involves 20 hours each week. In both settings, on-site clinical supervision and art therapy supervision are provided. The student is able to accumulate a maximum of 856 hours toward licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

DEBATE NET

Tradition
Over the last four decades of intercollegiate competition, LMU debate teams have placed first in more than 200 invitational tournaments in policy, value, parliamentary and Lincoln-Douglas debate, including wins at Harvard, North Carolina, Emory, Texas and USC to name a few. LMU teams have placed third or better in multiple national championship tournaments. In recent years, students also have been recognized as ranking among the top speaker and teams in international competition at Cambridge and Trinity, Dublin.

Educational Commitment
LMU has hosted more than 100 debate tournaments, institutes and workshops over the past 35 years. More than 30,000 high school students have competed in tournaments hosted on campus in debate and individual events. We have also hosted debate institutes and workshops that have been attended by more than 6,000 high school students. LMU students and staff have produced over 60 debate handbooks and research texts that were used by high schools in every state of the nation for debate preparation. Debate Institutes require tuition unless supported by grants and donations or offered pro bono by the program. LMU has done a combination of these fundraising efforts to run the program.

Debate Net is an online tournament and debate education program that is in its pilot year at LMU. Each session’s schedule varies and consists of lectures, research, practice and debates.

Social Justice and Opportunity Expansion
LMU is currently attempting to generate an on-line debate format that will break down some of the financial and instructional barriers that exist for many students. LMU has hosted a number of Urban Debate Institutes in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Belize City, Belize, where more than 600 students have participated at little or no expense at St. John’s Academy.

The goal is to expand this concept and provide the opportunity for tournament competition and quality instructional opportunities without fees and transportation costs as imposing barriers to participation. Additionally, Debate Net intends to introduce the program in Uruguay and Peru in the near future via the web. There also is discussion about a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the Chilean government to offer an eight–day program in Chile.

Last year the budget for the existing program was approximately $35,000.

ARTsmart

Mission and Purpose:

The mission of ARTsmart is to provide underserved young people access to an excellent visual arts education. Over the years, the visual arts have been cut from most school curriculum. The LMU ARTsmart program brings this basic need back into the classroom.

Additional Background and Information:

Each semester over 50 student volunteers taught fine arts lessons to kindergarten through eighth graders at St. Gerard Majella School in Los Angeles. During the 2004-2005 academic year, ARTsmart mentors volunteered more than 2,500 hours at St. Gerald, resulting in more than 3,000 student artworks. Mentors, who come from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines – fine arts, graphic design, multimedia arts, art history, animation and liberal studies – work in teams, each bringing his or her own interests into the classroom. Together they develop lesson plans and lead the classes in projects, which incorporate formal art issues, art history, visual culture and standards-based education. Ultimately, the goal of ARTsmart is to create an appetite for exploration and visual literacy.

Example:

A collaborative work of local artist, Judith Davies, LMU students from ARTsmart, Venice High School, and LMU Professor Lenihan’s Media and Methods for Social Justice course, the Ancestor Banners Project was designed to bring greater public awareness to the excavation of a Tongva burial ground in Playa Vista. The students worked together on an installation of 80 large canvas banners in the shape of various native birds.

While providing an opportunity for students to collaborate creatively, the project also introduced students to Tongva culture and visual language. In honoring the memory of the ancestors of the Tongva people, the project invites student and audience alike to broaden the theme and recall the honor and respect due the ancestors of all peoples.

These collaborative pieces demonstrate the importance of the apprentice model – young students and professional local artists working together in the classroom. This service-learning project depends on the gifts of generous donors and their willingness to underwrite the purchase of art supplies, educational materials and field trips.