Students are required to participate in four field experiences over the course of this semester, of which the auction visit is one. Some of these opportunities take only a few students and some require that we do a legal background check before you can participate. Therefore, I will ask students to fill out a form indicating their choices of field experiences so that we can get started on planning your field visits. The Field Writing page gives details about all of the settings and you should consult that page for information before you go to a field setting.
The list below may expand or contract over the course of the semester. Students should certainly suggest and help to develop sites so that we have more options available. If you come up with a setting to visit, I will create a special writing assignment for that setting.
I have several goals in seeking sites. First, I want sites to relate to themes and topics that we discuss in Sociology 215. Second, I want settings to provide a rich observational experience for students. That means, first, that there must be lots of social interaction happening, second that there must be several groups or communities involved in a setting, and that activities are surprising or challenging so that students with little field experience will find lots to write about. Third, I prefer for settings to be intense but we also need to think about preparation and support for students who participate. This support might come before and/or after the experience or it might involve people at the site who are willing to spend time providing background, preparation, and support to students who participate.
If you do not have a car, there is a good chance you will be able to use a car from the Bucknell motor pool. In the past even first year students have often been allowed to use these vehicles. Class use has priority. However, you must take the university driving class, past their test, and gain approval. The classes and tests are given only on a few dates at the beginning of the semester so you MUST pay attention to these times. You also may car pool with other students in the class. There are enough placements close to campus, however, that you can complete the requirements for the course without access to a car.
1. Auctions (revised August 29, 2009)
Auctions are regularly held at the homes of elderly people who have died, moved into a nursing home, or otherwise decided to leave the place they have lived for many years. Generally the auctions take place at the home, although in bad weather and in some circumstances auctions take place at auctioneers' places of business. For this project, you want to go to one of the auctions that take place at a home in a community within fifty miles of Lewisburg.
Generally, auctions go on for most of the day. They start about 9 or 10 in the morning and end about 3 in the afternoon. Everything in the house is auctioned off from salt and pepper shakers up to the building itself. Auctioneers call out the items being sold and they have a staff of people who organize the materials, bring them up for the auctioneer, who keep track of who bids for items, and who collect payments. Usually there is a food booth run by local church women.
In general, your auction will be more interesting if you find a remote small town. However, some auctions are held in Lewisburg and other nearby towns and they are easier to reach for students who do not have transportation.
Although auctions are advertised in local newspapers on Thursdays and you often will see handbills advertising auctions posted in town or in local stores, the easiest way to find local auctions is to use the Auction Zip website.
To use the Auction Zip website, enter the Lewisburg Zip Code (17837), select the radius distance you prefer (30 miles is the default distance and that makes sense, although the system is not very accurate in terms of determining distances), and choose the type of auction you want to search for. Choose the one that is for antiques and housewares since this is most likely to give you a listing of the farm auctions that are the focus of this assignment.
As you look through auction listings, be aware that there are many types of auctions and many of them are not relevant to our purposes (farm equipment auctions aren't for us, for example). Also, AVOID AUCTIONS HELD AT AUCTION HOUSES. Some of these, actually, are very good for our purposes. Most of them, however, take objects from the original homestead, bring them to a central location far from the owner's home community, and set up sales intended mainly for professionals. Since our intention is to use auctions to see community in action it does not fit the assignment simply to visit an auction in an auction house.
Picking an appropriate auction and making an effort to travel to an interesting place is part of the assignment. If you pick an auction simply because it seems easy to reach or seems to be not threatening, the result will show up in your writing. Your grade may well be lowered if your selection of an auction shows either that you have not put in much effort or you have not read the directions provided here.
2. Beaver Run Amish School Consignment Sale (checked and confirmed on August 28, 2008)
This is a large consignment sale and auction organized by the Amish as a school benefit. The auction is happening Saturday, September 6 near Washingtonville (about 15 miles NE of Lewisburg) beginning around 9 am and continuing through most of the day. To get there take Rte 147/I-189 north towards the Lycoming Mall and take the Rte 54 exit towards Turbotville. Continue through Turbotville and you come upon the turnoff when you are almost ready to enter Washingtonville. Look for signs as you travel along Rte 54 east of Turbotville (headed towards Danville). The auction site is four miles north of the town of Washingtonville on Arrowhead Road. This would be an interesting follow up to the required auction experience. It counts as a separate field experience, however, and not as one of the auction opportunities.
For more information call 437-2758 or 437-3704.
3. Public Defender's Office (current status: This is available. Call to make arrangements for your visit.)
Brian Ulmer
Union County Public Defender
Union County Courthouse, 2nd and St. Catherine Streets, Lewisburg.
Pub Defender's Office 524-8780
Ulmer's law Office: 522-1092After you register with the instructor, you are responsible for contacting Mr. Ulmer and making arrangements for your visit. You are free to make contacts and to visit public defenders in other counties if that is more convenient for you. Use the writing assignment to guide your observations. We will be observing preliminary hearings. Preliminary hearing days are Thursdays. Students may observe for a morning, an afternoon, or all day. Mr. Ulmer will meet with people before the day begins to explain the rough format of how hearings will develop. However, the hearings themselves are individual and follow their own course. At the end of the morning or afternoon, Mr. Ulmer will meet with students to answer questions and clarify what happened.
There is a limit of 2 students per day and no more than 20 students total can participate in this experience
4. West Branch School (current status: This is available.)
West Branch School is a nontraditional, K-6 grade ages elementary school that is nongraded and that uses creative approaches to teaching. It also is a parent-teacher cooperative so there is a lot of parent involvement, a complicated governance structure that is worth trying to understand, and some important out of school events that are good things to participate in.
Contact Jeff Klein, Executive Director. You might also talk to Sandy Elion who is a teacher at the school since she also is an assistant swim coach at Bucknell (and Prof. Milofsky's wife) so you can contact her through the Swim Team.
The phone number at the school is 323-5498. There is a lengthy answering machine message that will come on if the office person, Pam, or the Executive Director, Jeff, are not there. Leave a message and leave them information about how to contact you.
The school is located at 755 Moore Ave., Williamsport, PA 17701
You need to make your own arrangements with Jeff or Pam or Sandy for when to visit. Student visitors often spend a morning at the school, arriving about 8 am in time for the morning meeting and then they help out with tutoring and supervising play groups until noon. Students may also be interested in attending committee meetings that involve parents and are held in the evenings. Since this is a parent/teacher cooperative school all of the work is done on a volunteer basis except for the teaching. This plus the general philosophy of the school will make this a surprising and different experience for most Bucknell students.
5. North Central Secure Treatment Unit (Approved for 2009. Let Milofsky know if you're interested).
To participate in this setting you must gain approvals from the Pennsylvania State Police, the Department of Public Welfare, and the F.B.I. Gaining these approvals will cost about $60 and they can hold up your field placement. To work at the North Central Secure Treatment Unit, you will have to plan on visiting the facility once a week over most of the semester. Thus, choosing this field experience will mean you do not have to visit other settings and you can do all of your papers on this one place.
To learn how to secure clearances, to the the following website: www.csiu.org and on the left side of the page select clearances. You will fill out forms provided through website links and pay using a credit card. Then you must print out the results of this transaction and take it to the U.P.S. store across from Walmart where your clearances can be worked through.
(Formerly Danville Center for Adolescent Females.) Three writing assignments go with this setting: Assignment 1; Assignment 2; Assignment 3.
Follow DCAF signs
This is the maximum security detention facility for teen agers, both men and women under 18, drawn from the entire state of Pennsylvania located on the grounds of Danville State Hospital. When we have used this site in the past, students spent a day visiting a class in the high school and talking with teachers and students. The students have mostly been involved in criminal activity that requires this sort of extreme detention.
Bucknell students who participate as interns for this course at the North Central Secure Treatment Unit must secure clearances from the Pennsylvania State Police ($10), the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare ($10), and the FBI ($40). Gaining clearances takes time so it's essential that students start securing these clearances early. To get directions on securing clearances go to the website of the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (http://www.csiu.org/) and click on the clearances button on the main web page or use this link.
To get there, take Rte. 54 off I-80 to the intersection with Rte 11. Turn left on Rte. 11 and continue straight about two blocks until the road forks and take the right fork. Continue on Rte. 11 past Dunkin Donuts (on your left) and you'll come upon an intersection where you'll see Danville High School on your right. Turn right on that road, continue past the high school and in about a block you'll come to an intersection with the hospital complex straight ahead. Turn right and then take the next left, following the sign for DCAF. Going ahead about a block you'll see the main building of Danville State Hospital on your left and the North Central Secure Treatment Unit boys building is on your right. There are about four separate buildings that serve different youth groups and the girl's unit is about a block or two away. When you come up to the front gate of the North Central Secure Treatment Unit, you may need to call to the office on the phone to get through the gate. If the gate is open, you still will have to call to get buzzed in the main door. You will have to go through a metal detector so it will work best if you wear clothes that have minimal metal (including in your underwear) and also if you do not bring along metal jewelry and other things that you'll just have to take off.
I just spoke to Dan Clark, principal of the school at the Danville Center for Adolescent Females. This is the facility that incarcerates maximum security youth offenders and it has a unit for males as well as one for females.
He's willing to have student interns from class but people would have to be willing to make it a semester commitment and visit perhaps two times per week. The role would particularly involve providing tutoring and other support to teachers. But he would set up a program where our students would get to see and experience various aspects of the facility, like the residential unit that is separate from the school.
If you are interested in this opportunity let me know. It would mean you would not have to do the three final field experiences but all of your field experiences would be taken with this placement.
It would involve more work to do this and we'd come up with different assignments. However, it's a fascinating place.
For students planning to embark on this placement, the first step is to call Dan Clark to arrange a meeting. At that meeing you will work out times when you will come over the course of the semester. It is OK for students to go to this placement in groups. When you are there students will be assigned to different teachers and are likely to work with students as tutors. Your academic skills will be sufficient for you to help the students in any of their subjects. You should also learn about the students lives and about general issues at the school as you work with teachers and students in particular classes.
Contact information for Dan Clark:
Dan Clark, High School Principal
North Central Secure Treatment Unit
(formerly Danville Center for Adolescent Females or DCAF---signs on the property still give these letters)
CSIU Education Program
271-4752
CSIU@dcaf
dclark@csiu.org6. Shamokin Hospital Emergency Room
Shamokin Hospital (about 28 miles south east of Lewisburg) is willing to host students from our class for up to an eight hour experience in their emergency room. It is located at 4200 Hospital Road, Coal Township, PA 17866-9697. To get there take Rte. 15 south, go over the bridge to Sunbury, go north along the river until you come to Rte. 61 (don't take the truck route but continue on a block to Sunbury's Market St.). Take a right on Rte 61, cointinue through Sunbury and then go about another 15 miles which will put you in the vicinity of Shamokin. Coal Township is the municipality you come to just before Shamokin. There will be a sign for Shamokin Hospital and you will take a left over a bridge crossing a stream. Bear left and continue up that road. You'll see the hospital shortly. The entrance is on the far side of the building from where you approach and the parking lot is up the hill to the left of the hospital.
Students who participate in this setting must watch a video and take a short quiz on HIPAA regulations before they will be allowed to visit the ER. The directions in the next paragraph give you contact information for our contact person, Corrine Klose. However, in many ways it works best if we get a list of interested students during class and set up a schedule for visits and for going through the HIPAA training. Contact Milofsky so he can plan the group experience.
Once you let your instructor know this is a placement you want, scheduling is your responsibility. To schedule a visit, call or email Corinne L. Klose, R.N., Vice Prsident for Nursing. Her office phone number is: 644-4200, X4370 and her email is: CKlose@shamokinhospital.org. If you have trouble getting her on the office phone, try her beeper: 271-5555 #2995 (leave a number, she'll call back). She wants to know your schedule and your cell phone # so she has some flexibility in setting up a time for you to visit. You may visit when she is not working and then you may call her cell phone (204-5454) or her home (389-9166) in case arrangements do not seem to be working out properly.
Shamokin Hospital is what we call a "secondary" medical care facility, which means that it serves as a community hopstal and it is very involved and responsive to the community of Shamokin. Shamokin Hospital is new to us this year but we have had students there in past year. The staff of the hospital is very welcoming to Bucknell students and you are likely to be given the chance to see the whole hospital as well as to have access to a variety of medical situations. It often is more interesting to visit a small hospital like this one than a large one like Geisinger which is more formal and bureaucratic, much larger and harder to comprehend, and the staff more preoccupied with their professionalism so they may not be welcoming to students.
You may do this plaement either as one eight hour day or as two four hour visits. Emergency rooms are most active on weekend nights and so you might want to set up two of them. However, the emergency room is a busy, active, and interesting place and you will find plenty to see if you visit during the week. At night and on weekends things are slower because the rest of the hospital is closed. One of the reasons the emergency room is interesting is because about 1/3 of all hospital admissions originate there. Working in the ER allows you to see other parts of the hospital as well, especially if you're there during the regular work week.
A reading assignment is posted on Blackboard titled "The Sociology of Emergency Medicine" written by Dr. Arno Vosk and myself based on our observations in the Williamsport Hospital Emergency Department. There are many directions to go in terms of an observation and writing assignment, since the experiences of sick people and those involved in serious accidents (organ transplantations usually start in the emergency room) offer much to think about. However, the most important thing for you to see and learn about is the variety of people and roles in action in the ER and the way the division of labor of that setting functions and achieves coordination. That is the focus of the article Vosk and I wrote.
7. Eastern Union County Foodshare(status: not set up for 2008).
Eastern Union County Foodshare is a food distribution program that operates out of the Baptist Church on 3rd and St. Louis Streets in Lewisburg. Your work in the program would involve helping to prepare food packages and helping to hand out food and other necessities to people who come to receive them on distribution days. In your work you will get to know other volunteers as well as those people who receive assistance. Encountering low income people is often an eye-opening experience for Bucknell students. It also is interesting and useful to meet people who take the time to volunteer for this kind of activity. The setting is close to campus so it is one setting available to people without transportation.
Held the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month, 1:15pm. They could use one or two students each time. Contact the director Richard Ellis (a retired Bu prof) at rellis@bucknell.edu or 524-4740 at least a day or two ahead of date you would like to assist.The foodshare operates out of the Baptist Church basement on 3rd and St. Louis St. refer to the field experience reference sheet for details.
The following opportunity was listed August 28, 2008, on the Bucknell Message Board:
Category: Community Service/Volunteer Opportunities
Subject: Community Harvest Sign-up
From: psg008@bucknell.eduCOMMUNNITY HARVEST - More that just a soup kitchen, this weekly community meal provides local neighbors in need with a well balanced, chef prepared hot meal and a friendly social environment. Located at St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Milton, PA, Community Harvest is a joint effort between Bucknell University, St. Andrews Church, Bucknell Dining (Parkhurst), and Weis Markets. Opening its doors in January of 2005 to 12 people, Community Harvest now serves approximately 150 - 200 people each Monday evening throughout the entire year. Students, faculty, staff, and community members are invited to volunteer their time preparing and serving the meal and interacting with the guests. Donations of food or money are also accepted.
Requirements for volunteers: You should have 8 to 20 people available to serve from 4:30pm to approximately 7:00pm. It is important volunteers can stay the entire time. A few volunteers could also be used from 2pm - 3pm to help with set up and prep. You may sign up for any Monday night between now and the end of the academic year. Wear appropriate clothing and a smile! Please contact me or Emily Haley to sign up!
Emily Haley
Student Coordinator
emily.mc.haley@bucknell.eduPoppy Goforth
Director of Community Service
219 Elaine Langone Center
poppy.goforth@bucknell.edu
570-577-1292There is a writing assignment for students visiting in nursing homes since students experience them visiting friends and relatives. If you wish to visit a nursing home in the Lewisburg area we can set this up. The danger is that if you just go to the volunteer office of a nursing home on your own that they will have you do a project with high functioning residents that involves art or some other activity that is not threatening or difficult. Nursing homes a very interesting places if you have the chance to meet and help some of the lower functioning residents or some of the caregiving staff.
In the past, some students have wanted to visit settings where grandparents or other friends reside. This is a good idea to pursue but check with the professor first.
9. Haven Ministries (Although I have not specifically set this up for 2008, overnight visits to the shelter are easy to arrange.)
This is the primary homeless shelter serving Central Pennsylvania (there are partial shelters in Williamsport) and it is located in Sunbury at 1043 So. Front St. (570-286-1672). It is housed in an old motel and generally there are about ten single adults living there and four or five families. Housing is meant to be short term and the program managers at the shelter insist that residents spend time during the day seeking work and making arrangements to live on their own outside of the shelter. There also are strict rules banning misbehavior (drinking, drugs, sexual relationships) and violating rules can cause a person to be evicted on short notice. The shelter began as a project of the Ministerium (the interchurch council) in Sunbury and it is entirely supported through voluntary contributions of time, in-kind resources like food and clothing, and cash donations.
To do this field experience you must stay overnight at the shelter. Generally to stay overnight you must do this with a partner. There are other service opportunities at the shelter like providing meals for residents and these do not count. If you are involved in a richer, more complex role at the shelter (like working with the staff on a project that involves you with residents) you may ask to use this experience for the present assignment.
To get to Haven, go south on Rte 15 and take the bridge over to Sunbury. At the end of the bridge continue straight towards the Weis warehouse where the road over the bridge ends. Go right and continue about two blocks to a stop sign. Take a sharp right at the stop sign, which will cause you to head back towards Sunbury. The Haven Ministries shelter is on your left about 1/2 block from the intersection.
10. Visiting the Doctor. Field host Dr. Michael Gross, Hughesville, PA. (current status: This is set up but you must contact me if you wish to do this one.)
This is an opportunity for three students, separately spending a day at Dr. Gross’s office. Although you are being hosted by the medical staff of a family practitioner physician (a staff that includes a physician, two physicians assistants, and five nurses), the focus of this visit will be on the experience of patients when they visit the doctor.
Students must apply to Prof. Milofsky to be accepted for this placement and once accepted they will arrange a time for the visit with Dr. Gross. To contact Dr. Gross once he has approved your visit, send email to: pinetreeroad@gmail.com or call his office at: 584-5145 or 5144.
Once the time is arranged, Dr. Gross’s staff will contact two or three patients seeking people willing to have a student shadow them through the doctors visit that they will be scheduled to have on that day. Students will meet the patient in the waiting room, accompany the patient as medical records and forms and completed, as nurses conduct an initial visit and perhaps conduct tests, and also as the physician or physician’s assistant meets with the patient. If patients are willing and time allows, students may spend some time with the patient after the visit, perhaps finding a place to have a cup of coffee or visiting the patient at home.
The goal of this experience is for students to experience a patient’s perspective of the doctor’s office. We will explore how patient’s view the doctor, how we personally view the doctor, how we think about health, illness, and disability, and how we perceive the medical office and the staff who work there. We may learn about the costs of medical care and the difficulties of managing medical insurance. We may learn about the experience of illness or disability. We may encounter patients who feel emotionally vulnerable and perhaps somewhat emotionally dependent on the care and support of the medical staff. We may meet family members and learn how one person’s medical difficulties relate to the experiences, needs, and care provided by other family members.
11. Geisinger Emergency Room (current status: This is not available for 2009.Contact Prof. Milofsky if this particularly interests you.)
Geisinger Medical Center in Danville (about 20 miles east of Lewisburg) is willing to host students from our class for up to an eight hour experience in their emergency room.
Students who participate in this setting must watch a video and take a short quiz on HIPAA regulations before they will be allowed to visit the ER. The directions in the next paragraph give you contact information for our contact person, Nancy Gordon. However, in many ways it works best if we get a list of interested students during class and set up a schedule for visits and for going through the HIPAA training. Contact Milofsky so he can plan the group experience.
Once you let your instructor know this is a placement you want, scheduling is your responsibility. To schedule a visit, Nancy Gordon, Clinical Nurse Educator of the Emergency Department. of the Geisinger Medical Education Office. Her office phone number is: 271-5647 and her email is:ngordon@geisinger.edu. If you have trouble getting her on the office phone, try her beeper: 271-5555 #2995 (leave a number, she'll call back). She wants to know your schedule and your cell phone # so she has some flexibility in setting up a time for you to visit. You may visit when she is not working and then you may call her cell phone (204-5454) or her home (389-9166) in case arrangements do not seem to be working out properly.
Geisinger is what we call a "tertiary" medical care facility, which means that it is the most specialized and high technology center in the area. Their emergency room is the trauma center for Central Pennsylvania and it is the destination for life flights sent from highway accidents or other hospitals in the area.
We had students serve as interns at the Geisinger ER and past years and they had a very good time. This is again available this year. What we've arranged is for one of the nurses in the ER to act as your host and guide. One of the nurses, George, played that role last spring and we expect him to take charge with our class as well. If he is not on duty he will arrange for another nurse to serve as your host.
You may do this one either as one eight hour day or as two four hour visits. Emergency rooms are most active on weekend nights and so you might want to set up two of them. However, the emergency room is a busy, active, and interesting place and you will find plenty to see if you visit during the week. At night and on weekends things are slower because the rest of the hospital is closed. One of the reasons the emergency room is interesting is because about 1/3 of all hospital admissions originate there. Working in the ER allows you to see other parts of the hospital as well, especially if you're there during the regular work week.
I will post a reading assignment on the ERES titled "The Sociology of Emergency Medicine" written by Dr. Arno Vosk and myself based on our observations in the Williamsport Hospital Emergency Department. There are many directions to go in terms of an observation and writing assignment, since the experiences of sick people and those involved in serious accidents (organ transplantations usually start in the emergency room) offer much to think about. However, the most important thing for you to see and learn about is the variety of people and roles in action in the ER and the way the division of labor of that setting functions and achieves coordination. That is the focus of the article Vosk and I wrote.
12. Snyder County District Attorney (current status: in past years they have said they would like to have interns and students have worked wityh them. This has not been set up for 2008.)
This one is still being developed but there is negotiating room. My hope is that we can set up opportunities for you to travel with probation officers for a day or so. They are also trying to develop a youth drug education program and that might produce opportunities.
Other field placements are possible. Students are encouraged to suggest ideas. We have had students work in the emergency room of a small local hospital where we have friendly contacts. This is pretty slow, but the doctor in charge will be happy to talk to you a lot. Other health placements are possible if we have enough student interest. We have had good internships at Geisinger Medical Center and we might set something up there. We might also set up some religion experiences-an example is a conference for people who are members of small congregations run by local Episcopal and Lutheran churches.
13. AIDS Resource Alliance(current status: Although this has not been set up for 2009, it would be available if the agency has clients who need a buddy. Contact Prof. Milofsky if you are interested.)
This choice is to serve as an AIDS Buddy to a person living with AIDS in Williamsport. You would visit this individual two or three times with the guidance of the counseling staff at the AIDS Resource Alliance.
Contact Person: Amy Harrada
AIDS Resource
520 West Fourth Street, Suite 2A
Williamsport, PA 17701
(570)322-8448
email: aidsr@epix.net14. High School Homecoming (available for 2009).
You need to go home for this one and attend your high school's Homecoming football game. The assignment is for you to observe your home community and particularly social capital that is evident as people participate in this event. Community participation probably is not something you were strongly aware of when you were in high school but it is likely to be something you notice very much coming back having moved on beyond your high school years. Do not choose this one just because it is easy. It is a good experience if there actually is an outpouring of community involvement at your high school.
15. Bethesday Day Treatment Center (Status: This is not a setting we have set up. However, some students from class have had the opportunity of visiting and this writing exercise is for people who have had that opportunity.)
The Bethesda Day Treatment facility is a school and after school program for teen agers who have been judged too behaviorally difficult to keep in local public schools or who have gotten in trouble with the law and who have been sent for after school counseling by one of the county juvenile courts. Students in the program come from a variety of interesting backgrounds and they are interesting to meet and to talk to. Bethesda runs a variety of programs like discussion groups and behavior modification sessions that are interesting to observe. Bethesda is a large organization that runs a variety of programs related to the criminal justice system like the program described below in the prisons.
