The Inner Park - An Interview by Rocky Lushani with Dr. Cynthia D. Park

Friends, Students, Fellow Scholars and Colleagues:

Greetings,
We are launching our first PCI interview with an interview about what PCI is all about from the "horses mouth," the executive director herself! In this interview, we will get to know "the inner Park", the inner person. What is inside Dr. Park? Who is the woman we want to know?

Good morning, Dr. Park. My gratitude for granting me this exclusive interview. This will be the first of the interview series for the interview section of the new PCI Community Page of the PCI Website. Of course, its best to start up the section with an interview with the Executive Director. Lets roll:

Cynthia Darche Park, where were you born and where did you grow up? What was your home like? Where did you go to school? Tell me about those days?

I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in an army base hospital, which is no longer standing. After living in P.R. for 18 months, my mother took me on my first airplane flight (a prop plane) to Miami. From there we went by train to Washington, D.C., but my mother missed the stop (we were sleeping in the Pullman car), and we went on to Baltimore, Maryland --totally missing my father who was waiting for us in Washington!! Since that time I have lived in many states of the United States and several foreign country and I have traveled by every means possible except rocket ship to the moon!!

Puerto Rico, what a lively land! What can you tell me about the land, culture and music of Puerto Rico?

Puerto Rico is a very small island country far out into the Atlantic. It is over three hours flying time from Atlanta or Miami! It is the last island in a string of islands that are called the Greater Antilles and it is considered the gateway to the Caribbean. The northern coast where San Juan is located is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. It has a rainy climate. The southern coast is bordered by the Caribbean Sea. The southern coast is dry. Mountain ranges cover the interior. They are lush and green almost all the time due to the tropical climate of the island. The people come from a mixture of cultures: Spanish, French, and African. Most of the indigenous population was wiped out when the Spanish conquerors arrived in the beginning of the 16th century.

When and how did you end up in San Diego?

I was working at an internship in the evaluation of bilingual programs at the University of Rhode Island. I was also finishing my dissertation for my doctorate in educational psychology and research. I saw an advertisement for an assistant professorship at San Diego State for an educational psychologist who knew something about bilingual programs. I applied and got the job!! That was 27 years ago and I'm still here!!

What colleges have you attended, where did you get your doctorate and why psychology?

My first experience in higher education was at a small four-year liberal arts college in Kansas right next to the town I had lived in from the seventh grade through my junior year in high school. I spent my senior year in Stuttgart, Germany. I was bored at that school because the students were all female, and there was no cultural diversity to speak of. I transferred to George Washington University in Washington, D. C. at the beginning of my sophomore year. I liked it there a lot and finished my bachelors degree in psychology. After teaching in elementary school for a year and in Colombia, South America for two additional years, I returned to the United States and attended the University of Kansas to study a masters in linguistics. After that, I returned to Colombia and taught at two universities in Bogot�. Then I returned to the University of Kansas to study my doctorate in educational psychology.

I picked psychology because I had always been fascinated about how people think, and what the circumstances are in their lives that cause them to think in the way that they do. I had also had experience teaching and I was able to put teaching/learning and psychology together.

I know psychology comes in handy with public relations, communications and negotiations in regard to directing this center, give me an overview and your take on this issue?

There are probably as many kinds of psychologists in this world as there are people, but two categories immediately come to mind: the academic type like Pavlov who did all that work with conditioned responses as the basis of learning, and the clinical type like Freud who looked at peoples’ subconscious and how that affected them. With the overall responsibility of guiding a center such as the Pre-College Institute it is not only the products of other peoples’ knowledge that is brought to bear, but one’s everyday experiences in working with people. The most important thing for me to keep on learning in my role, as Executive Director of the Pre-College Institute is to remember the individuality of each person that is working here. That requires me to forget, in some sense, the generalities that psychology has wrought since the time of Wundt, the father of modern psychology. The psychological generalities are more often mistaken than on the mark when it comes to working with individuals because individuals and the matrix of events that contribute to each one’s thinking are much more complex than those surrounding the salivation of Pavlov’s dogs or the bar pressing of Skinner’s rats. For the practical application of psychological “truths” in everyday dealing with people someone like Shakespeare probably has a lot more to say. In all of the history of thought I have studied I have learned more from Shakespeare’s characters than from any of the formal work of any psychologists.

Tell us about the TRIO director and your predecessor.

There wasn't a TRIO director before me. The PCI began as the Upward Bound program, which was originally written by three of my former colleagues all of whom have either retired or expired. The one who was most interested in the program, Dr. McCabe, became the ten-year director of Upward Bound in the early seventies. He was director for 10 years. His grant was de-funded in 1980, a year that almost thirty programs were de-funded nation-wide!! I rewrote the grant in 1983 with the support of the SDSU Foundation and I have added programs ever since to form the affiliated TRIO pre-college programs and now the Pre-College Institute that houses them.

Tell me about the early years, when you took over the organization, challenges, hard times, and accomplishments.

I don't know quite what to say about the "early years." We could start, I suppose, with 1990, which was the year we were awarded our second program, the Upward Bound Math/Science Regional Center. The next year in 1991 we were awarded Talent Search by collaborating with the June Burnett Institute. With three grants and about $1 million in annual revenue we were able to begin a more centralized organization with individualized special functions for personnel. The challenges have always been to get the right people for the right positions and to do what is necessary to keep them as long as possible. The other challenge was to convince the heads of the College of Education that we deserved to be an officially designated center. That happened last year after much effort.

Concerning the founding of PCI, now with seven major programs and five partner programs, we call you the Founder of PCI. What a great accomplishment! Tell us about it!How did it happen?

In 1990-91 we were able to add two new programs to the Upward Bound Program that was funded in 1983. The addition of these two programs, Upward Bound Math/Science Regional Center and Talent Search brought the total annual revenue to almost one million dollars per year. At the same time I began to consult with Dr. John Rivera of City College here in San Diego. He agreed to participate in a tribute the Trio Programs were organizing and sponsoring for Dr. Jose Villarino, then Associate Professor of Chicana/Chicano Studies. Dr. Rivera suggested that it was time to organize the programs into a center that could be approved and accepted by SDSU and that Dr. Villarino's tribute for all of his years of service to the university would be an ideal place to announce it. The idea caught my imagination and I announced the goal of forming a center at that event. Documents were submitted to the Dean of the College of Education last May (2003) and by September 2003 all approvals had been garnered. The description of the Pre-College Institute now appears in the SDSU's annual catalogue. Though the official approval for the Pre-College Institute as a center was not achieved until 2003, the affiliated group of TRIO programs under my direction had been working together as a unit since 1990-91.
The Pre-College Institute is an academic Center of SDSU that sponsors programs for the educational advancement of students before they get to college, and also the professional advancement of their teachers. Presently it is composed of three Upward Bound Programs, the Science Enrichment Program, Student Support Services, Gear Up to City Heights! and the Trio Dissemination, a partnership with the Division of Undergraduate Studies as well as the Economic Opportunity Center, a partnership with Wahupa Educational Services, a private nonprofit community-based organization.

Technically, we are here for the underrepresented students whom are basically of two types:
     a) High GPA Students from underachieving schools
     b) Students who show potential for achievement
     Both types have a slim chance of attending and completing higher      education, without our efforts. How does it feel to play this role?

Since my first Upward Bound awards banquet in 1984, I have realized what a strong and positive impact a residential academic program can have on students who want to do something important with their lives, but who do not have the optimum role models, encouragement, or support structures in their communities. I didn't realize then, but I do continue to realize each year, that what I have done since 1984 is to nurture new leadership to take on the roles I initially had. This type of work is life-giving and thus very important not only to the students, but to their parents, communities and schools. It feels satisfying but it is also humbling.

There are jobs, which we just attend to punch a time card and make a paycheck and then there are jobs, which we attend for a higher purpose such as fighting for a just cause and spending efforts to accomplish specific tasks towards that cause. How many of us can go to work in the morning and come back home at the evening and once in bed at night, we can lie there in our beds and actually say that "we have really accomplished something." How much do you accomplish? Are you happy with your accomplishments?

I think people who work at the improvement of others and their situations don't really have jobs, they have callings. A calling is probably something more spiritual than a job because the opportunity is given to you somehow from another realm. That is what I think teaching and counseling are really all about. So, even if one gets a graduate degree in those areas, it doesn't mean he or she will be good at it or dedicated to it. For that I believe one must have a "calling." I am rarely satisfied with my accomplishments because there is so much to do to make the world surrounding me a better place.

I have been a computer consultant working for SDSU and a private contractor with private companies and one day I came to your office and told you that I want to work directly with you, so give me a job! I have personally asked to work directly with you, because I knew what you were all about! Knowing you for years, being your student, and having a "Mentor - Disciple" relationship with you, I can state, "You are a rebel with a cause." As a veteran faculty and director, you have always been up for a just cause, and that is why I respect you and work with you. You have always swum against the direction of the waves! Like the Phoenix, you have risen from the ashes of defeat to regroup and move towards glory! For how many years have you been a faculty member working for SDSU? Are you a rebel? Do you consider yourself a rebel? How does it feel to be a rebel?

I'm not sure whether �rebel� is the right word to explain my feelings, as I prefer to cooperate with others toward meeting mutual goals that will help people meet their aspirations and life goals. I found out after working with the University for 13 to 14 years (I was first hired at SDSU for fall 1977), that the bureaucracy of this university was first and foremost concerned with preserving itself. There is probably a bit of truth in this for all bureaucracies, and self-preservation is not necessarily a bad thing. I did notice, however, that self-preservation as a goal was often times pursued to the detriment of the people the organization was supposed to be serving and to the benefit of those running the institution. I cannot in conscience go along with that view; and thus it made sense to form an organization separate from the university, yet connected to it where �we could do our own thing.� That is part of the rationale for founding the Pre-College Institute supported by outside funds. The Institute is connected to the University but because it is independently supported, independent policies may be pursued to put the students and others we serve first and the preservation of the unit and its individual personalities second. In so far as this dedication to our clients is put first, and in so far as the university does not put its clients first, then I would have to say I am swimming against the tide. However, there are those in the university environment that will support the Pre-College Institute because they are in concert with our philosophy.

I have felt like that Phoenix rising from the ashes of defeat many times as I championed the cause of students over the self-serving goals of the institution. The latest example of this is when the Pre-College Institute was approved as a center of the university in 2003.

Long ago I gave you a title "Great Spiritual Mother of PCI"! You are a spiritual person, a selfless person with a big heart; tell us about spirituality and spiritual rewards in doing what we do?

I consider myself a spiritual person in that I recognize that there are forces and energies in the universe that are unseen and not understood, and that these have an impact on the way we feel, think, and develop. Just because science has not been able to identify and measure these unseen forces and energies does not mean they do not exist. The evidence we have for the existence of this �spiritual� energy is the testimony of especially talented people like Mother Theresa, St. John of the Cross, and shamans who have the ability to see and feel these energies and to receive enlightenment and visions from them. These people have perfected their ability to communicate on a qualitatively different set of frequencies than the rest of us do. Because of that, they have been able to grant us visionary messages that our consciousness does not allow. I do not claim that I am able to do that, but I do believe this spiritual realm exists and that it is in contradistinction to the material world that can be seen, touched, felt and directly perceived by our ordinary consciousness.

Most of the rewards that come to an educator are not monetary or material because the act of helping another usually transcends worldly phenomena. When our students succeed, we in a psychological or �spiritual� sense also succeed. This is a nonmaterial reward that is nevertheless energizing.

Last Summer, you lived in the dorm with the students of the summer residential program! Now, I call that revolutionary! You wanted first hand information about our summer residential operations so you have decided to take this progressive step! You ate, slept, studied, played, partied and lived with our students in the dorm! How did it feel to once again, be a college student living in the dorm? What have you accomplished?

I was glad I did that and I'm going to do it again! I was pleasantly astounded at how well the head resident counselors ran the dorm. How caring they were for the students, how well they got along, how professional they were in meeting challenges, what good judgment they had. It was ten to the tenth power better than my first year in 1984!! I knew then the programs had come a long way and that all these years were paying off in a much higher quality with a better organized residential life program.

We were always on the edge of technology and you insisted on pushing the PCI into the information age. You have pushed this as much as the financial situation allowed us to progress! However, with limited funds, we have done the best that we could. I recall there was a time that a decision was made for the university to move towards the wireless technology. At that time, even the ITS did not have a portable Wireless Airport base, but we owned one! Today, whole buildings like CG Building are wireless ready! Afterward, we hosted a wireless national conference and many high tech workshops, conferences, and other events. In a way, you forced us to pioneer new horizons. Why the emphasis on high tech and why the rapid push to stay on the edge of technology?

I was born on the second of February. That makes me an Aquarian!! People who are Aquarians tend to be pioneers and they also tend to have accurate visions of the future. We got our first computer in 1985 and I used to help students on the old Apples to do their newspaper. I knew then that computers were the wave of the future and that they would make our lives easier and more complicated at the same time. Now I wonder how it was that we ever got along without computers on every desktop!!

What are some of the major tasks that you are working on now?

I am writing a lot of new grants to take the place of some of the one's we have now that may be displaced. I am also thinking about how to revamp the identity of PCI so it can be better tied to the communities we serve.

What's in the PCI bag for the future?

We must set our sites on national and international recognition. That is one of the reasons that we are doing international exchanges with teachers and university professors. We have hosted teachers and educators from Holland and Great Britain in the last year and a half.

What is inside Cynthia Darche Park? Who is the inner person, the woman behind the mask of the Executive Director? Who is Cynthia Darche Park?

Adequately answering this question could easily fill a nineteenth century novel-length book. I think my answers to these interview questions begin to give a glimpse into my inner self.

Tell us about your goals in life. Have you accomplished any of them?

My goals have changed throughout my life. As I went through my early period I accomplished most of the goals I set for myself such as finishing a bachelors, masters and doctorate degree, getting married and building a nurturing family. The two children my husband and I have brought into the world have grown into educated, responsible people. As well I have been able to bring a lot of opportunities to low-income students who otherwise would not have had the experiences that Upward Bound and the other TRIO programs bring to them. I still have a lot of things I would like to accomplish. I would like to write a series of short stories for adolescents to help them along their life-long journey.

PCI is about students, about the youth. Do you have any advice for our students?

The best advice I can give to youth is not to be afraid to dream big dreams and to nurture the courage to go after them no matter how impossible they may seem now.

Lets get philosophical, what is it all about? What is life all about? Would you also, give us a quote, give us a bit of wisdom, a final word?

Life is about recognizing our individual fears and finding the courage to choose to overcome them in pursuit of our journey to grow, to learn, and to give something back to those who have supported us along the way.

Shakespeare probably said it best: “To be or not to be. That is the question.”

In other words, as humans we have the conscious choice to choose life, to take that journey or to choose not-life –to sit around watching dumb programs on TV all day, to cower in a corner because of our fears that we may not succeed, or in other ways to say, “no” to life’s challenges.

I appreciate the time that you have given me and the effort that you put into this interview. I wish you the best and much success to accomplish more of your personal and PCI goals.