SCHOOL HELPS LOCAL GROUPS CSUN STUDENTS AID COMMUNITY.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - Whether they're preparing a marketing plan for a new YWCA or designing a community garden, some CSUN students are combining academics with community service.

Service-learning classes begin by identifying a need in the community, said Maureen Rubin, director of the Center for Community Service Learning at California State University, Northridge.

Generally, a nonprofit organization will present a need to the center, and faculty members will design a curriculum to meet that need while offering valuable hands-on learning to students. CSUN offers between 50 and 60 service-learning classes a semester.

``It gives them exposure to the real world, and introduces them to all sorts of jobs,'' Rubin said.

CSUN has been offering the classes for about seven years, mirroring a national trend toward ``citizen education,'' Rubin said.

``We're not just educating people to do X profession,'' Rubin added, but also encouraging students to ask themselves what contributions they, as professionals in their fields, can make in the community.

Next spring, Franck Vigneron, assistant professor of marketing at CSUN, will lead 25 marketing students in a project to develop a consumer behavior report for the YMCA, which is considering building a new facility in Sylmar.

The class - which also will feature three lectures by J.D. Power, founder of J.D. Power and Associates, a global marketing information services firm - will help the YMCA develop a marketing strategy as well as help them understand the preferences of their future clients.

``The YMCA gets professional expertise, and the students get more motivated,'' Vigneron added. ``They realize that when you are in business, you can do good for people. Business is not about profit only, it's about feeling good about what you do.''

Last year, Julie Dercle's urban planning students developed plans for a community garden, farmers market and gathering space on some North Hollywood land used for Department of Water and Power power lines. The project was done in partnership with Volunteers of America's Community Greening Project.

The 20-acre ``brownfield'' at Kittridge Street and Tujunga Avenue, south of Fair Avenue Elementary School, has eight electrical transmission towers, said Dercle, an assistant professor in CSUN's Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

DWP has given permission for VOA to use a portion of the land at Tujunga and Kittridge. Ground will be broken this fall on a two-acre plot that will be developed into a garden with the elementary school students, thanks to a $110,000 Caesar Chavez grant, she said. Another portion will be turned into a community garden.

Brian White, project manager with VOA, said the students' work was extremely helpful.

``We are a not-for-profit, and we may have ideas and programs in mind that can help individuals and communities, but without funding, without universities (and others) receiving the projects and being willing to donate either financial help, in-kind donations or professional services, it's difficult to get it going,'' White said.

Lisa M. Sodders, [phone]

lisa.sodders(at)dailynews.com