U Magazine, Winter 1988

Joan Anderson: '60s experience involved her emotionally A s a freshman at San Diego State University, Joan Anderson fan– cied herself an aspiring arch aeol– ogist travelling to Mexico's Mayan ruins. However, that view soon changed . "I figured out that I would never change the world as an archaeologist ," she smiles. So she switched her major to Latin Ameri can studies. L ater an introductory economics class changed her mind again, and the young woman chose economics as her major. She earned her bac helor's degree in that fie ld , then we nt on to earn a master's at Stanford and a Ph .D. from U.C. Sa n D iego in the same specialization. Her choice seems to be a good one. As an associate professor of economics at USO today, she gets high marks from her stude nts. And , like others on the fac ulty Social Issues Committee, she is the kind of teacher who goes beyond the classroom and her Olin Hall office to teac h. "I am an educator and I'm not conte nt just to teach theme edu cation tech– niques," she says. She dreams of the day whe n most of USD 's students will be invo lved in community vo lunteer activities. "I see stude nts as a lot of really nice people - caring eve n - but most of them have come from she ltered envi– ronme nts. "I'd like stude nts to come out of here with a broader view of the world ." Which explains, in part , why she not only is involved in the Social Issues Committee, but is one of its leaders. "I have a real C hristian bas is fo r what I'm doing," she notes. In 1965, four years after marrying, Dr. Anderson experie nced what she terms "the turning point" in her soc ial aware ness and commitme nt to volun– teerism . From 1965 to 196 7, she and her hu sband volunteered as youth advisers in the Southeas t Sa n Diego ghetto on be half of the Presbyterian church. "I learned a lot. It certainly increased my aware ness of the struggles of the poor and di sadva ntaged . I became

Dr. 1 0011 Anderson

emotio nally invo lved . At USO, Dr. Anderson joined the faculty Social Issues Committee whe n it was established in 1984 by S r. Sally Furay, USO academic vice pres ide nt and provost. Each of USD 's schoo ls, and the Campu s Mini stry and Stude nt Affairs offi ces also were represented on the body. Before the committee bega n to fo r– mulate soc ial iss ues curriculum or to plan spec ial events, Dr. Anderson and two other professors, Dr. George Bry– jak , assoc iate professor of sociology and Dr. Denni s Briscoe, professor of man– ageme nt , surveyed stude nts and faculty. They asked faculty what soc ial issues they were already di scuss ing in class, if any, and to what exte nt. They also asked stude nts what iss ues they were interested in learning about. "We fo un d that students needed to know more about world p roblems, such as poverty and fo re ign aid ," she remembers. Third World poverty is something Dr. Anderso n has see n herself. She has travelled to Nicaragua, G uatemala, Ve nezuela, Boliv ia, Argenti na, Uru– guay, Peru , Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico.

Some of her travels were fo r eco– nomics studies, while oth ers were on behalf of her Presbyterian church in San Diego. T here also have bee n personal trips. Last summer, she studied in Peru on a Fulbright sc holarship, and she rece ntl y applied fo r a Fulbright research grant to analyze econometric mode ling of th e Central Bank of Ecuador. "I'm fasc inated with how countries transfo rm ," the economist says. On the wa ll s of her Olin Hall offi ce hang poste rs th at scream fo r an e nd to the war in N icaragua and co lor photo– graph s she took while on a fact-finding miss ion fo r th e Presbyte ri an church in N icaragua and G uatemala. Her photographs refl ect the bea uties and humanness of th ose poverty– stricke n countr ies. T hey prov ide a th rough-the-le ns view of he r fasc ination with the people of Latin Ame rica and the soc ial change taking pl ace aro und th em. No doubt , fo r Joan Anderson there will be more fa r-off lands to study fi rst– hand , more images to record on camera. And , yes, more people to help.