The Diverse Faces of AIDS: Prevention, Education, Treatment

This course is designed to introduce students to one of the most critical and intriguing health issues in history-the AIDS epidemic. Students in this course will learn about the diverse range of individuals impacted by HIV and AIDS and will discover the range of prevention, education, treatment, and advocacy, services that are offered throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. As students interact with those who live with HIV / AIDS and those who provide AIDS-related services, they will experience the human face of AIDS and explore the complex nature of this epidemic with its range of social, psychological, political, religious, and legal dimensions. This course will cover the following aspects of the AIDS epidemic: history and epidemiology; transmission and disease progression; education and prevention; traditional medical and psychosocial treatment; spirituality and alternative medical treatment; housing and hospice care; policy and advocacy. The course is also designed to present a multicultural perspective on the AIDS epidemic, thus students will visit agencies, read literature, listen to speakers, and interact with individuals representing a range of ages, genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses, and serostatuses (HIV+/HIV-). All of the Discover Chicago courses at DePaul University are part of the Liberal Studies curriculum. Liberal Studies at DePaul is the portion of the curriculum in which all students participate, no matter what their college or major. The Liberal Studies Program is designed to encourage students to engage in reflective intellectual activity and to become aware that questions of value underlie all human activities. The Chicago Quarter courses-Discover Chicago and Explore Chicago-ask students to reflect on some aspect of the intellectual, social. artistic, political, or economic life of the city and to probe the human values that underlie the topic being considered. HIV/AIDS ’“ Special Learning Objectives:

• To learn about the history of the AIDS epidemic and its current epidemiological patterns.
• To learn basic information about the transmission of HIV and the progression of HIV disease and AIDS.
• To explore the multifaceted impact of living with HIV/AIDS within diverse populations.
• To discover the vast range of needs encountered by individuals living with HIV / AIDS.
• To learn about the current strategies for preventing the spread of HIV, and to explore how these efforts are being implemented with diverse populations throughout the Chicago area.
• To learn about the range of medical, psychosocial, spiritual, and housing support services that are available for individuals living with HIV / AIDS in Chicago.
• To learn about current policy and advocacy efforts being implemented by agencies in Chicago.
• To learn about the range of volunteer service learning opportunities that are available in Chicago through community-based HIV prevention and AIDS service organizations.

General Learning Objectives:

• To discover the multicultural nature of the Chicago metropolitan area.
• To develop an understanding of and appreciation for the benefits of community-based volunteer service.
• To experience and explore the Vincentian values of respecting "the God-given dignity of all persons, especially the materially, culturally, and spiritually deprived" and instilling a "dedication to the service of others."
• To increase individual comfort in expressing views and perspectives on potentially sensitive issues in a group setting.
• To examine and hopefully deconstruct individual prejudices, especially those related to age, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation,
• To increase individual awareness of values.
• To develop an appreciation for the benefits of experiential and group-based learning.
• To improve writing skills through journal assignments and a final research paper.
• To learn how to utilize multiple resources, including community agencies, when conducting research for a paper.
• To orient students to the general resources available within the University.

In order to create an open, accepting, and safe learning environment we ask that students abide by the following course etiquette guidelines:

• TURN OFF All CELL PHONES, PAGERS, AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES BEFORE YOU ENTER THE CLASSROOM.
• Come to class with an open mind and be willing to listen to alternative viewpoints and perspectives. Since this course is guided by the General Learning Objectives listed above, we encourage students to respect diverse points of view and understand that each person's background and life history has shaped who they are today. *Remember to think before you speak.
• Be on time for class. Coming to class late interrupts the learning process and can be disrespectful to whoever is speaking at that time.
• You are expected to attend every class, unless you are very ill or have an extreme unavoidable conflict. You are responsible for any materials missed and will have to make up any required activities that occurred on that day.
• You are expected to participate in class discussions. A major part of this course is reflecting on the material that is learned and exploring your individual values-this is very difficult to accomplish if you are not actively engaged in classroom discussions and activities.
• When sending e-mails to instructors or other classmates, please keep in mind that this is an academic institution and thus you should avoid overly casual or familiar terminology/language in your e-mails. Please put "DISCOVER CHICAGO" in the subject line of all e-mails to the course instructors.

Autumn Quarter Course Assignment: Read assigned material prior to coming to class, participate in class discussions and activities, complete common hour assignments, write two papers, write two reviews, write reflection summaries, write a letter to an elected official, and give an oral presentation on some type of Campus Resource. The assigned readings for each class are listed in the syllabus, along with the tentative activities that will occur during that class period. Review of Current HIV/AIDS Issues: Journal Article Review & Website Review You will only have to submit two reviews of current HIV / AIDS issues using the electronic assignment entry procedure in Blackboard. The purpose of this exercise is to make sure that you are aware of current issues and events that are occurring in the area of HIV. You will do two types of reviews, The first will be a web-based article review (due September 20) and the second one will be a scientific journal article review (due October 11). You must have the scientific article approved prior to completing the assignment. Some journals to explore include: AIDS Education and Prevention, AIDS and Behavior, AIDS Care, Journal of AIDS, AIDS Patient Care and STDs, Journal of HIV / AIDS Prevention & Education for Adolescents & Children, and AIDS Prevention and Mental Health. The web-based article can be from any website that provides articles related to HIV / AIDS. The articles can be on any aspect of HIV / AIDS, and should have been published within the past year. After reading the article you need to type the name of the article, along with the complete reference for the article (for the journal article) or the URL address (for the web-based article) on the top of a MS Word file document and then type the following three headings on the page: 1) DESCRIPTION, 2) ANALYSIS/INTERPRETATION, 3) PERSONAL REACTION. You can either make three vertical columns or just type the heading at the beginning of each new section in a horizontal fashion. Under the DESCRIPTION column/section you should describe the information that was presented in the article. This should be in your own words (no plagiarism). In the ANALYSIS/ INTERPRETATION column/section you should write about your analysis and interpretation of the article. Tell us what you thought of the article, what you found interesting/controversial, what you agreed/disagreed with, how the information fit into (or didn't fit into) what you learned during immersion week, etc. Try to be as analytical as possible in this column. In the PERSONAL REACTION column/section we want you to tell us how you felt about the article on an emotional level. Tell us how the article impacted you, what it made you think of, how it made you feel, etc. This part is all about your personal reaction to the article. Your entry for each article should be SINGLE SPACED AND BETWEEN 1 AND 2 PAGES LONG. After you have written your journal entry, you should submit it to us on the course Blackboard web utility. Thought/Reflection Papers Throughout the quarter you will be asked to write brief Thought/Reflection Papers based on material that is discussed in class. These papers are to be brief (1-2 double spaced pages) and are based on your own personal thoughts and reflections to various topics. The exact topic of the papers will be discussed in class. Letter to an Elected Official You will write a letter to an elected official regarding some issue that you learned about in the course. In the letter you should talk about the issue and suggest the action that you would like to see the person take. The letter does not have to be long, but should be logical, accurate, and directed. You will be provided with guidelines for how to write the letter. This assignment is due on October 18. Class Presentations: Campus Resources Each person in the class will give a brief (approximately 5 minutes) presentation to the class during the quarter. You will have a partner for the presentation, and your partner will be assigned by the course instructors (see course listing for your partner). This presentation is part of the Common Hour component of the class and is designed to familiarize students with the various resources that are available to students on campus. In addition, since each presentation must involve a PowerPoint visual presentation, it will give you the opportunity to learn more about how to use this presentation tool. You will receive more specific instructions on the content of these presentations in class. Reflective Writing Assignment: Due on September 27 You will write a 3-5 page reflection/response writing assignment based on your experiences during the course up to date. The assignment should adhere to the following restrictions: a) typed, b) double spaced, c) one inch margins on all sides, d) no font larger than 12 pts. In this assignment we are interested in hearing more about your emotional reaction to the information that you learned during immersion week and beyond. We also want to hear about your thoughts regarding the societal impact of HIV / AIDS, either as you experienced it first hand or as you heard about it or read about it during immersion week. You have two choices for the format of this assignment. Write a newspaper article for your hometown newspaper. This should be more of a public interest story than a scientific article. You should use information from the experiences you have gained as well as from the written material provided for the course. You must include all of the following areas in your article:

• Discuss the most important information that people should know about HIV/AIDS.
• Discuss common myths that people have about HIV/AIDS.
• Compare and contrast two different populations of people impacted by HIV that we have discussed in the course (e.g., women, gay men, adolescents, people of color. etc.), and include the following topics:
  • -Differences in terms of societal pressures.
  • -Differences in terms of ability to implement prevention practices.
  • -Differences in access to prevention and treatment.
• Offer recommendations for what people who are at risk for HIV can do to protect themselves from the virus.

Write a letter to a friend who does not have much of an understanding about the impact of HIV / AIDS. This should be a letter where you fully describe the emotional impact that your participation in this class has had on you and where you convey to your friend the societal implications of HIV / AIDS. You must include the following areas in your letter:

• Discuss the most important information that people should know about HIV/AIDS.
• Discuss the myths that have been dispelled as part of being a member of this class, and the most surprising/intriguing things that you have learned.
• Discuss how the information that you have learned thus far has challenged (or not challenged) your way of thinking or your way of viewing some aspect of society. Please explain why you think this has/has not occurred.
• Pick a particular place that we visited during immersion week that had a significant impact on you and explain why it had such an impact. In this section explain the impact it had on you in the following realms:
  • Emotionally
  • Spiritually
  • Behaviorally
  • Expectations of Others

If you chose the second option, we encourage you to write this letter so that you can actually send it. This will have the potential to impact another person as it will give them new information and insights that they did not have before. You can send it to a friend or family member, or you can send it to a "pen pal" in Kenya. We will discuss the "pen pal" project in class. Final Expression Project: Due on November 1 You will present a final creative expression project that represents one or more things you learned in the class. This assignment is optional and will count as extra credit. It may be a poem, a drawing, or a photograph and can either be an original creation or one that you find from another source. During our final class period, each member will present and explain their expression project. You are encouraged to think of creative ways that you can make a personal contribution to the fight against AIDS. Applied Community-Based Project Final Writing Assignment: Due on November 8 You will write a 6-8 page final paper based on your individual applied community-based project during the quarter. Papers should adhere to the following restrictions: a) typed, b) double spaced, c) one inch margins on all sides, d) no font larger than 12 pts. You are encouraged to visit the writing center as you move from the outline to your first and subsequent drafts. You have two options for this paper. Both of these involve being involved in some community-based HIV-related applied experience, and then writing about that experience. Service Learning You must volunteer at on HIV / AIDS-related community-based organization for at least 15 hours during the quarter and write an integrative paper about your experiences. You should select an agency from among the list of sites that we attended during Immersion Week. If you wish to volunteer at an agency that we did not visit, you must get approval from the instructor. Once you select your agency, you must complete a service learning contract and have it signed by someone at the agency. The contract is due on September 20. You must have a supervisor at the agency write a brief letter on agency stationary stating that you completed the 15 hours. The paper should focus on a specific aspect of the AIDS epidemic (e.g., mothers living with HIV, benefits of needle exchange, need for increased HIV / AIDS policy action). If your experience involved different populations or different issues (e.g" prevention and treatment). then you should select one issue that is of interest to you. Based on this specific aspect, you should develop a thesis statement that describes the focus of your paper. Put the thesis statement at the top of the paper in bold. In the body of the paper you must do the following:

• You should first state why you selected your specific focus and thesis statement. This section should be at least one to two paragraphs (but it can be longer). You should use data and statistics to support this. For example, if you are focusing on the need to have comprehensive sexuality education for all high school students as a form of HIV prevention, you may want to give statistics on the number of high school students who are becoming infected with HIV each year.
• You should briefly describe the agency, the types of people that are served by the agency, the types of services that are provided, the specific activities in which you were involved, and any other relevant background information.
• You should critically analyze the service learning experience, and integrate what you learned at the community agency with what you learned in the course. You should also integrate information from course readings and additional readings as well. You need to draw direct connections between what you've learned in class and in the readings with what you learned in your applied experience.
• You should talk in general about what impact the experience had on you and what you learned from the experience. This section is a little less structured than the rest so use it to let me now what you got out of the experience.

Community-Based Service Learning Contracts are due on September 20 and all of your hours should be completed by NOVEMBER 4. POINTS WILL BE DEDUCTED FOR HOURS THAT ARE NOT COMPLETED!!! You must have a supervisor at the agency write a brief letter on agency stationary stating that you completed the 15 hours. HIV /AIDS Awareness/Education/Prevention Project You must develop and implement some type of community-based HIV/AIDS public awareness/education/prevention project. There is a lot of flexibility with the type of project you can do, as long as it involves providing HIV-related information and awareness to a group of people. The work that goes into developing and implementing the project should be equal to or greater than the time required for the Service Learning project (15 hours). The proposal for this project is due on September 20. Your proposal should address the following points:

• What will you do for the project?
• Where will you do it?
• When will you do it? How long will it take?
• Who is your target audience?
• Who else will be involved in the project? What role(s) will they play?
• What are your goals for the project?

The paper should focus on the population you served with your project, as well as the type of awareness/education/prevention approach that you used (e.g., small group HIV prevention sessions). You should develop a goal statement that describes the focus of your project (e.g., The goal of this project was to increase awareness of the personal risks of HIV among college students living in University Hall). Put the goal statement at the top of the paper in bold. In the body of the paper you must do the following:

• You should first state why you selected your specific project and your specific population. This section should be at least one to two paragraphs (but it can be longer). You should use data and statistics to support the selection of your population, and your approach as well if applicable. For example, if you focused on high school students, you may want to give statistics on the number of high school students who are becoming infected with HIV each year.
• You should briefly describe the project, the types of people that were served by the project, the types of services that you provided, the specific activities in which you were involved, and any other relevant background information.
• You should critically analyze the project, and integrate what you learned by doing it with what you learned in the course. You should also integrate information from course readings and additional readings as well. You need to draw direct connections between what you've learned in class and in the readings with what you learned in your applied experience.
• You should talk in general about what impact the experience had on you and what you learned from the experience. This section is a little less structured than the rest so use it to let me now what you got out of the experience.

The Diverse Faces of AIDS: Education, Prevention, and Treatment Service Learning Contract Dear Community Agency: As partial fulfillment for the requirements of a First year Seminar course at DePaul University (‘The Diverse Faces of AIDS'''), this student will complete 15 hours of service at your agency. The student is required to work directly with a community-based HIV/AIDS service organization on a volunteer basis and will then write a 6-8 page paper about his/her experiences. Please attach a business card or letterhead for agency verification. If you have any questions about this project please feel free to contact me at 773-325-2056.

Sincerely, Gary W. Harper, Ph.D.,M.P.H. Professor Department of Psychology

Student's name: Name of the agency: Address of the agency: Contact person at the agency: Contact person's phone number: Specific population with which the student will be working: Duties/tasks/activities with which the student will be involved at the agency: Date that the student will start: Signature of agency contact person: Date: This form must be completed and returned by SEPTEMBER 20, 2005, You may fax it to 773-325-2057.