MOORPARK : College Students Identify With the Homeless They Serve

Moorpark College students who get college credit for serving meals at local soup kitchens said they were surprised that the people who come for the free meals are so average-looking.

“I was shocked . . . you could go into Carl’s Jr. and you’d see people that looked like that,” Sabina Thash, 19, said about the homeless men, women and children who come for the free meals. “I expected people to be not clean. I expected them to be dirty-looking, just like in downtown L.A.”

As part of a sociology course taught by Linda McDill, Thash and her 11 classmates help prepare and serve dinners to the homeless and others at four Simi Valley churches. The students also share the meals and try to get to know the dinner guests.

One aim of the course, titled Sociological Field Methods, is to give the students a taste of social research. The class compiles data on the homeless that will be used by a Ventura County program.

What has been most surprising, the students said, is how similar the homeless are to themselves and the rest of the population.

“The kids are into the Ninja Turtles,” student Lisa Oliver, 25, said. “The things people talk about are the same. The needs are the same. I don’t feel threatened by them. They’re just people.”

“There’s nothing you can say about the homeless as a group except for that they don’t have homes,” McDill said.

Research by the class shows that rates of drug abuse, mental illness and even unemployment are generally no higher among the homeless than in the rest of the population, McDill said.

Before the students are sent to the shelters, McDill gives them two weeks of sensitivity training. One exercise called for the students to keep a record of their daily activities.

“The purpose of that was to sensitize them to the extent to which they are housebound, or house-dependent,” McDill said.

McDill also asked the students to select a place where they would sleep if they suddenly became homeless.

“I had them think, ‘where would you stay? How would you protect yourself?’ ” McDill said.

Student Ellen Bronkowski, 41, said the course has affected her life.

“It’s changed my perspective of how I spend money, what I do with my time,” said Bronkowski, who returned to school after raising four children.

Bronkowski said that when she buys something, she now asks herself, “Do I really need this? How can I spend money differently?”

“I think in here you’re getting hands-on experience,” said Jolie Schechtman, 19.

“You’re getting a taste of real life instead of just reading out of a book.”