Mediators
Avis Ridley-Thomas (far left) and Wellford (Buzz) Wilms (center) with UCLA undergrads who took their class in "Restoring Civility: Understanding, Using and Resolving Conflict."
After taking a training course on conflict mediation taught at UCLA by experts, more than 30 UCLA undergraduates helped resolve conflicts and served as counselors to students at some of the most troubled middle and high schools in Los Angeles.
 
“These kids are tough,” noted UCLA junior Raquel Hernandez, who was assigned to work at Soledad Enrichment Action Charter High School on Manchester Avenue in South Los Angeles, although “they might be soft underneath ... 
 
“You have to be able to relate to them [and] show them time and time again that you’re going to be reliable, that you’re trustworthy. And they’re always going to be testing you. If you don’t pass once, they’re not going to go back to you ever again.”
 
To read more about students' experiences and the course, taught by education and public policy professor Wellford (Buzz) Wilms and Avis Ridley-Thomas, a lecturer in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies, see the story in Ampersand, an online magazine published by the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.