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Moving to Los Angeles, CA in 1986, Dr. Teresa Holden, assistant
professor of History and Political Science, was exposed to the civil
uprising that began there in 1992. Holden’s husband, a native of Los
Angeles, showed her the city through the eyes of a local. The riots
made a personal impact on Holden as she watched homes burn of the students and their families she had come to know from her work at the
University of Southern California. These events sparked a passion
inside her. “It was just one of those things that clicks in your head
like, I have to understand this. I have to understand what causes
people to divide and become so angry with one another. That’s really
why I went into American Studies,” Holden said.
Ten years after the Los Angeles riots, Holden began her dissertation entitled Earnest Women Can Do Anything. It focuses on a woman, Josephine Ruffin, who lived from 1842-1924 in a racially separated home where her mother was white and her father was of African decent. Ruffin worked within her African-American community while also being part of numerous white women’s organizations fresh out of the civil war and slavery era. Working on this dissertation allowed Holden to delve deeper into the root of racial disconnection. From that point, her interest only progressed further.
What began as passion and interest has taken the form of various enrichment opportunities for Greenville College students in the East St. Louis area. In 2005, Holden teamed up with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center and began the Greenville College/Jackie Joyner-Kersee collaborative oral history project. This project is run primarily by Holden’s African-American History class. The goal is to preserve and create an archive of the oral history reports. The center contributes by opening its doors for conducting interviews and also works to preserve oral histories and create archives.
A second enrichment program, the African-American heritage reading project, involves Elementary Education majors on campus. Greenville College students travel to East St. Louis where they gain field experience tutoring elementary school students in reading. Field experience teachers use children’s books about African-American history to improve students’ reading and comprehension.
Another program taught by Holden, interterm course EDU202: Cultural Awareness in the Classroom, examines the problem of poverty and its effects on learning. This course focuses on the minority discrimination within schools. It enables Greenville College students to understand how to incorporate the children’s own culture into the learning experience. Most of the day is spent in the schools while the other portion of the day is spent at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center for group discussion and reflection. Greenville College students also tutor at the center during Power Hour, an hour of homework and studying.
 The center also provides an ACT preparation course, for which GC students serve as student facilitators. Broken up into freshmen/sophomore and junior/senior classes, the high school students work on reading skills and test preparation using Princeton review texts.
Financial aid for these programs has been largely provided by the recent inner-city practicum grant given by the Associated Colleges of Illinois (ACI). The grant, which equals approximately $16,000, covers all transportation to and from the St. Louis area. In addition to transportation, the grant has helped fund video cameras used during the oral history projects as well as all of the ACT books for the students.
Holden’s passions manifest themselves in several ways on the Greenville College campus. Through her work with the East St. Louis community, Holden has been able to take one step toward healing the racial disconnection made apparent to her by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. “If we want to make a difference in the world, then it’s not good enough for any of us to take a private stand on issues,” Holden stated. “The people who have made a difference in the world have done so by publicly saying what they think, [and] being willing to take whatever persecution, [or] being ostracized by society.”
Holden was recently selected as a top ten finalist for “St. Louis Rams/NFL Community Quarterback of the Year Award,” which recognizes volunteers dedicated to improving the St. Louis community. Holden was nominated by Shikira Nasiruddin, director of Program Services for the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center.
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