CUNY Graduate Urban Professional Programs

Black Enterprise, Oct, 2004

Offer Real World Interdisciplinary Learning

When a tearful and terrified woman walked into the Battered Women's Legal Rights Clinic operated by the CUNY School of Law at Queens College, third year law student Farhid Sedaghatpour felt well-prepared to help her fight an eviction notice and retain custody of her child.

But Ms. Sedaghatpour has learned other ways her client could be helped, thanks to a cross-disciplinary approach that the graduate professional programs at City University increasingly are following.

Working at Ms. Sedaghatpour's side since the initial meeting with the frightened woman has been Belinda Chirinos, a first-year graduate student in the Hunter College School of Social Work. While Ms. Sedaghatpour and her clinical partner, Jeffrey Brooks, worked to dispatch the woman's legal issues, Ms. Chirinos counseled her to relieve her emotional trauma and help her rethink some behavior patterns.

"She has turned 180 degrees since she first came here," reported Ms. Sedaghatpour. "She has become much stronger and independent financially and psychologically."

The three professionals-in-training spend three days a week at the clinic to fulfill their clinical experience requirements. They also share some classes and seminars, to become more knowledgeable about each others' worlds.

Sixteen third-year CUNY Law School students work in the battered women's clinic, alongside two students from the Hunter College School of Social Work. The clinic is one of eight specialty clinics at the Law School that offer free legal assistance under the name Rain Street Legal Services.

"Teaming up lawyers and social workers to work with a client is the ideal," said CUNY Law Professor Maria Arias, who oversees the clinic. "It is a more comprehensive, holistic, way to meet clients' needs. It challenges the way professions now practice by asking 'how can we bring forth the best of both professions around representing someone?'"

This question is at the heart of CUNY's effort to give students in its graduate professional programs opportunities to gain exposure to other disciplines. In some instances, courses are jointly created or taught by faculty from two professions. In others, students in one profession may pursue a specialty linked to another, such as a lawyer specializing in environmental issues, a social worker specializing in criminal justice issues, or a health professional specializing in management.

In addition to law and social work, CUNY's Graduate Urban Professional Programs include architecture, business administration, criminal justice, forensic science, library and information sciences, nursing, public administration, urban design, urban planning, and urban public health, among many others.

A full listing of CUNY's Graduate Urban Professional Programs, with program requirements and course descriptions, can be found at: www.cuny.edu/urbanprofessional.