This program is open to students doing internships and community-based volunteer projects, in collaboration with the Center for Community-Based Learning and Action (CCBLA) at Evergreen. Priority will be given to students registering for In-Program Internships, particularly if they form groups around particular issues.
Students will engage in community-based learning with organizations, agencies, or self-organized communities that emphasize community mutual aid, basic needs, and disaster resilience. Examples may include disaster planning and emergency response, grassroots mutual aid groups, Indigenous nations and communities, houseless communities, cooperatives, farmworkers’ movements, community health providers, tool and equipment sharing groups, tribal or other community gardens and farms, communities dealing with the effects of climate change, and wildland firefighting. Students may organize themselves around other internship or volunteer opportunities.
On https://my.evergreen.edu, students can propose internships with community organizations by filling out an Internship Learning Contract (identifying a field supervisor), or propose an independent volunteer or research project (that does not require a field supervisor) by filling out an Individual Learning Contract, with detailed learning objectives and work timeline. Make sure you click “Yes, I am or will be registered in an academic program,” and click on 16 Total Credits and 8 Internship Credits. You will also propose four (4) books specific to the issue and project. Students can receive faculty feedback by clicking Submit on the draft contract.
CCBLA Director Ellen Shortt-Sanchez can help connect you with community organizations. The Internship Coordinator in Academic Advising (Library 2126), can also help you in the contract process.
Students will be meeting every two weeks, with weekly student engagement via the Canvas website. All students would participate in orientations to the issue background and working respectfully with communities and organizations. Participation in this program means practicing accountability to other communities, interacting as a respectful guest with other cultures, and engaging in constant communication with your own learning community of faculty and fellow students.
Credit Summary
2 credits will be fulfilled by participation in classes/forums and bi-weekly check-ins.
4 credits will be fulfilled by an academic component (biweekly papers on assigned readings in Weeks 2, 4, 6 & 8, and on-line responses).
8 credits will be fulfilled with a community-based internship or community-based volunteer project (approximately 20 hours per week), specified through the online contract system at https://my.evergreen.edu. The projects include will weekly updates on Canvas, and an internship Field Supervisor’s evaluation due by Week 10.
2 credits will be fulfilled with an internship or project synthesis report due Week 9 and symposium presentation on the report in Week 10.
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies
8 - Community Studies: Community Disaster Resilience
8 - Student-Originated Community-Based Internship or Project
Registration
Academic Details
Planning, Disaster and Emergency Response, Community Studies, Climate Resilience, Cooperative Management, Basic Needs; Field Studies; Geography; Native American Studies; Sustainability Studies
Required $65 fee covers the backpack kit (supplies) for CERT Training