Daily Archives: March 29, 2012

Leadership Opportunity at Nuestras Raices Farm

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Apply to be 1 of the 2 Seminar Coordinators for a Community-based Sustainability & Food Security course!
Unique, credit bearing practicum opportunity for two experienced  students to work with a Plant & Soil Science professor, UMass Civic   Engagement & Service Learning staff and community partner, Nuestras Raices to take the lead in coordinating a 2-credit Practicum course  for college students interested in a community-based, hands on
experience with community gardening, sustainability and food security  at Nuestras Raices in Holyoke, Mass. The coordinators will receive 4   Practicum credits for this role.

Project Description:
This Community-based Sustainability & Food Security course will be a   2-credit practicum course for up to 20 undergraduates.  It will   consist facilitating 2-hour seminar sessions, every other week (7   sessions) over the Fall 2012 semester as well as 4 farm work days   (likely Saturdays) at La Finca Farm, Nuestras Raices in Holyoke, Mass.
The topics of the sessions will be determined in conjunction with the  Practicum Facilitators, a sponsoring Plant and Soil Science faculty   member and a staff member from UMass CESL.

Position Description:
The Seminar Coordinators(s) of this practicum course will:
1.        Work with a faculty member and UMass CESL to plan 7 two-hour   practicum sessions to include orientation to community-based   service-learning practice, orientation to the Holyoke community, and   several curricular topics related to sustainability, community   gardening and food security.  Planning will take place of over the   Spring/Summer 2012.
2.        Identify and arrange for guest speakers related to curricular   topics for the 7 seminar sessions.
3.        Arrange for relevant readings for each seminar session.
4.        Facilitate the 7 seminar sessions.
5.        Provide meaningful and relevant Reflection prompts after each   practicum session that will help students connect the community-based   work with the classroom content.
6.        Review and provide feedback on student Reflections.
7.        Work with staff at Nuestras Raices to coordinate 4, six- hour  workdays (likely on Saturdays throughout the Fall) or the equivalent   of 24 hours minimum for the semester.
8.        Attend the workdays to provide coordination and leadership.
9.        Keep track of student attendance and participation at each session   and work day, and on each reflection assignment.
10.        Gather feedback from the community partner about the effectiveness   of the service and student participation.
11.        Collaborate with the instructor of record to determine grading  criteria and assign grades to the students.
12.        Meet with the instructor of record and UMass CESL staff person as   needed to create the most effective learning experience possible.
13.         Submit bi-weekly reports to the instructor of record and UMass   CESL staff.
14.        Submit an end of the semester report on the seminar course, the   service experience and a statement of personal learning.

Apply by Friday, April 6, 2012
To apply, send:
- your contact information (name, email, phone)
– anticipated year of graduation and major/minor
– a statement about why you are interested in this experience.
-an explanation of your qualifications related to the above Position Description
– names and contact info for 2 references who can speak to your ability related to this position
to both:
Molly Totman  mtotman@acad.umass.edu   and
Carol Soules      csoules.cesl@umass.edu

Internship Experiences

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UMass Sociology student Rosalie Miller is currently interning with Border Angels in San Diego.

This past week with Border Angels was spent mostly in the office trying to get things squared away. Last weekend we worked the Lila Downs concert and did really good selling merchandise and getting signatures at the show! We were able to go backstage and meet with Lila which was pretty cool, and is yet another perk of traveling with an established organization.
As of yet we haven’t been the best about maintaining a presence at the office, since so much of the work can be done from elsewhere, and in fact can not be done at the office, so this week we tried to focus on establishing office hours and a presence so that we can start attracting more business on a walk in basis.
On Saturday myself and the other Border Angels student staff member Sofia led a day labor outreach trip, so we prepared about 100 burritos in the morning and went out to a few Home Depots around town to give out food and water and check in on the men there. Day labor outreach is a really rewarding experience as the men are always really grateful and appreciative on emotional as well as physical material levels. Its gets tricky though because we never want to make them feel like recipients of charity, its important not to hurt peoples pride, so we try to just be very friendly and casual when we go to the sites. It also gets tricky logistically, as we dont want to put them in vulnerable legal situations by bringing attention to the fact that they are receiving aid, or hurt their chances of getting work, so we have to make sure to stay off of Home Depot property when we visit, and make sure to not interrupt if it looks like someone is seeking out workers. Its really crazy to consider the reasons why someone ends up in a position like a day laborer. For the most part the laborers are latino immigrants, undocumented or not, but sometimes there are white or black Americans standing with them looking for work, as a result of the economic situation. Even within the migrants, some are young and look like they could be college students or artists, and some are older and very clean cut and look like they could be working professionals back home. Its sad to consider that most of them have left families back in Mexico or Guatemala, or wherever. We got a lot of bags of donated clothes of all sorts to give out to the day laborers, and my first inclination was to have them look through all of it because i figured they could take womens and childrens clothing home to their families- but then I remembered that most of them have left their families behind, and often live in small apartments or hotel rooms with lots of other men in the same situation.
Today Enrique went out to the desert with a school group from Ohio, who will be doing outreach with us on Friday. Tomorrow im going to be going with pam and some professors from the university to take part in an oral history project recording the story of the first successful desegregation case in the nation, involving the mexican american community of Lemon Grove, CA (in San Diego county) in 1931. Then on Thursday we begin the 10 day long Latino Film Festival, where we will be maintaining a presence everyday. We are definately about to get busy!
Hope all is well
Rose

To read more about Rose’s internship, see previous posts here and here.