Instructor: Dr. Jenny Whitcher, MASC Director & Director of Service Learning
As a requirement of a professional degree, MASC students complete an internship over the summer term. Students may choose to start their internship prior to the summer term, or extend their internship into the fall term; however, the majority of the 300 intern hours must be completed during the summer.
During summer internship, MASC students concurrently enroll in IST4003 MASC Internship Seminar, a hybrid course, which meets for two-day weekend praxes at both the beginning and end of the summer, and online throughout the summer. The hybrid structure of the MASC Internship Seminar allows students to pursue Denver-based, as well as, non-Denver domestic and/or international internship opportunities.
Course Structure:
Praxis 1: Internship Preparation [on campus]
Friday, June 13, 2013, 1 pm - 4:30 pm
Saturday, June 14, 2013, 9 am - 4:30 pm
Online: Achieving Internship Learning Goals
10 weeks: June 16 – Aug 21
Praxis 2: Internship Evaluation and Employment Preparation [on-campus]
Friday, August 22, 2013, 1 pm - 4:30 pm
Saturday, August 23, 2013, 9 am - 4:30 pm
Democratic Learning Environment: This course strongly encourages students of diverse backgrounds, politics, religious beliefs, and values to learn together and from one another in a respectful, democratic, and rigorous learning environment. I understand my role and responsibility to you and the institution as facilitator of a productive learning environment. I also believe that democratic pedagogy supports increased student engagement and learning. Bridging my role as facilitator with a democratic approach and within an institutional setting, I have provided some structures and guidance to facilitate your learning, and welcome and encourage your collaboration on how to best structure our time together. One the first day of class, we will review and negotiate the syllabus. I have included areas within the syllabus where you can make choices about the course content, and welcome additional changes that best fit the learning needs of this particular classroom community. Due the democratic nature of this course, students are asked to remain flexible as the course schedule may change. Any changes to the course schedule will be discussed and agreed upon as a group, and the updated schedule will be posted to Canvas and sent out to all students by the instructor through a Canvas announcement. As opportunities arise, the class may leave campus during the class meeting time, always returning to campus by the end of our scheduled classroom time. Course Objectives: As a result of participation in this course, students will: Student Learning Goals: Co-created by students and instructor on the first day of class. Hold each other accountable to these shared learning goals:Course Objectives & Learning Goals
Prior to entering internship you must complete the following prerequisites:
Reading & Media:
All reading and media are accessible online via open source weblinks or downloadable pdf, and are embedded within each weekly Canvas course assignment. The primary text for Internship Seminar is your community-based experiences, therefore weekly readings and media are not as lengthy as in a typical graduate seminar. Instead, readings and media aim to create common space for individual and collective reflection on weekly themes and community-based internship experiences.
Assignments:
Reflective Practitioner Group Journal & Dialogue: Our weekly online discussions will serve as the primary opportunity for collective critical reflection and peer-consultation as you process and reflect on your internship experience, leadership style, cultural capacity, spiritual formation, and self-care.
This assignment is also a form of data collection and documentation of your learning. As a result, students will find that meaningful engagement with this assignment will serve as a reference for completion of the Philosophy of Vocation/Theology of Ministry and Final Critical Reflection assignments. This assignment also serves as an example of professional research practice (field journal), in which a researcher logs his/her notes, reflections, learnings, and other data, which is later evaluated as part of the research process of determining larger learning outcomes and research conclusions. This is a skill one can use not only in an academic setting, but for ongoing program development and evaluation within various employment setting.
Each weekly discussion assignment in Canvas contains reflection prompts, which range from: brief readings/media, activities to complete at your internship site, and/or guided questions. In response to these prompts, each week you will:
You do not have to respond to every post, but rather, please respond in areas that connect to your own learning and experience. This means that our online discussion may take on various configurations. We may find that one week participants find themselves pairing off to discuss various topics, another week everyone may focus on just one post, and another week we may have two people pair off and the rest of the group focus on a separate topic. I want you to be comfortable and confident in focusing your attention in areas that are useful to your personal and professional learning and growth. While all of these online conversation configurations will be visible to the class, you do not have to engage with every conversation equally, but you do need to engage weekly with at least one conversation. Within this freedom to focus on what matters, let us also be careful not to focus on one student throughout the quarter, but to support each other with some equity. This translates into not putting all of your attention towards the loudest participant, nor ignoring to quietest participant within any given group situation. It’s our collective responsibility to allow one another to step forward and step back so that we hear from everyone over the course of the quarter.
Your weekly post may also include a request for consultation from the class as needed throughout the quarter. This is an opportunity for peer-based consultation in order to address internship-based struggles and questions, while focusing on solutions that engage collaborative leadership, cultural capacity, and spiritual formation. Students are invited to bring to the group issues they are working on within their internship by briefly describe the situation/issue and identify the type of help s/he is seeking.
Within our weekly discussions some of you may share deeper personal, professional, and internship related struggles. I hope that we will be able to maintain the relationships and space to support each other through such experiences. Let us also be in the practice of suggesting solutions only when someone specifically requests consultation from the group. Unless there is a specific request for consultation, our responsibility is not to “fix” each other’s problems, but to be supportive as we each navigate our own experiences.
In addition, the seminar instructor or Director of Professional Formation may also be sought outside the seminar for consultation.
Finally, you may find that keeping your own regular journal (private/blog) helps you to process and distill your internship experiences and learning in preparation for a more succinct weekly reflection and discussion post, as well as a valuable reference for your final Philosophy of Vocation/Theology of Ministry and Final Critical Reflection assignments. This is at your discretion, and is not a requirement of the seminar.
Philosophy of Vocation/Theology of Ministry [Due: Week 8]: The purpose of this assignment is for students to practice intentionality around creating a vocational/ministry identity and purpose through critical reflection. Students are invited to choose from a variety of mediums to reflect on and articulate a philosophical/theological understanding of their vocational/ministry direction. Within this assignment, students should reflect on their spiritual/theological beliefs, values, ethics, assumptions, identities, and worldviews that create their philosophical/theological outlook and understanding as it relates to their vocational/ministry direction. You may choose to write a reflective paper, produce a digital media story, work of art, poem(s), or other expression. If you choose a multimedia medium, please also include a written reflection on how your submission responds to the below prompts if it is not immediately apparent within the multimedia presentation.
Each Philosophy of Vocation/Theology of Ministry submission should respond to the following prompts:
What do you want to do professionally that both nurtures your soul and puts you into just relationship with others?
How will you sustain your vocational direction?
Please submit your Philosophy of Vocation/Theology of Ministry through this Canvas assignment.
Provide the Supervisor Evaluation form to your internship supervisor, who will complete a written evaluation of your learning and work. You will add a written response to your supervisor's evaluation before submitting the completed and signed form.
To use the form:
Please complete a written critical reflection responding to the below prompts as part of your practice of processing your learning and development over the course of your internship.
The quality of your critical reflection is the priority--not the length of your paper. For those looking for some guidance on length, you may find that 7-10 double-spaced pages will provide an appropriate length for effective reflection, as well as concise and organized communication.
Please submit your completed Final Critical Reflection to this Canvas assignment.
This Critical Reflection and your Site Supervisor Evaluation must be submitted in as the final step in completing your MASC Internship requirements.
Reflecting on your original learning goals outlined in your Service Learning Agreement, as well as any updated learning goals developed throughout the internship, please reflect on your learning and progress as it relates to your:
Please also address the following questions in your reflection paper:
Grading: This seminar is offered pass/fail. Students are evaluated on their meaningful engagement with personal and professional learning and growth, as well as engagement with and successful completion of seminar assignments. A major basis for accountability and evaluation is regular and timely participation in both praxes and online seminar components of the course. Please see the attendance policy on the Policies & Services page for more details. Seminar Participation & Engagement: Small groups depend on the engaged presence of every member. Over the praxes weekends we will meet in person at Iliff. The Canvas course website is the primary location where the online intern seminar will gather, using a variety of tools. There will also be occasional real time sessions through Google Hangout, which will be scheduled in advance when we are together during the first praxis weekend. Online Learning Environment & Expectations: Online posts should add value to the group conversation, which may include adding a new or nuanced perspective, providing additional resources (video clip, art piece, poem/lyircs, reading, etc.) to help support group reflection and learning, and/or posing questions to the group for discussion. The expectation is that you will make substantive contributions, not just agree or disagree with the contributions of others within the seminar. Our online discussions are not about getting the right answer, but about critically reflecting on your internship experience in order to identify areas of learning and growth. As such, we are a community of learners, which is a more democratic class environment with less hierarchical leadership by the instructor, and more interpersonal interaction and reflection amongst all group members. See the Course Objectives & Learning Goals page for more details on democratic learning environments. As the instructor, I will read your posts and respond throughout the quarter, but I will not respond to every post. This is part of an intentional effort to build equity and purpose within our conversations so that dialogue does not center around pleasing or responding to the instructor, but rather around engaging in dialogue for the purpose of learning. If you desire a response from me specifically, I am available for one-to-one consultation, email, phone, or you may directly address questions to me within the course discussion thread. Completion of Internship Hours: Some students may choose to extend their internship beyond the summer term into the fall quarter in negotiation with the internship site and MASC Director/Director of Service Learning. This must be clearly outlined in the Service Learning Agreement. In this scenario, a student may determine that it would be more meaningful to submit his/her final critical reflection and supervisor evaluation at the completion of their internship hours, rather than the summer term. In this case, an "In Process" (IP) grade will be submitted for the summer term, with the expectation that final required internship assignments will be submitted during the fall quarter, at which time the final grade of pass/fail will be assigned.Evaluation:
Attendance: If you are going to miss class, please communicate this in advance with the instructor. Absence from class equivalent to 20% of the course (14 hours of an 8-credit course), will result in suspension from the course and a Withdrawal Failing (WF) recorded on your transcript.
If you are unable to participate in any component of the praxis weekends or assigned course activities – either due to illness or other unavoidable conflicts, please notify your seminar instructor in advance.
Incompletes: If incompletes are allowed in this course, see the Master's Student Handbook for Policies and Procedures.
Pass/Fail: Master's students wishing to take the class pass/fail should discuss this with the instructor by the second class session.
Academic Integrity and Community Covenant: All students are expected to abide by Iliff’s statement on Academic Integrity, as published in the Master's Student Handbook, or the Joint PhD Statement on Academic Honesty, as published in the Joint PhD Student Handbook, as appropriate. All participants in this class are expected to be familiar with Iliff’s Community Covenant.
Accommodations: Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs. Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations. The advising center can be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by phone at 303-765-1146.
Writing Lab: Grammar and organization are important for all written assignments. Additional help is available from the Iliff Writing Lab, which is available for students of any level who need help beginning an assignment, organizing thoughts, or reviewing a final draft.
Inclusive Language: It is expected that all course participants will use inclusive language in speaking and writing, and will use terms that do not create barriers to classroom community.
Students will... Demonstrate a complex interdisciplinary understanding of historical and contemporary social change strategies and movements; Develop and practice an inclusive and collaborative approach to social change leadership; andMASC Degree Learning Goals:
Date | Day | Details | |
Jun 13, 2014 | Fri | AGENDA Praxis 1--Day 1: Internship Preparation, Friday, June 13, 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm | due by 07:00PM |
Jun 14, 2014 | Sat | Spiritual/Theological Reflection & Practice Activity | due by 03:00PM |
Jun 14, 2014 | Sat | AGENDA Praxis 1--Day 2: Internship Preparation, Saturday, June 14, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm | due by 03:00PM |
Jun 20, 2014 | Fri | Week 1: Critical Reflection Post - Private and Public Relationships | due by 01:00AM |
Jul 10, 2014 | Thu | Week 4: Google Hangout, 10am - 12pm | due by 04:00PM |
Aug 04, 2014 | Mon | DUE: Philosophy of Vocation/Theology of Ministry | due by 04:00PM |
Aug 16, 2014 | Sat | DUE: Supervisor Evaluation | due by 06:00PM |
Aug 22, 2014 | Fri | AGENDA Praxis 2--Day 1: Internship Reflection & Employment Preparation, Friday, August 22, 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm | due by 07:00PM |
Aug 23, 2014 | Sat | DUE: Final Critical Reflection | due by 03:00PM |
Aug 23, 2014 | Sat | AGENDA Praxis 2--Day 2: Internship Reflection & Employment Preparation, Saturday, August 23, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm | due by 03:00PM |