IST4003-1-SU15 - MASC Internship Seminar

Instructor: Rev. Nelson Bock (

Nelson Bock is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church (ELCA). After serving as

pastors of a Lutheran church in eastern Montana from 1980-84. Nelson and his wife

Bonita came to Denver to serve in a faith-based peacemaking ministry through

Mennonite Voluntary Service In 1987 they founded the Urban Servant Corps, a Christian

voluntary service and intentional community serving social service and advocacy

organizations in central Denver. Since then, they have been active in a variety of

community, interfaith, and environmental organizations.

With Bonita, Nelson currently works as the co-director of Wartburg West, an urban

semester program of Wartburg College. He teaches an interdisciplinary course in Urban

Studies with an emphasis on sustainability, as well as arranging and supervising

internships for Wartburg students in Denver.

Nelson is a 2008 graduate of the Greenfaith Fellowship program, which provides training

in religious environmental leadership. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of

Colorado Interfaith Power and Light, part of a national organization that seeks to

mobilize faith communities for action on the issue of climate change.

In December, 2013, Nelson’s paper “An Eco-theology: toward a spirituality of creation

and eco-justice” was published in Cross-Currents, a journal of the Association for

Religion and Intellectual Life.

Nelson is also a clergy leader with Together Colorado, a statewide, multi-racial, multi-

faith community organizing group affiliated with PICO (People Improving Communities

Through Organizing), and national, faith-based network of community organizations.

Nelson enjoys gardening,

E-mail: Nbock@iliff.edu

Office Hours: By appointment, please email your availability.

Course Synopsis: The purpose of this course is to further personal and professional formation. This is primarily accomplished through critical reflection on and consultation about your internship experience with peers and faculty within the seminar setting.

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 (Iliff Hall 201)
Thursday, June 11, 2015, 1 pm - 4:30 pm
Friday, June 12, 2015, 9 am - 4:30 pm

Online: Achieving Internship Learning Goals
10 weeks: June 14 – Aug 19

Praxis 2: Internship Evaluation and Employment Preparation (Iliff Hall 201)
Thursday, August 20, 2015, 1 pm - 4:30 pm
Friday, August 21, 2015, 9 am - 4:30 pm

Course Objectives & Learning Goals

Course Prerequisites:

Prior to entering internship you must complete the following prerequisites:

• Consultation & Guidance (C&G) Phases I: Assessments and Consultation with the ICGC Director Dr. Jason Whitehead
• Consultation & Guidance (C&G) Phases II: Develop a plan for personal, professional, and spiritual growth in consultation with the ICGC Director Dr. Jason Whitehead and in reflection of Phase I interpretations.
• Coursework:
• Vocation and Orientation
• Identity, Power, and Difference

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:

  1. Submit a critical reflection to the weekly journal discussion thread responding to each week’s prompt and in reflection of your internship experience. Typically a concise, substantive critical reflection post can be accomplished in 400 words or less. [Due: Every Thursday by 7pm MT]
  1. Over the course of the end of the week and weekend we will read each other’s posts and respond as appropriate to one another to stimulate dialogue on topics of interest to the class. [First Response to someone else’s post due: Every Saturday by 12 noon]

  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?

  • Who do you want to be (type of person)?
  • What do you want to do?
  • What sustains you in this work?
  • What gets you out of bed in the morning?

  How will you sustain your vocational direction?

  • Spiritual practices;
  • Ethical/theological commitments; and
  • Identity(ies) and worldviews
  • Relationships

  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:

  • Login to your Iliff gmail account
  • Click on the Supervisor Evaluation form link
  • Click "Use this Template" in the upper left corner of your screen. This will create a copy of the template within your personal Google Drive
  • You can either share the document using Google Drive with your supervisor if he/she has a Google account, or you can save the form as a word document and email it to your supervisor.
  • After your supervisor completes the written evaluation, the two of you should meet to discuss the evaluation in person
  • After this in-person discussion, you will write a response to the supervisor's evaluation at the end of the form
  • Make sure to include your signature and your supervisor's signature before submitting
  • To submit your completed Supervisor Evaluation:
  • Click on the "File" menu in the upper left corner of your screen
  • Hover over the "Download as" option
  • Click on "Download as Word Doc" Save to your computer 
  • Upload the document to this assignment on Canvas 

   

• 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.

   Final Critical Reflection Prompts:

  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:

  1. Personal development of deepened understanding of your personality and how you relate to others.
  2. Professional/vocational development of professional skills and understanding of your role.
  3. Cultural capacity development of acquired new or deeper understanding about theories and practices of people and systems, the ability to navigate diverse cultures and power structures, and practical insight into opportunities for the co-creation of cultural/systemic change.
  4. Spiritual/theological development of skills and practices for spiritual/theological reflection about questions of identity and social change, and new and/or deeper spiritual/theological understandings.

  Please also address the following questions in your reflection paper:

  1. What have you learned about the nature of social change through your internship experience?
  2. What personal strengths and gifts have you identified that will help you take an effective leadership role in social change?
  3. What areas for improvement have you identified, or areas that may not be the right fit regarding your role in social change work?

Degree Learning Goals: Please take some time to look over the Professional Degree Learning Goals (MDiv, MASC, MAPSC) and the Academic Degree Learning Goals (MTS, MA).

Incompletes:  If incompletes are allowed in this course, see the Master's Student Handbook for Policies and Procedures.

Pass/Fail:  Masters 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 Masters 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. 

MASC Degree Learning Goals: