MASJE Internship Seminar

THIS COURSE IS CURRENTLY UNDER REVISION

Instructor: Rev. Dr. Jason C. Whitehead

E-mail: jwhitehead@iliff.edu

Office Hours: By appointment

Course Synopsis:

As a requirement of a professional degree, MASJE students complete a 300-hour Internship.

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, MASJE students enroll in IST4003 MASJE Internship Seminar, a hybrid course.
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:

Course Objectives & Learning Goals

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:

Develop and practice capacities for self-aware, inclusive, and collaborative leadership within a specific vocational social change context

Analyze and engage social and organizational cultural contexts for increased civic agency and efficacy

Develop a critically reflective and culturally appropriate professional presence

Develop strategies for spiritual formation and self-care

Student Learning Goals: Co-created by students and instructor on the first day of class.

Hold each other accountable to these shared learning goals:

Trusting that there is a purpose, openness to learning together

Developing ability to be honest/real (while in process, don't know everything), be vulnerable, go deep

Understand others and then work across differences

Practice confidential reflection (people, organizations, experiences) & appropriate/professional sharing

Practice self and collective accountability and responsibility (e.g.: 5 whys, addressing conflict rather than avoiding, break down big projects into doable tasks, set interim deadlines in order to meet larger deadlines)

Prioritizing and practicing self care and intentionally organizing our time (e.g.: check in with each other)

Course Overview

Course Objectives

Assignments:

Background Check:

All students in community-based/clinical courses such as Internship and CPE must complete an approved background check in the quarter prior to that in which the internship/CPE begins.

Go to www.securtest.com/iliff to complete the online authorization for your background check by June 1, 11 am.

Please note that you will need to complete the online authorization form in one sitting, and you will need to upload a scanned copy, or cell phone photo, of your driver’s license or other government issued ID. If you are on campus, you may scan your ID at the library for free.

You will need to review your completed background report online for accuracy, respond to any SecurTest iReviewNow questions, and dispute any misleading, inaccurate, or incomplete information within 48 hours from the first notification from iReviewNow or within five business days from the day you complete the online authorization. Please plan accordingly to complete the online authorization when you know you have the time and internet accessibility to respond to the completed background report.

Iliff's Background Check Policy is available for review on the Master's Student Handbook available on my.iliff.edu.
Reflective Journaling
- June 16, 2017
- June 23, 2017
- July 10, 2017
- July 17, 2017
- July 31, 2017
- August 7, 2017
In-person Discussions
- Friday, June 30th, Coffee at the Point (Time TBD by Tessa)
- Friday, July 21st, Location/Time TBD by Quinton
- Friday, August 11th, Iliff School of Theology (Time TBD) - MASJE Internship Debrief
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:

Evaluation:

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.

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:

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; and

Demonstrate the cultural capacity and organizational skills necessary for civic agency and efficacy in diverse social, political and educational institutions.

Date	Day	Details
Jun 01, 2017	Thu	DUE: Background Check	due by 05:00PM
Jun 17, 2017	Sat	Reflective Journal #1	due by 05:59AM
Jun 17, 2017	Sat	Reflective Journal #1	due by 05:59AM
Jun 24, 2017	Sat	Reflective Journal #2	due by 05:59AM
Jul 08, 2017	Sat	Reflective Journal #3	due by 05:59AM
Jul 15, 2017	Sat	Reflective Journal #4	due by 05:59AM
Jul 29, 2017	Sat	Reflective Journal #5	due by 05:59AM
Aug 05, 2017	Sat	Reflective Journal #6	due by 05:59AM
Aug 08, 2017	Tue	Reflective Journal #6	due by 05:59AM
Aug 15, 2017	Tue	DUE: Supervisor Evaluation	due by 06:00PM