MICAH Summer Fellowship
Mulvaney Immersion Communities for Action & Humility (MICAH)
JUNE 2nd – JULY 30th 2017
Overview Budget
Student Financial Benefits (per student)Service Award / $2,500
Food / $160
Housing / $600
Transportation (Air & Ground) / $200-$500
Total: / $3,500-$3,800
Sources
Tom & Karen Mulvaney / $2,400-$2,700
Alameda Point Collaborative (Housing & Organic Food Contribution) / $600
Partnership Fee / $750
Total: / $3,750-$4,050
The MICAH Summer Fellowship allows current SMC and USD students the opportunity to cultivate personal and social responsibility through intentionally joining communities that are working to create positive social change. This is a living/learning fellowship that challenges participants to creatively examine and practice the program values: community, leadership, simplicity, social justice and spirituality.
Student Learning Objectives
a) Learn the underlying social justice issues evident in the work of the community partner organization.
b) Develop concrete skills necessary to engage in positive social change.
c) Understand structural barriers and possible solutions to social justice issues at the community partner organization.
d) Learn how community partner organizations work to create systemic change.
e) Learn and develop a practice of leadership rooted in deep self-exploration and working with the emergent; thus building the capacity for personal and social transformation.
f) Deepen knowledge of themes of Catholic Social Tradition and connections to the work of social justice.
g) Develop attitudes and skills necessary for living community (eg: curiosity, dialogue, solidarity, discipline etc.).
Community Partner Organization Benefits
a) Experienced and qualified student/s to serve 35 hours per week for May 30th – July 22nd 2016
b) The students will work directly with clients and/or staff in order to plan and/or implement strategic objectives of the organization.
c) The student/s will enhance the work that is being done by clients and/or staff.
d) The student/s will deliver a project/product that will be of value and benefit to the partner organization long after the student has concluded the fellowship (eg: grant research, curriculum development etc.).
e) Community Partners will act as co-educator/co-learner in a unique, innovative co-created “space”. The figurative, energetic, empathetic “space between us” will become a space for us all to step into, explore and work with the emergent.
Basic Information
6 SMC and 6 USD students (12 total) will be selected to participate in the MICAH Summer Fellowship. Selected students will participate in a 2½ day retreat and orientation (June 2-4) in preparation for the fellowship. Each student will join and constructively contribute to a San Francisco Bay Area community partner organization that promotes the common good.
Students’ engagement will be varied based on their respective community partner organization. Some will work directly with individuals who are marginally housed to help provide access to basic needs such as food, shelter, jobs, and healthcare. Others will work directly with staff and citizens to plan programs or implement campaigns to end homelessness, advocate for access to health care, neighborhood safety, employment, or education.
Fellows will live together in an apartment situated in a low income housing community and engage in two community nights per week. One evening each week, they will discuss readings, reflections, projects, and a final paper. The second evening they will have a “Case in Point/Here and Now” experience designed to explore the group dynamics and issues as they emerge, finding their own role in those dynamics, and then making connections to the larger social systems at play.
A SMC staff and USD staff coordinates and facilitates the MICAH Summer Fellowship, maintaining regular contact with the Fellows and community partners. Fellows are expected to devote 30-35 hours each week to their community partner organization and are not permitted to engage in any other employment during the fellowship period. The weekends throughout the fellowship will allow the fellows to explore the San Francisco Bay Area as a community.
Each fellow will receive a $2,500 service award upon completion in lieu of summer employment. The fellows will debrief and celebrate the fellowship on July 28 and 29th.
MICAH Summer Fellowship
Mulvaney Immersion Communities for Action & Humility (MICAH)
JUNE 2nd – JULY 30th 2017
1. SPIRITUALITY/REFLECTION:A core component of the MICAH Summer Fellowship is the opportunity for MICAH Fellows to explore and deepen their spiritual lives. Their journey is part of a life-long process that can be simultaneously comforting and unsettling, joyous and painful. The fellows are “contemplatives in action,” engaging in the Ignatian tradition of discernment and reflection in relation to social justice. Catholic Social Thought and the Lasallian tradition will also be integral components during the program. Reflection is an opportunity for the fellows to integrate the variety of experiences throughout the program.
2. LEADERSHIP: Leadership is the process of people coming together to benefit the common good. It is guided by individual growth, personal commitment, collaboration, service to others, respect for all, and civic engagement.
3. SIMPLE LIVING:The MICAH Summer Fellowship challenges each MICAH fellows to live a simple and reflective lifestyle, an alternative way to living in a consumer society. Fellows are invited to integrate their spirituality or faith by serving with and living among those who experience poverty and oppression.This helps fellows’ experience the lives of those with whom they interact on a daily basis and to raise their consciousness to the human needs surrounding them.
4. COMMUNITY:MICAH fellows live with one another in intentional communities. The process of building community offers an opportunity to share experience, faith and hope. Women and men come to MICAH Summer Fellowship Program with diverse backgrounds and expectations. The challenge for each person is to respect and learn from these differences while building on common values. Community requires time, effort and sacrifice, while giving back many wonderful, unexpected gifts.Volunteer communities are places to share and grow collectively and individually. Living in community often marks the beginning of lasting friendships.
5. SOCIAL JUSTICE:The MICAH Summer Fellowship is committed to working for social justice and structural change. Through service and reflection on lived experiences, MICAH Fellows will examine the causes of oppression and look for ways to bring about justice in our world. MICAH fellows will live in a Alameda neighborhood alongside those who are directly affected by systemic injustices.
MICAH Summer Fellowship
Mulvaney Immersion Communities for Action & Humility (MICAH)
JUNE 2nd – JULY 30th 2017
PROGRAM OVERVIEW- (more details…)
WHO: 6 returning SMC and 6 USD (12 total) sophomores, juniors, or seniors with a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher will be selected for the MICAH Summer Fellowship. Candidates must have previous community engagement and/or leadership experience as well as a general knowledge of social justice issues.
WHAT & WHY: This is an immersion living/learning program designed to advance each student’s professional development, leadership development, and growing awareness of important social issues. The MICAH Summer Fellows will be positively changed through learning and serving and as a result become agents for positive social change.
WHEN: JUNE 2nd – JULY 30th 2017
Mid- May (date/time TBD / Dinner & Pre-Orientation Meeting (5:30pm-8:00pm)JUNE 1 / Community Partner Support for Student Service Award DUE.
JUNE 2-4 / Orientation
JUNE 5- JULY 27 / MICAH Summer Fellowship Program
JULY 28-29 / Debrief, Celebrate & Depart
August 7th / Final Projects due
WHERE: The MICAH Summer Fellows will live together in groups of six in two respective apartment units located at Alameda Point Collaborative. The non-profit organizations include: Alameda Point Collaborative, Bayview/Hunter’s Point Community Legal, Coaching Corps, General Assistance Advocacy Project, Multicultural Institute, Saint Anthony Foundation & St. Mary’s Center and others to be determined.
Financial Benefits: MICAH Summer Fellows will receive the following:
1. Food: Each student will receive a modest weekly food stipend that they will be encouraged to bring together with their housemates ($20/week).
2. Housing: Students will live simply together in an apartment unit located at Alameda Point Collaborative (Total Value per student: $825.00)
3. Transportation: Each student will receive a transportation stipend commensurate to their transportation needs. (Total Value per student: approx-$175.00)
4. Service Award: Each student will receive a $2,500 Service Award upon completing program.
MICAH Summer Fellowship
Mulvaney Immersion Communities for Action & Humility (MICAH)
JUNE 2nd – JULY 30th 2017
PROGRAM EXPECTATIONS
0. Pre-orientation & orientation- All MICAH fellows must be available to participate in a pre-orientation gathering on a Saturday in mid-May (exact date/time/location TBD) MICAH fellows must also participate in an orientation June 2nd – June 4th in which you will learn about your learning community, neighborhood, food, and transportation. You will create a community living covenant during this orientation.
1. Partners-
Fellows will serve 8 hours a day/ 4-5 days a week. Each fellow’s exact schedule will be worked out with her/his site supervisor. Fellows may not have a place of employment during the Fellowship Program. Detailed fellowship descriptions can be found online. Each student will serve at one of the following sites:
1. Alameda Point Collaborative is a supportive housing community that uses all its resources to help families and individuals break the cycle of homelessness and poverty.
2. Bayview/Hunter’s Point Community Legal solves injustice by ensuring that everyone can access legal services for any issue, regardless of their income.
3. Catholic Charities of the East Bay works with individuals and families to promote self-sufficiency, strengthen families and pursue safety and justice.
4. Coaching Corps improves the health, educational and social outcomes for kids living in struggling communities through the power of service and sports.
5. Genesis is a community of member organizations working together for access to opportunity, health and quality education for people throughout the Bay Area.
6. St. Mary’s Center is a nonprofit organization in Oakland, California dedicated to the humanity of all people. Founded in 1973, St. Mary’s Center provides critical services to extremely low-income seniors and children, increasing their quality of life and working to improve community engagement and public policy.
7. St. Anthony Foundation’s mission is to feed, heal, shelter, clothe, lift the spirits of those in need, and create a society in which all persons flourish. We are committed to providing the poor of San Francisco with basic needs and services as a gateway to reclaiming their sense of dignity and to progressing towards stability.
8. The Unity Council- Community advocacy, social service delivery, and economic development fortheFruitvale neighborhood, Oakland, California.
2. Readings & Community Nights
Fellows will be required to complete readings that advance their understanding and engagement with the programs values including: social justice, community, leadership, simplicity, and spirituality. The fellows will have two community nights per week (Sundays & Wednesdays). The entire MICAH Summer Fellow community will gather together on Sundays with a SMC or USD staff presence and on Wednesdays there will be community specific gatherings where students engaged in intentional dialogues together.
3. Questionnaires & Social Media
Fellows will write/complete weekly critical reflection questionnaires where they summarize experience/learning from community specific gatherings and meet at least once a week with their site-supervisor to plan, reflect and debrief their experiences. SMC/USD staff will review and respond to the critical reflection papers on a weekly basis. The use of social media (facebook, twitter, instagram eg- #micahfellows) will be encouraged during the fellowship to allow other interested parties insight into the student’s experiences as they are happening.
4. Project-
Through collaboration with the site supervisor fellows will complete a project that will benefit the organization such as: issue research, policy analysis, or program evaluation & assessment. The site supervisor may also propose a project that would benefit the organization and be completed within the given time frame. This project must be completed by August 7, 2017
5. Paper-
Fellows will write a final 7-10 page paper designed to help students reflect on the experiences of the MICAH Summer Fellowship. As students reflect, they will refer to readings, reflections, experiences, and activities that have been particularly meaningful.
6. Presentation-
Fellows will make a minimum of two formal presentations on campus during the following academic year to CASA and/or CILSA students and other interested and appropriate campus organizations.
TIMELINE @ A GLANCE
Oct. – Dec. 2016 / SMC seeks community partner organizations interested in hosting a MICAH Summer student/
December 15, 2017 / Community Partner Organizations confirm interest in hosting a MICAH Summer student fellow and provide a general job description.
February 13, 2017 / Applications available for students
March 12, 2017 / Application deadline for students
March 14-17, 2017 / Interview Stage #1: Students interview with appropriate SMC / USD staff.
March 20, 2017 / Notification of conditional acceptance (or regret) to MICAH Summer Program
March 22- April 7 / Interview Stage #2: Student interview with Community Partner Organization/s.
April 10, 2017 / Notification of final acceptance (or regret) to MICAH Summer Program
May 21, 2017 / Dinner & pre-orientation meeting (5:30pm-8pm)
June 1, 2017 / Community Partner Support Fee for Student Service Award DUE
June 2-4 / MICAH Orientation
June 5 – July 27 / MICAH Summer Program
July 28-29, 2017 / Debrief
What does the LORD require of you but to
do justice, love mercy and walk humbly
with your God? (MICAH 6:8)
5 of 5
www.micahfellows.org
Ryan M. Lamberton () & John Loggins ()