Catherine Boyle SCSU ‘2019, discusses her Sociology Internship Experience at Sartell-St. Stephen School District.
Application for 2020 Urban Scholars Cohort Open Jan 6 to Feb 20
See the website for more information and watch the video below. A great fit for sociology students.
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/civilrights/urbanscholars/index.htm
180 Degrees Group Home
Kailyn Anderson by Sign
180 Degrees is a local group home for youth between ages 12-21. They are a non-secure facility that houses up to 12 residents at a time. The residents are all there for a variety of reasons, some are victims and others offenders. Mostly the residents are there for short periods of time, but there are a few there on extended stays. At 180 Degrees you will work very closely with the youth at the group home, gaining conflict resolutions skills and applying the appropriate punishments for behaviors. I have gained great insight into the inner workings of a low-security group home. I was challenged to quickly pick up on the daily schedules and rules in order to properly assist the staff. I was tested to really work on my interpersonal skills as well as my assertiveness. The staff are mostly all young and really easy to work with, I really enjoyed getting to know them and working with them. The residents can be a hand full at times, but it was very eye opening to get to know them all, and you can form very meaningful and positive relationships with them.
The most rewarding part of the internship for me was getting to know the residents and building a relationship with them. This aspect of the internship was something that I never anticipated developing, and I learned a lot just by simply listening to the residents and hearing their stories. It is very rewarding to see some of the residents grow and find success at the group home.
180 Degrees Group Home
The group home is a non-profit organization, so they do rely on volunteers and interns to help out at the home. This is what led me to my project volunteer outreach. I personally interviewed each of the residents to see what traits they value and look for the most in a volunteer. Based on the most frequently requested traits I added them to a flyer. The flyer had those traits and other basic information about the group home. I then got it printed in a large quantity to be distributed around the St. Cloud area. I went to various volunteer locations such as United Way of Central Minnesota and Volunteers of America, and I also put the flyer on the SCSU campus and Career Services website. I hope this flyer can be used as a way to get the community more involved with the group home, and with the residents struggling to find success. The flyer will be able to be used and redistributed long after I am at the home, and I hope they can get more volunteers involved with their cause.
If you are interested in working for at the group home I suggest you get in contact with Katie, she runs the internship portion of the home. She’s super easy to talk to and gets back to you very quickly. She is very flexible with your schedule and works with you to make sure you get the hours you need. I really recommend 180 Degrees as an internship because you can use your sociology skills in a variety of ways. Each day at the home is unique and keeps you on your toes. You also learn a lot about how our juvenile justice system works and get to work very closely with the youth. If you are interested Katie’s email is Kathrine.Madison@180degrees.org, or you can call her at (320)259-6764.
Update: July 2018: Hired as a Child Protection Worker 1 for Stearns County. I believe the Critical Applied really prepared me for this, and everyone was very curious about what the critical applied meant in my interview!
I am a Student Success Specialist for McKinley ALC High School in Waite Park. I work with different students with different ethnic backgrounds, race, gender and disabilities. I have various task and roles that I must meet in order for these students to succeed in graduating on time or within a short time frame. I’ve learned that I need to better understand each student learning environment and understand how to approach each student differently and accordingly. I also learned that I need to be consistent and available to each student. Being consistent shows the student that there is stability in the school when there isn’t at home or where they stay. This help the students build relationships with me and the other SSS.
The final project that I incorporated is a time sheet/frame for these students to follow on the path to graduating. This power point I put together shows the student how many credits they need to complete for that grade year and to continue the next grade. This will efficiently guide them to keep on track with graduating with their class.
This school is currently growing and things are falling into place. Having college student being present in their school shows them that many people from different walks of life can accomplish their goals with the right amount of dedication and resilience. The Critical Applied Sociology major gave me the opportunity to apply for internships and gave me a platform to practice applications of the course materials I’ve learned. Also, to better understand the term of sociology and use them in everyday basis to practice them. Understanding the different social structures and social stratifications, knowing how to maneuver with people who have come from different social class and ethnicities. Being diverse and open to new people and understanding how society labels people as such. This internship and the major will help me have dialogue with other who may not have a sociology background or even know what current event issues that are going on today. The ability to use sociology in my vocabulary and being able to speak in a manner in which I was taught to. Passing on the knowledge of this major and what the professors have taught me, to pass that forward to someone else to inform them in societal issues and oppressions we face and want to eliminate. This major also taught me how to build interpersonal relationships with many different backgrounds and understanding their placement and how they will treat me based off of my social class and social status. This helps me understand what the world is like with the methods and applications I learned at SCSU.
McKinley Staff and CAAS at SCSU Building Bridges
This picture was my facility manager and I came to SCSU to speak with CAAS and exchange information to get more college student from their organization to volunteer or become a mentor. The following weekend, CAAS had a talent show and had students from McKinley perform their acts for the audience. This is one way we bridged the gap between high school student and college students.
This blog post gives you a little glimpse of the work sociologist do, they give back to the community and help when no one is willing. Being a part of this program helped me get out of my comfort zone and branch out to meet new people and become a professional. Also, applying what I’ve learned in my studies to apply them in the real world and understanding the term, concepts and theories better with hands on experience.
Contacts:
Mr. Murray is the assistant principal and I contacted him for my current internship positions. The number that he can be reached at 320-203-8470, also you can speak with Mr. Midy for information on how to become a Student Success Specialist. The link for the school website is https://www.isd742.org/alc. All the information anyone will need to contact with the school is provided and other employment options if suits.
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it. ” -Karl Marx
About Me
Andrew Small
Hello, I am a Senior at St. Cloud State University. My major is Sociology and my minor is Human Relations. I live with my girlfriend in a house on campus with my one and a half-year-old son. I am not sure what the future holds but I plan on working in the non-profit sector. I enjoy biking around town and hanging out with my family.
My Internship with United Way
Internships in non-profit can be eye-opening, challenging, and nothing like you would expect. I went into the internship expecting to do direct services work, but quickly found out United Way is not necessarily direct service. United Way is primarily a fundraising non-profit that does some direct service work. For this reason, it is a unique environment that has different departments all working together. United Way taught me that I need to take action and be independent and self-motivated in my work because there was not a set list of tasks to complete. The position was community impact intern, and I would suggest the position to any sociologist that likes to come up with new abstract ideas. United Way is constantly adapting and changing with the community, so a sociological perspective is beneficial to their organization. If you are someone who wants to be part of social change in the community, this is the perfect internship for you. I had plenty of opportunities to be on committees and councils that help with homelessness, financial stability, access to food, and early learning. As a sociology major, it was nice to be involved in some of the structural changes United Way was involved in.
The internship is an opportunity to connect the micro-level inequalities we see with the lager meso-level community of Central Minnesota. I took on the role of a mini assistant to my supervisor learning how to navigate the city and relationships with partners. The role of an intern really takes on the form of applied sociology. My supervisors never limited my thinking or ideas, and any solution to the cities social problems was encouraged. Social policy was a driving force of most the work I did at United Way. I was part of a committee that drafted a bill, and also part of policy change at the school district and city level.
I was able to use my knowledge of social theory and theoretical frameworks to help guide these policies and point out potential problems. A big part of working with a social policy so much is that it heavily relies on structural functionalism. The United Way I worked at opened in 1967, a time when certain institutions were being questioned and a new culture of institutions were being formed. I would contend that most of the staff at United Way believes in the ideas of Talcott Parsons. All the partnerships United Way had with fund recipients served a function and operated best when everyone followed the rules.
I was involved in community issues surrounding homelessness, early learning, and financial stability. United Way has other areas of focus but the three I mentioned are what I was most involved in. I completed an informative report on affordable housing and housing first. I was involved in meeting with city officials, developers, and businesses in an attempt to help the homelessness issue. The meetings were intended to help gain insight and guide future funding decisions for United Way of Central Minnesota. United Way also works with early learning and financial stability. I helped with a book program that sends children age 0-5 one book a month. The picture was from an event called Llama Llama day at the regional library in St. Cloud. The event is to help promote early learning and child development by getting kids excited and interested in books. The financial stability portion of my work was to have an impact on families and adults who were having a hard time getting out of poverty.
Llama Llama Day
The summer before I interned the United Way opened up two neighborhood resource centers at low-income elementary schools. The neighborhood resource centers have a United Way staff their that tries to build relationships with teachers, students, and parents so that everyone can thrive both financially and academically. They help students get food, clothing, and supplies while also offering resources in the community to adults. As an intern, I was involved in the behind the scenes operations and planning of these programs and social policies.
If you are interested in volunteering your time or interning at United Way you can reach out via email or visit their website. I would highly recommend this internship to anyone who is interested in structural social change. You get to be involved in various aspects of the community as well.
Contacts:
Daniel Larson dlarson@unitedwayhelps.org
Jessica Houle jhoule@unitedwayhelps.org
Luna Gebriel with her CTUL colleagues
Luna interned with a low wage workers organization called Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL).
I worked specifically on the Fast Food campaign, where I organized fast food workers around workplace issues. Some of these issues included wage theft, fair scheduling, enforcement of $15 as a minimum wage in Minneapolis and much more. Also, identifying potential leaders in stores along the way. Organizing within labor, though still connected, is different than other forms of organizing. It ties all of the intersections of class, race, gender, etc.
Project:
Due to my experience working with majority workers of color, I was also able to envision and create my final project on collaborating with other organizations on common issues. I facilitated an initial meeting between leaders of Black Visions Collective (BLVC) and Black Lives Matter (Minneapolis Chapter), and Organizers from Centro de Trabajadores en Lucha (CTUL), to discuss the bridge between the role of Black Lives and the Labor Movement as a whole. We also discussed the intricate details of what that entails, and specifically what the work of that looks like while organizing workers on the field.
Overall:
It was one thing to learn about this within the classroom, but to actually be on the field and applying it was a whole different experience. I was able to fail and grow in ways I never thought possible. I learned about social problems in the classroom, but actually seeing it play out in front of my face was shocking, amongst other forms of emotions. However, strategizing with some of the best organizers within the Twin Cities on how to combat these issues was empowering.
Information about CTUL:
Below is the contact information for CTUL and details about the Fast Food Campaign, for anyone who may want to look into it in the future. Peace.
Fast Food Campaign
“The fast food industry is growing and replacing good paying jobs. These ever growing companies aren’t sharing their wealth with their employees, many of whom are paid poverty wages that can’t support an entire family. CTUL and workers have been fighting back, demanding just wages and benefits from this powerful industry.”
Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha
The Center of Workers United in Struggle
3715 Chicago Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55407
(612) 332-0663
Post Internship:
I am currently the Community Organizer for a new organization called MN Youth Collective. This is an organization committed to creating space and resources for young people to be able to engage in political processes. This has been an amazing experience for two reasons. One, I have been able to apply many skills from my internship, and two I was able to combine my love of working with youth and organizing. All in all, I am very happy with the results and growth I received from CTUL, as I am still in contact and continue to do work with the organization.
Clarissa Kostka Upward Bound
Clarissa Kostka served her internship as a
Lead Residential Advisor in a paid position for the Upward Bound/TRIO program summer of 2013-14. Experience included supervising staff, gaining administrative skills, demonstrating knowledge of non-profit organization, etc. Her final project included an evaluation research project of the summer program to provide valuable insight to the staff for future years.
Future interns interested in interning as part of the Upward Bound/TRIO program in Northern Minnesota can be Residential Advisors (RA), sharing the responsibility for the community development of approximately 40 to 50 Upward Bound students.
RA’s live in the dorms with students monitoring student behavior and interacting with students to build professional rapport. If interested, contact the Director of Upward Bound:
office phone (218) 322-2461
Itasca Community College
Upward Bound
1851 East Highway 169
Grand Rapids, MN 55744
http://www.itascacc.edu/academics/trio-programs/upward-bound/about-upward-bound.html
Update: After graduation Clarissa accepted a temporary position with TRIO at Anoka-Ramsey Community College in Cambridge. She was then hired for the permanent position working with a caseload of about 30 students at St. Francis High School. She had her one-year evaluation and reported “I received praise for my strength in diversity training and always reminding us to look at things from a different perspective. I owe that to my sociology training.” She also serves on the Sociologists of Minnesota Board of Directors as an Applied Sociologist.
Critical Thinking Definition, Skills, and Examples
An article discussing the importance of critical thinking skills in careers.
Critical thinking is one of the most sought after qualities that employer seek in job candidates. Employers list this skill as a job qualification in a broad range of job postings including both professional and non-professional positions. Regardless of the job for which you’re applying, critical thinking skills will be an in-demand asset.
Read more:
https://www.thebalance.com/critical-thinking-definition-with-examples-2063745
Internships in non-profit social justice organizations can be a powerful, challenging, and fulfilling experience for students from a diverse range of disciplines. My experience with Take Action MN taught me the skills I needed to build community and political power, building relationships with community members and organizations, and providing the necessary resources to the community to educate and build powerful leadership skills. This work is an especially powerful experience for sociology students that wish to address structural and systemic oppression through grassroots mobilization, community education, and local, state, and national policy-change. The environment of social justice work is framed by a culture that builds relationships through shared cultural values and aimed at creating structural change to challenge and dismantle systems of oppression fueled by neoliberal capitalism.
There is an expansive range of skills that sociology students can apply into the fieldwork and administrative work of organizations like Take Action Minnesota. Because the work consists of expanding the political and economic framework of Take Action, there are a plethora of opportunities for sociology students to create an impactful internship experience. I used my internship to critically analyze the internal structures of social justice work and organizations to gain insight into the creation and building of social movements, and in the process used that insight to reflect on my own experience and my stake in the movement for social justice.
Group Photo!
There were also plenty of opportunities for me to take on powerful roles and find ways to challenge and build myself. My team that I worked with were in the beginning stages of building a base of community members in St. Cloud when I reached out to them about my internship. As a result, I was given many opportunities to build relationships in the community, gain experience in the groundwork of movement-building, and, above all, build a legacy for myself in St. Cloud. I was propositioned to take on a role to powerfully ask attendees of the first St. Cloud Annual Meeting to become sustaining monthly contributing members of Take Action by expressing my stake in the work and telling my story, and as a result gained over $500 for the organization.
Protest at the capitol
I also had the opportunity to go to Washington DC to attend a national convention, be a part of a large direct action at the White House, and meet national leaders from around the country. Finally, I also took on the opportunity to lead a training on how to build powerful relationships in the community, one of the first and most important steps to building a movement.
For my final project, I compiled a guide for leaders to facilitate trainings on how to caucus using in-depth discussion and hands-on learning. This guide will be useful for leaders in Take Action MN to lead their own caucus trainings to build higher turnout in future caucuses throughout Minnesota, as well as for myself in my interest in connecting students in St. Cloud with their community and building a powerful grassroots student movement in St. Cloud. This guide will help students with an interest in politics build student turnout in the local caucus and take on a powerful role in building student leaders at St. Cloud State. For future interns with interests in social justice organizing, I highly recommend using your internship to help build a powerful student movement and build powerful student leaders so that you may create a legacy for yourself on your campus and in your community.
Sociology students also have an advantage in this work considering our theoretical focus on the historical structures of capitalism and oppression as well as individual, group, and societal behaviors, attitudes, and values. Social justice and community organizing needs people with background in this knowledge in order to build relationships and leaders in the community and build movements for social justice. Sociologists can use this knowledge to research strategies, tactics, and procedures used by social justice organizations to find creative new ways to build power and community. Research and analytical skills are also important in the movement for social justice, be it data entry and statistical analysis, analyzing attitudes, values, and opinions of community members through qualitative or quantitative research, and theorizing new ways to expand the framework of the social justice movement. Finally, this knowledge is also very powerful in understanding our own oppressions, our stake in the movement, and our internal barriers that keep us from becoming the people we see ourselves becoming. If nothing else, this experience is highly reflective and powerful in building ourselves in our careers with the skills we’ve been given.
The job of intern organizers at Take Action MN varies depending on your placement in the organization and what program you work for. The common responsibilities of all fieldworkers are to schedule and have one-to-one conversations with community members (about 3-5 per week), lead and attend leadership trainings, build relationships with and between community members and organizations, lead and prepare phonebanks, attend and participate in community meetings, lead and attend direct actions, and build issue-based campaigns around issues important to ourselves and the community. Take Action MN provides trainings for all of its leaders in how to build their skills in these responsibilities. For information on available internships and job postings, visit Take Action MN’s website below, or contact Take Action MN’s outreach coordinator at april@takeactionminnesota.org. You may also visit their staff directory to contact program managers directly if you are interested in organizing in a particular program. Take Action MN provides both paid and unpaid internships.
JOB POSTINGS for Take Action MN:
http://www.takeactionminnesota.org/about-us/job-postings/
UPDATE: 6/29/17 Mike got a job with Take Action MN on their outreach team in the Twin Cities.
UPDATE: 7/15/18 Mike got a job as a Shelter Advocate with Stepping Stones
