MICAH Summer Fellowships
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.
In the wake of the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, we are reminded that justice for Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and countless others has not been met, leading activists and scholars to take to the streets, the workplace, and classrooms to decry anti-Black racism and call attention to the ongoing devaluation of Black lives in the U.S. and globally. The wave of uprisings that have swept the nation and globe represent part of a long struggle of anti-racist organizing—one that can be traced back hundreds of years. This multidisciplinary fellowship seeks to meaningfully engage in this ongoing struggle by giving each fellow the opportunity to examine racism on a systems, institutional and personal level. (adapted from University of Pittsburgh Anti-Black Racism: History, Ideology, and Resistance Course)
Application Process:
- Attend an info session
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Email smc6@stmarys-ca.edu or gb20@stmarys-ca.edu to schedule
- Program Overview (READ BEFORE APPLYING)
- INTERNSHIP DESCRIPTIONS (carefully review before applying) (click here)
- APPLICATION (click here) (APPLY BY 3/15 @ 11:59 PM)
6 SMC and 6 USD students (12 total) will be selected to participate in the MICAH Summer Fellowship in 2022.
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 with intention and engage in two community nights per week. One evening, they will discuss readings, reflections, projects, and their experiences at their non-profit organizations. 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 team of staff, facilitators and alumni mentors from USD and SMC coordinates and facilitates the MICAH Summer Fellowship, maintaining regular contact with the Fellows and community partners. Fellows are expected to devote 32 hours each week to their community partner organization and are not permitted to engage in any other employment during the fellowship period. The weekends will include both facilitated and unfacilitated opportunities to connect, grow and learn. Each fellow will receive a $4,000 fellowship award upon completion in lieu of summer employment.