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Summer Field Practicum and Internship
Learning Objectives
Criteria for Practicum and Internship
Requirements
Work Planning
Field Practicum
Sustainable Development Field Project Write Up
Funding to Support Field Practicum
Field Practicum Funding Deadlines
Supervision
Safety & Health
Student Evaluations
Counterpart Evaluations
The field practicum and internship experience offer students the opportunity to learn about cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural problem-solving outside the classroom through interacting with experienced practitioners, local communities, as well as agencies and organizations addressing important development needs.
Learning Objectives
Through the practicum students will learn to:
- Apply interdisciplinary scholarship to the resolution of practical problems in key development sectors, such as health, livelihood, business, agriculture, environment, education and infrastructure.
- Effectively use project cycle management through problem identification, analysis, design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
- Work in teams, and preferably cross-cultural teams.
- Collaborate with and build relationships with practitioners such as government officials, NGOs, communities and/or donor project personnel.
- Plan and work in the field proactively, including organizing logistics, meals, meetings, briefing and debriefing sessions and otherwise managing the logistics and process of field work.
- Appreciate and address the complexities of promoting sustainable development.
- Communicate effectively and facilitate meetings with stakeholders, including methods such as Action Research, Participatory Rural Appraisal, collaborative planning meetings, visualization and feedback workshops, and generally respectful communication with and listening to communities and support agencies.
- Self-critically use self-reflection and inter-personal skills and dynamics to analyze attitudes, perceptions and biases.
- Understand first-hand key interconnected sectors of education, agriculture, environment, health, nutrition, energy, infrastructure, water, gender, and community development.
- Integrate knowledge of cross-sectoral issues, local insights and community participation into field training projects and activities.
- Identify promising strategies for a policy intervention to advance sustainable development (at the local, national, or regional level).
Criteria for Practicum and Internship
The practicum or internship should meet the following criteria:
- Work closely with a host institution and communities on a defined set of practical activities with specific deliverables.
- Integrate more than one development sector.
- Cross more than one of the foundational disciplines of the MDP.
- Involve working with at least one local community or other development constituency.
- Include preparing a product to be presented to the community and other stakeholders.
- Minimum of 10 weeks in the field or developing country.
Requirements
Passing the MDP will require students to:
- Plan their summer internship.
- Implement their internship according to this plan or modifications to it in a field practicum.
- Keep a daily diary of events, observations and reflections during their field practicum.
- Report back results of internship to local community and other stakeholders.
- Write a report or some other specified deliverables relating to this plan, which will serve as the MDP Master’s project to be defended at the final comprehensive exam.
Work Planning
Students will be required to write a work plan in the form of a project proposal setting out:
- Background, conceptual and theoretical framework for the intervention they are planning to make.
- How the project meets the learning objectives listed above.
- Detailed description of their planned summer activities (presented in the log-frame format).
- Written and other products to be generated, and for whom
The process of developing the proposal will be facilitated and guided in the Sustainable Development Practice Seminar/Workshop (3 credits), which is scheduled in the spring semester prior to the field practicum. Proposal development may be accomplished in two steps. The first step is to generate an initial proposal described below. Once this initial proposal is approved by the student’s major advisor and committee and by the host organization that will support the work, it will be submitted for consideration for funding support with other materials in an application packet. The second step will be the preparation of a more detailed proposal with a more thorough description of the methodologies to be utilized, the analyses to be carried out and anticipated products (results). The definitive proposal will also be approved by the student’s advisory committee. Funding for these proposals will depend on the availability of financial resources. The exact mechanism for deciding how available resources are to be allocated will be communicated each year to the MDP students. Faculty members who participate on the committee that decides on the allocation of available resources, may also provide observations to improve conceptual and methodological aspects of the proposals.
Field Practicum
The following field practicum options are available to MDP students:
Each of these options is summarized below and more details can be obtained by following the relevant website links and by consulting with MDP faculty, including your major advisor.
(a) Botswana Field School
Structured 11 week field school in Botswana composed of 7 weeks of supervised practical experience in ecological monitoring, analysis of livelihood strategies, governance, health, district planning followed by a 4 week project led and implemented by the student/s.
Applications for funding to defray the costs of the Botswana field school should be made following the field practicum guidelines indicated above and procedures for summer field practica funds listed here.
Application Deadline: March 1, 2011
(b) Costa Rica Study Abroad Program
Offered every summer by the UF Levin College of Law with a focus on environmental law and policy skills training (with a possible attachment to MDP program in Costa Rica).
Website
Application Form
Application Deadline: March, 18, 2011
(c) Internships with suitable conservation and development NGO/ organization
Provided that these meet the learning objectives and criteria listed above, students will work with their UF advisors and an identified counterpart in NGO to formulate an appropriate program in the spring semester prior to the internship. It will be important to identify the country and host organization during the Fall Semester.
Applications for funding to defray the costs of internship should be made following the field practicum guidelines indicated above and procedures for summer field practica funds listed here.
(d) Internship with Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD)
A not-for-profit charitable organization based in San Francisco, which offers individual internships and group learning opportunities in community-driven sustainable development in 10 regions in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Interns receive development training in needs assessments, project design and implementation, grant writing, monitoring and evaluation, and other development topics. These skills are subsequently applied in a community-driven project in collaboration with FSD and a host organization. FSD also offers small grants, which can be used to fund project work (details here).
Website
Application Form
Application Deadline
(e) Field courses and/or experience offered by other MDP programs within the global MDP network
MDP programs such as the one being developed by CATIE in Costa Rica or the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia may offer attractive opportunities for UF MDP students. For a full list and links to all MDP programs click here.
Sustainable Development Field Project Write Up
The student will be expected to document their field experience in a daily diary and produce one or more of the following deliverables, including the products that will serve as the Master’s project for the MDP:
- Project evaluation or consultancy report
- Extension materials for communities or other development constituencies
- Funding proposal to summarize and continue the project
- Peer reviewed journal article
- Curriculum and materials for a practitioner training course
- DVD/video documentary
- Other formats as agreed by the students advisor and advisory committee
This post-field process will be supported by the Sustainable Development Team Project class (3 credits) offered in the Fall semester following the Field Practicum.
Funding to Support Field Practicum
Limited funding is available to support MDP students to travel to field sites and to off-set major expenses including airfare, student health insurance, in country living expenses, as well as, study abroad overhead and UF tuition for up to 6 credits if student is registered for credits. Students will be informed each year of the opportunities to secure funding and the mechanisms to apply for it.
To apply for a summer field school scholarship, students should submit an application packet to the MDP office (470 Grinter Hall) including the following materials:
- An abstract of no more that 250 words explaining the project in non-technical language.
- An initial proposal of no more than 4 single- spaced pages (a bibliography may be appended to the proposal). The proposal should specify:
- Proposed placement and host institution/s
- In-country supervisor
- How the criteria listed above, under criteria for practicum and internship, will be met
- The proposed problem/s to be addressed
- Objectives and methods
- Proposed activities and anticipated products
- A timetable for the proposed practicum proposal
- The proposal should be as specific as possible even though conditions often change in the field
- Letter showing the agreed terms of reference with host institution/s
- A completed Application Form
- A completed Budget Form
- UF unofficial transcript
- Approval by the student’s advisory committee indicating that the proposal meets MDP field practicum criteria.
Field Practicum Funding Deadlines
Applications will be reviewed and funding decisions made by an MDP funding applications committee in mid February.
FEBRUARY 1
Students should submit draft proposals to their advisory committees before February 1. This will provide students the time to incorporate feedback on how to improve the proposal before submission to the MDP funding applications committee.
FEBRUARY 14
Students should submit their application packet to the MDP office for review by the summer funding applications committee. In making funding decisions, the committee will evaluate whether the proposed project meets the MDP field practicum criteria and the feasibility of proposed project. The committee will also provide feedback to all students on how to improve their proposals.
Funding applications may
- Be approved for funding unconditionally
- Students may be requested to revise and resubmit their proposals
- In some cases the committee may suggest that students should develop a different field practicum or attend the supervised field experience in Botswana
MARCH 1 Students who will revise and resubmit their proposals for funding should do so before March 1st.
*Students are strongly encouraged to follow the above timelines in order to receive funding before the start of their field practicum.
BEGINNING MAY Students will use the rest of the Spring semester to develop the definitive proposal in the Sustainable Development Practice Seminar/Workshop class. This proposal will be used as the final product for a satisfactory pass of the class and as a useful guide to the Field Practicum.
Information and Submission
Submit complete application packets to:
MDP Summer Funding Applications
470 Grinter Hall
P.O. Box 115560
Gainesville, Fl 32601-5560
Unforeseen circumstances preventing the student from carrying out or completing the field practicum: In cases where unforeseen problems beyond the student’s control make it impossible to carry out the field practicum or result in only a partial completion of the of the work envisaged, the student’s advisory committee and/or the MDP director will evaluate the situation on a case-by-case basis and decide on the appropriate measures. One option that may be considered is that the student conducts a systematic, in depth review of the experience including a detailed overview of the problems and challenges faced and lessons learnt to enhance the success of future international work. In addition, the student would also be required to prepare a professional paper on the topic and region of interest drawing on the best sources available of information (both local and from international sources). The student and his/her advisory committee will define the specific aspects to be covered in the professional paper. The report on the experience and paper will together form the Master’s project to pass the MDP.
Supervision
While overall supervision will typically be the responsibility of the student’s advisory committee, students should ideally be supported by a combination of local practitioners, community members and local faculty members. Weekly assignments and regular communication between the lead supervisor and each student will be important, even essential, for the student’s safety and security as well as for their overall learning experience.
Safety and health
Site placements for student field training should be in locations that have been identified as safe and secure by local partners and government officials. National and local authorities and Embassies of the student’s country of citizenship (if present) as well as country of home institution should be made aware of the students’ presence in the site, the objectives of the training, and should support efforts to ensure that the students are safe and have access to assistance in case of emergency. Health services must be available within the community, and students should obtain international health insurance. Students will take part in an orientation session on how to mitigate diverse risks during the Field Practicum. It is very strongly suggested that students in the field be accompanied at all times by a fellow student or assistant during the field work and to carry a list of important contacts and phone numbers to solicit support while abroad (in the host country and in Florida).
Student Evaluations
Student work during the course of the field-training program may be evaluated through their daily diary/journal, feedback from local practitioners, completion of specific assignments (e.g. cross-sectoral business plans), and project outputs. Grading for the UF summer practicum is on an S/U basis (satisfactory/unsatisfactory). If students leave the program for personal, medical or security reasons, without completing at least [60%] of the expected time, they should be required to complete a similar field training program before graduating from the MDP. Students will be required to provide to host institutions and collaborators reports detailing the results of the study and important implications of the findings. The first report should be provided to indicate preliminary results while in country.
Counterpart Evaluations
Local counterparts will also be asked to provide an evaluation of the work carried out by the student (or group of students) to ensure that the field training experience is continually improved and updated. Community members may also be asked to reflect on the work of the MDP students, and how their field-training program may be improved. Apart from informing the adaptive redesign of individual field training programs, the evaluations also serve as a valuable resource to other MDP partner universities that are in the process of creating or restructuring field-training programs.
