Summer Institute from the Perspective of a SDICCCA Intern

Although it took me awhile to post this, it is my pleasure to share that my application for the SDICCCA Internship was approved, and I have begun interning at San Diego City College! Please review my earlier posts if you seek information about how I approached the application process.

I plan to use this  space to convey my experience over the next year, and would like to begin by reflecting on the Summer Institute portion of the internship. I hope others who seek information will find my experience useful.

Summer Institute (takes place in the summer before the fall semester)

Where: This summer (2009) interns met at Miramar College and Mesa College.

When: There are six summer sessions. Interns meet for three hours, from 6pm-9pm. Attendance is required, but if necessary, you can make up a missed session by attending a class meeting of ARP 611 or ARP 631 during the fall semester.

Who: All of the interns selected for each campus meet with the director of the program, Dr. Kendra Jeffcoat.

Why: Dr. Jeffcoat’s words (sent in an email to the interns) explain why:
“The program will give you the opportunity to learn more about the community college system, to identify the teaching and/or counseling skills needed within the community college, and to create a network of colleagues within the community college system.”

In addition, interns review important websites, discuss the basic skills initiative, identify the roles of faculty (which extend beyond the classroom), discuss adult learning, review students’ characteristics and needs, review course goals, and practice developing student learning outcomes.

Applying for the SDICCCA Internship? Share Your Experience.

As we near the deadline for submitting applications to become interns in the SDICCCA Regional Faculty Internship, more and more people have begun searching for information about the process, and I’ve been receiving a lot more traffic at this site. I encourage all visitors to share their anxieties, their experience with the application process, and why they want to intern, here in my blog. Please leave comments. Let’s support one another. Tell us who you are, which colleges interest you, what you’ve done in preparation for the application, how you feel about the opportunity, basically all things SDICCCA related. We can pave the way for next year’s applicants, and perhaps, network with one another if selected to participate by the committee.  I believe in building a community of support, and hope you will join me.

Masters Schmasters: Options after Grad School

Like many of you new graduates out there drowning in a riotous river of new applicants, that is, in a job market inundated with thousands of layoffs each month, I’m wondering if my hard-earned Masters degree has any value. Sure, not everyone has one, but many do, and the many that do have years of experience behind them as well — making them especially competitive in the job market. So what is a new grad to do?

Consider Enrolling in a Ph.D. Program
The Good: Most Ph.D. programs offer full tuition remission, and some, like USC Annenberg (where I intend to apply), offer students a stipend and health benefits for five years. During your studies, you will have opportunities to obtain critical experience in teaching, article writing, preparing and delivering papers for conferences, and original research. Aspiring educators at the community college and university levels will discover that finding work after grad school with their doctorate is much easier than with their masters. Why? Well, that’s the bad.
The Bad: Ph.D. programs are tough to get into. Most universities accept between 10 and 15 students once per year. That’s pretty hardcore. Even with excellent GRE scores, letters of recommendation, transcripts, and a well-crafted letter of intent, there’s no guarantee you will be admitted. Additionally, you must pay for the university to review your application, which can range from $55-$100, and pay for your transcripts, with can run between $5-$20 per college attended. That’s an expensive gamble to make when you’re unemployed or hurting financially. Imagine applying to three or four programs with these fees. It can be discouraging.

Apply for an Internship
The Good: Recent graduates often lack the experience they need to enter their chosen field straight out of college. Internships provide these grads with opportunities to gain real-world experience in an authentic learning environment. For example, I’m applying for the SDICCCA Regional Faculty Internship. If selected for this program, I’ll be partnered with a mentor professor at a community college in San Diego, who I’ll shadow in all of their duties for a semester. The mentor will continue to guide and instruct me the following semester as I teach a section of a course on my own. This experience will makes me more competitive in the community college career market because of the training and the classroom teaching component.
The Bad: Like enrolling in a Ph.D. program, internships, too, are competitive. Not everyone gets selected. You must fill in the application in such a way as to stand out amongst the many applicants. Also, most internships are unpaid. This means you may have to work elsewhere to make ends meet while participating in the internship that will take you to the next level. Balancing work with an internship can be taxing, both emotionally and physically. Long hours and heavy workloads come with the gig, as well as living on meager wages (if working part-time).

Not Your Dream Job? It’s OK to Trade Down
The Good: Pay your rent on time. Pay off your credit cards. Pay down your loans. Really, the most central reason people consider trading down the career totem pole is because they have bills. In my opinion, it’s better to take a lower paying job, or a job you once did but vowed you would never do again (which, for me, is retail), then to fall into debt. The last thing you should want is to compound your problems with creditors, or to damage your credit score (which, incidentally, many employers will check when they run your background to determine if you’re a responsible person).
The Bad: Swallowing your pride. Sacrificing your ego. Postponing a dream. Perhaps, in some fields, damaging your resume. For the most part, though, employers are well aware of the recession we’re in. They know that over 600,000 jobs alone were lost in January. That more people are collecting unemployment now than any time since the government began keeping records in 1967 (Anderson Cooper).

As you can see, there are no easy answers and no quick fixes. The recession, housing market crises, credit burst, and costs for gasoline and health care have placed us all in the line of fire. Job security? Psh. New graduates are lucky to find one to begin with. The best we can do is to think creatively, try new approaches, sharpen our skills, and fight the good fight!

StandUp for Kids: Final Training Day

On the final day of training, Bill took us out on a four-mile trek through downtown to visit areas where homeless teens kick it during the day; areas that will likely come up in conversation with a new counselor. Our journey began at the drop-in center across from City College. We worked our way east and then south, to see an area called “the tent,” and to pass St. Vincent de Paul’s shelter. We then walked west, to the trolley station on 12th and Imperial–which kids refer to as the “clock tower” because of a large campanile-style tower–and then we continued to the San Diego Convention Center, where kids chill at a park called “Mario Park.” After Mario Park, we went to Ralphs and then ”the Block” which spans the area on the east side of Horton Plaza (4th Avenue exactly). We walked several more streets, up and down (passing the city library and post office), before returning to the center to set up interviews.

As we walked, I actively tried to defamiliarize myself with the area. I went to City College for five years and worked in Horton Plaza for two, and feel an attachment to the surrounding areas. I wanted to cut myself off from that attachment temporarily, in an attempt to see the streets through the eyes of a homeless teen. All of a sudden, downtown felt very small to me. Surely, downtown does not compare to New York or Chicago in terms of size, but compared to many, downtown San Diego is pretty popping. Nevertheless, when you are homeless and routinely hassled by the police, the area seems to shrink significantly. I imagine being woke up by a blinding bright light, loud siren or bullhorn, having a baton poked in my side, to be told to hurry up and get a move on. To avoid much of this harassment, many of the teens have set up squats in hard-to-reach areas, like in the median area between north and south 163. We didn’t visit the squat, but Bill suggests we should check it out sometime with another counselor if invited by a “resident.”

StandUp for Kids: 2nd and 3rd Monday

I must be honest. I did not attend the second Monday of training and that is why this blog entry is 2 weeks behind. I did go to the 3rd Monday of training an hour early to catch up on what I missed. Thanks, Bill, for meeting with me.

In a nutshell, here’s what I learned:
If you become an outreach counselor, expect to pair up and hit the streets with someone more experienced than you. Together you will travel to known areas in San Diego where homeless teenagers hang out away from their squat: Ocean Beach (specifically the wall), downtown SD and surrounding areas, Parkway Plaza in El Cajon, and a few other places. Outreach counselors will carry on their person a backpack filled with basic supplies and non-perishable food. It is not the objective of the counselor to advertise the drop-in center, since, for example, the likelihood of a homeless teen finding their way from El Cajon to downtown is very low (in addition to a lack of funds for public transport, the teens usually stay near their squats); rather, the goals are to pass out supplies to some young people who need them, provide information for assistance programs (such as WIC), to show some kindness for no other reason than to show somebody cares, and at times, to provide basic first aid (e.g., bandaids, alcohol wipes, gauze).  Note: Homeless teens come in all different sizes, shapes, ethnicities, levels of cleanliness. Some may be wearing dirty, ripped garments. Others may be wearing trendy fashions. Some (more than you’d expect) will have cell phones. Our trainer suggests approaching teens without preconceived notions. Explain who you are and what StandUp for Kids is all about. Then ask them if they know any homeless teens who could use some help. This way you don’t offend a person, and they know you’re coming from a non-judgmental place.

If you become a center counselor, expect to spend one day (the same day) at the center each week. Your duties could include: signing in the teens as they enter, delegating chores, serving food, doing laundry, and advising teens on everything from public assistance programs to interview skills. The overarching goal of the center is to provide a family-like atmosphere, one in which these teens interact with one another and with the adult staff in a positive way that builds healthy relationships. Many of these kids come from broken, violent homes. Many have never had an adult in their life who treated them with respect. Many have never had a relationship with a male figure who did not want sex from them, or to beat and mentally abuse them. The center, then, is a space where positive relationships thrive, where information is shared, and where, hopefully, homeless teens find the path to getting off the streets permanently.