Internship Information

Minnesota – Metro Urban Studies Term

The following provides detailed information on internships that have been available most recently. Sites often change in response to the needs of local organizations and the specific interests of students participating in the program where possible.  

All Parks Alliance for Change
APAC works to improve the quality of life in manufactured (mobile) home parks through grassroots organizing, and to protect the rights of residents with a philosophy of helping people help themselves. The MUST student this semester created a video documentary of interviews with people in the Bemidji area, specifically targeting issues effecting Native American mobile home owners. His work will lay the groundwork for APAC’s expanding tenant organizing and education work in greater Minnesota and with Native American mobile park home residents.

Avenues for Homeless Youth
The mission of Avenues for Homeless Youth is to provide emergency shelter, short term housing and support services for homeless youth in a safe and nurturing environment. In addition to their two shelters in North and South Minneapolis, Avenues has established the following programmatic priorities: GLBT Host Home, Youth Empowerment, Mental and Physical Health, and Community Advocacy. The MUST student this semester conducted focus groups with the youth staying at the shelter in North Minneapolis and developed a comparison report assessing the youth’s opinions about homelessness that the shelter will use to start a comprehensive evaluation of their services.

Catalyst Learning Center
Catalyst is a Minneapolis-based startup founded by a dedicated group of teachers, tutors, and computer programmers who want to make tutoring more efficient and effective for underrepresented youth in Minneapolis. They offer free homework help and one-on-one individualized math learning programs that help students master the critical mathematical concepts they need to pass Graduation Requirement Examinations (GREs) and college entrance examinations. The MUST student helped the all-volunteer staff at Catalyst start a development and grant writing initiative to ensure their growth and sustainability in their first year of operation. She also worked one on one with the center’s youth.

Cedar Riverside Adult Education Collaborative
The Cedar Riverside Adult Education Collaborative is a collaboration between three partner agencies: Riverside Plaza Tenants’ Association (RPTA), Brian Coyle Community Center, and Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Basic Education Program. Since the year 2000, these three agencies have pooled resources and worked jointly to provide education opportunities to adult immigrants and refugees living in and around the Cedar Riverside neighborhood. The MUST student served as the volunteer coordinator for the center and was the main contact and liaison between ELL teachers and the many service learning college volunteers in the center’s adult education programs.

Extended Family Network, Harvest Prep Elementary
Seed Academy/Harvest Preparatory School is the only accredited full-time, African-centered pre-school and elementary school in the state of Minnesota. The Extended Family Network at Harvest Prep is a program that builds support networks for each child at the school fostering familial and community support and involvement in the school and in student’s lives. The MUST student this semester worked to expand this new program by helping parents and families at a grassroots level to meet the needs of the school and of other families. He also worked with the mentoring program and as a teaching assistant in one of the math classrooms.

Family and Children's' Services, Community Organizing and Systems Change Initiatives
The Community Organizing and Systems Change Initiatives division of FCS has three main programs: Community Building and Civic Engagement, Community Leadership Development, and Mobilizing and Organizing for Victory and Empowerment (MOVE). MOVE is a multicultural coalition that is the vehicle for constituent leadership on issues of racial and economic justice.  Members join together to advocate for policies and to change community conditions for the well being of families.  Current actions committees focus on immigrant rights, school change, tenants' rights, welfare reform, and community peacekeeping. The MUST student worked as a tenant’s rights organizer with MOVE, mobilizing and educating tenants, holding meetings, and conducting tenant’s rights trainings.

Friends for Pakou Hang (Saint Paul City Council race)
Pakou Hang is a Hmong activist and leader who made a close but ultimately unsuccessful run for the incumbent Dan Bostrom’s Ward Six seat on the Saint Paul City Council this past fall. Ward Six in Saint Paul, otherwise known as the East Side, holds perhaps the most densely Hmong populated pocket in the United States. Two students worked on her campaign for the semester; taking on organizing positions with phone banking, vote planning, at campaign events, and door knocking in targeted areas of the East Side of Saint Paul where the campaign was centered.

Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts
Interact Center’s mission is to create art and challenge society’s view of disability. Interact Center is a licensed day care provider, serving up to 80 actors and artists who have physical and/or mental and emotional disabilities. Interact has two main departments, visual art and performing arts. The MUST intern worked in the performing arts department as an improv workshop instructor, provided individualized client support, and was a stagehand for their fall main stage production, Between The Worlds.

Lighthouse Academy of Nations
Lighthouse Academy of Nations is a free charter high school especially designed for youth from immigrant and refugee communities. Lighthouse Academy focuses on creating a caring learning community for students from all over the world, helping them to excel academically, pursue post-secondary education and become responsible world citizens. The MUST student worked as a teaching assistant in the Learning Center leading small groups of students and helping them one on one with their learning goals and computer skills. She also succeeded in developing a music program for the school through her grant research and by providing piano lessons for students at the school.

Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Affordable Housing (MICAH)
Religious leaders, housing advocates and low income housing developers founded MICAH in 1988 in response to the accelerating homeless crisis. Through MICAH, more than 150 congregations from Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith traditions organize for justice in housing. Since its inception, MICAH has gained extensive experience waging local and regional campaigns to change policies and shift public resources to affordable housing. The MUST intern worked as a congregational organizer in Coon Rapids. She built relationships, wrote educational materials on affordable housing policy, held meetings, and provided leadership to targeted congregations as they push their city council members for better affordable housing policy in their district.
 
Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless
Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless is a statewide coalition committed to ending homelessness. A primary mission of MCH is to inform public policy-makers on local, state, and federal efforts that will address the housing needs of low-income individuals, prevent homelessness, promote long-term economic stability, and respect clients’ needs. The MUST student worked on a campaign to support a bill, which would increase state funding for affordable housing programs. In addition to producing research for a key influential state senator on the proposed housing bill, she successfully orchestrated a meeting between over 30 people experiencing homelessness and Saint Paul City Council member Dave Thune to talk about the issues.

Minnesota Department of Human Rights
The department is a neutral state agency that investigates charges of illegal discrimination, ensures that businesses seeking state contracts are in compliance with equal opportunity requirements, and strives to eliminate discrimination by educating Minnesotans about their rights and responsibilities under the state Human Rights Act. The MUST student working here this semester drafted a legislative report for the Commissioner. She also participated in on site audits, reviewed intake files, and assisted with planning the workshops for the annual Human Rights Day conference.

Ready 4 K
Ready 4 K is a grassroots campaign committed to an early childhood public policy agenda based on a comprehensive, integrated and accountable system for supporting early childhood development and learning readiness. Their goals are to educate parents about early childhood development, promote quality childcare and well-trained early care and education professionals, increase access to high quality early care and education programs, and tie public dollars to increasing the number of children who are fully prepared for school. The MUST student conducted policy research on pre-kindergarten care and education and helped to distribute the organization’s research to key decision makers and stakeholders.

Rebuild Resources
Rebuild Resources is a non-profit enterprise helping recovering men and women rebuild their lives through the most powerful social program of all: A job. Founded in 1984 by a recovering alcoholic, Rebuild owns and operates businesses in St. Paul and Blaine, Minnesota. The program combines counseling and support services alongside job and skills training. Student-employees stay long enough to stabilize, build a job history and work reference, gain tangible skills, and build their capacity to be valuable to an employer. The MUST student contributed to the fund raising department by researching planned giving programs and strategies, and she worked directly with the student-employees at Rebuild helping them with their resumes and job searches.

Saint Stephen’s Human Services
The Mission of St. Stephen’s is to end homelessness through effective partnerships, programs and advocacy. In addition to their three homeless shelters located in the Twin Cities metro area, St Stephen’s also has various programs for people experiencing homelessness including employment and housing services and the Homeless Against Homeless (HAH) Committee, an advocacy group led by people experiencing homelessness. They also conduct “A Day In The Life” a homelessness simulation workshop for groups interested in learning more about the realities of people experiencing homelessness in the Twin Cities. In addition to working one day a week in the shelter, the MUST student worked with the Human Rights Department where she attended HAH committee meetings, wrote the monthly HAH newsletter, and advocated for the repeal of an ordinance that bans people from “lurking” with the intent to commit a crime.

Southside Family Charter School (SFCS)
SFCS is a small elementary school, which educates children to become independently minded citizens who respect themselves and others.  The school teaches a social justice curriculum and their work in the community challenges the way people think about education. We had three MUST students working here this semester as teaching aids in the classrooms. They also provided individual homework tutoring to students where they developed relationships with the students from week to week. All three reflected that they saw a difference in the academic performance of the students that they were paired with over the course of their internship.

TakeAction Minnesota
TakeAction Minnesota works year round to make change that matters to Minnesotans by organizing at the grassroots, building dynamic and effective coalitions, educating voters, endorsing and electing progressive candidates, impacting state and local policy, and winning issue campaigns. The MUST student this semester was in charge of running the Election Protection initiative for the 2007 Saint Paul City Council election and wrote a report about how her organizing, education, and day of volunteer mobilization worked. TakeAction will use this report in the 2008 elections to ensure the voting rights of citizens in Minnesota.

Additional MUST Internships and community partners:

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