Senior Sequence

Interns & Research Teams

Senior Sequence Research and Internship Requirements

During the course of the Senior Sequence each student must complete an internship in a placement of their choosing.  Students are encouraged to do their Senior Research Project (SRP) on a topic related to their internship. In a few cases, the internship placement serves as the base of operations for a Student-Mentor Research Team focused on one of our Grand Challenges (see description below). The Urban Studies and Planning Program assists students in arranging their internships. Some organizations are able to pay their student intern an hourly wage or stipend.  Other organizations lack the financial resources to pay students (so the students serve as volunteers).  In either case, each student is obligated to do at least 100 hours of service to meet the USP internship requirement.

The USP office maintains a list of potential internship placements organized into Areas of Concentration. Over the past two decades,  the USP program has placed students in a wide range of internships in city and county offices, including departments of health, and planning. Other placements include service with state and county government, elected public officials, city council members, environmental consulting firms, real estate agencies, non-profit and grassroots organizations.  All students must have their internship placement lined up and the internship contract agreement signed by a specified date. Students generally begin their internship at the mid-point of USP 186 (i.e., around week five of the fall quarter) and continue in the same internship until the mid-point of USP 187 (i.e., week five of winter quarter), but there is some flexibility in this regard. The intent of the internship requirement is to give students work experience in a professional setting of their choice.

In some cases the internship supervisor provides the organizational leadership for a student-mentor research team. In such cases, students have the option of leveraging their internship experience to meet their SRP requirement (e.g., by doing a case study or policy analysis related to their internship placement).

On the first day of class, we distribute a packet of forms students need to meet their internship requirements (e.g., contract, evaluation, etc.). The due dates for all internship related requirements is on the class web site.

Areas of Concentration and Grand Challenges

Areas of Concentration (AOC): There are ten AOCs (see: aocs-and-types-of-internships.pdf). The AOCs are created and defined by the professor of the Senior Sequence. Think of the AOCs as a table of contents for action research where the subject mattter concerns urban and regional development, policy and planning (e.g., Architecture and Urban Design, Community and Economic Development, Housing, Transportation Planning).

Grand Challenges (GC): Each AOC has one or more Grand Challenges. The GCs are defined by the instructor of the Senior Sequence in collaboration with mentors and students.  The GCs are cutting-edge research frontiers where there is a strong need to link knowledge to action (e.g., sustainable design of buildings and urban-ecological landscapes). The professor of the Senior Sequence works with mentors to identify GCs and define specific types of research foci suitable for student investigators. Students work in teams guided by a mentor.  Mentors include faculty,  professionals from public and private sector organizations, non-profit executives, community-based and industry leaders, among others.  The GC database includes the following information for each GC:  title, AOCs, narrative overview, solutions, research team topic suggestions, key terms, and references to literature, internet links and key organizations.  A link to the GC database is on the top nav bar of this web site.

Opportunities and Student-Mentor Research Teams

Opportunities
Opportunities are specific ideas for student research. When a mentor or someone else gives us a concrete suggestion for research we list it as an opportunity. For instance, a non-profit organization may need to conduct a survey in preparation for an outreach program they’d like to launch. This is a survey research opportunity. Other organizations may need someone to search their archives, or conduct interviews, or do a comparative analysis of case studies, etc. It is up to the student to turn such opportunities into an investigation suitable for a SRP. A link to the Opporutnities database is on the nav bar at the top of this web site.

Student-Mentor Research Teams
Each Research Team (RT) includes between two to five students. Each RT must have a mentor. There can be more than one mentor per RT. The subject matter of these teams varies from year to year depending on the interests of each year’s new crop of Senior Sequence students, and available mentors.  The title and substantive content of the RTs are established through student-mentor interaction. The professor of the Senior Sequence facilitates the RT formation process by enabling the students to coordinate amongst themselves, and with a mentor. Each research team has a group profile on-line that contains the following information:  the RT’s title, affiliation with one or more AOC and GC, narrative overview (the team story), multimedia postercasts of student projects, key terms, references, and links.  A link to the Research Teams database is on the upper nav bar of this web site.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the difference between an Internship Supervisor and a Research Team Mentor? An internship supervisor takes one or more USP students under his or her wing at said supervisor’s place of work. An internship supervisor guides their intern—meeting with them on a weekly basis—as the student logs in 100 hours.  The supervisor spells out the intern’s duties in advance on a placement listing filed with the USP office.

A Research Team Mentor does not necessarily have the same level of commitment as an internship supervisor.  Full detail of what is and is not expected of a mentor is spelled out on our Mentor Guide (learn more at the mentor link on the left hand side nav bar of this web site). Suffice it to say here that a mentor does not necessarily provide the student with an internship placement. Rather they just provide expert guidance.  During the fall, each student writes a research proposal (modeled on what they would do if looking for grant money).  In the winter, they do the research and write their senior research project (modeled on a journal article).  Research Team Mentors help students at several points in this process: (1) when the students are formulating questions, mentors provide direction, (2) at the stage of writing the proposal,  mentors comment on the viability of the project and (3) at the time of writing up the paper, mentors comment on the draft.  In some cases an internship supervisor may also were a mentor hat (serve both roles simultaneously).  The next couple FAQs elaborates on this point.

2. Can a student’s participation (time invested) as a member of a student-mentor research team be counted toward said student’s 100 hours of required internship time? Yes, but only if certain conditions are met. The main condition is that the mentor files an internship contract with the USP office. For the hours to count as internship time, the mentor must agree to serve as an internship supervisor.  In some cases, we have been able to craft mentorship/internships that coincide (overlap): the data the organization wants would also happen to be a good basis for a senior research project.  But that doesn’t always happen.  Many students are interns at organizations that don’t have anyone acting as a mentor.

3. Can students get paid for doing their research and/or service learning internship? Yes. Some do get paid, most don’t. The main mission of the Senior Sequence is for students to do a scholarly research project while gaining some professional experience at the same time. In the process of meeting their internship requirement students are welcome to generate specific deliverables for a professional client. Each student must clock in 100 hours of “service learning” in an internship placement of their choosing. They do their internship sometime between Sept and March —-usually about 10 hours per week for ten weeks. Some students complete internships that are research-driven thereby enabling them to organize the tasks/output of their internship in ways that help meet their Senior Sequence research requirements.  Some internships pay, many do not.

4. Is there a list of which mentors are also offering internships? There is no such list since most, though not all, of our mentors may be in a position to offer an internship placement if the students wants one.

Two points of clarification for students:

• Some of our mentors are with agencies (e.g., SANDAG, City of San Diego) that have formal procedures dictating how internship positions get created, filled and managed. Others are with organizations that are more flexible (i.e., they can easily and quickly create internships “on the fly”). Keep that in mind. Not all mentors are able to create new internships within a timeframe that can meet your needs.
• 2. In those cases where we have existing internships, some of the placements have specified duties that do not easily fit into a research project. These duties are clearly spelled out on the Internship Placement Form in our book of placements (in SSB 315).  Others offer a placement opportunity that is mainly research driven –and they would like to see you make your time with them fit hand-in-glove with your research (SRP) process.

Here is the bottom line: we are prepared to work with you to make good things happen. Our aim is to create the best possible experience for all involved. While we have some excellent and long-standing internship opportunities on the books already,  we recognize the need to be creative and flexible as student interests evolve over time.

The Senior Sequence is designed to enable you to do an individual project of your own. You are not expected to do a group project. We create the student-mentor research teams as a support mechanism (birds of a feather flocking together). The only written product the team does together is the contribution to the reader (see the examples on our class web site at the link titled Sustainable City-Regions Reader, left hand nav bar).  Our goal is to enable those of you with similar research interests to get together and help one another on your six-month journey. We want your group experience to be as rewarding and productive as possible. The professor and TAs are here to help.

Documents for Prospective Internship Placement Supervisors and Mentors

1. Internship Supervisor Letter.pdf
This letter invites prospective internship supervisors to create one or more internship placement opportunities for the 60+ students who have enrolled in our Senior Sequence, a six month field research and writing practicum. The Senior Sequence begins Sept. 24, 2009 and ends March 11, 2010.

2. Internship Placement Description Form.doc
This is the form we ask prospective internship placement supervisors to fill out. It provides the info student interns need to understand the placement opportunity and expectations (i.e., description of the organization offering the placement,  job description/tasks, and skills required). The form goes into an book along with all the other placement opportunities thereby giving students a compiled list from which to apply according to their interests.

3. Internship Supervisor Guidelines.pdf
This spells out guidelines for those who serve as internship supervisors

4. Internship Contract.doc
If you decide to hire (or appoint on a voluntary basis) an intern, you’ll need to fill out a contract. This contract is an agreement between you (the internship placement supervisor) and the student. It helps make sure everyone is on the same page with respect to expectations and deliverables.

5. Research Mentor letter.pdf
Not every partner can offer an internship. Mentoring a student research team is another way to participate in our program. We use this letter to solicit mentors and to create a mentor database of experts for our Senior Sequence Field Research Practicum.  Mentors can wear the hat of an internship supervisor—and vice versa;  the mentor and internship supervisor roles are not mutually exclusive.

6. Mentor Guide 2009-2010.pdf
This guide outlines tasks and responsibilities for those who have agreed to be a mentor for one of UCSD’s Research Teams in the Urban Studies and Planning Program’s Senior Sequence.
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Student Internship Forms to be completed at 50 hours and 100 hours

PROGRESS REPORT is to be turned in to SSB 315
This progress report is to be completed by the USP student after concluding 50 hours of internship work when that time occurs, but required before the end of the fall quarter.
USP_internship_students_progress_report.doc

FINAL EVALUATION is to be turned in to SSB 315
This final evaluation is to be completed by the USP student after concluding 100 hours of internship work when that time occurs, but required before the end of winter quarter.
USP_internship_students_final_evaluation.doc