Teaching Texts
AAS 290, An Internship in Asian American Studies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12469035 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sharon S Lee (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 211-220 |
| Publication date | 2005-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Asian American Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1096-8598 • E-ISSN: 1097-2129 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/jaas.2005.0039 |
| OpenAlex | W2054006667 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
“Teaching Texts”:AAS 290, An Internship in Asian American Studies Sharon S. Lee (bio) Institutions of higher education formally embrace the value of "ser-vice," whether that be service to one's discipline, to the campus, or to the surrounding community. Asian American Studies also necessarily embraces the value of service, having been born out of strong connections between university students and the larger community. It is therefore not uncommon today to find community service components and "internship experiences" in the curriculum for Asian American Studies or Ethnic Studies. This piece documents the evolution of a different kind of student "internship," one which seeks to connect interns to the greater community of their institution of higher education rather than to what lies beyond that institution's walls. The internship evolved at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which has a rapidly growing program in Asian American Studies. In an effort to engage and connect undergraduate students with this program, I helped create an internship within its institutional framework (versus housed in a community organization). Originally a volunteer opportunity, the internship has grown into a semester course that earns its participants independent study credits. Students meet weekly in a discussion seminar to gain an "insider's" view of the field of Asian American Studies and its challenges—theoretical, institutional, political—as they represent the program to student groups and the surrounding community in other internship activities. [End Page 211] History When the Asian American Studies Program began at Urbana-Champaign in 1997, founding administrators valued student engagement and input and facilitated the creation of a volunteer student internship. The internship was a year-long commitment that consisted of 8–10 hours a week of service to the program. It attracted a highly self-selecting group of dedicated students, who were engaged in Asian American Studies and who desired work experience for their resumes. The volunteer internship continued until 2002, with an average of three student interns each year. These interns assisted with a wide variety of events and presentations to the community, including assisting with conferences and speaker series, creating display cases in the main library for Asian American month, and speaking to local high school Asian American student clubs. While a workable model, there were obvious limitations. Building in an academic component to the experience in the form of assigned readings and projects was difficult to manage, given the voluntary nature of the commitment. If students were busy, over-committed with their school work or part-time jobs, there was less incentive to put in the work, aside from a sense of moral obligation. In retrospect, we were fortunate to have stellar intern volunteers who contributed consistently to the new program's success (perhaps this was in part due to the rigorous screening process of selecting interns). Still, I wished for a way to better recognize and reward student interns for their labor. We could not pay them hourly wages given our budgetary limitations, I reasoned, but we could begin to offer them independent study credits. Beginning in Fall 2002, after we had established our AAS rubric, the internship became a semester-long experience for three credit hours (AAS 290) and required an academic commitment of weekly class time, readings and written work, research and oral presentations, and service to the program through assisting with events, faculty searches, student outreach, and community work. Providing this academic grounding is important because the interns represent the program in many capacities. I also designed the internship to serve as a vehicle to engage students (both established student leaders and more introverted students who sought ways to become more involved) in a less intimidating way. [End Page 212] Since the Fall 2002, the internship course has been successfully offered, with the recent completion of the sixth group of interns in Spring 2005. Course Mission The introductory paragraph of the internship syllabus reads as follows: Welcome to AAS 290: The internship in Asian American Studies. As interns, you will be given information to better understand the field of Asian American Studies, aid with program events and outreach, and play an important role as liaisons to students, expressing student interests and needs. Internships will provide you
Internship · Medical education · Asian American and Pacific Histories · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Medicine · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |