华体会

Application Information

Program Description

This .25-credit summer intensive institute offers students an opportunity to engage in activist and/or advocacy work focused on one of three tracks:

• Community Organizing (campaign recruitment, event planning, op-ed writing, protest training, policy research, public speaking, criminal justice accountability, case advocacy). 
• Immigrant Detention Work and Movement Lawyering (working with attorneys representing immigrants in detention; research on immigrant detention center conditions; advocacy/organizing work to shut down immigrant detention centers).
• Environmental Justice Organizing (community organizing, advocacy campaigns, research).

During the program, students learn skills to engage in activist projects, consider anti-racist approaches to community-engaged work, participate in discussions focused on conceptions of social change, and explore activist/advocacy career possibilities.

The 6-week program begins with one week of orientation on the 华体会 campus led by the program director and activists representing the community partner organizations participating in the program. This orientation will incorporate multi-disciplinary reading and discussion focusing on the racial and class dimensions of carceral capitalism and immigrant detention, community and labor organizing theory and practice, immigration policy, and movement lawyering practices. National activists will conduct workshops during the orientation, as well.

Following the orientation, students will travel by groups to their designated community partner sites in 华体会 vehicles. Throughout the program, the program director will travel to each program site twice to reflect on the experience with students. These visits are supplemented with Zoom sessions with the students and community partner organizations. At the end of the program, students present their work to their host community partner organizations and then reconvene at 华体会 for a 1.5-day program debriefing.

Program Outcomes

1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of how community-based knowledge structures, organizational analysis, and initiatives shape student collective project work. 
2. Students will demonstrate the ability to evaluate systemic inequality and power relationships for effecting social change.
3. Students will practice cultural humility by reflecting on their own cultural wealth and their assets as team members to gain awareness of their strengths and limitations as community change agents. 
4. Students will demonstrate an ability to delineate and utilize appropriate strategies and mechanisms for effecting social change by reflecting on how their civic commitments align with their career aspirations. 

Cost, Credit, and Funding

There is no program fee for 华体会 students. Housing, food, incidentals, transportation, and all other program costs are covered through the generous support of the 华体会 President’s Office Anti-Racism Fund, 华体会 Department of Sociology, the William P. Dean Memorial Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the 华体会 State of the Rockies Project.

CC students who receive need-based aid from the college will receive a $500 stipend upon successfully completing the program.

The cost for students from colleges other than 华体会 is $5,000, plus airfare to/from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

All participants will be enrolled in a .25-unit General Studies course. CC students on an F-1 visa will receive a transcript notation applied to their summer transcript in compliance with their Curricular Practical Training (CPT).

CC students who do not require work authorization will receive .25-units applied to their next fully enrolled semester. Non-CC students will be admitted as non-degree-seeking students and receive .25-units of credit (equivalent to approximately one semester unit at another institution). Non-CC students on an F-1 visa should consult with their primary DSO regarding the CPT process. 

Transcripts listing the course will be available to all participants who complete the program.

International Students

Students studying in the U.S. on an F-1 or J-1 visa must obtain employment authorization BEFORE participating in an off-campus internship (any training experience away from the institution's campus that holds their SEVIS record). Students on an F-1 visa will pursue Curricular Practical Training (CPT) or Pre-Completion Optional Practical Training (OPT), while students on a J-1 visa will pursue Academic Training. Students on an F-1 or J-1 visa must contact the international student services office holding their SEVIS record in advance for details regarding CPT, OPT, or Academic Training.

Partner Organizations

Labor and Community Organizing Track

Colorado Jobs with Justice is a coalition of labor, community, faith, and youth organizations working on fair labor, just wage, and equitable working environments in a way that crosses lines of sector, race, and class to win concrete victories for working people. Students work on active organizing campaigns, including local minimum wage campaigns, empowering women and non-binary folx in building trades and confronting wage theft campaigns. (High proficiency in Spanish is required for some positions).

SEIU #105 is one of the fastest growing unions in Colorado, increasing by 50% over the last five years and representing over 8,000 healthcare, janitorial, security, and airport workers throughout the state and the US Southwest. Students will obtain firsthand experience in the labor movement, gaining insight into union operations, worker organizing, policy advocacy, and labor communications work.

Mano Amiga works with and organizes alongside communities impacted by criminalization and/or immigration to push for systemic policy change at the local level. Mano Amiga works directly with impacted community members to amplify their lived experiences and identify solutions to change systems and improve material conditions. The organization has a vision of creating a corridor of resistance between Austin & San Antonio, TX, against racist and anti-immigrant policies. Students may have the opportunity to cross-train in many aspects of grassroots community organizing, including case advocacy, policy research, police/prosecutor/judicial accountability, op-ed & other writing, public speaking, protest training, and more. (High proficiency in Spanish is required for some positions).

Immigrant Detention Work and Movement Lawyering Track

The New Mexico Immigrant Law Center empowers low-income immigrant communities through collaborative legal services, advocacy, and education. Students may be able to assist attorneys representing immigrants in the Torrance, Cibola, and Otero detention centers in New Mexico and engage in local detention center shutdown campaigns. (Spanish language proficiency is required for some positions).

Las Americas is an El Paso-based legal clinic providing free and low-cost legal services to immigrants and refugees in West Texas, New Mexico, and Juarez, Mexico, at the US-Mexican border. The clinic also serves detention centers in this region. In previous summers, students working with Las Americas conducted intake and other interviews with immigrants in detention and engaged in the community outreach program. (Spanish language fluency is required for most positions). 

The Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) works to ensure justice for adults in immigration detention and for immigrant children who have suffered from abuse, neglect, or violence. RMIAN offers legal representation, conducts legal rights trainings, and engages in advocacy efforts to improve detention conditions and promote a more humane immigration system, including alternatives to detention. Students will conduct research on immigrant detention, anti-expansion, and shut down campaigns, as well as other topics, attend immigration court hearings, and participate in local immigrant rights organizing and advocacy work.

Environmental Justice Organizing Track

Conservation Colorado is a leading environmental organization dedicated to Colorado's environment and bringing people into policy. Students will work closely with our community engagement, government affairs, and organizing teams on an advocacy-based project focusing on extreme heat and its effects on Colorado's workforce, with a particular emphasis on environmental justice and the Latino community.  

Chispa (“spark” in Spanish) is dedicated to empowering Latinx communities to influence policy, protect natural resources, and combat climate change. Through grassroots advocacy, and community engagement, Chispa strives for clean air, safe water, and healthy neighborhoods for the communities worst impacted by the detrimental impacts of climate change.