Internship Opportunity: Undergraduate Neighborhood Planning Program

Posted by Tim on August 18, 2022 in Honors Experiences, Internships

Undergraduate Neighborhood Planning Program Center for Urban Studies

The UB Center for Urban Studies is now accepting applications for participation in our Community-As-Classroom (CAC) Program for class credit. The CAC program is yearlong and open to undergraduate students from all UB departments. Once accepted into the program, students will be required to enroll for two semesters: Fall 2022 as an Internship and Spring 2023 as an Independent Study. A total of 6 credit hours will be earned.

Students from the following departments are encouraged to apply: African-American Studies; American Studies; Counseling, School and Educational Psychology; Community Health and Health Behavior; Educational Leadership and Policy; Environmental Design; Global Gender Studies; Learning and Instruction; Social Sciences Interdisciplinary; Social Work; and Undergraduate Education.

The CAC program allows for the opportunity to learn and develop unique community engagement and classroom instruction skills. Training and supervision are key elements of this program.

Community-As-Classroom Program

The UB Center for Urban Studies has operated the Community-As-Classroom (CAC) Program at the Buffalo Public School #37, Futures Academy, since 2001. Futures Academy is located in the Fruit Belt neighborhood, a low-income community that is at risk of losing its cultural identity due to expansion of the downtown medical corridor. Most of the students at Futures live in underdeveloped and low-income neighborhoods. A primary goal of the CAC program is for the Futures’ students to become critically engaged participants in their immediate environments. The CAC programs helps them to see the connection between formal classroom education and one’s ability to create change in their communities.

The CAC program is currently run during regular school hours. The exact days and times of the program are yet to be determined. The CAC is run as a class where students are taught to address community and social problems from an economic, political, and physical environment perspective. The CAC curriculum is all project-based and three-dimensional learning. The students are taught to critically examine their own neighborhoods, act to change any undesirable conditions in which they live, and become leaders in their classrooms, schools, and communities.

UB students will participate in a series of program orientation workshops that will provide the theoretical and pedagogical framework for the CAC program. These will be held at the UB South Campus. Once on site at Futures, the students will assist the lead teacher with program instruction. Topic areas include urban planning, community gardening, and public art. In the Fall, the CAC program focuses on the Future City Competition. A local and national competition where 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue. The CAC program also works with the Academy students in Futures Garden, a community garden which sits across from the school, and includes a formal flower garden and vegetable garden.

If you are interested in working in the CAC program, please contact A.S.M. Bari, Program Director, at asmbari@buffalo.edu.