Examples of Experiential Learning from MAIS students
Energy and Sustainability
NOVA Outside
Position: Coordinate series of workshops on outdoor education
Learning Objectives
- Gain experience with non-profit event preparation and grant fund management
- Learn how outdoor education can contribute to more sustainability-minded youth
- Network with environmental professionals
Women and Gender Studies
Mason LGBTQ+ Resources
Position: Work with Mason LGBTQ+ Resources
Learning Objectives
- Learn how higher education is conducted in relation to the LGBTQ community at a university and develop better understanding of how LGBTQ faculty can impact a university
- Learn how student LGBTQ+ offices play a role in educating and promoting information about the Safe Zone workshops
Social Entrepreneurship
Fairfax County Govt Board of Supervisors and Planning Commissions
Position: Administration support of Clerk Services by ensuring legal requirement and documents are accurate and accessible to the public.
Learning Objectives
- Search archived documents and convert to electronic and log
- Prepare board meeting materials
- Goal is to work in county government
Research with Mason Faculty
Position: Collaborate on research on current issues affecting non-profit organization related to social inequalities
Learning Objectives
- Identify extent to which current non-project management curricula identify these issues
- Contribute recommendations to curricula changes to fill these gaps
- Learn and assist in preparing book prospectus for publishing company
VVS Wellness
Position: Assist with brand launching, marketing, outreach and event planning, etc. of startup
Learning Objectives
- Develop knowledge and gain experience in company development, project development, manufacturing, and project management withing the holistic health and wellness industry
Skills Development with Well-Being professor
Position: Work with well-being professor to learn approaches for how to mentor and coach well-being self-car practices and assist with undergraduate course in subject area
Learning Objectives
- Describe theories and models for peer-mentoring and peer-education.
- Demonstrate the capacity to give supportive and corrective feedback to students who are learning and applying core practices from the science of well-being. That feedback will be focused on grading journals and blog posts in a way that promotes student learning and success.
- Demonstrate the capacity to effectively conduct one-on-one peer-mentoring sessions for subject areas that come from the science of well-being – e.g., how to cultivate resilience in one’s life; how to assess and make use of core values and strengths; how to develop a personal mindfulness practice.
- Describe the essential developmental tasks of emerging adulthood (i.e., ages 18 to 29) and the potential contributions that well-being science can offer to the successful navigation of predictable challenges in these years.
Social Justice and Human Rights
Research with professor
Position: Research with social justice professor
Learning Objectives
- Differentiate role of scholar activists as contributors to social movements and define/evidence salience of role as part of larger change systems
- Organize and interpret, as a scholar activist, literature focused on student activism, professional activism and well-being. As a result, develop a robust literature review of these three topics and the nexus between them.
- Assess activism and well-being research/data and synthesize into meaningful results.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Position: Research assistant for the Collecting These Times: Jewish Experiences of the Pandemic as part of the Pandemic Religion initiative of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Learning Objectives
- Working with digital collecting projects that document the experiences of different Jewish communities during the pandemic
- Working with an online database, to keep documentation of the project’s partner institutions and other relevant information
- Monitor the types of organizations being partnered with and the content of the data being collected to see what Jewish individuals, communities and voices may be missing
- Drafting two social media posts per week to help spread the word about the collection project to additional American Jewish institutions and individuals
Diversity and Inclusion Research: HBCU recruiting in cybersecurity
Position: Expand research skills, gain valuable knowledge into ensuring diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and build upon knowledge on anti-racism strategies in the corporate world.
Learning Objectives
- Research HBCU institutions to start building relationship
- Organize events with several HBCU institutions
Girls Inspired Ready to Lead
Position: Marketing, social media, special projects
Learning Objectives
- Improve knowledge on local and state-wide social and economic services
- Understand how social media can become a strategy that improves the marketability of the organization
- Develop relationship with various organization that help expand opportunities
Unitarian Universalist Holdeen India Program (UUHIP)
(www.uua.org/international-justice/holdeen)
Position: Archival research and support
Learning Objectives
- Further understanding of development of phenomenon of transcultural adoption in US
- Develop knowledge of archival science
- Improve ability to undertake oral history projects to include development of skills to locate interviewees; to thoughtfully develop sensitive and appropriate structured interview questions further participatory action skill
