What are the goals of SOC 495?

SOC 495 (Capstone Seminar in Community Service) is a culminating experience intended primarily for Sociology and Criminology & Justice Studies majors.  The purpose of the course is to enable you to apply classroom concepts and theories to achieve a deepened understanding of community efforts to solve society’s social problems.  Since we will be using the community as a learning laboratory, another goal of the course will be to give service to the community.  And finally, we hope you will use the internship to explore your own interests, for example, in a future career or other pursuits in which you are interested.

How will you reach these goals?

1. Spend 6-8 hours per week for 15 weeks in a community organization or agency.  The internships must be unpaid and be on the Office of Community Service Learning approved list of internships.  If you are interested in an internship site that is not located on the list of approved sites, email the professor and ask for permission for the unapproved site.  If the professor agrees, fill out the Informed Consent Form (the link is in the text below) and submit it to the professor along with the form at the bottom of this page.  If you do not know who will be teaching SOC 495 the semester you wish to take it, please email the Sociology Department at sociology@csusm.edu. 

2. Attend regular class meetings and complete written assignments that ask you to apply sociological understandings of effective social services delivery to your agency/organization.  

The instructions below for setting up an internship and enrolling in SOC 495 are intended to help you get into the course and facilitate your graduation, so please pay careful attention and FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY.

What do YOU do to set up an Internship?

1. Plan ahead and start early!

2. Think about an area (e.g., criminal justice, child welfare, teaching, etc.) that interests you.

3. Get the list of approved agencies from the Office of Community Service Learning Internship Agency Database.  Look for one or more agencies in your area of interest.  Unapproved sites require additional steps, including filling out an Informed Consent Form.

4. Call the agency and tell them about your interest in an internship, the goals of the course, etc…  If the agency seems appropriate for the course, arrange an appointment to visit the internship.

5. When you meet with the agency representative, remind her/him about the goals of  the course.  Next, talk about what you will do.  Tell her/him that you will need an internship in which the majority of your time will be spent involved with the services the agency delivers.  Activities that satisfy this requirement could range from tutoring a child or having your own client caseload, to “shadowing” and assisting a social worker, etc.  The important thing to remember is that to make this a significant learning experience, you will need to be in the “thick of the action,” to be able to observe and/or participate in the primary work of the agency.  This means that you should not spend the bulk of your time involved in activities such as filing or answering phone, etc.

6. Tell her/him that you will need someone to act as your internship supervisor.  This should be a person who knows your work in the internship and to whom you can turn to ask questions or talk through any problems that may arise.  You need to schedule weekly meetings with your supervisor to give and get feedback on the progress of your internship throughout the semester. 

7. If you think the agency will enable you to meet your learning goals, arrange a start date for the internship that coincides with the first week of classes.  If they require training or an orientation, it is important that you complete this prior to the beginning of the semester. 

What do YOU do to enroll in SOC 495?

These instructions are intended to help you get into the course and facilitate your graduation, so please pay careful attention and follow these instructions EXACTLY.

1. Plan ahead and start early!  From our past experience, we recommend that you enroll in SOC 495 in the first semester of your senior year instead of waiting until your last semester.  We attempt to offer enough sections to accommodate graduating seniors, but because our funding from the College is limited, WE CANNOT GUARANTEE YOU A SEAT IN THE SPRING SEMESTER AND YOUR GRADUATION COULD BE DELAYED.  So, our advice is to plan ahead and take this course early in your senior year.

2. The class number required to enroll in this course is suppressed until you secure an internship and complete the required paperwork.  YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET A CLASS NUMBER AND ENROLL IN THE COURSE UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE STEPS LISTED BELOW FOR ACQUIRING AN INTERNSHIP.

3. You MUST have your internship approved, your paperwork submitted, and be enrolled in the course by the LAST DAY OF CLASSES in the semester prior to the one you wish to take the course.  If you wish to enroll in SOC 495 in Fall 2008, this date will be Friday, May 9^th and if you wish to enroll in SOC 495 in Spring 2009, this date will be Friday, December 5^th.

4. Just like any other section of a course, once class numbers have been given out for every seat in the section, the section is full and will not be overenrolled.  If SOC 495 is closed when you attempt to enroll, please sign up on the waiting list for the course which can be found on the Sociology Department website at:  www.csusm.edu/Sociology/demandlistforms/

   Follow the waitlist instructions carefully.  If additional seats become available after the course is closed, you can ONLY BE ADMITTED IF YOUR NAME APPEARS ON THE WAITING LIST.  You will be notified if it becomes possible for you to enroll.

What do you do NOW?

1. Print out this form (printer friendly version).  Fill out the form with your internship supervisor and obtain her/his signature. 

2. If you are interested in an internship site that is not located on the list of approved sites, email the professor and ask for permission for the unapproved site.  If the professor agrees, fill out the Informed Consent Form (the link is in the text above) and submit it to the professor along with the form below.

3. Turn in the form below (and the Informed Consent Form if your internship site is not on the approved list AND if the professor has approved your site) to the professor's mailbox in Craven 6116/6119.  If you do not know who will be teaching SOC 495 the semester you wish to take it, please email the Sociology Department at sociology@csusm.edu. 

4. Once the professor receives your paperwork, s/he will email a class number to you at your student email account.  Please use the permission number to enroll in the course.  If you are on the waitlist for the course, you will be notified via email if a seat becomes available.  

            Student Name __________________________   Student Phone #                            

            Student Email                                                                                                                          

            Internship Agency                                                                                                        

            Internship Supervisor ________________________    Contact Phone #                     

            Contact Person Signature                                                                                             

FOR DEPARTMENT USE ONLY                             CRN #__________________