Course Development Grant Winners | 2020-2021
Dr. Odilka Santiago, SOC 240D: Crime and Inequality
"I hope to work with other faculty and staff from the Changemaker Hub to provide a course that explores homelessness's historical and structural conditions and shows the local initiatives taking place so students can get involved."
Dr. Daniel Lopez-Perez, Arch 101: Intro to Architecture
“It was rewarding to learn more about our community partners and their efforts in the ongoing and collective search for solutions in this area.”
Dr. Jonathan Bowman, CHNG 101: Intro to Changemaking
“This Fall I was excited to receive a course development grant from the Changemaker Hub to integrate the topic of homelessness into my Changemaking 101 course.”
Dr. Julia Cantzler, CHNG 101: Intro to Changemaking
“I very much appreciated the opportunity to incorporate the topic of homelessness into my Introduction to Changemaking course.”
Dr. Mary Brinson, COMM 130: Intro to Media
“In summary, I think the project and incorporating the theme of homelessness into the course was a successful one."
Dr. Diane Keeling, COMM 333: Podcast Storytelling
"Working with the Hub and Urgent Challenges Collective was as enriching to me as the students."
Professor Dov Fox, LAW: Public Health Law and Bioethics
Past Teaching Grant Projects
Dr. Mark Chapman (left), Dr. Joel Alejandro Mejia (center), and Dr. Diana Chen (right), Shiley Marco School of Enfineering
This team of instructors was awarded a teaching grant from the Urgent Challenges Collective to employ project-based learning and sociotechnical analysis in relation to homelessness in San Diego. Faculty and students spent the semester learning about the realities of homelessness in San Diego and partnered with a local organization, Think Dignity, to develop prototypes of solar water heaters that integrated with this organization’s mobile shower units. Students were tasked with convincingly describing how their consideration of users who were experiencing homelessness were a factor in the context of their designs. In addition to demystifying or complexifying student understandings of the causes and realities of homelessness, this project also emphasized that meaningful solutions to engineering problems require attention to complex, intersectional socio-political realities.
During the Fall 2020 semester, Dr. Kate DeConinck (Theology & Religious Studies) and Dr. Mike Williams (Political Science) offered a new course entitled INST 352: Understanding the Homelessness Crisis. This course won USD’s Educational Excellence in the Community Award in 2020. This interdisciplinary course investigated the history and current dynamics of homelessness in the United States with attention to how social, political, and religious dynamics have shaped attitudes toward and responses to unsheltered individuals across time. The Community Fellows Program has been created in order to build conversation and relationships between the USD community and off-campus partners.
The aim of the Community Fellows Program is to create a transformative and meaningful learning experience for all participants. USD students will benefit from seeing how our class materials connect to real-world complexities and challenges; student learning will be enhanced through consistent engagement with Community Fellows in class. At the same time, Community Fellows will benefit from having space to reflect upon their experiences in an educational and supportive environment.
We invite individuals who are invested in the issue of homelessness to submit an application for review. Community Fellows might include individuals who work in organizations, non-profits, or other agencies centered around homelessness (i.e., program coordinators, case workers, clinicians, religious leaders, and others). We also invite persons with past or present experience of being unsheltered to apply.
Community Fellows will have the opportunity to audit this course (valued at $1,376) for free. Those who are interested in receiving continuing education credits or other types of credit may also discuss that possibility with the instructors. Each Community Fellow who successfully completes the course will also receive a $500 stipend.
Applications are currently closed. The Community Fellows Program will be offered again in conjunction with various courses at USD moving forward.
Basic Needs Acknowledgement
Access to nutritious food and reliable housing are factors that influence many students’ ability to succeed in the classroom and beyond. However, students facing food or housing insecurities may be hesitant to call attention to their ongoing struggles. The Urgent Challenges Collective encourages faculty to incorporate a Basic Needs Acknowledgement in their course syllabus, course website, or other materials as a means of ensuring that students are aware of the resources and support available to them.
Recommended, sample text below
Basic Needs Acknowledgement
Any student who faces challenges securing food or reliable housing, which may affect their academic performance in this course, is urged to contact the instructor and/or the Student Affairs Office (UC 232). If you find yourself in this situation, please reach out so that you can gain access to the USD Food Pantry, Torero Closet, or other resources on or off campus.