Introduction
Chapter 1 — Social Action: An Overview
Social Action’s Role & US College Social Action
Chapter 2 — Developing a Social Action Class
Course vs Co-Curricular & Prerequisites
Creating a Social Action Syllabus
Role of Place & Each Semester v Every Year
Chapter 3 — Launching Student Campaigns
Chapter 4 — Planning, Implementation, & Evaluation
Chapter 5 — Where Do We Go From Here?
Social Action Internships)
As discussed in the CHANGE, you may want to consider a way for the social action students to continue their work on the campaign after the class ends. At SJSU, Scott did this by creating the Social Impact Internship Program. With County, and then foundation money, students got paid to continue to work on their campaigns, funding 6-8 students every semester. Below is a flier for the Internship, and the application:
TSA’s Internship Program
In the Summer of 2026, TSA created a voluntary Internship program to help recruit faculty to apply to an Institute. Currently, three former social action students from SJSU, Santa Monica Community College, and the University of Rochester are helping TSA identify interested faculty. If interested in learning more about this Internship, please contact Scott Myers-Lipton at scott@teachingsocialaction.org.
Questions
- How might you support the students in their campaign once they finish the class? Do you have any interest in developing a social action internship program, which could provide funds to the students for their campaign work? Other actions?
Pipeline to Jobs and Graduate School
As discussed in this chapter, social action not only transforms lives, but it leads to jobs and to graduate school. Below are two examples of what two former SJSU social action students are doing now.
Jobs
Lucila Ortiz, a former social action student, is now a labor organizer for Working Partnerships in Silicon Valley. I just received a fundraising email from them, which focused on her story. In the below text, notice how Lucila cites what happened in her junior year as a transformational experience. What Lucila is referring to is her social action experience:
And here is the video of Lucila Ortiz, describing why we need to invest in training people to do social action.
Below is Lucila's Student Reflection describing her social action experience that I have my students read:
Lucila's student reflection, as well as other former social action students reflections, are here if you want to read and/or assign them. I use these student reflections to show that change is possible, as well as to learn from former social action students about change.
Graduate school
Rochelle Jackson Smarr was a social action student in the spring of 2006. She has worked as a labor organizer, a staff member in many service-learning offices, and is now the Director of Experiential Education at University of California at San Diego. And in November of 2023, she received her doctorate! Below is Dr. Smarr discussing her doctoral research.
Questions
- Who are the non-profit and political leaders in the community that you can connect students to for jobs?
- What are some of the best graduate programs in the students’ field of interest who are interested in this engaged learning model?
Continue to Ch. 2: 5E — Status of Current Campaigns