O’Connor Internship
The New College at the University of Alabama and the David Mathews Center for Civic Life have partnered to administer an internship program to provide students opportunities to do community-based research and to develop their skills in what is known as “coaching community capacity.” All of this is done in the interdisciplinary environment of the New College.
For almost 40 years, the New College (NC) has encouraged alternative models for student learning in the form of independent studies, community-based research, and interdisciplinary seminars. The David Mathews Center for Civic Life (DMCCL) holds a philosophy similar to that of New College. It seeks to respond to the problems of Alabama communities by honoring the interdisciplinary and varied capacities of citizens. The Center views communities -not as groups with needs to be met by university-based experts – but as groups rich in capacity to address their particular community concerns.
The NC-DMCCL internship program has been a formalized response to the decades of life-changing experiences of past NC students doing community-based projects, as well as to the experiences of University of Alabama student interns in the 1970s who served under the direction of David Mathews, then President of the University. These interns to the President were given significant responsibilities, some formerly reserved for faculty and staff, and they were encouraged to be proactive in responding to campus challenges during the early years of integration. At a student intern reunion several years ago, the articulation of the educational dynamic experienced by these interns and the reflections on the way it affected their professional and civic lives inspired leaders in the state to establish the NC-DMCCL internship program for today’s students.
From the perspective of this program, students have much to offer Alabama communities, and Alabama communities have much to teach students about the power of an engaged citizenry. The internship program is unique at the University of Alabama in that it does not allow students to conduct advocacy-oriented service projects. In contrast to standard service-learning initiatives, our interns are provided community-based learning experiences in which they use deliberative practices to develop in the communities they serve an on-going capacity for addressing social concerns.
While not all of the interns are New College students, they are an interdisciplinary group in and of themselves. They represent majors in economics, psychology, film-making, social work, political science, peace studies, environmental studies, journalism, and foreign languages. They have designed internships to explore the potential for deliberative practices in the fields of secondary education, economic development, higher education, health care, and religious denominations.
We expect all of the intern projects to have a dynamic affect on the education of the student interns and the vitality of Alabama communities as they address 21st Century issues.
Lane Busby McLelland
Lane Busby McLelland is the Coordinator of the Community-Based Research Internship Program at the Mathews Center. She brings to the Mathews Center twenty-five years of work concerned with community dynamics and issues of diversity. After graduating from the New College at the University of Alabama with a depth study in International Studies and Conflict Management, McLelland spent two years teaching at Tunghai University in Taiwan. She followed this overseas experience with three years working in Washington, DC, with China-related organizations, including Rock Creek Research and the National Academy of Sciences – China Committee. Her interest in cross-cultural ethics then sent her to graduate school at Pacific School of Religion, where she acquired a Master of Divinity degree and an additional M.A. in Ethics.
In addition to serving as a United Methodist minister at Chinese Community United Methodist Church in Oakland, California, and Trinity United Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, McLelland also worked at the Emory Center for Ethics and the University of Alabama Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility.
McLelland coordinates the various programs of the Mathews Center and supervises the work of the Jean O’Connor-Snyder Community-based Research Interns. (see Intern Projects)