Global Education and Off-Campus Study

Study abroad is an important aspect of what many Sewanee students do, and there are many, diverse offerings available for Sewanee students. General information can be found at studyabroad.sewanee.edu. In addition to sections at this site for current students, for parents, and for prospective students, there are pages intended to answer questions like Who?, When?, Where?, and How?, and there is also a section with frequently asked questions as well as one which will direct the inquirer to the Office of Study Abroad for more information.

Research Opportunities

A number of opportunities are made available, during the summer as well as in regular academic terms, for students to pursue original research projects in collaboration with professors or with faculty guidance. Many such investigations are showcased at Scholarship Sewanee, an annual poster event held each spring. The director of undergraduate research coordinates access to these opportunities.

Service-Learning and Community Engagement

The Community Engaged Learning (CEL) program connects the class room to local, national, and international communities and rests on a commitment to the involvement of faculty, students, and community partners in service projects, community-based dialogue, problem-solving, and personal reflection informed by academic study. Pursued in this way, community engagement encourages self-knowledge, a deepened understanding of place, and intellectual development.

Courses with the CE (Community Engagement) designation can be found online through the registrar’s Schedule of Classes, and further information is available from the CE director.

Landscape Analysis Lab

The landscape analysis lab provides opportunities for students to participate in interdisciplinary environmental research, education, and outreach. Faculty in the lab come from the departments of biology, economics, forestry, philosophy, political science, and religion. The lab offers internships and independent studies in which students work with faculty on research projects, engage in outreach to local schools, and collaborate with government, non-profit institutions, and corporations. These activities center around the lab’s state-of-the-art geographic information systems computer network which contains detailed spatial information about land use, biodiversity, and socio-economic factors for the Cumberland Plateau and the southeastern United States.

Lilly Discernment Programs

Through a grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc., in 2001, Sewanee initiated a comprehensive program aimed at assisting students to seek a career path that is truly fulfilling and of service to the world. With the benefit of Lilly-initiated support, more recently sustained with other funding, Sewanee hosts an eight-week summer program of vocational exploration called the Lilly Summer Discernment Institute. This program includes a six-week internship, for either ordained ministry or work with service or non-profit organizations. The Lilly Project website has more information.

Center for Religion and Environment

Supported by the University’s commitment to sustainability and by its extensive course offerings in environmental studies, the Center for Religion and Environment at Sewanee seeks to transform individuals and society by helping both to integrate their faith with care for the natural environment. All students are invited to participate in Center activities, including its “Earthkeepers” gatherings and “Opening the Book of Nature” program. On occasion, the Earthkeepers group takes observational field trips accompanied by interested faculty members. The group also meets weekly to discuss major themes related to the environment in Christian scripture and theology, as well as how these themes bear on concepts in the natural and social sciences. The character of this university-wide Center for Religion and Environment, associated also with The School of Theology, is virtually unique in American higher education.

Internships

Summer internships give the student an insider’s view of the day-to-day reality of many different career fields. Students gain significant, practical work experience to add to their résumés and valuable contacts with established professionals. The internships also give students a sense of their own vocational interests.

Sewanee’s internship programs feature these unique benefits:

• Paid Internships — Students can pursue the internships that interest them, even if the internship site does not have funding. Generous grants and gifts from alumni and friends enable the University to fund more than 170 internships per year.
• Resources and Support — The University’s Career and Leadership Development staff and alumni network can help a student find, arrange, or even create an internship opportunity.
• Flexibility — Sewanee’s well-established internship program offers a history of positive relationships with internship sponsors and the flexibility to fit student interests.

ACE (A Career Exploration) Internships

Internship opportunities, in any field, brought to the attention of Career & Leadership Development by alumni or friends of the University. The list is available to Sewanee students through a secure website.

ACE Medical Internships

Alumni of the University generously sponsor paid internships within their medical practices, research centers, or laboratories.

Aiken Taylor Internship

A postgraduate internship at Sewanee with the editor and managing editor of the Sewanee Review, the nation’s oldest continuously published literary quarterly.

Arts Internships

The Powell and the Patrick-Smith internship funds provide financial assistance to students majoring in art or art history who wish to pursue a summer internship in studio art, art history, or a corollary profession.

Biehl International Research Internships

A self-directed social science research internship conducted outside of the United States and other English-speaking countries. Open to returning majors in the Departments of anthropology, Asian studies, economics, environmental policy, history, politics, and international and global studies.

Business and Economics Internships

Students develop internships that enable them to participate in, and to observe firsthand, the methods by which business firms conduct their affairs in a free market economy. Sponsored by Wilson, Smith, Probasco, Francis, Doherty, Camp, Bing, and Bank of America endowed funds.

Canale Internships

Supported by the Canale endowment, students pursue a community service internship of their choosing. The internships are projects that benefit the greater Sewanee community, while also developing the individual intern’s leadership, communication, emotional, and analytical skills. Interns are self-directed but receive assistance from a mentor and the outreach office of the University. Internships take place during the academic year and interns are encouraged to spend at least ten hours a week on their projects.

Career Exploration Internship

Summer internships open to any major for any type of internship are funded by the Stephenson and Boyd internship funds.

Environmental Studies Internships

The Sewanee’s Environmental Studies Internship fund offers stipends for environment-related summer programs in and outside of the United States thanks to the generosity of the Brewster, duPont, Fitzsimons, Lankewicz, Leroy, Mellon, Sommer-Speck, and Thomas funds. These are open to students of all majors.

Fund for Innovative Teaching and Learning

The FITL research internships support student-faculty teams in collaborative or mentored scholarly research projects. Internships take place on the Sewanee campus. This fund was established by a foundation that wishes to remain anonymous — aided by a bridge grant from the Jessie Ball duPont fund.

Gessell Fellowship for Social Ethics

The Gessell fellowship provides funds to enable an independent, year-long research project in social theory or social ethics. The project may be an academic research paper or field experience. Projects with a local focus are particularly encouraged. The awards alternate yearly between undergraduate students and seminary students.

Lilly Endowment Internships

Students develop internships of vocational exploration in either church or church-related organizations or within service and non-profit spheres through this endowment.

McGriff-Bruton Mathematics and Computer Science Research Internship

Recipients with this support receive a stipend to work on a project with a Sewanee faculty member during the summer in the fields of mathematics or computer science.

Raoul Conservation Internships

Internships are developed by majors in the Department of Forestry and Geology for the direct application of their studies of the environment.

SEED (Social Entrepreneurship Education) Program

The SEED (Social Entrepreneurship Education) Program at Sewanee is an intensive eight-week social entrepreneurship and micro-finance immersion program that has three components: the summer study abroad program in Bangladesh and India for one and a half courses, with one on “Microfinance Institutions in South Asia” focusing on the Grameen Bank (2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner), BRAC (known as the largest NGO in the world), and ASA (recognized by Forbes magazine as the world’s most successful MFI) in Bangladesh and CURE (Center for Urban and Regional Excellence — a USAID project) in India; a four-week internship at a finance/microfinance institution in the U.S., Latin America, Asia, or Europe; and a week of intensive pre-business training at Sewanee in finance, accounting, and entrepreneurship by faculty, alumni, and parents. Successful participants are awarded an M.A.E. (Microfinance and Entrepreneurship) certificate, signed by Nobel Laureate Dr. Mohammad Yunus and the Vice-Chancellor.

Science Research Internships

Summer stipends are available for students to conduct research in Sewanee and beyond through the Beatty, Davis-Pinson, Greene, Physics, and Yeatman funds.

Tonya Public Affairs Internships

These are internships that enable students to participate in or study public policy through work in federal, state, or local government or in the private sector in an area related to public affairs.