Urban Agriculture and Education Internship
OVERVIEW
This program offers UC Berkeley students the opportunity to intern with community, K-12 school and campus urban agriculture programs. Interns will be fully immersed and involved in the daily activities and programs of the sites and receive two to three units of academic credit for participating: one unit per 45 hours through ESPM 197 Food Systems Minor, Education Minor W144, or Health Service Internship (HSI) program. This is an unpaid internship.This is an excellent opportunity for a hands-on experience in the community with youth, local farms and small urban agriculture businesses. No gardening skills or teaching experience necessary!
REQUIREMENTS
Minimum 6 to maximum 12 hours/week (min. 90 hours to max of 135 hours for the full fall semester) with commitment to regular days and times each week to be worked out with site coordinators. Fingerprinting and TB testing required for school districts; our program will provide information on how to complete.
APPLY
Send a resume and cover letter as a single pdf to cwrainey@berkeley.edu by 5:00 PM on Monday, August 26. Indicate the top two organizations you would like to work with!
SITES
Berkeley Unified School District: Gardening & Cooking Program (Up to 10 positions) is a district-wide program that incorporates hands-on, interdisciplinary, experiential education in 17 school gardens and 4 kitchen classrooms, from preschool to high school. Instructors teach from a garden-based learning curriculum that is woven into academic standards and integrates social emotional development and early interaction with nature and food systems. Please indicate if you would prefer: garden based learning in elementary; project-based in the garden in middle; or nutrition education with high school students. Interns will need to be self starters and able to model good behavior for students.
Oakland Unified School District: Garden, Nutrition, And Sustainability Program (Up to 5 positions) is a district-wide program that uses a multi-faceted approach to providing urban students access to healthy, locally-produced food; understanding of food systems and natural cycles; engaging in experiential, standards-based garden and nutrition lessons; building self-reliance and character; and connecting to local community. OUSD has 20 school learning gardens and a food waste program in school cafeterias. Interns will work in gardens and cafeterias with classroom management, instruction, waste reduction and recovery, focused group work, waste data tracking, reporting, and student engagement.
UC Gill Tract Community Farm (Up to 5 positions) is a collaborative project between UC Berkeley and the local community, located in Albany. The Farm focuses on issues of food justice and urban farming and aims to be a community space and resource. It is a flagship for urban farming, growing over 18,000 pounds of vegetables a year and collaborating with over 30 different organizations across the East Bay. Interns will work directly on the farm and learning agroecological principles, study herbal medicine, participate in farm management, aid in crop planning, address food insecurity, help run our donation-based farm stand… and much more!
https://www.gilltractfarm.org
Sogorea Te Land Trust (1-3 positions) is an urban Indigenous women-led community organization that facilitates the return of Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone lands in the San Francisco Bay Area to Indigenous stewardship. Sogorea Te creates opportunities for all people living in Ohlone territory to work together to re-envision the Bay Area community and what it means to live on Ohlone land. Guided by the belief that land is the foundation that can bring us together, Sogorea Te calls on us all to heal from the legacies of colonialism and genocide, to remember different ways of living, and to do the work that our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do.
https://sogoreate-landtrust.com/
Black Earth Farms (1-3 positions) is an agroecological lighthouse organization composed of skilled Pan-African and Pan-Indigenous farmers, builders and educators who spread ancestral knowledge and train community members to build collectivized, autonomous, and chemical free food systems in urban and peri-urban environments throughout the Greater East San Francisco Bay Area. Our work regenerates our community’s connection to and reverence for land and agriculture, which was partially severed from our ancestors through colonial violence and our elders through multinational corporate exploitation. One of our main priorities is ensuring low-income and houseless communities in Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, and Richmond have consistent access to culturally relevant healthy food.
https://www.blackearthfarms.com/
