Summer Programs

Please note that the programs listed below describe our 2023 Summer Programs for which the application cycle has already ended. Information for our 2024 Summer Programs will be released early 2024.

We are very excited to share with you details on our new summer 2023 program organized in partnership with USC’s Thematic Option and Hong Kong Polytechnic University:

Join Thematic Option (Dr. Michael Petitti) and JEP as they partner with Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Dr. Rina Camus) for a unique service-learning exchange opportunity. Over eight weeks, from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, we will engage with an array of incredible service opportunities that highlight food justice and class-based concerns across the globe.

In Hong Kong, USC students join up with the Poly U student group to work with organizations that focus on elderly and migrant populations when it comes to issues surrounding food justice, including food insecurity, recycling, and promoting indigenous cuisines. Students will also also explore the city’s urban gardens and food centers, such as the Chung King Mansion and the Tai Po Market, in order to get a better sense of how food is oriented in an urban environment like Hong Kong. During these four weeks, students will work with various organizations and individuals, in addition to touring the city, so that they get a better sense of the issues surrounding food justice in Hong Kong. In this way, volunteering becomes a way to balance readings and lectures and discussions about these issues with real world experience.

In Los Angeles, USC students will welcome the Poly U students to Los Angeles and partner with Moonwater Farm (Compton) to deal with food justice issues far closer to campus. Specifically, students will work with groups like the Compton Community Garden to understand how policy issues play into food security for local communities. Furthermore, students will work with a local Compton middle school to install and set-up zip grow hydroponic food resources for the entire school to enjoy. Students will also work closely with community farms in Long Beach to understand cultural narratives and the historical lived experiences of the various diasporas (Filipino, Cambodian, Vietnamese) contributing to the rich South Bay landscape. In addition, students will visit a few culturally significant landmarks in Los Angeles (the Los Angeles River, the San Pedro Community Gardens) to learn more about how they contribute to understanding food justice in Los Angeles (and beyond). In this way, these four weeks will further contribute to a real world, service-based understanding, and a contrast halfway across the globe, to issues of food justice in our world.

Program dates: May 15 – July 14, 2023

PROGRAM ITINERARY

• Hong Kong portion: May 15-June 9
• Break and transition: June 10-June 14
• Fly to Los Angeles: June 14-15
• Los Angeles acclimation: June 15-June 18
• Los Angeles portion: June 19-July 14

Please email thematicoption@dornsife.usc.edu with any questions.

The Public Service Internship Program is a summer program designed to give undergraduate JEP students a deeper understanding of the community-based organizations they worked with through their JEP service-learning experiences. Funding is provided for students to build on their service-learning experiences by working 20 hours a week for 10 weeks at their JEP site. The internships will vary, depending on the needs of the organization, but most will involve helping the organizations with fund-raising, grant-writing, program development, or other activities that are core to the agency’s operations.

Students are eligible to apply if they participated in a JEP service-learning experience (either through a course or as a volunteer) during the academic year where they were placed with a community-based organization (ex: A Place Called Home, CARECEN, BetTzedek, PESA, School on Wheels or 826LA). Preference will be given to students enrolled in summer classes at USC. Internships must be approved by the sponsoring site.

The 10 weeks must fall between within a specific date range (mid-May to early August) which is determined jointly by the student, the sponsoring agency and JEP.

For other information about the program, please contact your JEP Program Assistant or Sable Manson: smanson@usc.edu