FIX: Frameworks for Interdisciplinary Exchange

Frameworks for Interdisciplinary Exchange (FIX) is a cooperative venture between the Joint Educational Project and the Thematic Option Honors Program.
Open to students of all majors, FIXs offer interdisciplinary service-based approaches to “wicked problems,” problems that are difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize.

The most recent FIX took place in Spring 2022. See below for more details about the program.

FIX Spring 2022: Homelessness in Los Angeles

This spring, FIX will be addressing homelessness in Los Angeles. The combination of course-work and service will give you the unique opportunity to collaborate and learn across the schools of USC, helping you recognize and respect the various areas of knowledge and experiences that other students from other academic fields have developed and engaged.

No one field or person can solve the impossible problems we all face; only by working together, connecting a variety of expertise, skills, and ambitions, can we fix seemingly impenetrable issues. Joining a FIX means expanding your education and putting it into action in the Los Angeles community as you work together with faculty and students to impact ― and hopefully fix ― the world.

There are two components to this spring’s FIX done together in one semester:

• CORE 499: Interdiscplinary Solutions for Homelessness, a four-unit course in which you will explore the historical rise of homelessness in LA and across the US, focusing on the various causes of homelessness, with a special interest in growing up and into homelessness and the connection to criminal justice and reform efforts. You will learn not just from your professor but from each other, all students contributing knowledge and experiences from their majors, minors, research, and extracurriculars, plus everything gained from your service placement experience. The objective of this cooperative mission is to develop, as a team, actionable proposals for addressing homelessness in Los Angeles with the guidance of your FIX professor and your service site. Your professor will push you to explore the successes and confront the failures of various approaches to tackling the given wicked problem, asking you to read both widely and deeply while integrating guest speakers and visits to critical sites.
• FIX service placements will provide on-the-ground experience through the Joint Educational Project (JEP), assigning you to work with philanthropic organizations, charities, government offices, religious organizations, schools, companies, or clinics that engage with homelessness. Through your service, you will make a difference as you learn how various groups around Los Angeles have strived to make an impact on what often appear as insurmountable challenges. JEP will ask you to reflect on your service through carefully and thoughtfully designed curriculum as well as critically assess your assignment’s approach to intervention, its position in the city and its immediate community, and the benefits and limits of its resources and scale.

Summer Internship: FIX students will have the option of continuing their work with a summer internship. FIX will provide a $3000 stipend so you can continue at your service site as a full-time intern, implementing the action plan that you proposed at the end of the spring course. The stipend is intended to offset the need for other summer employment so you can focus on your site and make a real impact. In addition, you will receive $500-$1000 in seed money to help realize the proposed solution or strategy. Teams working together can combine these funds to have a greater effect.

There are no minimum requirements or specific majors needed to participate in a FIX.
There is an application process that will gather information about you, your experiences, and your interests.

For More Information: thematicoption@dornsife.usc.edu