By the Numbers
Throughout the academic year, faculty offer the field study course in which around 1,000 students participate. Students complete the fieldwork through placements at one of 180+ approved community partners. Community partners represent non-profits, public sectors, and private sectors.
Serving Areas in Need
Students who conducted a geographic analysis in George Tita's, Fall 2013 - Crm/Law C148 GEO INFOSYSTEMS course found that there are more field study students in areas of less income versus higher income and in areas where more than 40% of the population over 25 years old does not have a high school diploma or equivalent.
Making Meaningful Contributions
Advanced Field Study provides students and community partners opportunity to align skills, needs, interests and learning objectives to collaborate on projects that make a difference in our communities. The 2014-2015 Advanced Field Study Students completed projects on youth shelter staff experiences, obstacles impeding affordable housing, assessment of the effectiveness of a gang diversion program, recommendations for sustainability programs in low-income housing communities, building capacity for sustainable food programs in Santa Ana, and evaluating tutoring effectiveness.
Confronting Poverty, Social Injustice, and Inequality
In the Spring of 2015 the School of Social Ecology, in collaboration with the UCI Blum Center, launched a pilot program in immersive Field Study. Four students had a unique opportunity to do fieldwork for 10 weeks on a full-time basis for an organization that concentrates on poverty alleviation and social injustice. The students were placed not just locally in Orange County, but also across the nation. Read more...