Since 2002, SMC groups have traveled to disaster zones or areas of extreme need to work in collaboration with those communities as they take the next steps they have planned to improve their own quality of life. Under the acronym DIRT (Dismantle, Immerse, Reflect, Transform), we participate in direct manual labor alongside members of the communities in which we live. In the Brazilian Amazon, we live in a small ecotourism camp in a remote community, where we sleep in hammocks every night, eat the foods that our local hosts eat, and walk to our worksites in the beautiful Amazon rainforest. Our past projects in our Amazon home include development of a community garden (including a "living pharmacy" of medicinal plants), construction of a community chicken coop, extension of a shared "fish farm," construction of a "fish food factory" to support the fish farm, construction work in the ecotourism camp along with promotion of it, reforestation efforts, water and sanitation work, and documentation of our own experiences and the lives of our hosts. We will prepare for our trip during three overnight retreats on the SMC campus in Fall 2024, then gather ahead of our departure for our final training and packing pushes, complete our final video projects upon our return to Moraga, then present our work to the SMC community (along with family and friends) in Spring 2025.

Note: This course fulfills the Engaged Learning core requirement.

Rules/Expectations:

1. All students will be ready to participate in all group activities every day that we are in the host destination.

2. No student will ever go away from the group alone.

3. Students will follow the rules and norms of the contracts for our lodging, our transportation, and any excursions we take, and the agreements of the group.

4. Students will function as representative ambassadors for the institution of Saint Mary’s College and will avoid any illegal activities.

5. Students will contribute to the course experience through: a) manual labor, b) reflection activities, c) group excursions, d) project preparation, e) group chores, and f) friendly interaction with our hosts and community partners (and each other).

Grading:

The course consists of five primary parts, each worth 20% of the final grade. Each part will contribute to the overall evaluation of the student. Criteria for assessment of excellent performance include:

1. Labor: Cheerful, efficient, and competent performance of assigned tasks. Motivation and initiative to solve problems as they arise. Cooperative leadership in all undertakings. Assessed through instructor, personal, and peer evaluation.

2. Reflection activities: maintenance of a daily journal that incorporates everyday experiences, course readings, and theoretical insights. Also, meaningful participation in discussions of daily events, along with group dialogue about experiences.

3. Team Commitments: Engaged participation in team chores and duties apart from the organized labor that we will perform. Assessed through instructor, personal, and peer evaluation.

4. Project preparation: Preparation of three primary group projects, two of which meet the outcomes of the Core Curriculum related to Global Perspectives and Community Engagement. In addition, the projects should be focused in these ways: one autoethnographic piece about our group/culture, one collaborative piece that is a case study of an individual or group that we encounter, and one open-ended piece determined by the team. Contribution of images and concepts on days when one is a member of the designated videography team AND when one is not. Incorporation of theoretical constructs into group projects. Collaborative participation in all facets of all projects. Incorporation of images, text (including references to course readings and individual journals), sound, and voice into final projects. Assessed through instructor, personal, and peer evaluation.

5. Pre-course Preparation and Participation: Meaningful contribution to overnight retreats and all group interactions (based on seminar rubric of questioning, use of text, focus, collaboration, and invitation), as well as appropriate representation of the College in public situations. Assessed through instructor, personal, and peer evaluation.

By the end of this course, the students will:

1. Understand and embrace the theory and practice of conscientious collaboration with an eye toward social justice.

2. Grasp the basic tenets of ethnographic and documentary methods of scholarly inquiry, including reflective ethnography, collaborative ethnography, visual documentary, the rhetoric and politics of ethnography and documentation, and the emotional commitments of ethnography and documentation.

3. Conscientiously collaborate with communities who are working toward autonomous transformation.

4. Learn principles and techniques of self-sufficiency and sustainability.

5. Complete group projects demonstrating their grasp of the social theories they have studied.

6. Participate in individual, paired, and group reflection to process our experiences.

7. Learn microstructural strategies of relief and community organizingand will develop confidence in dealing with logistics when forwarding such projects on their own in the future.

Learning Outcomes for Engaged Learning. By the end of this course, the students will:

1. Apply academic methods, theories, or disciplinary knowledge outside of the classroom in ways that brings mutual benefits to the learner and a community partner; and

2. Reflect critically and iteratively on the engagement work, including the direct or indirect impact of the work on the learner, the community partner, and society.