Student and Faculty Resources
What are Students Saying?
“My involvement with the Sage Project allowed my classmates and me to take what we’ve learned and apply it to a real life situation…The Sage Project is a program that can open many doors for SDSU students, cities and the residents of those cities. I was offered a full-time position at City Hall in the Neighborhood Services Division, where I work at now. All from taking one class.”
Jessica Madamba, City Planning graduate student
“My experience with the Sage Project has greatly impacted how I am choosing to shape the direction of my major (Sustainability) and minor (Recreation Administration). I am hoping to enroll in another class that is affiliated with the Sage Project this Fall; working with the city of Santee sounds like another constructive experience. It’s been an enriching educational experience!”
Leila De Silva, Sustainability major
“[A]ny time you can get real-world experience in an industry you are passionate about to interact with government, it’s a good idea.”
Joey Zaniboni, Real Estate major
“This experience has shaped my career goals…”
Shannon Mulderig, Urban Studies graduate
“This is an opportunity to make a difference…”
Kris Rios, Sustainability graduate
“[F]or those students considering joining the Sage Project, I recommend that everybody get involved for the opportunity to gain leadership and real world experience. There are also many great opportunities for building a network through self-exposure for your future career.”
Piper Whalen, Graphic Design student and Sage Project intern
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Students
- No additional volunteer work: You get experience for working on real-world community-based projects that are already integrated into your class.
- We connect with courses from a wide range of disciplines, including city planning, civil engineering, geography, graphic design, homeland security, marketing, public administration, public health, and many more!
- By working closely with community partners, you can make professional contacts that can lead to professional opportunities, internships, and full-time jobs.
- Build your resume: Develop skills that are directly translatable to the workforce and look great on your resume.
- Talk to your professors about collaborating with the Sage project;
- Contact us to find out how you can volunteer, do independent study, or apply for an internship!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Faculty
This program is for any faculty member who:
- teaches an undergraduate or graduate course with an applied learning, service learning, or project-based component
- would like to incorporate a real-world project from our community partner into their class
- would like to assist a community by incorporating and analyzing community data, and/or creating designs and solutions for the community
Impact—on our community and students—is the reason the Sage is such a success. By focusing your existing course on a community-identified project, you link your students to a larger effort with a visible impact in our partner community.
We recognize that many faculty are already engaged in community-based projects that promote student success. The Sage Project seeks not to replace but rather enhance these activities by connecting individual courses to a community-wide initiative and creating a critical mass of impact and interest that will have a dramatic impact in the community.
Little or no additional time is required to participate. You do not need to have a lot of free time to incorporate the project into your course. In fact, we will do much of the setup work for you. We recognize that faculty have many demands on their time and our goal is to minimize or eliminate this barrier by connecting with existing courses and providing support before, during and after your course. While there may be a small upfront time investment to plan your class, the Sage Project provides support that will save most faculty time and effort over the term.
The Sage Project benefits faculty by matching courses with engaging real-world projects from our community partner and providing the support, information, and infrastructure to make the project a drop-in for existing courses.
- Staff support. We provide assistance for your service or applied learning activity.
- Funds. Faculty may apply for up to $1000 to support course activities. Funds can be used for materials and resources, field trips, guest speakers, or other approved uses.
- Publicity. The Sage Project works with campus and local media to share your course successes and ensure you receive recognition for the good work you and your students are doing in the community.
- Interesting, meaningful work for students. Which is more likely to engage your students—the same hypothetical data set for your Statistics course OR data from a local community that could be used to develop solutions to real-world problems?
The benefits for students include:
- Enhanced learning experience from engaging with a real-world project
- Skills and experience that they can list on resumes
- A personal connection with a local community through course-based service
- Sage Project staff will facilitate contacts with city and community partners. We work with you and partner staff to develop the initial concept into a project that is appropriate for your course and learning outcomes. We will assist with data and information gathering and ensure that you have what you need for your project before the semester begins.
- In addition, Sage Project staff will communicate with partner staff throughout the project to maintain collaborative relationship and provide technical assistance. We will communicate project successes to campus and local media, and present project findings to the community and stakeholders as needed.
- Finally, in certain cases, Sage Project staff will work with a paid student from your course to develop a report which serves as the final deliverable to you and the city. This occurs following completion of the semester in which your class participates.
As a faculty participant we ask that you:
- Maintain open lines of communication with Sage staff.
- Incorporate at least one activity that focuses on a community-identified project where students present their work on the project to partner staff.
- Assist the Sage Project with identifying a high achieving student with whom they can contract and coordinate to create the summary report.
- Facilitate the transfer of materials to the report writer.
- Review a draft of the report during the term following the project and provide feedback on the draft. The Sage Project and the student writer are ultimately responsible for generating the final report.
- Let us know you are interested! Contact the Sage Project at [email protected] to find out more or to share your ideas.
- Check out the list of projects identified by our community partner to connect with your course.
- Meet with Sage Project staff to link with community partners and develop your course project.
Want to learn more?
Contact us at [email protected].