Internship

Catalog description

This seminar introduces students to concepts and tools for understanding and evaluating leadership and organizational management. The internship placement site will serve as a case study for examining the issues and challenges faced by leaders in the public and/or private sector(s). Readings, interviews and class discussions will serve to explore questions such as:• How do leaders make decisions in the face of uncertainty, when action is required without adequate information?• How do leaders measure performance to ensure that their programs and services are working?• How do they involve diverse stakeholders and constituencies- with varying expectations and ideas- in co-creating, implementing and evaluating program strategy?• To whom or what are these leaders accountable?• How do they deliver quality, high impact services in the face of resource constraints?Students will explore these challenges in the varying contexts of public service be they nonprofit, private for profit, philanthropic, government and faith-based institutions – and the social, economic and political forces with which they must contend. Concepts and tools such as theory of change, logic modeling, service blueprinting and performance rubrics will be introduced each week during class meetings and students, over the course of the semester, will apply these tools in constructing an organizational profile of their internship site. All Internship Placements must be approved by the Internship Director.