Current students can apply through Feb. 2; $1K stipends for spring, $3K stipend for summer
Ashland.news staff report
Southern Oregon University’s Institute for Applied Sustainability is recruiting students for its new Community Resilience and Leadership Student Fellows program – an opportunity for a cohort of 15 of students to help create meaningful solutions to urgent challenges facing local communities.
The one-year fellowship – a cornerstone of the institute’s Living Laboratory concept – offers a total of 12 credit hours plus monetary stipends to students who are selected for the fellowships.The Community Resilience and Leadership (CRL) fellows program is an opportunity for students to participate in hands-on projects through field-based learning and close partnerships with a variety of local organizations. SOU economics professor Bret Anderson and several members of the local community created the lab in partnership with the university.
The program is built on the idea of the Living Laboratory – a classroom formed by partnerships between SOU, the southern Oregon region and community organizations.
“CRL is not a class you sit through,” the program’s website says. “It’s an experience you step into.”
The program consists of a spring Local Innovation Lab course that meets two hours per week and offers four academic credit hours; a summer Field School that offers eight credit hours and meets for six weeks beginning in early August; and fall options that include internships, peer mentoring and capstone research projects.
The student fellows will receive $1,000 stipends for participating in the spring Local Innovation Lab and $3,000 stipends for the summer Field School.
“The experience of meeting with community partners, exploring ambiguities and personal values with my peers, and the helpful and insightful guidance of the instructors is invaluable,” said one student who has completed the Local Innovation Lab course. “I believe the lab attracts students who are curious, full of life, and willing to learn how to ride the waves of ambiguity and uncertainty.”
Another student said the lab is “not just learning about different tools and ways to improve yourself, but also of ways to impact and affect other individuals in the community, beginning with yourself.”
The Institute for Applied Sustainability envisions SOU as what it calls a “Living Laboratory,” in which students can turn ideas into action, and theory into real-world solutions. Students use real challenges, data and partners to test ideas, solve problems and create impacts in their community – tackling issues such as energy, water, food systems, forests and community well-being.
The CRL Student Fellows Program, an integral part of the Living Laboratory model, has grown out of the Local Innovation Lab project – which started as a response to local problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the September 2020 Almeda Fire.
Students from all interested majors are welcome to attend an informational session from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 26, in Room 319 of the Stevenson Union. Lunch will be provided, and questions about the program are welcome.
Applications to become part of the 2026 cohort – which begins this spring term – can be submitted online, with a priority deadline of Feb. 2.
Source: Southern Oregon University news release. Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].
