Leadership Shadow Practicum Student Resources
As part of the capstone course, LSM students have a unique opportunity to observe leaders in action via a semester-long practicum with a local, national, or global program or organization.
Unlike a traditional practicum, the LSM practicum requires students to meet with a community stakeholder who is addressing social issues that most resonate with them and then observe that leader (or colleagues) in a real-world setting. Students thereby not only consider leadership within a particular context but also strategies employed to address a particular social issue. Partnering organizations have ranged from local citizen-led coalitions to multinational organizations.
Recent Community Partners:
- Bridge of Hope
- Boulder County District Attorney’s Office
- Boulder County Public Health
- California Immigrant Policy Center
- City of Boulder
- City of Lafayette
- Colorado Coalition against Sexual Assault
- Colorado Energy
- Colorado Immigrants Rights Coalition
- CU Environmental Center
- Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security
- John Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research
- Moms Demand Action
- Moving to End Sexual Assault
- NAACP of Boulder County
- Reintegra
- Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence
- Sister Carmen Community Center
- Thorne Nature Experience
Adopting a collective impact approach, the LSM team welcomes new community partnerships. Interested agencies/organizations are encouraged to contact: verveer@colorado.edu
Shadowing Practicum Process:
Once students have identified a social issue to address and formed corresponding cohorts (of two to five students), they consider organizations or programs with which they’d like to partner, either cultivating a new relationship or tapping their respective affiliations.
To form a community and foster common understanding, the practicum experience commences with an informal orientation between student cohorts and their practicum liaison. In addition, students use this initial meeting to create a schedule of subsequent shadowing opportunities.
(Students are required to participate in five observations during the course of the semester; observations may be in person or remote and are approximately an hour in length.) These visits could take place during staff meetings, board meetings, special events, programming, etc., and maybe with different leaders within the organization.
Students will be responsible for completing a practicum memo immediately following each observation. As a culmination, students will present lessons learned and acknowledge their community partners during a poster session at the end of the semester.
Resources:
*Observation Memorandum
*Practicum Posters