SWF Celebrates the Second Academic Year of the RND [Re]Search Internship Program
On Tuesday, May 2, Sweet Water Foundation hosted the Spring 2023 RND [Re]Search Internship Program capstone presentation. Interns delivered an impressive presentation that covered the broad range of topics that they had been [re]searching throughout the semester. The Spring 2023 interns were SWF’s fourth cohort of RND [Re]Search interns in the second academic year of the program. Read more about the Spring 2023 RND [Re]Search Internship.
Background
In the fall of 2021, Sweet Water Foundation launched the Regenerative Neighborhood Development [Re]Search Internship program - a virtual internship that takes place during the academic year. The RND [Re]Search Internship is a transdisciplinary opportunity that grounds current college and university students in the historical context and present-day realities of urban communities to begin preparing them for transformative, hands-on, and community-rooted work with Sweet Water Foundation, our Values-Based Partners, and beyond.
The RND [Re]Search internship begins with a critical disorientation process, as Jada Cannon, a graduate student in architecture at Cornell University, reflected, “I’ve learned over the past year that you have to be prepared to question everything you’ve been taught.”
“I’ve learned over the past year that you have to be prepared to question everything you’ve been taught.”
Selected Essential Texts and SWF’s We the Publics… exhibit are foundational to the unlearning and relearning process of the RND [Re]Search Internship. Resources, such as the We the Publics… timeline, support interns in deepening their understanding of the interconnected actions, policies, and beliefs that have contributed to the multi-layered and complex crises we face today. Through a series of discussions and reflections, RND [Re]Search Interns learn to unpack the bounded rationality embedded within traditional community development solutions designed to pursue growth and profit with little attention to the capacity of and care for our collective resources.
With this context, RND [Re]Search Interns are challenged to re-imagine the contrapositive as they learn about SWF’s Regenerative Neighborhood Development (RND) practice at The Commonwealth. RND Interns translate the RND philosophy, strategies, and practice into their active [re]search and analysis to develop work products (analyses, visuals, and other creative mediums) that support SWF’s work and deepen each student’s area of study.
Spring 2023 RND [Re]Search interns from Lake Forest College visit The Commonwealth to meet the team and get immersed in the practice of RND.
2022 - 2023 RND [Re]Search Intern Cohorts
During the 2022-2023 academic year, SWF selected 5 undergraduate and 4 graduate students from Cornell University, Lake Forest College, Rhode Island School of Design, and Yale College to participate in the RND [Re]Search internship. Their academic backgrounds spanned African American Studies, Architecture, Biology, City & Regional Planning, Community Development, Environmental Studies, Finance, and Legal Studies.
Throughout the academic year, RND [Re]Search interns met weekly to deliberate assigned readings, share updates and receive feedback on their research projects, and cultivate connections with the SWF team and other interns from across the country. The core of the internship experience is working with select members of the SWF team - “Communiversity Faculty'' - to develop a [re]search project that provides a framework through which they process, learn, and engage for the duration of their internship. [Re]Search projects are designed to intersect interns’ academic foci, personal interests, and the [re]search needs of SWF. Most importantly, interns are encouraged to develop and hone a critical lens through dialogue and dialectics with Communiversity faculty and practitioners who are immersed in the daily praxis of RND at The Commonwealth.
The Fall 2022 RND [Re]Search cohort began the process of Re-Mapping the Publics to understand, document, and dissect the public agencies and departments tasked with serving the people of Chicago. Interns examined their stated missions, budgets, Human Resources, and physical infrastructure with a concentration on housing, parks, education, health, and safety-related agencies and departments. Interns’ traditional methods of research were grounded through dialogue with practitioners experienced in the life and flows of Chicago, allowing them to peel back surface-level statements and press releases and begin to rethink, reimagine, and remap how we steward public funds and resources. For instance, one RND intern investigated the value of municipal “community centers” by examining the spaces, access, and resources offered. They discovered that the centers were open only during normal business hours, had an uninviting office building aesthetic, and were surrounded by empty lots. When challenged to create a contrapositive using the available resources, the student pulled from examples at The Commonwealth, detailing how adjacent lots could be activated with public garden beds and stewarded by the staff of the Community Center to connect the center to the neighborhood and expand services to include the sharing of food and cultivation of a common gathering space.
The Spring RND [Re]Search cohort used The Commonwealth as a living site for their [re]search. Collectively, the cohort developed 3D models of the Civic Arts Church and Meeting House, a visual analysis of the emergence of The Commonwealth, documentation of the history and ecology of tallgrass prairies, an analysis of TIFs [Tax-Increment Finance] projects in Chicago’s Washington Park neighborhood, a site plan and technical drawings for a rain garden and bank barn at the Civic Arts Church, and illustrated botany diagrams for SWF’s Seeding the Future program.
The interdisciplinary cohort, composed of undergraduate and graduate students, is an opportunity for RND Interns to dive deep on a topic relevant to their work and interest while also gaining exposure to new disciplines and academic journeys and inspiring new relationships within the cohort. For instance, the undergraduate students studying biology, environmental science, and law/business witnessed the research journeys of graduate architecture and urban planning students, gaining exposure to how different disciplines see/approach challenges and develop solutions.
Capstone Presentation
This year’s RND [Re]Search program culminated with a Spring 2023 capstone presentation on May 2, during which each intern conveyed the depth and rigor of their [re]search experience and learning process. Their presentations reflected how their new knowledge translated to their academic focus and challenged them to see beyond the limits of traditional research.
SWF appreciates the commitment, curiosity, and care of each RND [Re]Search Intern and faculty member for creating a dynamic learning + doing environment and community.