Worcester State undergraduates studying humanities will have new opportunities to learn, build skills, and participate in civic engagement internships at cultural, social, and civic organizations around Worcester with the support of a new National Endowment for the Humanities grant.
The $25,000 grant, awarded to Worcester State in late fall 2024, creates the new NEH Spotlight Fellows program. With the grant, the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Worcester State’s John J. BInienda Center, and the Center for Teaching and Learning will forge new academic-community partnerships that support student learning outcomes in the humanities.
Principal investigator Rita Mookerjee, an assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies, was inspired by the engagement opportunities available to students in cities like Boston with rich cultural, historical, and social resources.
With a new NEH grant, the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Worcester State’s John J. BInienda Center and the Center for Teaching and Learning will forge new academic-community partnerships to develop internships for humanities students. Leaders of the project include, from left, Professor Aldo Garcia-Guevara, chair of Interdisciplinary Studies; Amanda Wittman, director of the Binienda Center; Associate Professor Nafisa Tanjeem; and Assistant Professor Rita Mookerjee. (Photo by Nancy Sheehan)
“The number one thing I was thinking was, ‘How do we give the same sparkle to Worcester State?’ If you look at Worcester, we have fabulous institutions where students can go and gain experience,” Mookerjee said. “This is an important site in terms of history when we’re thinking about the civil rights movement and women’s liberation. I wanted to show what fertile ground this is already and bring that sparkle to campus.”
This spring, faculty and community partners will come together to create immersive engagement internships that fulfill community needs and align with the university’s curricula. The internships will be designed to give students academic credit and be available to students who major in interdisciplinary studies or have minors or concentrations in Asian studies; ethnic studies; global studies; queer studies; and women, gender, and sexuality studies.
“We are giving students a byline so that they can advertise and showcase that they are hip, plugged into the community, and doing something altruistic as young people looking to start their careers,” Mookerjee said.
Community organizations, says Mookerjee, will see the benefits of the new initiative, both through stipends that support the planning efforts and the introduction of talented interns. “Having the NEH designation shows this is going to be a good faith partnership,” she said. “You are going to get excellent, new, eager, fresh people who want to come and work for you, and you’re going to be able to impart all your knowledge on them. I hope that our partners will be jazzed about working with Worcester State students and be jazzed about what we’re doing in interdisciplinary studies.”
Interdisciplinary studies is one of the university’s newest academic offerings and allows students to self-design an academic program that spans multiple disciplines. Students in other majors can also minor in one of the department’s academic disciplines. For instance, Mookerjee has an occupational therapy major who studies women, gender, and sexuality.
The new internships, she said, “is a layer that we’re adding to give a certain richness to this major so that it is truly something that the student can say, ‘I designed this program for myself.’”
“We are connecting across campus, connecting across departments, and making connections in the community,” said Professor Aldo Garcia-Guevara, chair of Interdisciplinary Studies. “Liberal studies is interdisciplinary, it pulls together and weaves together elements across the campus and builds from the strengths we have.”
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