SUMMER FIELD PRACTICUM
Get first-hand experience in development practice through the summer field practicum.
“On my Summer Practicum, I worked in collaboration with farmers from two villages in Western Kenya on how they view, manage, and problem-solve growing issues within sustainable land management. Understanding how farmers make decisions regarding their land and how the dynamics of the small farming communities function is a way to bring light to policy and supportive programs that will be beneficial for both humans and natural resources.”
– Anna Jackson (MDP 2019)
An essential feature of the MDP program is a summer field practicum. This practicum creates a structured opportunity for field-based learning within ongoing development projects. Students can undertake this field practicum with international partners or with local projects situated in the Southwest/borderlands region.
Examples of Past Practicums by Arizona MDP Students
| Practicum partner | Country | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) | Ethiopia | |
| Kenya Youth Employment & Skills (K-YES) Program | Kenya |
"Assessing the Impact of the Kenya Youth Employment & Skills (K-YES) Program" |
| Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti | Haiti | "Pre-Trial Detainees in Haiti: A Legacy of Human Rights Abuses" |
| Asta-Ja Research and Development Center | Nepal |
"Improved seeds for vegetable production and income in Nepal" |
| International Rescue Committee (Arizona) | United States |
“Post-Resettled Refugees: Programming that Links Mental Health, Language and Self-sufficiency” |
| WorldFish | Sierra Leone | “Small-scale Aquaculture in Sierra Leone, West Africa” |
| Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona | United States |
"Program Integration at the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona" |
| Humane Society of America | United States | “The Integration of More Plant-based Foods in our Diet: Reformulating our Assumptions about Consumption” |
| International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) | Kenya | “Benefits and Barriers to Sustainable Land Management: Farmer Perceptions in Western Kenya” International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) |
| One Eleuthera Foundation, and Bahamas Plastics Movement | Bahamas | “Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Environmental Sustainability in Eleuthera, Bahamas”
|
| TANGO International | Multiple
|
"The Missing Piece of World Food Program’s Strategic Plan: Cambodia as Illustration of WFP’s Need to Lead and Collaborate in Addressing the World Obesity Epidemic" "A Theory of Change: Climate Variability and Livelihoods in Chiang Mai and Nan Provinces, Northern Thailand" |
| Humane Society | United States | "The Integration of More Plant-Based Foods in Our Diet: Reformulating our Assumptions about Consumption" |
| WorldFish | Zambia |
"Considering the Gendered Nature of Post-Harvest Losses in the Barotse Floodplain, Western Province Zambia" "Social and Gender Analysis Key Findings: Barotse Hub, Western Province, Zambia" |
| Starbucks | Rwanda | "Addressing Farmer Health Initiatives in Rwanda" |
| CGIAR | Kenya | "Youth Decision Making in Agricultural Adaptations to Climate Change An Analysis in East Africa" |
| University of Parakou | Benin | "At the Interface of Science and Decision-making: Environmental Governance and Natural Resource Management in Sub-Saharan Africa" |
| Conserve Swaziland/CANGO | Swaziland | "Wildlife Conservation in the Kingdom of Swaziland: Challenges and Prospects" |
| JustHope | Nicaragua |
"Perceptions of Education in Chacraseca: Where to Target Education Projects to Improve Quality and Equity" "Undoing Internalized Oppression: Addressing Gender and Development Disparities through Formal Education Systems" |
| AMOS Health and Hope | Nicaragua | "Aiming for Behavioral Change: The Looming Zika Epidemic as a Springboard to Better Community Health" |
| UNICEF | Multiple | "The Role of Technology and Innovation in Development: Lessons Learned from UNICEF's Innovation Initiatives" |
| UMWAD (Philippines) | Philippines | "Poverty Alleviation Through Collaborative Development" |
| Manusher Jonno Foundation | Bangladesh | "Assessing the Right to Information Act in Bangladesh" |
| Sakala | Haiti | "A Retrospective Analysis of Participatory Action Research for Youth Development in Cite-Soleil, Haiti" |
| Swaziland National Trust Commission | Swaziland | "Conservation and Development in Mhlumeni, Swaziland: A Community Needs Assessment Completed on Behalf of the Swaziland National Trust Commission" |
| UA Institute for the Environment | United States | "Climate Services and Vulnerability: Challenges of Jamaican Farmers" |
| Dadaab Refugee Camp | Kenya | "Refugee Income Inclusion: From Humanitarian Aid to Economic Self-Sufficiency" |
| International Center of Maize and Wheat Improvement | Mexico | "Information and Communication Technology for Food Security and Environmental Stewardship in Mexico: Regionalization of Agricultural Activities to Inform Decision-Making and Repackaging of Data for Higher Utility" |
| World Vision | Romania | "Child Protection in the Wider Black Sea Region: Implementation of a Child Protection Index " |
| Africa Rice (CGIAR) + Monterey Institute for International Studies | Benin | "Evaluating the Impact of Entrepreneurial Education on Poverty and Well-Being Among 18-30 Year Olds in Benin" |
| Center for International Forestry Research | Indonesia | "REDD+ and Fuelwood Use: Policy Implications of Informal Market Energy Demands" |
| Migrant Shelters | Mexico |
"Organized Insecurity and Migrant Experiences: Structural Violence, and the Construction of Spaces of Manipulation of Central American Migrants in Southern Mexico" "Las Mujeres Luchandoras: Central American females speak out on the migrant trail in Oaxaca, Mexico" |
| International Water Management Institute | Laos | "Hydrological impacts of land use/land cover change and options for best management practices:Case studies of two micro-catchments in Thailand and Vietnam" |
| Winrock International | Myanmar | "Permaculture Design Systems for Refugee Camps: Building resilience and community in areas of resource scarcity" |
| Good Neighbors | Dominican Republic | "Report on NGO Community Development Projects in Rural and Urban Dominican Republic; Health, Sanitation, and Poverty Alleviation Programs of the Caribbean" |
| International Institute of Tropical Agriculture | Uganda | "Climate Change and Smallholder Farmers in Rural Uganda" |
| Pima County Development Services | United States | "Integrating Community and Participatory Approaches to Neighborhood Development Strategies" |
| University Research Co. LLC | Cambodia | "Health Equity Funds: An Innovation in Health Care Financing in Cambodia" |
| Universidade Estadual de Maranhao | Brazil | "Rich Waters, Poor fishermen: The Enigma of the Fishery of Raposa" |
“I worked with the NGO WorldFish on my Summer Practicum in Sierra Leone, where daily life is a struggle for most people. By providing technical knowledge and inputs for small-scale fish farming to sustenance farmers in the district, WorldFish is helping people provide their families with more varied diets and much-needed extra income that can be used to improve and, hopefully, sustain their livelihoods for years to come.” – Joseph Stewart (MDP 2019)