University of Utah
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Environmental & Sustainability Studies Internships
The Environmental and Sustainability Studies program (ENVST) provides students with the opportunity to pursue environmentally based community internships for credit within the program. All ENVST students do an immersive experience in their semester-long capstone courses including Community Engaged Learning. Information on this program can be found at:
URL: http://envst.utah.edu/students/internships/information.php

SUST 6000: Global Changes & Society
This semester-long project-based course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to research related to global changes and sustainability. In this course, students from different disciplines Identify a theme or focus area, and develop a specific project to be addressed during the course of the semester.
URL: https://environment.utah.edu/students/gcsc-courses/

Design Build Bluff (College of Architecture + Planning)
Offers students immersive hands-on opportunity to design and build a full-scale work of architecture in collaboration with the Navajo people. Experiences last a week or longer. We emphasize sustainability and a respect for the unique social, cultural, and environmental needs of the region. Students are encouraged to explore alternative building methods, unique materials, and innovative solutions. It is, in a way, the ultimate sustainability to use elements naturally at hand, within reach, both physically and economically.
URL: https://bluff.designbuildutah.org/

Bonderman Field Station at Rio Mesa
Comprises 400 acres of riparian corridor adjacent to the Dolores River, a major tributary of the Colorado River. The field station provides opportunities for field-based interdisciplinary research, education, and other academic pursuits that emphasize ecology and the environment, human-environment interaction, or sustainable living on the Colorado Plateau. Facilities are available for research, classes, workshops, and writers- and artists-in-residence.
URL: http://riomesa.utah.edu/

Lowell Bennion Community Service Center
The Bennion Center fosters lifelong service and civic participation by engaging the university with the greater community in action, change and learning. The Center sponsors programs including Alternative Breaks, Community Engaged Learning, and Community Engaged Scholars, and helps students set up internships and fellowships. The Bennion Center’s Alternative Breaks program supports students seeking deeply engaged learning experiences that create profound personal growth. Students are immersed in specific issue-based community projects such as restoring ecosystems, rehabilitating injured animals, providing support to women living in poverty, and serving people living with homelessness, hunger and illness.
URL: https://bennioncenter.org/students/alternative-breaks/index.php

NOTES
Details about the 2021 & 2022 SUST 6000: Global Changes & Society course cohort projects are below.

2021- Students worked in small groups to define and execute projects related to climate and hazard resilience. Projects included: Biking at the U: Path to Platinum Ranking, Climate & Hazard Resilience and Mental Health, & Indoor Gardens for Climate Resilience.
https://environment.utah.edu/gcs-2021-student-projects/

2022- Students worked in interdisciplinary groups to execute projects relate to Indoor & Outdoor Air Quality. Projects included: Clean Air Communities, Understanding and Mitigating Indoor Air Pollution, Indoor Air Quality and Individual Action, & Air Quality and Sense of Place: A Place-Based Educational Toolkit.
https://environment.utah.edu/gcs-2022-student-projects/

RESOURCES
http://envst.utah.edu/students/internships/information.php
https://environment.utah.edu/students/gcsc-courses/
https://bluff.designbuildutah.org/
http://riomesa.utah.edu/
https://bennioncenter.org/students/alternative-breaks/index.php