Community Building and Social Change Fellowship
CBSC Summary
The Community Building and Social Change Fellowship introduces a talented, dedicated, and diverse group of Emory undergraduates to the challenges of and opportunities for building community in contemporary urban America. Through academic coursework, a paid intensive 12-week summer field experience, site visits, small group meetings, and public presentations, Community Building Fellows have the opportunity to see first-hand the critical role that collaboration plays in the resolution of important public problems. They are also given the opportunity to hone the skills needed to transform their passion for social justice into meaningful actions that revitalize communities and promote positive - and lasting - social change.
Click here to be taken to the CBSC application on this page.
CBSC Details
The CBSC program offers up to sixteen students the opportunity to augment their degree programs with a set of academic courses and a summer practicum with a metro Atlanta community building initiative. Coursework begins with the history and theories of community building and social change and then examines the roles corporate, government and nonprofit sectors play in communities.
Students next learn methods for community-based research, strategic planning, and community organizing. Finally, students apply these methods during the summer practicum on projects proposed by local community organizations that address a specific challenge related to health, housing and community development, the environment, or social policy. In partnership with community teachers and contexts, students learn to identify themes of vision, partnering, understanding, leadership, information sharing, initiative, conceptual mapping, and listening/understanding.
CBSC Impact
Click here to read about the exciting collaborative community building projects CBSC Fellows - and the initial Kenneth Cole Fellows - have completed since 2002.
Click here to read an article written by Watkins Fulk-Gray, 2011 CBSC Fellow, and published in the American Planning Association Journal.
CBSC Update
The 2012 Class of CBSC Fellows, the tenth class of Fellows, ended their year-long program in August of 2012. This was a very productive year, with two teams launching a pilot community engagement program with DeKalb County’s Office of Human and Community Development and a third team completing a project on parental engagement in the Edgewood community.
The 2013 Community Building and Social Change Fellows have been selected. The new class of Fellows are:
Priyanka Bhatt, Senior, Political Science and Sociology Majors 
Elizabeth Carson, Junior, Anthropology and Human Biology Majors
Rachel Cawkwell, Junior, English Major
Danielle Douez, Senior, Psychology Major
Yvonne Eseonu, Senior, Sociology Major, African-American Studies Minor
Sarah MacDougall, Junior, Political Science Major, Linguistics Minor
Joy Martin, Senior, Sociology Major, CBSC Minor
Paige Pritchett, Junior, Sociology and Environmental Studies Majors
CBSC Application Information
The application deadline for the Fall 2013 CBSC course (370A/POLS/SOC/ENV/CBSC Community Building and Social Change) is set for April 3, 2013 at 11 a.m.
Applications are to be submitted electronically via a secure surveymonkey.com form at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CBSC2013FALLCLASS. A PDF of the surveymonkey form can be accessed here so you may draft your application answers, but please note that all applications must be submitted via the surveymonkey system unless granted permission by Kate Grace.
The Fall CBSC class serves as the prerequisite for application to the January through August terms of the full CBSC Fellows Program. Only students that are enrolled in the Fall CBSC course or have previously completed the course are able to apply for the spring and summer terms.
By applying for the Fall CBSC class, you are not applying for the full Fellows program, so you can take the class in order to explore community building without committing to the full year-long program. You must apply for the full program in November and admission to the course does not guarantee that you will be offered a position in the full Fellows Program over the spring and summer terms.