Field-based Learning, Outreach, & Workforce Scholarship (FLOWS)
FLOWS provides research and service learning opportunities for CSU students and faculty through local, regional and state water resource practitioners, community, and Tribal leadership engagement. The focus for the experiences will be community-ecological water issues and solutions across the coast, mountain, valley and desert regions of California.
Field School February 21st to February 24th, 2024
Field School 1: San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay Watershed
From the coastal mountains to the beautiful estuaries of Morro Bay, students will apply different field techniques to explore water issues across a coastal mountain to estuary environmental and cultural landscape.
Field School April 10th to April 13th, 2024
Field School 2: Headwaters to Coast: Human modifications of the Santa Ana River Basin
Starting in the San Bernardino National Forest Mountains and traveling through the Inland Empire Valley to the Pacific Ocean, students will explore the environmental and cultural water landscape of the largest and most populated river basin in Southern California.
Learning Community Cohorts
Students will be expected to participate in collaborative activities with their on-campus cohorts before, between and after field school experiences. Campus cohorts will be tasked with weekly assignments over an 11 week period as well as meeting with the cohort faculty/staff mentor. Each campus cohort will share activity findings with the other program campus cohorts through monthly campus-to-campus cohort meetings.
Activities
- Data collection and analysis.
- Each campus cohort will develop water landscape profiles of their respective communities that will be shared with FLOWS program participants and the greater campus community.
- Applied geospatial tools workshop attendance.
- Geospatial applications of field data.
- Developing educational materials about FLOWS activities.
- Meeting resource practitioners to learn about programs, projects and career opportunities.
- Engage with Tribal communities or organizations working with Tribal communities to explore Tribal perspectives of water issues.
- Developing a final FLOWS program ArcGIS Storymap to highlight learning and engagement activities. Information will be shared across CSUs, agencies, nonprofits and communities to promote FLOWS funding and recruitment efforts.
Skill Sets Developed
- Ability to work in individual and group settings to explore complex human-environmental relationships about water resources across diverse landscapes.
- Ability to collect and disseminate data into an educational format to be shared with diverse audiences.
- Learn to understand and apply geospatial applications to see how a phenomena changes across a hydrological landscape.
- Gain appreciation for diverse perspectives about water resource issues including perspectives of those representing Tribal and disadvantaged communities.
- Elevate participants' understanding of Tribal water perspectives and how they align and disconnect with historical and current water resources management approaches.
Student Compensation & Funding Support
- Travel to Field School Locations.
- Accommodations (hotel) during field school activities.
- $18/hr for a minimum of 4 and up to 6 hours of activities and assignments for the 11 week field school program period including FLOWS Fellows (student) participation in pre-during-post field school activities.
- Up to $200/student for protective field gear rental.
Submit a FLOWS Field School Application Today!
For questions, email Dr. Jennifer Alford at jennifer.alford@csusb.edu and put FLOWS in the email subject.
The application period for 2024 has concluded. The 2024-2025 application period will be announced in June 2024.
