Join DeCal

The DeCal board is a student group that provides outreach and publicity services for student-initiated group study courses by familiarizing students with the course initiation process and listing courses on a website. We are not responsible for reviewing, approving and supervising Special Studies courses. The departments and the Academic Senate handle all academic and administrative aspects of DeCal courses.

The DeCal Program is one of the largest student-run educational organizations in the country.

There are four main ways to get involved:

• As a volunteer.
• As an intern. (and receive academic credit)
• As a course facilitator
• As a member of the advisory board. (and receive academic credit)

The experience that you will get through DeCal will include:

• A unique are of knowledge that is rapidly becoming more important in government, business and community: Strong leadership skills are gained through better understanding of the dynamics of group learning environments and the connection between learning and society, which are central areas of thoughts in DeCal’s philosophy.

• You will meet a lot of very high-quality individuals: DeCal facilitators are among the top students on campus. We also regularly have contacts with people outside of Berkeley’s community. Just last year, student and campus representatives from UC Santa Cruz, UPenn and UCLA met with us to discuss their version of Dem. Ed in their respective universities. Other people we meet with regularly are top people in their fields and are very understanding of the need to provide quality opportunities to people our age.

• Academic credit for your work as a DeCal Board member: DeCal Board members receive 0-4 units of credit for their work with DeCal. It is an enormously powerful leadership opportunity.

• A large level of responsibility in a major non-profit organization: DeCal is the largest student-run educational organization in the country, with over 1,000 students enrolled in classes and between 120 to 150 classes each semester.

• An understanding of factors underlying historical movements for social change: The idea of education embedded in DeCal is that people should be capable to learn together. History from the past hundred years shows the power of this collective force, most evident in the overthrow of colonialism.

• You will work with a team of excellent people: Members of the DeCal Board are energetic and fun to work with. They are there because of their interest in the subject and their projects.

• You will create and see the large-scale impact of your own projects: Because of the large breadth of the organization, small changes have a large impact on many classes. In DeCal you are able to leverage your talents to help make improvements in the student experience at Berkeley and are able to contribute to changing the overall perception of education on a national level.

Created by students, the DeCal Board is really accommodating so that you can have a great time while learning and performing a lot of high-quality and meaningful work.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us, please call 510.642.9127 or e-mail decalprogram@gmail.com! If you are interested in joining us in Fall 2006, let us know, but we are actively looking for interns for Fall 2008!

Download the application: Microsoft Word DOC Adobe Acrobat PDF

Updated May 28, 2008.