Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project

The AAAD program is now working with the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project to offer a limited number of community research internships.

Current opportunities include:

1. Histories and geographies of African American burial grounds in the Shenandoah Valley
2. Local African American chefs and culinary history
3. Histories of Lewis Mountain Lodge in the Shenandoah National Park.

Research activities could include:

• Documentary and oral history research
• Photography
• Data collection and database management
• Digitization and mapping
• Developing presentation materials, reports, and booklets.

Northeast Neighborhood Association

AAAD students can earn credits toward the minor through the AAAD internship program by working as Gilliam Center Summer Impact Fellows for the Northeast Neighborhood Association, a leading local organization in the struggle for racial justice. Students will help the organization grow, expand its reach, and develop new initiatives – similar to the work one might conduct working on or for a startup. Using the Lean Startup method of rapid feedback and the SCRUM method of problem solving, students will work on diverse teams of fellow JMU students guided by JMU X-Labs and Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship staff, as well as other JMU faculty experts. Apply here: https://summerimpactfellowship.questionpro.com

Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center

The Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center is home to the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, the Gospel Extravaganza, and numerous other community events. It is also the home of the Celebrating Simms exhibit, which commemorates the contributions of the Lucy F. Simms School and the Northeast neighborhood to the city of Harrisonburg, Virginia. The exhibit was produced by AAAD faculty members, Dr. Mollie Godfrey and Dr. Seán McCarthy, and their students, working in close collaboration with countless community members and the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project in association with Billo Harper. More information about the center is available here.

Ole School Alumni Group

The mission of the Ole School Alumni Group is to serve as a continuing instrument to promote the positive diversity profile of JMU through aggressive recruitment and retention of qualified African American students, to ensure appropriate University representation, which includes students of all races and nationalities. The Fund serves as an automatic professional network of support to the JMU student community.

Black Alumni Chapter

The purpose of James Madison University Black Alumni Chapter is to support the University in its efforts to recruit, retain, and ensure the successful matriculation of African American students; to foster and maintain positive relationships between African American students and alumni; to support the James Madison University Alumni Association in all of its efforts to promote long-lasting, positive relationships between alumni and the University. They offer the Black Alumni Chapter Scholarship Endowment to benefit under-represented students entering the University as first-year students and to influence such student's respective decisions to enroll at the University.