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Join our ASCENDtials family by getting involved today.

However you choose to engage, your participation positively impacts those in the San Diego community and beyond. Below, please find detailed information on contributing financially and about our volunteer opportunities. In addition, you can also learn about our lead donors. Together, we can make a difference and help dismantle structures that impede progress for all.

Volunteer

ASCENDtials is more than a community resource for the black community; we are a family of educators, innovators, advocates, friends, and mentors who seek to unveil collective consciousness that builds a safe space full of resources and love for our members through holistic programming and community engagement activities.

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Intern

ASCENDtials has created an internship program to offer students the opportunity to expand their knowledge through practical experiences with nature. This provides students from all majors with the opportunity to once again generalize in the knowledge of self, awareness of self, and their relationship with nature. It is important to ensure all aspects of development are addressed early enough to establish principles and practices that benefit and protect the environment and humanity. Now, more than ever, students are drawn away from their connection to the natural world and more towards technological advances. There should always exist a balance as we are beings made of atoms, like the natural world, and we require an understanding of this to remain in optimal health, with our mind, body, and spirit. Learn more about our internships today! 

Our program is designed to attract learners interested in seeing the holistic view of education, from the perspective of nature. They will support research in their field of study but from a wider view. There exist many gaps in our learning, and in some cases, we become blind to the point that we cannot see how parts connect to the whole. Our program allows “Oneness” in that there are activities that cater to our connection to the Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. We present these to show how we might adapt principles to protect and preserve the environment and humanity as we lead a life of purpose. Students can make an impact by focusing on one area or all through gaining experience through our regularly scheduled literacy workshops.

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Fellows

ARTS Science Consciousness Education Nature Development fellowship (ASCEND) program 

Our fellowship program offers yearly up to 12 awardees from institutions across the US and internationally, to tell their story of struggle through the decolonization of ancient Kemet, as they see it, with purpose, through art expression. During the fellowship, students will create and participate in our healing sessions, Kemetic Yoga, and do elemental-specific activities, writing, and being climate-centered to protect those same elements. This fellowship will focus on the study of what it is done to protect and preserve always the environment and humanity, by sharing the stories of our ancestors who had the time and awareness to do so. At the end of the fellowship, students will share what this means in their lives and share in an exhibition.

Responsibilities as a fellow

  • Content for First Winter Quarter sessions From March to June
  • Prepare all content so that it goes through the process of creation steps and solves a problem(s) (Dogon principles of creation, design thinking)
  • Incorporate the curriculum content for all sessions
  • In each session, students work on and develop the final project to share on the last day of classes, before the closing ceremony where a winner will be announced alongside the experts from the program.
  • Will hold an exhibition for all artwork 
  • Joint partnership with other museums 
  • Trip to Kemet to document and record this ancestral knowledge and hold an exhibition in November/December 2024

Fellows will be awarded a second-quarter group and expenses paid for the project and an excursion to hot springs with other team members.

The responsibilities of an intern are on the research intern job descriptions in folders. (These are all the roles that support the art teachers, and experts for healing sessions. The copy editor, editor, copywriter, graphic designer, grant writer, and other researchers.

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Experiential and Service Learning

Our program is designed to attract learners interested in seeing the holistic view of education from the perspective of the four elements. Participants can select from sessions covering nature, in all its characteristics. Some activities cater to the Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. These elements require a deeper dive and understanding. Participants can make an impact by focusing on one area or all. Sessions are completely customizable, according to the learner.

 
 

Literacy Workshops

Literacy workshops span the areas of gaps in our education that bring us more in alignment with our true purpose for existence. It allows us to concentrate on developing our Self, so that we might not feel the anxiety, stress, and aggressions projected by society and the cycle of socialization we all endure once we are born. We want to share that our behaviors and traumas passed down to us aren’t necessary to exist and offer insight into changing that behavioral response to be more in tune with behavior that is alignment with “oneness”.

 
 

ASCENDtials Group Think Tank

ASCENDtials offers this as a major influence among the BIPOC community and impacts real social change among the public and government decision-makers. We are a group of writers of different ages meeting regularly to write on social justice issues such as racism, poverty, prison, women’s rights, equal pay, and government representation. The theme of the writing will have heavy influences from the African Dogon creation process, which applies to any creative act of man and be incorporated into the writing prompts and topics. These writers join our monthly Book Club and Poetry & Writing Club, where we bring these issues to light in a format that offers fresh engagement and ingenuity to assist with writing and discovery. Check out our events page to join these sessions.

 
 

 Community Partnerships

By working with other Community-Based organizations, we can get a better view of the communal needs and make a greater impact by working together. Consider ASCENDtials as a service provider for educational tools that impact the environment and humanity. We need to engage in more activities that develop us into a more humane society. Partner with us by reaching out via email at info@ascendtials.org. We have collaborated with more than 40 partners since our start! We are thankful for the support continued support from the following Foundation, Corporate, and Government partners and donors. Let’s continue to work together to get it done.

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Financials

ASCENDtials is committed to operating with complete financial transparency and accountability of our nonprofit. Stay tuned for our latest annual report.

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Give

As a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization, we rely heavily on the generosity of individuals and organizations to sustain innovative programming. Your contribution will enable us to continue providing essential programming and service to the San Diego County area at low or no cost. Thank you for your support.

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