| Intern: | Mona Porter |
| Internship: | Our School at Blair Grocery |
| 1740 Benton Street | |
| New Orleans LA 70117 | |
| Summary Description: | |
| This summer I worked for Our School at Blair Grocery. OSBG is an urban farm/school in the lower ninth ward of New Orleans. Situated between blighted properties and overgrown vacant lots, OSBG is working to revitalize the community by providing education and employment for the youth. The OSBG curriculum includes hands on learning in the garden and food security based classroom activities that are geared towards encouraging critical thinking sklils. During the summer OSBG employed and educated over thirty high school students. As an intern at OSBG my main duties were running a composting workshop and facilitating group discussions during class time. | |
| Intern: | Aurora Quinn-Elmore |
| Internship: | Community Mediation |
| Volunteers of America-Northern New England | |
|
14 Maine Street, Suite 301 Brunswick ME 04011 |
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| Summary Description: | |
| Community Mediation Services is based in Portland, Maine and is jointly funded by the USDA and Volunteers for America. The program is very small and most of the internship was spent fulfilling basic office tasks including responding to email, compiling email lists, compiling spreadsheets, etc. This work was generally unsatisfying because it needed to get done but was not intellectually engaging and the program was so disorganized that it was hard to believe that most of the work I was doing would actually get used. There was some flexibility to create my own projects within the program, and I believe I did make some progress expanding and organizing the program’s outreach efforts. I compiled contact information from various notes and files that Nancy had accumulated and used these contacts to identify more contacts. The aim was to find individuals who were on or organized coalition meetings that might be interested in hearing a brief presentation from Nancy about mediation. I also worked to identify publications that might be interested in featuring content written by us about Community Mediation Services. | |
| Intern: | Hannah Sagin |
| Internship: | Outside In |
| 1132 SW 13th Avenue | |
| Portland OR 97205 | |
| Summary Description: | |
| This summer I interned at Outside In, a social service agency for homeless youth ages 17-24. Outside In offers a variety of services, ranging fro healthcare in their free clinic to a Dog Daycare that operates as a job training site., to a needle exchange. While at Outside In, I worked primarily in the Education and Employment Resource Center, helping out with the Urban Ed program’s drop-in tutoring center. While there, I tutored mostly basic math, but also had the opportunity to design and carry out enrichment opportunities on a topic of my choice. Towards the end of the summer, I was given the responsibility of running the center (with some help!) for two weeks while my boss took a family vacation. I also had the opportunity to observe and help out with the Job Readiness Training class and an open invitation to get to know clients better while shadowing case managers during breakfast at the Day Program. Because Outside In is an awesome organization to work for and offers a wide range of programs, I’d recommend an internship with them to anyone interested in homelessness and youth, social work, alternative education, LGBT issues, HIV/AIDS arts education, or healthcare (including public health and trans-specific healthcare). | |
| Intern: | Ami Shrestha |
| Internship: |
BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee |
| BRAC Centre, 75 Mohakhali | |
| Dhaka, 1212 Bangladesh | |
| Summary Description: | |
During my summer internship I learned a lot about BRAC, its approach and its impact in addition to the challenges and conditions of working for development, especially as a foreigner. I found answers for several of my queries regarding the work for development. While the experience intensified my aspiration to pursue my career in the field of development, it also taught me the limits for foreigners to propel positive change. There is an extent to which foreigners can contribute, but in the end it has to be the insiders who will execute any change. I noticed various opportuniies through which positive change seemed possible but realized that there are unseen challenges and constraints. No wonder developing countries are lagging behind in every aspect. The only negative side of the internship was its loose structure which my supervisor has vowed to change. Though I wish I could have contributed more to BRAC, I am content with the quality of my output. Some of the stories that I covered during field visits have been featured on the BRAC website and our infographics idea was liked by the communications department and will likely be developed to tell the BRAC story. I regret that our project “BRAC Sponsor A Child” did not come to fruition but I understand that it was just not the right project for BRAC, which operates on a massive scale and with a holistic approach. Nevertheless, working on the project was a learning experience that I do not regret.
