We are pleased to have awarded 19 internships to CMC students for the summer of 2013. Of these, 11 students are traveling to international destinations and 8 will remain in the U.S. We are proud of and inspired by each and every one of their projects. Click on a student's name below to read more and to follow them over the summer as they "blog" about their experiences, triumphs, and challenges.
Sesa Bakenra ’15
OpenMind Projects (OMP), Mae Sot, Thailand
Sesa will work with OMP staff to help create a sustainable, cost-effective language, job-skill, and health/wellness program in Thai secondary schools to benefit, primarily, Burmese refugee populations.
Bojana Bozic ’14
National Democratic Institute (NDI), Washington, D.C.
Bojana will work with NDI’s Central Eastern Europe project team assisting with their efforts in international development work, with a particular focus on international relations and conflict resolution in the Balkan region.
Kelsey Cherland ’14
Women’s Voices Now, Los Angeles, CA
Kelsey will be assisting Women’s Voices Now with the planning of their spring 2014 film festival focused on gender violence. She will compile a contact database, research the issues presented in the films, view film submissions, and help with the WVoice, an online publication about women’s work in Muslim-majority societies.
Mylene “Milly” Fotso ’16
Hybrid Social Solutions, Manila, Philippines
Hybrid Social Solutions (HSS) is a public service-oriented company that distributes and services world class, innovative products designed to help rural communities develop by providing them access to basic development-oriented goods and services such as light (via solar lamps). Milly will assist Hybrid Social Solutions with business development and any related tasks that contribute to aiding the rural poor of the Philippines.
Allison Ipsen ’14
Girls Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS), New York, NY
GEMS is a NGO specifically designed to serve girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. GEMS provides emergency housing/shelter, court advocacy, and educational mentoring to the women and girls in its programs. Allison’s internship will focus on each of these programs as well as outreach and media relations on behalf of the organization.
Noah Jay ’14
RefugeeOne, Chicago, IL
Noah will be working as a summer housing and public policy intern. He will advocate on behalf of the organization as well as assist with external communications such as monthly newsletter and web content. He will also work with RefugeeOne’s housing program assisting with client housing arrangements including apartment set-up, ensuring refuges receive safe and affordable housing, as well as ongoing mediation and education services.
Bennett Jones ’14
The SCOOP Foundation, Dublin Ireland
SCOOP, Supporting Children Out Of Poverty, is an organization which partners with local (in country) organizations to create educational opportunities for the poorest of children in India and Cambodia through the construction of schools and teacher training. Bennett will intern with SCOOP’s executive team on their campaigns in both developing countries.
Lauren Kecskes ’14
Child Family Health International (CFHI), Delhi and Mumbai, India
Lauren will intern in two programs with CFHI in India: Public Health and Community Medicine (Delhi) and Confronting Tropical Disease Challenges (Mumbai). In Delhi, Lauren will learn about public health challenges such as immunizations, environmental sanitation, waste management, safe drinking water practices, and social reforms through education, training and awareness campaigns. While in Mumbai, her rotations will teach her about common infectious and tropical diseases such as leprosy, TB, malaria, leishmaniasis, and dengue fever and how these are treated in both urban and rural settings across India.
Huakai “Angelo” Liao ’16
Support for International Change (SIC), Arusha, Tanzania
Angelo will work with SIC in their outreach programs aimed at limiting the impact of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. He will be involved in community outreach and education including awareness of HIV and the importance of prevention of transmission, reproductive health education, and life skills.
Lucas Mayer ’14
Child Family Health International (CFHI), Quito and Puyo, Ecuador
Luke will shadow and assist doctors in rural Ecuador as a participant in the Amazonian Indigenous Health program. Luke will interact with indigenous communities and their traditional practices. Through observation, he will learn about the intersection between traditional and allopathic medicine in the context of ancestral healing traditions.
Tyler McBrien ’14
Center for Preventive Action (CPA) at Council on Foreign Relations, Washington D.C.
Tyler will be interning for the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations. Tyler’s internship will expose him to the ways in which CPA seeks to help prevent, defuse, or resolve deadly conflicts around the world and to expand the body of knowledge on conflict prevention.
Josh Mittler ’15
ThinkImpact, Kigali, Rwanda
ThinkImpact was established with the idea of delivering sustainable and scalable solutions to poverty and similar social issues through market-based enterprise solutions. Josh’s internship will involve collaborating with local community members in tackling such social challenges as poverty, unemployment, nutrition, and health.
Nora Studholme ’14
Human Rights Watch, New York City
Nora will work with the communications department of HRW and will assist with efforts to expose and write about human rights abuses worldwide. She will be involved in planning events, speakers, communications, and administrative duties as needed.
Sarah Swartz ’15
Child Family Health International (CFHI), Cape Town and Durban, South Africa
Sarah will be interning with CFHI in two locations in S. Africa. Her programs include Healthcare Challenges (Cape Town) and HIV/AIDS & Healthcare (Durban). Sarah will shadow doctors and observe how the health care system has dealt with a public health crisis that has fundamentally altered the state's social and economic situation. As well, she will work in public health clinics in Durban to better understand the challenges faced by the post-apartheid public healthcare system, including the threats of HIV/AIDS, environmental health issues, and other underlying causes of poor health in the region.
Alexandra Vreeman ’16
Free Burma Rangers, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Free Burma Rangers is an organization located on the Thai-Burma border that provides emergency humanitarian/medical assistance to Burmese refugees and as well, documents and reports on human rights abuses to news outlets and the UN. Allie will be working in FBR’s reporting office where she will compile reports of military violence and human rights abuses for publication.
Isabel Wade ’16
Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), Los Angeles, CA
Isabel will be working as an outreach and training program intern with CAST Los Angeles. She will coordinate training and community presentations and outreach requests, help coordinate the outreach subcommittee of the LA Metro Taskforce on Human Trafficking, conduct human trafficking 101 presentations and represent CAST at conferences and events.
Christine Wilkes ’16
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Washington, D.C.
Christine will be working at the USHMM in the University Programs Division of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies.
Elham “Ellie” Yusuf-Ali ’15
Child Family Health International (CFHI), New Delhi, India
Ellie will intern with CFHI’s program, Rural/Urban Himalayan Rotation. Her internship will offer the opportunity to study various diseases in clinical environments that represent the rural and urban healthcare systems in India. The program focuses on primary care and public health issues, with an emphasis on the needs of rural communities that lack access to healthcare and how this affects urban areas as well.
Jacquelyn Zehner ’15
Child Family Health International (CFHI), Cordoba, Argentina
Jacquelyn will be an intern with CFHI’s Primary Care and Social Medicine program in Argentina. She will rotate in a variety of clinics and hospitals and witness government efforts to provide care to a large percentage of the population without health insurance. Jacquelyn will also partake in daily care of patients with family care practitioners and may take part in clinical rotations in other departments such as pediatrics, ophthalmology, dentistry, psychology and social services.