Yale Bulletin and Calendar

July 19-August 23, 1999

Volume 27, Number 35

Dwight Hall internships provide
opportunity for public service

Eleven Yale undergraduates are among those who have dedicated their summer to community service in New Haven, where they are engaged in projects ranging from starting science education programs for primary-grade students to expanding services for the homeless to designing career education workshops for teens.

The students are directing their own projects as 1999 Dwight Hall Summer Interns. (See related story.) The internship program, which has been offered for over 30 years, enables Yale undergraduates to spend the summer in the Elm City working on full-time projects they have designed themselves in response to community needs. In addition to working 40 hours a week at their project sites, the interns also gather for weekly dinner seminars with leaders from Yale and New Haven.

Serving as the director of the Dwight Hall Summer Internship Program is Glenn L. Chen, a student at the Divinity School, who is the Magee Fellow at Dwight Hall.

A list of this year's Dwight Hall Summer Interns and the projects they will undertake follows:

Kari Braaten '00 works with Planned Parenthood of CT, where she is developing the center's outreach and education programs to teens regarding contraception and other sexual health issues.

Winsome Demetrius '99 and John Pluecker '00, with support from the Center for the Study of Race, Inequality and Politics, are establishing a community action newsletter, organizing a youth political leadership program and working on bringing community activists and leaders together for a Forum on Inequality.

Fatimah Guienze '00 is continuing her ongoing work in urban planning and beautification through the Arch Street Fence Project, a collaborative effort of the Arch Street Block Association and the New Haven Urban Resources Initiative (URI), and through the Columbus House Homeless Garden Project.

Laurie Kennington '01 is assisting the Greater New Haven Labor Council strengthen communication between various unions and is developing a database for labor activists and workers.

Casey Knittel '01 is implementing science education programs for 9- to 11-year-old students through the Peabody Museum of Natural History and in conjunction with L.E.A.P. (Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership) summer programs.

Laura McGevna '01 is working through Dwight Hall to conduct research on and advocate for the integration of community- and service-based learning in Yale's academic programs.

Duff Morton '00 works in conjunction with the Community Soup Kitchen and Catapult Services, Inc. to expand information distribution, referral and drop-in services for New Haven's homeless.

Karen Paik '00 is assisting Amistad Academy, a new charter school in New Haven, in its start-up phase, particularly with its Summer Academy program.

Becky Silber '01 is helping implement Project OWL (Opportunities in Women's Leadership), sponsored by the Welfare Justice Project of Christian Community Action and Mothers for Justice.

Allie Yang '02 is coordinating Urban Solutions' Youth Employment Project, designing career education workshops and materials for teens.

Dwight Hall, founded in 1886 by undergraduates at Yale, is a nonprofit umbrella organization (independent of Yale) for over 65 student-led service and social action groups. Approximately 2,000 of Yale College's 5,000 students participate in Dwight Hall programs annually.

This year's summer internship program received financial support from organizations including the Yale Club of New Haven, the Yale Class of 1949, the Yale Class of 1957 and the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Yale students working with city residents to revitalize New Haven . . .
Top women in tennis to vie for Pilot Pen trophy
Enterprise Center helping to transform ideas for new businesses into realities
With NIH support, researchers seek ways to heal spinal cord
Exhibit pays tribute to Fossey's work with mountain gorillas
Entomologist verifies immigrant mosquito's arrival in state
Artistic transgressions applauded in Yale Art Gallery show
Fellowship winners devote summer to work in Elm City
Dwight Hall internships provide opportunity for public service
Accomplished high school students will attend Yale as Sterling Scholars
Alumni honored for their success as scholar-athletes
Support renewed for Yale-China's summer institutes
Links between environment, economy explored in new books
Yale affiliates featured in exhibit focusing on East and West Rocks
Noted pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton to speak at annual conference
Campus Notes
Tentacled trek