for Dwight Hall interns
Twelve undergraduates and a student from the Yale School of Management spent their summer vacation working on community projects in New Haven as Dwight Hall Summer Interns.
They were engaged in projects that ranged from creating an international educational curriculum for New Haven elementary schools to working with the Mayor's Office on helping low-income families build their own assets.
The 35-year-old Dwight Hall Summer Internship Program allows students the opportunity to spend their vacation in Yale's home city working full-time on projects they have designed themselves in response to community needs. In addition to working with a community organization, student group or not-for-profit agency to implement their project, the interns met for weekly seminars with New Haven community leaders to gather advice and learn more about pertinent city issues.
The coordinator of this year's program was Hannah Croasman '01, who is the program coordinator at Dwight Hall. This year's interns were funded by the Yale Class of '49, the Class of '57, the Yale Club of New Haven and New Haven Savings Bank.
This year's interns, and a brief description of their projects, follow.
Sarah Baron '04 worked with National Student Partnerships to create a housing resource guide for those in need of low-income, subsidized housing.
Lauren Gelmann '04 was a volunteer staff member at the Connecticut Children's Museum and Creating Kids Day, where she served as an aide to a visually impaired child and supported the daycare center's staff.
Kate Ingram SOM '04 worked with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra's Education Department on various outreach programs to Connecticut schools and worked on fundraising and grant writing for these programs.
Jeremy Kahan '04 helped in the summer running of Elmseed, a Dwight Hall member group that provides micro-loans to New Haven entrepreneurs so that they can start or expand their businesses and pull themselves out of poverty.
Carolina Oster '05 did outreach and growth work for the various resources and community services provided through the Resurrection Lutheran Church in the upper Hill neighborhood.
Emma Pollack-Pelzner '04 created an alumni outreach/support program and photo documentation for All Our Kin, a welfare-to-work program that teaches women how to be day-care providers while providing day care to their own children.
Sophie Raseman '04 worked in the Mayor's Office on the "Family Wealth Initiative," helping low-income families build wealth and assets.
Laura Runnels '04 was an intern for the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project (YHAAP), for which she coordinated activities at Harmony Place, a venture between Yale students and members of New Haven's homeless community that provides a drop-in center and organizing headquarters to help the city's homeless and the YHAAP food pantry in the Dwight neighborhood.
Srikanth Sivashankaran '04 split his time working on Dwight Hall's Executive Committee projects for the fall semester and working with the Connecticut Blue Ribbon Commission on Property Tax Burdens and Smart Growth Incentives to increase awareness of smart-growth initiatives and the dangers of suburban sprawl.
Danielle Smith '06 developed a job training workshop for Project More and Starting Over Inc., two groups that are working with ex-offenders and people in "alternatives to incarceration" programs.
Michael Smith '06 provided staff support for Starting Over Inc., establishing the organization as a 501(c)3 and helping find businesses that would be willing to hire ex-offenders in the program.
Lauren Thompson '05 established a CARE BUDS program in the New Haven Public Schools, giving presentations to schoolchildren about issues in developing countries.
Chris Webb '05 created a resources guide for New Haven high schools on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual issues.
Dwight Hall is nonprofit umbrella organization for over 65 student-led service and social action groups. It recently earned designation as a United Way donor agency (see related story).
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Summer was a season of service for Dwight Hall interns
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