Author Archives: Christian Zavisca

A Postcard From: Ekaterina Olson Shipyatsky ’19

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Name: Ekaterina Olson Shipyatsky
Class Year: 2019
Major: Independent Major in PPE: Philosophy, Politics, Economics
Hometown: Denver, Colo.

Internship Placement: Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, University of Pennsylvania
Job Title: Research Intern
Location: Philadelphia

What’s happening at your internship?

The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, known sometimes as the “think tanks’ think tank,” analyzes the role of think tanks in the policy making process in governments and civil societies. Us interns are each assigned to a data collection team that works on updating contacts and addresses for regional groups of think tanks and a research team that analyzes think tank data and works on collecting information for TTCSP’s Global Go-To Think Tank Index. I am on the Central and Eastern Europe Data Collection Team and have been working on collecting data on and contacting think tanks in Russia and Ukraine. I am also on the International Law and Global Governance Research Team, where I work on a wide variety of projects ranging from making PowerPoints on changes in global governance since World War II to analyzing new think tank activity in 2017.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship because I am interested in and care deeply about the work that think tanks do and the role they play in society. Think tanks, the way I see them, function as agents that reflect on the actions of their given governments and societies. I believe that work is incredibly important in preserving governmental ethics and transparency. Because of this, I am very interested in studying the role of think tanks and would love to eventually work for one one day.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

When I was initially assigned to the Central and Eastern Europe Data Collection Team, I did not expect to be communicating directly with think tanks in the region. However, in the data collection process, we were asked to email think tank directors directly. Though I speak Russian at home, I had never been taught how to use the sort of formal, academic language required of the task. Emailing Russian think tank directors gave a command of an area of the Russian language I had not previously had.

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

This internship involves both a lot of individual and a lot of group work. Interns have to work closely with other people in their research and data collection teams, but are largely responsible for doing their own work on their own time. This unique setup has allowed me to build both my group communication skills and my skills in independent self-direction. Both of these are important skills both for my academic work and in the field of academic research and writing, which I hope to work in eventually.

 

A Postcard From: Amal Yassin ’18

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Name: Amal Yassin
Class Year: 2018
Major: Biology and Psychology
Hometown: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Internship Placement: Nationalities Service Center (NSC)
Job Title: Assistant Case Manager
Location: Philadelphia

What’s happening at your internship?

My internship focused on helping refugees and immigrants through various important processes such as legal protections, community integration, access to health care and opportunities to achieve English language proficiency. I specifically worked in the health and wellness division of this organization in hopes of providing the health access that is critical for all newly arrived refugees and immigrants.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship because I knew I wanted to use both my Arabic proficiency and my pre-med background in order to help refugees transcend challenging situations. Throughout this internship, I was able to work with many Arabic speaking clients (making up 90% of newly arrived refugees and immigrants), which helped in overcoming the difficult language barrier that many refugees face when arriving to the United States. Additionally, since I was working in the health and wellness team, I was able to use my pre-med background to provide insight and understanding on many medically complex cases.

Can you give us three adjectives and three nouns that describe your internship experience?

Three adjectives: Supportive, Optimistic, Understanding
Three nouns: Communication, Integrity, Hope

Was this internship what you expected it to be?

It is difficult to answer this question with a simple “yes” or “no” because in a way, this internship was exactly what I expected and in other ways, I was very surprised. For instance, the work and the services that I assisted with this summer are exactly what I applied for; I was able to combine and use my academic background in pre-med with my Arabic speaking proficiency to assist numerous Middle Eastern families. I was surprised with this internship because I did not expect to build such strong and caring relationships with my clients — many of them quickly became like family, offering me invites to their homes, food and gifts. When I initially applied to this internship, I did not expect it to be hard to say goodbye to my clients but it was one of the most difficult parts of this internship.

A Postcard From: Jennifer Orr ’18

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Name: Jennifer Orr
Class Year: 2018
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Los Angeles

Internship Placement: Puentes de Salud
Job Title: Puentes Hacia el Futuro Tutor/Intern
Location: Southwark School

What’s happening at your internship?

I am interning at Puentes de Salud’s Summer Literacy Enrichment Program, where I get to work with students ages 8-10 years old and help facilitate their learning in both Spanish and English. With a group of three other tutors, I have been working to teach and supervise a group of 13 students, to engage them in reading and writing about important topics that all relate to the program’s Superhero theme such as Social Justice Superheroes, STEM Superheroes, and Migrant Superheroes. With my group of tutors, I manage the group so that we all know our individual roles and responsibilities for the day. I write up daily detailed itineraries for everyone in the group in order to eliminate miscommunication and confusion in the operations of our classroom. With the kids that I am responsible for, I am privileged to have them share their life stories with me, and it is really rewarding to hear how much the students in my class enjoy the program so much and want to attend the program every day — even on the weekends.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship because I have been such a huge fan of the work that Puentes de Salud does. As a student who is interested in pursuing a career and graduate studies in public health, the operations at Puentes de Salud have served as an inspiration to me. Puentes de Salud truly strives to address social determinants of health from the ground up, starting with child education, particularly in regards to language literacy. With this internship, I get to be a part of the process by which Puentes de Salud serves its target community, and I get to be involved in the work that this incredible organization does. Additionally, I used to volunteer for a somewhat similar afterschool program in Los Angeles when I was in high school, and I really enjoyed my time working with the children there, and thought that this internship would be the perfect extension of my academic and personal interests.

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

Some skills that I am picking up from this internship include learning how to diversify my teaching styles so that the students I supervise can understand the lessons, even if they have very different learning styles. Being able to work with multiple learning styles is important to me because it makes me a better teacher. I also get to learn more about my own learning and teaching styles through this experience. Additionally, I am learning how to be more flexible. As someone who is a bit of a perfectionist, I love to stick to a very strict schedule, however, as one learns when working with kids, you have to be flexible. You can keep the core components the same, but you soon realize that not everything will stick to the plan, as children can be unpredictable. However, unpredictable is not always a bad thing, and can in fact be quite rewarding.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

I recently celebrated a birthday, and when the children in my class found out it was my birthday, they planned an entire elaborate surprise for me. At the end of one of our teaching days, the children I supervised surprised me with handmade cards and artwork that they had been working on all day and had been trying to hide from me. I had not seen any of it coming, and the surprise was truly a group effort. The kids wrote very sweet things about how I was a good teacher or how I was very nice, and it was so touching that they came up with this surprise for me. Even students I had not had the opportunity to get to know as well were incredibly involved in the surprise process (as I got to see in the video my fellow tutors took while my eyes were covered) and it was such a great experience. The children are so sweet and kind and I really love getting to work with them.

A Postcard From: Liana Thomason ’19

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Name: Liana Thomason
Class Year: 2019
Major: English
Hometown: Berkeley, Calif

Internship Placement: Feminist Majority Foundation
Job Title: Feminist Campus Intern
Location: Arlington, Va.

What’s happening at your internship?

I’m currently working in the Feminist Campus arm of the Feminist Majority Foundation. This part of the organization maintains charter and affiliate groups on hundreds of college campuses nationwide (including Fem-Co at Bryn Mawr). As an FC intern, I am in charge of organizing all the data of the college-affiliated groups and reaching out to student leaders. I also regularly contribute to the Feminist Campus blog. Additionally, I am working with another intern to start an online zine focusing on the politicization of the bodies of women and trans folks, published through FMF’s sister organization, Ms. Magazine. Being in the Washington, D.C., area, I’ve been able to attend many rallies: for Planned Parenthood, against voter suppression, for Title IX, against the NRA, etc. I’ve also been able to lobby my senators on issues that are meaningful to me.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I wanted to get a taste of what it would be like to work at a national feminist nonprofit, and so far I feel like I’ve been getting the full experience.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

I’ve been able to build connections with interns from all manner of advocacy groups in the D.C. area, as we join together to work on projects and then disperse. I’m thankful that I get to see what other people my age are doing and network with them.

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

I’m learning how to be self-sufficient and hold myself to deadlines and high quality standards even when I’m not being closely supervised. Instead of being motivated by a deadline, I get to do the work because I love it and it excites me.

A Postcard From: Yasmine Nahim ’18

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Name: Yasmine Nahim
Class Year: 2018
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Yonkers, N.Y.

Internship Placement: Summer Science Research Program
Location: Bryn Mawr College

At my internship, I have the opportunity to work with Dr. Heejung Park in the psychology department for 10 weeks. With the datasets that she has at her disposal, thus far I have created a few research questions to investigate and statistically analyze. For my research, I am studying the ways in which multiethnic adolescents in South Korea (those who have one non-Korean parent and one ethnically Korean parent) face more challenges compared to their monoethnic Korean peers with relation to their psychological wellbeing and their family life. I was especially interested in this topic because it seems to be more common that research examines immigration challenges that focus more on immigration to “Western” cultures, but I think it is important to see if what we believe to be true about the effects of immigration in one context is similar or different in another context.

I had previously heard about the Summer Science Research program through word-of-mouth and had somewhat thought about applying this summer, but what really got me thinking about and applying to the program was when Dr. Park mentioned it to me. She thought the program would be a great fit for me and encouraged me to apply, and I greatly appreciated her reaching out to me for this opportunity. I applied for this internship with Dr. Park’s guidance so that we both could not only examine questions that I would like to explore for the summer but to also have a good foundation to extrapolate on for my senior thesis.

Having earlier exposure to the dataset and being able to get familiar with it before I begin my thesis in the fall was one of my main objectives for applying to the program as I had hoped it would help me lay a solid foundation for further research.
I have previously learned how to use the statistical program SPSS for statistical analysis in other psychology classes, but through this internship I have had the opportunity to explore more in depth and complicated analyses, which will be extremely useful for the data analysis that I will have to conduct for my thesis. I am also learning how to work more independently as opposed to having a little bit more guidance as I would in a classroom setting, which again is another important skill to have for completing my thesis.

Aside from the ways in which this program can help me academically, I also think that the skills I learn can be used outside of the classroom setting. One important thing that I have learned is independence, but I think it can also be just as important to know when to ask for help. Just recently, I was having a little difficulty trying to figure out a certain function on SPSS, and in the past I probably would have just kept trying to do it on my own which would have unnecessarily taken up too much time, but now instead I asked Dr. Park for help and managed to solve the problem in half the time had I tried to just do it myself. As much as I value independence, I also think helping one another and collaboration is important to succeed.

 

A Postcard From: Jiayue Gu ’18

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Name: Jiayue Gu
Class Year: 2018
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Internship Placement: Peer Experience Exchange Rostrum in No. 6 Yuanling Secondary and High School
Job Title: On-Site Faculty; Research Assistant
Location: No.6 Yuanling Secondary and High School, Guanzhuang Town, Yuanling County, Huaihua, Hunan, China

What’s happening at your internship?

I am an on-site faculty from PEER and Prof. Heejung Park’s research assistant at No. 6 Yuanling Secondary and High School. I am helping PEER build relationships with this rural school and help empower teachers from rural schools by introducing new concepts from the field of Education. Also, I am helping students from this rural school complete tasks required for a High School Students’ Innovation Competition, such as making films, writing reflections and drawing pictures. Moreover, I am collecting data in this rural school for Professor Park’s research project and my senior thesis by distributing daily diary checklists, one-time survey and Actigraph watches to every participant in the first grade of high school.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I volunteered in this school from PEER in previous summer vacation. Because of my previous summer vacation’s experience, I wanted to continue to work with PEER in this rural school. Therefore, I applied for the job of on-site faculty. While I am working as an on-site faculty, because I have to write my senior thesis in the Psychology Department next year, I wanted to collect data by myself in this rural school in order to see how an appropriate psychology research is conducted in a field site.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

My favorite part of this internship is empowering teachers in this rural school and how to appropriately collect data required by regulations from IRB and the field of Psychology. Because of having stayed in this rural school for one month, I got in touch with many teachers. They are all very interested in Western education and are willing to learn new concepts from the field of Education. I have already taught English Teaching workshop for teachers and have already done a presentation introducing teachers with some new concepts in the field of Education. I was happy to see that many teachers asked me how teachers in America teach students, what’s the differences between Chinese education and Western education, and how can they motivate students to learn. Moreover, because I am the only on-site research assistant in this rural school, I have to think about the procedure of data collection carefully and have to check with the professor regularly in order not to violate the IRB’s regulations. Because of collecting data all by myself, I am happy that I already understood the appropriate data collection procedure of conducting psychology research pretty well.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

The most rewarding about my internship is that I have a deeper understanding of rural education in China. Because I have been educated in urban schools in China, I don’t know much about rural education and rural schools. However, because of having stayed in this rural school for one month, I saw many difficulties encountered by this rural school, such as the lack of educational opportunities, the lack of educational resources, the lack of high quality teachers and the lack of funding from government. Though it is difficult for this rural school to develop, many teachers and the principal welcome education reform and are making efforts to help make this school become better. Moreover, students in this rural school are very open and optimistic and are willing to participate in any kind of educational and extracurricular activities, though their SES is much lower than urban students’ and their original families have different kinds of problems.

A Postcard From: Mariam Haider ’18

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Name: Mariam Haider
Class Year: 2018
Major: Biology
Hometown: Hanover Park, Ill.

Internship Placement: Summer Science Research
Job Title: Research assistant
Location: Bryn Mawr College

What’s happening at your internship?

I am researching under Dr. Monica Chander on an endogenously produced redox-active antibiotic in the bacteria Streptomyces coelicolor. We are looking at a transcription factor, SoxR, which regulates a small set of genes that protect the bacteria from self-toxicity by the antibiotic. My project is to distinguish what molecule(s) may activate SoxR in the antibiotic biosynthesis pathway.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for Summer Science because it’s an excellent stepping stone into the research field, and I have been fortunate enough to work on an interesting topic in Dr. Chander’s lab. Dr. Chander’s lab tackles experiments in a multidisciplinary fashion and I want to learn how to research by her example.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship?

My biggest challenge is asking for clarification when I do not understand something. This issue has always been a struggle for me, and I am learning daily how to overcome this challenge in lab.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

The most rewarding thing about my internship is finishing an experiment and understanding that my work for this summer and this year will be read by future researchers with Dr. Chander, and hopefully will be of some aid.

A Postcard From: Hezel Gadzikwa ’18

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Name: Hezel Gadzikwa
Class Year: 2018
Major: Mathematics
Hometown: Guruve, Zimbabwe

Internship Placement: Research Assistant
Location: Bryn Mawr College

What’s happening at your internship?

This summer, I am a research assistant for a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Finance department. The first part of my research was mostly “data scrapping” for a research paper on the effects of mergers and acquisitions on stock prices. The last part of my internship involves a substantial amount of literature review on covered interest rate parity. After the 2008 great financial crisis, CIP, which has been described as the closest thing to a physical law in Finance, was lost, and my research focuses on the reasons as why this “law” that was used in International currency trade has deviated.

Why did you apply for this internship?

After having a very interesting semester in my financial derivatives class at the University of Pennsylvania, I decided to further satisfy my curiosity as to the role that the financial sector played in the crash of the stock market in 2008. The great financial crisis had many negative impacts and has caused significant monetary policy changes worldwide.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

I never really anticipated how frustrating research can be when you are definitely trying to come up with a convincing argument as to why what you think is important. Literature reviews and discerning what is important also requires extensive research and understanding of what you are studying. So in order to understand a concept, I have to research various projects and also look into what other professionals have to say about it.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

After graduating from Bryn Mawr in 2018, I plan on going to graduate school and I think getting some research experience is key to being a successful graduate candidate. I also love how much I learn about the different companies I research and the continuous enrichment of my finance knowledge.

A Postcard From: Tiana Evelyn ’20

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Name: Tiana Evelyn
Class Year: 2020
Major: Computer Science
Hometown: Lynn, Mass.

Internship Placement: Girls Incorporated middle and high school programs
Job Title: Summer Intern
Location: Girls Inc. of Lynn

What’s happening at your internship?

This summer, I am interning at Girls Inc. of Lynn. Girls Inc. is an afterschool program for girls from elementary to high school, and every summer they run a program called Eureka! Eureka! is a program that introduces middle school girls to science, mathematics, engineering, and technology, with the long-term goal of inspiring girls to pursue post-secondary education and careers in STEM fields. My position in this program is a technology assistant. I work alongside the lead technology instructor and help them with the curriculum they are running with girls who are rising eighth graders. The curriculum covers learning about Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, how to make a résumé, how to set up their own email accounts, and completing activities from a website called WebQuest. Additionally, I am working in the high school program to help improve the curriculum for their Teen Leadership Academy program they run throughout the school year. The Teen Leadership Academy( TLA) is a nine-week program designed to empower young women with leadership and life skills. Throughout this program the girls work with a professional coach and learn about various topics, such as Public Speaker, Financial Literacy, Conflict Resolution, Confident vs. Conceited, Time Management, Goal Setting, Effective Communication, and how to Dress to Impress. This past spring TLA ran its first pilot launch, in which they ran activities and workshops about the previously mentioned topics. My role is to help improve and better the activities for the program. I am using the ideas they used in the spring and researching new activities the program can implement in the fall.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship because working with young teens is something that I have been passionate about for a long time and this is similar to what I want to do in the future. After college, I want to open my own afterschool program for girls that introduces them to the different STEM fields. I believe that this experience working with young teens and teach them about technology is helping me gain the experience to achieve my goal.

Was there anything special about how you found this internship?

Before going to college, I was a member of the Girls Inc. community for eight years. I have participated in numerous programs from elementary to high school, and those years made my experience at Girls Inc. welcoming and the environment made me feel like I was at home. While I was in college and looking for what internships to apply for, I instantly thought of Girls Inc. I knew beforehand that they had many summer programs because I participated in them when I was a member. I asked they Lead Director of the Middle and High programs if there were any internships I could apply for, and she told me about the program Eureka!. I participated in this program when I was in middle school, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give back, because this program introduced me to STEM and this is where I discovered my passion for learning about computers. This program was the foundation that helped my chose my career very early, and it means a lot that the Lead Director asked me to be part of the growing movement that is inspiring young teens about science.

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

During my experience interning at Girls Inc. I am progressing my communication, relationship building, and time management skills. Girls Inc. requires various skills that every staff should utilize while working at the program. I am progressing my skills in communication because I want to effectively explain my ideas to the middle school girls and the other staff, so they can clearly understand my ideas. Relationship building is a huge skill at Girls Inc. because we are constantly working with young teens, so it is important to have a strong relationship with them because we are role models to them. Throughout my first year at college, my time management skills were OK, I managed to get my stuff done on time, but I didn’t think it was the best. However, my internship is allowing me to perfect this skill by creating deadlines for me to have completed activities done. I also discovered that I need to learn to be patient. Working in a community that is very diverse has pros and cons. A pro is that I get to work with girls that are all unique and come from different backgrounds, however, along with the diversity aspect, there are language barriers; some of the girls can’t speak English. So, realizing that and being patient to take the time to understand their differences helps me become a better person not only in this internship, but overall. I take everything I do in life as a learning experience to help develop and grow into a well-rounded individual and this opportunity to work with young girls is helping me do so.

A Postcard From: Romy Dangol ’19

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Name: Romy Dangol
Class Year: 2019
Major: Mathematics
Hometown: Lalitpur, Nepal

Internship Placement: Tech Impact
Job Title: Data Services Intern
Location: Philadelphia

What’s happening at your internship?

Tech Impact is a socially oriented nonprofit tech organization serving and providing other nonprofit clients with necessary technological resources.

It is always exciting at work because I am learning something new every day! Currently, I am involved in a number of internal as well as client-based projects. I am working on an interactive dashboard to help Tech Impact manage its day-to-day workload, and another dashboard to track the number of cases the organization has worked on and are working on. Making these dashboards is exciting because the visualizations are arranged using data streamed real-time.

I was also able to sit in numerous meetings, conference calls, and interviews with other nonprofits. In one of the client-based project I am currently involved with, I am helping with custom database loading. This project is very interesting in the sense that there are a number of us involved in it, each bringing in our own expertise. For me, it’s a great learning opportunity as I get to see and understand how the strategic planning for those nonprofits clients are carried out and how technology consulting is done once their specific needs are accessed.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship after I learned about the company’s mission. There are not many nonprofit tech companies that work towards providing low-cost technical solutions. Because of my interest in technology and data analysis, I was really curious to learn more about their work and how they manage to provide IT and data support to over 200 organizations.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

The staff at Tech Impact are a fantastic group. They care so much about their clients and are determined to provide the best solutions. They are immensely helpful and supportive of each other and I am glad to have had this opportunity to work with them and learn from them.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

Being able to do what I enjoy and also playing a role in making a positive impact on the communities that we serve.