Career Services
McGill Lawrence Internship Award
The McGill Lawrence Internship Award is designed to offer Reed students the opportunity to complement their academic studies with a summer internship in the public or non-profit sectors. This fund was originally made available by a donation to help cultivate an environment of understanding and respect for multi-cultural issues at Reed. The endowment for this grant has increased during the past years with generous college and Reed student body contributions. At least 50% of the funds awarded will go to proposals that bring students in contact with ethnically and culturally diverse issues and populations. Award amounts are $3750 for a minimum of 8 weeks of full time engagement.
Students interested in the McGill Lawrence and who also have a commitment to peace making, might consider also applying for the Davis Projects for Peace.
Congratulations to the 2009 McGill Lawrence Internship Award Recipients!
- Natalie Wenzell, ’09 Political Science Natalie returns to Ghana to work for Chapter 58 Trust, a small Ghanaian-operated microfinance organization in Accra. Chapter 58 Trust works with the economically active poor, providing credit and savings services to more than 160 marginalized entrepreneurs. In addition to microfinance, Chapter 58 Trust coordinates various community development programs across Ghana. Natalie will create a financial literacy manual for credit applicants and develop client assessment procedures to help boost productivity, increase inter-organizational networking and decrease loan default among the clientele base. This opportunity opens the door for Natalie to pursue a career in local development. She writes, “All too often development and microfinance NGOs are foreign-based and top-down in nature, importing methods and procedures from abroad that frequently fail to properly address local problems. Chapter 58 Trust, on the other hand, brings together global ideas and local knowledge to create an organization that provides local solutions for local communities.”
- Celia Gelman, ’09 Biology After graduating this May, Celia travels to northern Ghana to intern with Unite For Sight, a non-profit organization that provides eye care to people worldwide with little or no access. She will assist Dr. Seth Wanye, the sole ophthalmologist in a region of over two million people, by taking patient histories, conducting visual acuity tests, providing eye health education in villages, and helping coordinate patient surgeries. Part of her work commitment also involves raising more than $1500 to fund thirty or more cataract surgeries. Beyond helping to restore people’s vision, she believes the experience will fortify her current plans to pursue studies in neuro-ophthalmology, vision research, and international medicine. She writes, “Preventable blindness needlessly diminishes a person’s quality of life, and its high prevalence in African countries causes enormous economic setbacks as well. Thankfully, the services provided by Unite For Sight are among the most cost-efficient health interventions, and I am happy to be a part of this effort.” Read Celia's Ghana blog here.
- Juliet Robboy, ’09 Psychology Juliet will work at the Domestic Violence Resource Center and CARES (Child Abuse Response Evaluation Services) Northwest. CARES is a medically-based child abuse assessment center. At CARES, Juliet will work directly with the children in the waiting room as they wait for their appointments. She will also work with the coordinator of the Child Abuse Prevention Program on various projects regarding abuse prevention and parent intervention. Additionally, she will do intake assessments with the adults at the Domestic Violence Resource Center. She will leading groups and possibly conduct individual play therapy sessions in the Child Intervention Program. Juliet intends to become a clinical psychologist, specializing in play therapy interventions for abused and traumatized children. She is excited to begin doing that work through this internship. Juliet writes of her host site, “CARES and DVRC benefit the community in a myriad of ways by providing resources to a very vulnerable population, regardless of their ability to pay.”
- Amrita Rajasinsingham , ’09 Psychology and Economics Amrita intends to use the McGill Lawrence grant to help fund a child rights campaign bus in Nepal. Nepal’s government welcomes the input of citizens into the current process of constitutional reform. However, poverty, low literacy rates, and inadequate transportation traditionally keep citizens from participation in the political reform process. Few citizens' voices have been heard. As a group, children require considerable attention in this process, as their basic needs have been under addressed in Nepal’s current political arena. Urgent issues such as the prevalence of trafficking in child labor and the lack of public education for Nepal's children receive little attention. Amrita hopes to work with the group CWIN-Nepal to create a child rights advocacy bus. The bus will become an organizing vehicle, literally and figuratively. They will travel to as many districts as possible and perform street theater in which they present Nepali citizens with information on the protection of children under the current law/ NGO infrastructure. They will also gather Nepali citizens' input on their expectations and hopes for children after constitutional reform. Amrita writes of this opportunity following 10 years of fighting in which many people were displaced, abducted, and killed, “Today there is an opportunity for hope and change.” Here is a poster of Amrita's experience. Here is a slide show with Amrita telling her story.
- Julie Swoop, ’09 Spanish Literature Julie will work for Outside In, a non-profit social services agency based in downtown Portland, which provides service to low income and homeless residents of Portland and focuses on the population of homeless youth. Julie will serve as a full-time teacher at the Educational Resource Center (ERC), where students receive job readiness training, study assistance for the GED tests, and college preparation. She hopes to broaden the educational offerings at the ERC with the addition of programs in visual arts, creative writing, and Spanish language. She looks forward to enriching the educational environment at the ERC and providing the students with skills that will assist them in staying off the streets. Julie is drawn to this organization because the community of students at Outside In is representative of those on the margins of society. The organization has an explicit commitment to the general principle of diversity, and it is put into practice everyday. Julie writes, “I think that providing the students with an education is the most effective, and possibly the only, way to ensure that they can live independently.”
- Alejandra Gonzales, ’09 Spanish Literature Alejandra accepted the Literacy Management Internship with Miracle Theater Group in Portland, OR and will be working directly with Artist Director Olga Sanchez. She will be responsible for reviewing potential dramas for the group’s next season and for constructing study guides to accompany performances. She will also help in the literacy dimension of the cultural resource center and work in various programs that introduce a cultural heritage to local at-risk Latino youth. Alajandra writes, “My studies at Reed have given me the expertise to meaningfully contribute to the Miracle program, and the Latino theater community at large.”
- Samara Holub-Moorman, '09 Religion This summer, Samara built a community center and started a food co-op in Trinidad, Colorado. Here is an interview with Samara about her work, and here is a PowerPoint presentation that tell the story of her work.
- Jessica Ying Chan, '09 Economics This summer Jessica will be working with the Centre for Development Finance (CDF), a non-profit research institution based in Chennai, India. The CDF focuses on creating efficient models for financing economic development in India. As an intern, Jessica will work with the Urban Infrastructure and Governance section of the CDF on a project on municipal waste management practices in Tamil Nadu. Waste management is a major problem in the slums of India; garbage and trash often accumulate in these impoverished areas, creating health, sanitation, and environmental problems and inhibiting equitable economic growth. This project will focus on developing efficient and environmentally sustainable methods of waste management in the cities of Tamil Nadu. More specifically, Jessica will conduct research on current waste management practices in other developing countries to examine the suitability of these practices for India. She will also collect primary data on current practices in Tamil Nadu through observations and interviews with municipal employees. This opportunity will help Jessica realize her future goals in development economics. She states, “What especially excites me about the CDF is its use of research to create environmentally conscious development strategies that give priority to low-income urban populations, but still incorporate the city’s overall visions and goals for itself.”
Request for Proposals
Proposals will be judged by their relevance to your field of study, quality of design, the ability of the sponsoring organization to support your learning, and letters of recommendation from faculty. Please follow the guidelines carefully.
For your reference, applications from previous years are available at SEEDS in 28 West or Career Services in Greywood. While photocopying or taking these applications out of the office is not permitted, you are welcome to view them in our office. All applicants are strongly encouraged to meet with Career Services or SEEDS staff while in the planning stages of your proposal.
Submission Deadline is Monday, March 1, 2010 by noon in Greywood. Click here to download the 2010 RFP. The application will be submitted electronically. (Instructions will be forthcoming).
After you submit your application, a review committee of students, staff, and faculty evaluate the applications. In 2009, applicants were contacted regarding the funding decisions that were made of these awards on Monday, March 30, 2009.
When awarded a McGill Lawrence, recipients are required to provide a signed statement from their participating organization agreeing to support the project's stated goals, prior to receiving funding.
Important: Recipients of the award will be asked to share their learning with the Reed community in the fall of the following year. This will include an oral presentation. Recipients will also be asked to participate in next year's applicant review process. If you do not plan to return to campus in the fall, explain in your application how you will fulfill these obligations.
Email career.services@reed.edu or seeds@reed.edu for more information and a schedule of information sessions.
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