2008 Louis D. Brandeis Social Justice Internship Award Recipients
The Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce that the following ten students have been awarded the Louis D. Brandeis Social Justice Internship Award for their upcoming, summer internships.
With support from the Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice and the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, these selected students will receive $3,500 to alleviate costs associated with their unpaid internship in an agency that addresses issues of Social Justice:
Paul Balik, 2010, spent summer 2007 teaching eighth graders in inner-city Philadelphia and spent much of his fall 07 semester, for his Education and Social Policy course, researching charter schools’ potential to encourage innovative educational practices and to increase student achievement. After sending a copy of his research to the Illinois Network of Charter Schools in his home city of Chicago, INCS eagerly offered Paul an internship. Fueled by his teaching experience and study of education, Paul will devote his summer to better understanding issues of educational access and achievement, will communicate with charter school administrators and parent groups, and will assist the agency in lobbying for the development of new charter schools in the state.
Lauren Erhlich, 2010, from Sharon, MA, is currently a Women's and Gender Studies Major and Anthropology minor. Lauren has spent much of 2007-8 working with faculty and other student leaders to create vital children’s programming for the Prospect Hill Terrace housing development; the largest public housing facility in Waltham. This summer, working with the Waltham Alliance to Create Housing, Lauren will partner with Prospect Hill Park and the Waltham Housing Authority to create community-based, educational children’s programming for the Prospect Hill Terrace Community Center.
Danielle Hollenbeck-Pringle, 2010, hails from Carson City, Nevada. Before attending Brandeis she learned the power of grassroots organizing while field managing teams for local Clean Water Action groups. Combining her interest in the issues of public health and her double major of IGS & HSSP, Danielle will be working at GlobeMed’s HOPE Center in Ho, Ghana. While there, Danielle will perform a community needs assessment around the issues of women and childrens' health, that the HOPE center will then use to target resources and develop programs.
Liana Langdon-Embry, 2011, considers herself a “Third-Culture Kid” as she has spent most of her years living in diverse global cultures as part of her family's involvement with UNICEF, Save the Children and CARE. Born in Guatemala, Liana will use her Spanish and humanitarian roots as an intern for the NGO Fundación Aldeas de Paz, in Venezuela. Liana will divide her time working as a Peer Educator for a “Mobile School” conducting outreach to children who are not currently served by government education in the town of Santa Elena and facilitating sustainable, eco-friendly development in a Pemón Nation aboriginal village inside the beautiful, remote Gran Sabana National Park.
Rachel Nadas, 2009, an IGS & Politics major, developed her interest in immigrants’ rights through her experiences in both the United States and Latin America. Her tutoring experiences in Nicaragua and Waltham further ignited her passion to aid the plight of immigrants. Rachel chose to dedicate her summer interning in Washington, D.C. with Farmworker Justice, an organization committed to improving migrant workers’ access to justice. While there, she will primarily work with the health staff on issues of environmental and occupational health.
Timothy Pracher-Dix, 2009, studied abroad in Costa Rica and Nicaragua in Fall 2005 before entering Brandeis as a mid-year the following semester. Since then, Timothy has made much of his Theater Arts major, performing in and advising many on and off-campus productions. For summer 2008, he has found a way to combine his enthusiasm for theater, Spanish language and social justice in an internship with Dramatic Problem Solving, a community-based theater group located in Costa Rica. While there, Timothy will work with the Artistic Director to produce workshops and performances which create social change by helping disadvantaged communities achieve conflict transformation.
Kaitlin Schofield, 2009, has studied the affects of globalization and labor rights through her History and IGS majors. Kaitlin’s internship with No Sweat Apparel will allow her to further explore her passion towards ethical purchasing and fair labor practices. An active member of the Brandeis Labor Coalition, Kaitlin knows of Boston’s No Sweat Apparel as one of the leaders of sweatshop free clothing and open source manufacturing of apparel. During summer 2008, Kaitlin will work directly in No Sweat’s campaign to demonstrate how unionized factories and fair wage workers can combat the negative effects of globalization and conflict in Palestine.
Elizabeth Setren, 2010, passionate about using her knowledge of economics to understand and create solutions to social issues, will spend summer 2008 in her home state of Maryland working at Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies. Elizabeth will build upon her previous economic policy research experiences by using a multidisciplinary approach to study the relationship between affordable housing and child well-being. Using her skills from her Economics and Math courses, Elizabeth will work alongside faculty to help conduct a quantitative policy analysis and subsequently use the findings to draft policy models.
Judith Simons, 2010, from Pittsfield, MA, studies IGS and Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies. Judith is also the Northeast Regional Advocacy Coordinator for STAND, a student anti-genocide coalition. Continuing her passion for grass roots advocacy, Judith will spend the summer interning with Tebeka, an organization devoted to obtaining social justice and equality for Israel’s Ethiopian immigrant population. While in Tel Aviv, Judith will assist Tebeka workers in Ethiopian immigrant neighborhoods conducting outreach and research in order to improve access to vital legal aid and educational resources. Judith will also conduct research on legal and civil rights cases for the organization.
Seth Werfel, 2010, is currently the Executive Director of Positive Foundations at Brandeis University, a student-led organization mobilizing universities to eradicate extreme poverty by promoting sustainable international development. His work with Positive Foundations, along with his academic concentrations in Economics, Politics, and International and Global Studies, have prepared Seth for his summer at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. While in his home city, Seth will work with economists affiliated with the Millennium Cities Initiative, a joint project of the Earth Institute and Columbia Law School, focusing on the topic of economic growth and sustainable development. Seth will concentrate on policy analysis impacting foreign direct investment into major urban centers in sub-Saharan Africa, along with research on trade links between rural and urban agricultural markets.
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