WOW Fellows head to internships around the world

More than $200,000 in grants awarded for third straight year

Aka Kovacikova ‘11

The Hiatt Career Center has selected 61 World of Work (WOW) Fellows who will receive $3,000-$5,000 grants to support their internships at organizations that are unable to provide salaries.

Recipients will work this summer in Haiti, Rwanda, China, Israel, Poland, Lebanon, Panama and numerous other countries, and in a wide variety of cities and projects in the United States.

The WOW program’s guiding principles– that internships can be anywhere in the world, in any career field, in any organization– mean that students can identify a wide range of possibilities that support their individual career exploration.

By eliminating financial barriers, the World of Work Internship Funding Program encourages students to follow their career passions, allowing them to develop new skills, build upon their academics, and explore the world of work.

Information about how to apply for the next round of grants will be available at the beginning of the fall semester, and applications will be accepted beginning in early 2011.

“The WOW program is truly unique in that students cannot apply until they have identified measurable learning outcomes for the summer, negotiated learning goals with their employer to ensure they are engaged in substantive work, and agreed to share their learning with the broader Brandeis community in the next academic year,” said Joe Du Pont, director of the Hiatt Career Center.

“The program is in its third year now so, in addition to supporting our students in a very tangible way, we are accumulating very solid data that will help us draw better parallels about how work outside the classroom can support learning inside the classroom and vice versa,” Du Pont said. “Brandeis has a long tradition of experiential learning and WOW is becoming an integral part of that.”

Aka Kovacikova ‘11, a junior majoring in Health: Science, Society, and Policy, who will intern at the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, will be examining ways in which community values can best be integrated into morally based clinical and health policy decisions.

“I am thrilled to be a WOW Fellow, as the funding and support ensures that I will be able to fully dedicate my time and energy this summer to making an impact at my internship site,” Kovacikova said.

The Hiatt administered program includes fellowships funded by the Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice and the Judith Cossin Berkman ’59 Endowed Internship Fund in Social Work, alumni donations and the university.

Hiatt also collaborates with the Ethics Center’s Sorensen Fellowship, the Davis Projects for Peace, the Eli Segal Citizen Leadership Fellowships, and the Rapaporte Foundation Internship Grants, which provide an additional $100,000 annually to support students in academic and career exploration.

Click here to view a complete list of this year’s World of Work Fellows.

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