Participant Profiles


TWIN CITIES HOUSE

Undergraduate Research Scholar- Center for Health Equity and Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of Minnesota
Major: Public Health- Independent Major    Concentration: Statistics
Profile: I am a senior at St. Olaf College, studying public health and statistics. I am interested in looking at health through human rights lenses. I would like to work as public health practitioner and researcher identifying social determinants of health. I have experiences in grant writing, teaching and policy advocacy.
Summer Goals: This summer I hope to learn to gain skills in conducting translational research, and in facilitating focus groups. I want to gain transferable skills in public speaking and writing. I hope to contribute to my organization by sharing my passion for public health and social change.

Literacy Programs Intern, Project for Pride in Living
Majors: Political Science & Spanish
Profile: Taylor is hoping to pursue a future related to education, likely in education administration or policy leadership. She has been especially impacted by an internship with Literacy Services of Wisconsin, an adult literacy education center.
Summer Goals: I hope to bring a sense of enthusiasm and a different set of creative ideas to the literacy programs at PPL by helping foster a strong group dynamic and positive experience for all the volunteers. I also hope to learn more about whether or not I find this type of direct-service educational work fulfilling, meaningful, and relevant to my vocational and personal vision for my future.

Development Intern, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota
Major: Biology
Profile: As a junior at St. Olaf College, I aspire to lead a life of worth and service; I am exploring the fields of education and non-profit work after a formative experience in a Costa Rican preschool for impoverished children.
Summer Goals: I hope to contribute to LSS through my thoughtfulness and leadership on projects to help them receive funds for their many programs so that they may serve Minnesotans in need. I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the organizational structure of larger non-profits and an ability to evaluate social service programs for their effectiveness.

Public Policy Intern, Minnesota AIDS Project
Major: Political Science   Concentration: Middle Eastern Studies
Profile: I believe in the power of individuals to effect change as I’ve seen through my work on political campaigns, grassroots organizing, and within the public policy field. I hope attend graduate school for a degree in public policy and work in the public or non-profit sector.
Summer Goals: I hope to learn about how a non-profit works and about the field of public policy, specifically healthcare policy while improving my communication skills through writing and speaking. I aim to devote myself to learning and absorbing information during my time at MAP so as to be best able to contribute to the public policy work around the new healthcare systems in Minnesota this summer. I will provide energy and a positive attitude towards every task I’m given, as each has the potential to be a learning experience to help me discern my passions, interests, and talents.

Research and Marketing Intern, Milkweed Editions
Majors: Biology & Political Science    Concentration: Environmental Studies
Profile: As a liberal arts student at St. Olaf College, I have focused my education on the natural and anthropogenic systems that provide the inspirational foundation for people’s function in society. I want to better understand how we communicate environmental policy for effective social change. Following graduation, I hope to somehow pursue a career related to public affairs and the environment.
Summer Goals: This summer, I intend to spend time consciously learning and listening to my colleague’s passions in an effort to figure out what the foundational inspirational is for my own engagement in environmentally-oriented social change. I believe this will be supplemented by my work for Milkweed, which will involve identifying stories from around the world that have bearing on our relationship to the more-than-human world. By the end of the summer, I hope I can make concrete suggestions of transformative art to publish and thereby encourage a widespread avenue of reemphasis on the importance of sustainability.

Communications and Special Projects, Transit for Livable Communities
Majors: Economics & French
Profile:  Cyclist, urbanist, economist, and Francophile pursuing urban and transportation planning.  Interested in issues of social justice, environmentalism, community organizing, and economic development, both domestically and internationally.  Have worked in non-profit communication and event planning.
Summer Goals: I hope to help Transit for Livable Communities market their projects to generate support and excitement around active transportation in the Twin Cities while also learning about active transportation myself. I want to use my internship with Transit for Livable Communities as a way to explore both transportation planning and non-profit management as vocational objectives while expanding my professional network.

Steph Van Dyke ’14
Summer Associate Intern, Ashoka
Majors: Economics & Psychology   Concentration: Management Studies
Profile: Steph’s interest in and passion for creating social change stems from her academic work, past internships in the nonprofit sector, and study abroad experiences in Denmark and Ecuador.  Her career aspirations are to either go into clinical and counseling psychology or nonprofit management.
Summer Goals: Steph will use her organizational and planning skills to help with Ashoka’s events and strengthen connections with community members.  She hopes to utilize her internship opportunity to gain a broader network of professional mentors and to further discern her vocation.


NORTHFIELD HOUSE

Sam Adams ’15
Summer Programming Intern, So How Are The Children (SHAC)
Major: Sociology/Anthropology   Concentrations: Women’s & Gender Studies/Racial & Ethnic Studies
Profile: I am passionate about empowering and helping people. Acknowledging the privilege that white, heterosexual, male, and upper-class people like me hold in American society, I want to work for racial, gender, sexual, and class equality.
Summer Goals: I hope to contribute to SHAC’s summer programming in Faribault through program design and planning, interaction with youth, and other long-term projects. I hope to gain a better understanding of the lives of disadvantaged youth in Faribault and to learn about the inner workings of a nonprofit.

Client Services Intern, Community Action Center
Major: Spanish    Concentration: Women’s and Gender Studies
Profile: Rising senior studying Spanish and women’s/gender studies, looking forward to a life of promoting the hope and dignity of the individual. Experiences abroad have fueled desire to utilize language and intercultural skills to work with immigrant populations in the U.S.
Summer Goals: I am excited to contribute to the CAC’s mission in any way I can, especially by using my language skills to connect with clients. I hope to gain a better understanding of poverty on both an individual and systemic level, explore the type of work that best fits me, and gain more insight into the field of human services.

College Ambitions Intern, C.A.S.T. (College Ambitions Start Today)
Major: Social Work
Profile: I am interested in the field of community development and empowerment, through advocacy, education, and program implementation. My academic studies and internship experiences provided me with community system theories and leadership skills that have furthered my passion for this work.
Summer Goal: One goal that I hope to contribute to the organization is to  help provide collaboration among other organizations to help provide effective programming.
One goal that I hope to gain from this experience is to understand how individuals and communities can be effectively empowered to address obstacles and issues they face.

Social Media Policy Developer, Rice County Government
Major: Political Science   Concentrations: Latin American Studies & Statistics
Profile: Student seeking to engage his local, state, national, and international community through social change and political activism. Brings experience from various levels of government and possesses skills in written and oral communication.
Summer Goals: Through Leaders for Social Change, I seek to more wholly become a participant of social change in my community. With Rice County, I hope to successfully develop and pass policy through the county commission so that people in Rice County are able to have better direct communication with their local government. Personally, I desire to acquire and develop skills that I will employ in my future career of public service.

Dea Jessica ’15
Independent Researcher, Northfield Enterprise Center
Major: Economics    Concentration: Management Studies
Profile: A college student who is passionately trying to blend her academic and vocational interests. In order to do so, she has been participating in numerous volunteer and organizational works in South East Asia, North, and Central America. At the moment, she is looking to improve her qualitative and quantitative analysis skills.
Summer Goals: Bring a positive work-ethos to the organization and contribute to the daily tasks on-site.  Establish a micro-economics model that identify challenges, benefits, and impacts of non-profit businesses and organizations in Northfield and as a model response, find sustainable solutions to the problems.

Clinical Intern, HealthFinders Collaborative
Major: Music    Concentration: Biomedical Studies
Profile: Pre-med student exploring the connection between traditional healthcare accessibility and community empowerment. Aspires to investigate and engage others in wellness models that are realistic, energizing, and sustainable, especially those that are holistic and self-designed.
Summer Goals: I hope to increase connections between the various programming offered at HealthFinders (including clinic hours, Pura Vida, MESA, and the Diabetes Program) in collaboration with my fellow summer interns. I look forward to engaging directly with clients as a Nurse Assistant in the clinic, as well as develop materials and programming to empower them to be a positive determinant in their own health.

Matthew Terhaar ’14
Site Assistant, Targeted Services: Summer PLUS and Northfield Arts Guild
Major: B.A. Music   Concentration: TEFL Education
Profile: I am passionate about the arts, education, and social change, and aspire to find an effective combination of all three. After my experience teaching English in Costa Rica, I hope to one day live abroad and pursue a career in education.
Summer Goals: I hope to serve as a positive social role model, to make genuine connections with kids and to use past experiences with the arts to develop engaging curricula.  I also hope to gain a sense of vocational independence, to strengthen my communication and leadership skills and to gain valuable experience working in a classroom.

CURI Researcher, Early Childhood Education in Northfield
Majors: Psychology & Women’s Studies
Profile: I am a psychology student who pursues research interests in education and health. I hope to become either a professor at a research institution or a researcher for a government sponsored organization or a community.
Summer Goals: For the CURI Program, I hope to build connections between St. Olaf and Northfield’s early childhood education programs for future collaboration and research. Personally, I hope gain experience as a community researcher and determine if this is a career that I would like to pursue.

CURI Researcher: Sustainability at St. Olaf College
Majors: Economics & Environmental Studies   Concentration: Statistics
Profile: I’m a student interested in the intersection of social change, sustainability, and democracy. I’d like to become an organizing force behind social change, both in the managerial and research roles. Some of my strengths include organization, critical thinking, and my involvement in the St. Olaf sustainability community.
Summer Goals: My primary goal for LSC is to reflect on my leadership and research experience with other students interested in social change to better prepare myself for a future in social change, sustainability, and civic engagement. I hope to contribute concrete plans for sustainability at St. Olaf, and how to carry out plans to become more sustainability. I personally hope to experience intense personal and vocational discernment through the process of research and collaboration.

Emily Stets ’15
CURI Researcher: Sustainability at St. Olaf College
Major: CIS (in progress): The Cultural Environment and Mental Health
Profile: Student at St. Olaf College studying how the cultural environment contributes to the prevalence of mental health illnesses in youth populations. Experiences in theater, music, and creative writing inspired a desire to create environments that promote holistic health and fulfillment.
Summer Goals: As a student researcher, I hope to inspire an organic desire in students to become ecological citizens of the world. In making sustainable change accessible and possible in college students’ lives, I hope to gain experience in distilling abstract goals and ideas into communicable, comprehensive terms.

ASIAN RURAL INSTITUTE  (Nasushiobara, Japan)

Hawera Butta ’15
Asian Rural Institute
Major: Biology   Concentration: Biomolecular Studies
Profile: I am a student at St. Olaf College. I hope to change the world event if it is a little by either helping developing countries or working in the health care field.
Summer Goals: I hope to help ARI better educate the community leaders learn about sustainable agriculture and help their communities upon returning to their respective countries. Personally, I hope to gain a lot from the communal style of living and learning about the various cultures at ARI and sustainable agriculture.

Lisa Misch ’15
Asian Rural Institute
Majors: Environmental Studies and Biology
Profile:  My background in the outdoors and continued passion for sustainable living has helped me develop into an environmentalist.  I would like to use this passion to help other people develop their own sustainable lifestyles.
Summer Goals: Organization Goal: I hope to be a dependable and helpful volunteer that adds to the cohesiveness of the community.
Personal Goal: I would like to explore new ways of living sustainably.

Asian Rural Institute
Major: Sociology/Anthropology   Concentrations: Asian Studies & Biomedical Studies
Profile: I’m an active learner and a world citizen.  I hope to continue traveling and learning throughout my life.  My long term goal is to study Public Health, specifically global health, and to work on promoting social justice through health equity.
Summer Goals: This summer I hope to gain knowledge and understanding of the relationship between sustainable farming and the health and development of rural communities.  At the same time I hope assist in the good work that ARI has been doing for the past forty years.

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