2008-2009 McCormick Community Internship

The Irwin W. Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning at DePaul University is proud to announce the winners of the 2008-2009 McCormick Community Internship. Those chosen for the internship have exhibited a commitment to community action, service, and academic excellence. Each intern will spend a quarter at a community site working on a self-created project plan that utilizes their individual expertise and also enhances the community.

Internship Recipients

Melissa Foushee Keller, Women's and Gender Studies
Melissa's internship is at the Women and Girls Collective Action Network (WGCAN), a Chicago center for consciousness-raising, training, dialogue and action around issues relevant to women and girls. The internship focuses on the national expansion of "communities Engaged in Resisting Violence: Documenting Innovative Grassroots Initiatives Across the United States." Specifically, Melissa is developing a database of information about grassroots organizations, including their missions, strategies, difficulties and successes.

Laura Levy, Geography
Laura is interning at the Pilsen Alliance, a social justice organization committed to developing grassroots leadership in Pilsen and neighboring working-class, immigrant communities in Chicago's Lower West Side. Laura is working on inputting gathered data about gentrification into a GIS (Geographic Information System), a technology through which she will create multi-layered maps to better explain the many variables facilitating neighborhood change and displacement in Pilsen.