Internship Profiles

Internships

2016-2017 Interns

Name: Taylor Chapman
Placement: New Arrivals Institute
Internship project: Social Media Manager and ESOL Classroom Support

Taylor is a second year M.A. student in the WGS program. Her academic interests include fat studies, body politics, anti-racism, and class/poverty politics. She loves blogging about feminist theory & praxis and is involved in community organizing off-campus focusing on building self-realization, political efficacy, and ecological literacy among girls and women. Taylor is interning with New Arrivals Institute, an organization in Greensboro focused on helping refugees and immigrants reach self-sufficiency through education. Her work with NAI includes managing and bolstering the organization’s online presence and helping to assist teachers in adult ESOL classrooms. The goal of these projects is to communicate more effectively online to both the clients of NAI and the Greensboro community at large through online updates, blog posts, and articles, all of which aim to educate people about different refugee and immigrant experiences. Ultimately, Taylor believes that social media is a tool that can be used to change people’s lives and the world for the better and she is excited to continue putting those beliefs into practice.

Name: Lauren Maggart
Placement: NARAL Pro Choice America – Greensboro
Internship project: Member Engagement

Lauren will finish her Master’s degree in Women and Gender Studies this May. In her free time, she likes to hang out with her dogs and pretend she knows how to cook. Lauren is interning with NARAL Pro-Choice NC where she is working on member engagement through a variety of projects. She is focusing her work on social media as a tool for connecting with a broader community. NARAL Pro- Choice NC is a reproductive justice organization, committed to protecting and advancing reproductive rights of North Carolinians.

Name: Desiree Self
Placement: GARA (Guilford Anti-Racism Alliance)
Internship project: Research Assistant & International Civil Rights Center & Museum Timeline Curator

Desi is currently working on finishing their Master’s Degree in the WGS Program. Desi is an avid reader who loves to write poetry and to create vegan or vegetarian versions of traditionally meat-centered dishes. Academic interests include: Philosophy of Race, Philosophy of Sexuality, Ethics, Black Feminist Theory, Black/African American Studies, Queer Theory, Afro Pessimism, and Human Sexuality. They are currently working as an intern for Guilford Anti-Racism Alliance (GARA). Internship duties include social media organizing, outreach task force member, and research assistant working on curating a comprehensive timeline for the International Civil Rights Center & Museum (ICRCM). The purpose of their research project with GARA is to create one accessible medium that has a comprehensive history of the ICRCM to aid the museum with their political and economic struggles in Greensboro and Guilford County.

Name: Bridget Werner
Placement: The Empowered Girls of North Carolina
Internship project: Programing Assistant

Bridget is currently completing her Master’s Degree in the Women’s and Gender Studies program and will graduate in May 2017. Bridget’s internship is with a local nonprofit, the Empowered Girls of North Carolina, whose mission is to provide programs to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold, and to empower them to reach their full potential. As the Programing Assistant, her efforts largely are involved with facilitating and organizing the Leadership Workshops that will be held throughout the spring. These workshops aim to encourage middle school girls to reach their full potential by challenging existing boundaries academically, communally, and within relationships. While working with EGNC Bridget’s assistance in programming will revolve around topics such as leadership, service, self-worth, bullying, empowerment, healthy relationships/ healthy lifestyles. Bridget believes community building strengthens individuals while simultaneously working to serve a larger purpose, and is currently experiencing those benefits through her internship.

Name: Jennifer Poteat
Placement: Family Abuse Services of Alamance Country (FAS)
Internship project: Lethality Assessment Research/Office Intern

Jennifer is a second year Master’s student in the WGS program. Her interests are domestic violence, global public health and sexual assault advocacy and prevention. FAS provides support and resource information to families dealing with domestic violence, including shelter, support groups, one on one counseling and a 24 hour crisis line. jennifer is assisting with court advocacy, data management and researching the effectiveness of the recently implemented Lethality Assessment Program, a tool used to identity domestic violence clients in high-risk situations. In her spare time, Jennifer enjoys hanging with her kids, her pug and cat, reading and napping.

2015-2016 Interns

Name: Savannah Behrent
Placement: Durham Jail Investigation Team
Internship project: Workshop Development and Outreach

Savannah is currently finishing her Master’s Degree in the WGS Program. Her academic interests include post-9/11 humanism, postcolonial theory, and critical race theory, among many others. She is currently interning with the Durham Jail Investigation Team, an organization made up of concerned Durham community members seeking to lead a community investigation of the Durham Jail where a host of human rights abuses have taken place. Her work with the organization includes creating and delivering workshops to present to community organizations in hopes that they will publicly support the Durham Jail Investigation Team’s efforts. The goal of this project has been to get members of these organizations to endorse our public statement and to assign a contact person to begin cultivating a relationship so that the DJI team can count on community members to come out to actions and demonstrations. Savannah writes “I have learned a tremendous amount during my internship, especially the importance and power of grassroots organizing and resisting professionalization in activist spaces.” In her increasingly limited free time, she enjoys watching Shark Tank with her partner and making delicious baked goods, which her partner never eats.

Name: Brianna Taylor
Placement: The Dance Project
Internship project: Outreach Coordinator

Brianna is currently pursuing a Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies at UNCG, is an adjunct professor of dance and yoga at UNCG, Elon University, and Salem College, and teaches yoga at various studios in the Greensboro community. Brianna’s internship is through the community organizations to hopefully facilitate movement workshops in these settings. Through the project she is also working with the Sherri Denese Jackson Foundation for the prevention of Domestic Violence, the Interactive Resource Center, and the Creative Aging Network of North Carolina. Brianna is passionate about sharing movement experiences with individuals outside of the professional dance realm, and believes wholeheartedly in the power of movement to bring positive change and empowerment. She believes that creative movement and expression has the potential to build self-esteem and self-actualization through positive embodiment and creative choice making, along with a greater feeling of overall health and well-being.

Name: Sibyl Kemp
Placement: YWCA
Internship project: Organizer of “Stand Against Racism” Event

Sibyl is a double major in Women’s and Gender Studies and Communication studies, and is graduating in May 2016. She is currently interning at the YWCA and has primarily been attending, observing, and participating in their after school programs like Young Women in Charge, YWORLD, and Making Proud Choices, which is their sexual health education sessions for high school and middle school students. Largely, her role has been to assist in organizing and promoting their Stand Against Racism event, which will take place on Friday, April 29th from 5-7 p.m. and involves a human chain down Wendover Avenue, as well as games, activities and prizes to follow. This purpose of this event is to help incorporate Stand Against Racism with existing program curriculum, and doing community outreach to get more of Greensboro involved in the event.

Name: Melanie Pringle
Placement: Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (Greensboro)
Internship project: Resource Generation and Community Outreach

Melanie Pringle is a pescatarian, animal-lover, singer, runner, and supporter of feminist causes. She is currently finishing her MA in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and plans to graduate in May 2016. She has been the Graduate Assistant for the Center for Women’s Health and Wellness for three years and helped to plan and facilitate the BFIC for each of those years, which she says has been “a formative experience.” She is currently an intern with the Director of Philanthropy at Planned Parenthood in Greensboro, where she has been reaching out to past donors and potential donors to remind them that their contributions to the reproductive health movement are important and necessary. Likewise, she has been involved in helping to organize volunteer groups (also called “Community Councils”) in an effort to generate greater youth involvement in the reproductive health movement. Melanie writes that she is “looking forward to a lifetime of work in reproductive justice and women’s reproductive health.”