Name: Maya Mehta
Class Year: 2026
Major: Political Science
Name: Filomena Baker
Class Year: 2026
Major: Political Science
Internship Organization: Prison Radio
Internship Title: Summer Interns
Location: Philadelphia, PA
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!
Doing repairs on our first week on the job!
As interns, Prison Radio delivers us something new and exciting every day. From producing a short-form movie to exploring political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s archives, we have learned the importance of Prison Radio’s abolition work. For the first few weeks of our internship, we immersed ourselves in Prison Radio’s vast catalogue of prisoner correspondent commentaries, sifting through thousands of Prison Radio’s audio files to transcribe and migrate them onto the website. We were then tasked with familiarizing ourselves with our Donor Network, writing hundreds of Thank You Cards to donors every day, whether they donated 5 dollars or 500. We quickly learned that our donor network, the people who believe in prison abolition, is the very backbone of the work we do, and that they are integral in keeping our national abolitionist community network strong. As we become more accustomed to how PR runs, we now spend our days writing eblasts for our network, organizing PR’s extensive archives, conducting research for different special projects, and, occasionally, we still write Thank You cards.
Why did you apply for this internship?
Us in the Prison Radio office
We wanted to intern at PR because we believe in the dismantlement of the hegemonic structure of the Amerikan empire. Prison Radio has been working against the prison-industrial complex for over 3 decades, broadcasting commentaries from incarcerated individuals and exposing human rights violations within the U.S. prison system. Additionally, the organization’s website has thousands of audio commentaries, art pieces, and resources relating to prison abolition, providing important content to the public that may have otherwise been unavailable. In the face of increased political repression and the expansion of carceral systems into our schools, hospitals, and places of work, the choice to intern with Prison Radio this summer was an easy one.
What has been your favorite part of this internship?
After some initial hiccups in timing, we, along with other PR interns and our boss, met up at a small Indian restaurant in West Philly before embarking on a road trip. We were heading West to Pittsburgh. After driving 5 hours, we finally arrived at our first destination: the Monroeville Red Roof Inn Plus. We go to bed early that night, to wake for our next destination: the North Point Breeze Estate. The event: the fundraiser for the Abolitionist Law Center, an organization we work closely with.
We arrive and are immediately put to work, tasked with helping create a charcuterie board, setting up seating, and greeting attendees at the door. All the writing of hundreds of Thank You cards came to fruition as we finally met the people who we had been addressing in our notes, and who have been keeping Prison Radio alive from afar. At the event, we met artists, lawyers, and long-time political and community organizers, hearing their stories and learning from them.
Although it was hot and sunny, the event itself was one of the most memorable moments of our summer with Prison Radio. Being able to contextualize Prison Radio’s work within the larger context of abolitionism reminded us how early we are in our organizing journeys, and how the education we’ve had at Bryn Mawr is just the beginning.
What is most rewarding about your internship?
It’s the night of our movie premiere. It was the moment we’d been looking forward to for weeks. Just a month earlier, we had received an email from the Free Mumia Coalition in London looking for a 15 to 20-minute video of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s archives. Because of our boss’ close professional relationship with Mumia, Prison Radio has a large amount of Mumia’s mail, legal documents, and doctoral thesis work. We had a lot of work to do, and all the interns banded together to write a script, film B-roll, produce commentary, and interview people for the movie.
After 3 weeks, we completed our movie and showed it to our boss. She immediately suggested hosting an official movie premiere in our office. Our work was far from over. We spent the next week calling and emailing people in the Philly area within our network.
On the night of the premier, we had a full house, and we got to show our movie and meet the community members in Philly that had been a part of the Prison Radio network for years. It was incredibly rewarding to go through the process of researching, writing, and producing our film, and then getting to finally share it with others who cared for the work we have done just as much as we did.
I am a summer camp intern and food distributor at the Old Pine Community Center in South Philadelphia. Old Pine provides many services to the South Philly community and youth. From renting out spaces for community events to partnering with local businesses to fight food insecurity. This summer, as an intern for Old Pine’s Summer in the City program, I have brainstormed and implemented daily activities, recorded and aided in the production of weekly plays, and cleaned the center before and after the camp. A day-in-the-life of an Old Pine intern has been challenging but also rewarding. It is not only those tasks listed above that I execute, but also being readily available to other staff. Old Pine is in the process of finding more staff, so I might be asked to help with packing boxes, watching the front, or prepping grocery bags.
Before Bryn Mawr, I lived in South Philadelphia for three years. My condo was only a three-minute walk from the Old Pine Center. I fondly remember walking to and from school and my extracurricular activities, and passing Old Pine. Now that I am back in Philadelphia for college and have the opportunity to work, I wanted to reconnect with South Philly’s community and give back what they had given me: kindness, open-mindedness, and cultural experience. Why Old Pine and not another organization in South Philly? The Summer in the City program seemed to be the perfect fit. I have always enjoyed teaching children and learning from the new generation. Through them, I reconnect with the powerful tool of creativity and the skills of communication.
Having to be pulled from task to task in different areas of the center, I have met and befriended many people. In this process, many unique stories and conversations have arisen. This social aspect of Old Pine is my favorite part of my internship. Being a somewhat introverted and awkward person, talking to new people has been an impeding weakness; however, being in Old Pine’s friendly atmosphere, I have learned the importance of confidence and communication. Making small talk and opening myself up has proven to be interesting and helpful. After my internship, I hope to continue my newfound confidence and exploration of stories.
I worked with children ages six to sixteen assisting them with building social, political, and creative skills. Each week I worked alongside 3-7 workshop leaders, five voluntary social year workers, and two other IES interns to guide students through topics of democratic, climate, and social justice issues. These children came from varied school environments and were separated into small groups for workshops. I assisted in fashion and sustainability workshops, short filmmaking, wood workshops, AI image generation and photography comic strip workshops, and a happiness workshop. I was also trusted with planning potential project excursions for students to gain exposure beyond the villa.
I immediately connected with my supervisors while interviewing with them and formed a quick bond that foreshadowed the relationship we were meant to have while working with this organization.
I learned that I am very resilient and able to navigate and thrive in different working environments even when they are speaking a language that I cannot understand.
The Amadeus International School Vienna is a Private PreK-12 school focused on IB curriculum with an integrated Music and Arts Academy (AMAA). I was working in the front office, most specifically with the AMAA administrators, dealing with and helping with the scheduling and planning required to run the academy. I was even able to sit in on some dance and music classes, and it was super interesting to learn about the dance and music education scene in Vienna. Additionally, I was involved in the planning of the Amadeus Festival hosted by the school at the end of each year. During the festival, the other interns and I helped serve the guests and assist with the other logistical needs of the festival as part of the stage crew. We were also tasked with making a performance to open up one of the acts in the festival and we choreographed a dance together! I also was able to incorporate some of my dance interests when I led an Irish dance workshop on the “Family and Fun Day” of the festival. Finally, I moderated one day of the festival, going on stage to introduce the different groups and talk a little bit about their performances.
As an education major, I was really interested to see what goes on behind the scenes at a school. Through the Bryn Mawr education department I have had the opportunity to see the inside of many classrooms in Philadelphia schools, but I have never been able to see the behind the scenes of a front office in the way that I was able to at Amadeus. I really enjoyed learning how to look at registration lists, plan out classroom space schedules, and help make certificates. I also have been focusing a lot on arts (most specifically dance) education and the impact it has on students in my studies at Bryn Mawr, and wanted to see how it was being incorporated into this school. I was also interested in seeing how a school/workplace functions in a different country such as Austria in order to explore how it differed from my experience in US schools.
I was a part of a group of Bryn Mawr students who got the opportunity to be a part of the IES Vienna Internship program for the summer. This gave me the opportunity to meet so many other people from different schools across the country and hear all about the work they were doing at their internships and how it related to their studies.