Tag Archives: 2026

Natalie Schliekelman ’26: Summer of Advocacy with PennEnvironment!

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Name: Natalie Schliekelman
Class Year: 2026
Major: Environmental Studies, Growth and Structure of Cities
Minor: English
 
Internship Organization:  PennEnvironment
Internship Title:   Advocacy Intern
Location:   Philadelphia, PA
 
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

PennEnvironment Deputy Director Flora Cardoni and I meeting with Rep. Tim Briggs and constituents (not shown)

I’ve been working with the team at PennEnvironment, an environmental nonprofit that does a variety of work to make Pennsylvania greener, including conservation, clean water, zero waste, and climate change-focused campaigns. Depending on the week, I work with different projects and campaigns, so depending on the day I might be coalition-building with local elected officials and community leaders, doing communications work with projects such as threatened and endangered insects in PA, phonebanking constituents, or writing letters to the editor. I’ve also helped with more administrative (but still interesting!) projects like combing over our media contact list, or updating our legislative social media database. Some highlights include testifying at a PA Department of Environmental Protections hearing in support of stricter methane protections, and running logistics for lobby meetings with six Pennsylvania legislators and 40+ constituents, including Bryn Mawr’s own state representative, Rep. Tim Briggs!

Why did you apply for this internship? 

PennEnvironment affiliates testifying at the DEP methane protections hearing

The Bryn Mawr College Environmental Program is very versatile – there’s so many different paths you could take with it, from environmental science research to environmental advocacy. Internships are a great opportunity to learn more about a specific section of the field and potentially narrow down your focus within the department. I’m very interested in environmental advocacy, and PennEnvironment does really cool advocacy work, so working with them is a great opportunity! They do a wide variety of different environmental campaigns, so I have been able to try out a lot of different projects and see what I like best. As a Growth & Structure of Cities major, I have also been intrigued by seeing how larger-scale political contexts play out on a local/state-level scale in Pennsylvania, from more sustainability-focused cities like Philadelphia to rural towns with fracking as a huge economic sector.
 
Was there anything special about how you found this internship? 

PennEnvironment is a branch of the national environmental group Environment America, which has 30 state branches, including one in my home state of Georgia. Last summer, I did a part-time internship with Environment Georgia. During my time with Environment Georgia, I met with a PennEnvironment staff member to learn more about PennEnvironment’s work with plastic bag bans. My time at Bryn Mawr has taught me the importance of networking, so I followed-up in the spring about interviewing for a summer internship! Environment America offers a lot of resources for its members, such as weekly trainings for the interns, so it’s been a great opportunity to get to work within the Environment America network twice, and PennEnvironment is one of the oldest branches so it’s great to see their work in action. 

What has been your favorite part of this internship?  

I’ve really loved the people aspect! Thanks to my summer funding from Bryn Mawr, I’ve been able to stay in Philly for part of the summer and work in the office. I enjoy getting to chat with my supervisors and other interns while I work, and I feel like I’m able to learn so much more from hearing tidbits and stories from my supervisors about their work. I also find connecting with people through advocacy work to be really rewarding – I found it intimidating at first to cold-call elected officials and constituents, but it’s a great feeling when I convince someone to take political action, like signing a petition or reaching out to their representatives. I’ve had some fascinating conversations and it can really test my knowledge of the policies I’m campaigning for when someone challenges me or asks me specific questions about different bills.

Natasha Ring ’26 Explores Environmental Education in South Philadelphia 

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Name: Natasha Ring
Class Year: 2026
Major: Geology, History
Minor: Environmental Studies
 
Internship Organization:  Discovery Pathways
Internship Title:   Intern
Location:  South Philadelphia, PA
 
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

I have gotten to be involved with so many different programs at Discovery Pathways this summer! Early on, while the school year was wrapping up for local K-12 schools, much of my work involved preparing for the start of our Youth Environmental Leaders Program, assisting on field trip visits, and working at the community boating and family fishing events. I also got to watch my first dragon boat race, since the Discovery Pathways team had a regatta in Philadelphia which was really exciting. For the last month, I have primarily been assisting with the Youth Environmental Leaders Program. This program targets BIPOC, immigrant, and refugee youth and gives them opportunities to learn about leadership, public speaking, fishing, boating, water testing, and sustainability. For the leaders, returning students who are now serving as mentors to the new students, the program also aims to assist them with job readiness skills such as practicing interviews and creating a resume. I have also been busy with visits from local rec centers and community groups who visit us at FDR Park where we take them on nature walks, kayaking on Edgewood lake, or fishing. I have also been assisting at the free community boating and free family fishing programs which target the local Southeast Philadelphia community. These programs can serve hundreds of visitors on any given day, and are an excellent opportunity for me to learn more about the local communities and practice my public speaking skills.
 
Why did you apply for this internship? 

My concentration within Environmental Studies is Environmental Education, so I was looking for a summer internship that focused on Environmental Education. I learned about Discovery Pathways last fall after talking to one of my lab partners who had interned there last summer. I loved that Discovery Pathways was local to the area and had a focus on making environmental education accessible to the local community through practices like empowering students to translate instructions at our community boating events and free events.
 
Was there anything special about how you found this internship? 

I initially learned about Discovery Pathways through my lab partner, who had interned there last summer. Some students from Dr. Young’s Fish and Community Praxis Class, which I took this spring, were also placed at Discovery Pathways which gave me another opportunity to connect with Adam and the organization.  

What has been your favorite part of this internship?
 
My favorite part has definitely been working with the teenagers in our Youth Leaders Program, and learning from them. They have taught me so much on topics ranging from rowing and racing a dragon boat to what vendors to go to at the Southeast Asian Market to how I can communicate more clearly on our busy boating days. I have also tried many new foods based on their recommendations, including green papaya salad and lychee. 

Rana Rastegari ’26 Spends the Summer as an Editorial Intern at Campus Philly

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Name: Rana Rastegari
Class Year: 2026
Major: Literatures in English, Chemistry 

Internship Organization: Campus Philly
Internship Title:   Editorial Intern
Location: Philadelphia, PA
 
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

Campus Philly Team

I spent this summer interning with Campus Philly, focusing on editorial work. My main projects consisted of writing regular blogs for the Campus Philly website and keeping the calendar, Guide to Goods and Things to Do pages updated. Over the course of this internship, I wrote multiple blogs about the Greater Philadelphia region focusing on events, activities and information geared towards college students in the area. Throughout the summer, I also led the outreach and organization of the annual Guide to Philly. I was in touch with several organizations and college students in order to finalize the details for the annual guide alongside writing my own feature for Ardmore! Some daily tasks at my internship included maintaining and updating several excel documents containing contact information for all of the Campus Philly partners and ensuring that all of the details were up to date. As a part of my internship, I was able to attend several incredible events! A favorite internship memory from this summer was attending a preview of an exhibit at the Barnes which included a guided tour of the artwork from the curator herself! I had the privilege of writing about the exhibit for the Campus Philly blog and had the opportunity to connect with other reporters.

Why did you apply for this internship?  

As a freshman at Bryn Mawr, I attended Campus Philly’s CollegeFest which was an amazing and formative experience. It truly made me feel much more comfortable about my first few weeks of college. I had also previously written for the Guide to Philly in 2023 and really enjoyed the process! Therefore, being familiar with the Campus Philly mission, I reached out to Ashley Barber (Senior Director of Content Strategy) to ask about an internship! Campus Philly was such a helpful resource for me when I came to college and I was really excited to be a part of that team!     

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect? 

This internship has taught me a lot about the importance of data analysis and marketing in every position. For nearly all of my projects, Ashley and I have discussed outreach numbers  and salesforce contacts in depth. Each of my blog posts requires the correct company information and contact details to be included in the piece and the Guide to Philly project relies on us being able to get the word out to as many people as possible. It has been really interesting to see exactly how important these skills are to the company!  

Working remotely for the first time? What has that experience been like for you?  

Working remotely has been an adjustment for me as I am very used to in-person, hand on work especially throughout the semester. However, I have really enjoyed working remotely with Campus Philly as I still felt very connected to other staff members. Outside of the in-person planning day, we met on teams weekly and I also met with Ashley every week separately. As a result, I always felt very supported by the team while simultaneously having the independence to plan out my own working hours and project priorities. 

Tiny and Mighty! Maya and Filomena ’26 Intern at Prison Radio

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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. 

From Tools to Teamwork in Digital Scholarship: Grace Tsai ‘26

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Name: Grace Tsai
Class Year: 2026
Major: Economics
Minor: Data Science
 
Internship Organization: Library and Information Technology Services (LITS)
Internship Title:  Digital Technology Intern
Location: Bryn Mawr, PA 

What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

I had the opportunity to work on three projects throughout my internship. 

The first project, completed in June, was the Institute for Liberal Arts and Digital Scholarship (ILiADS) Conference. The conference brought together teams of participants to build upon existing digital scholarship projects or even launch new projects entirely. It was an incredible experience that fostered collaboration, idea exchange, and innovation, and gave me the chance to see the process of developing digital scholarship projects firsthand. 

The second project focused on creating interactive data visualizations primarily with Tableau. I worked on designing clear and engaging visuals that will be featured on the Bryn Mawr College website. The goal of this project was to transform public data concerning the college into more visually appealing graphics for prospective students to reference in the future. 

The final project centered around lab safety. Alongside other interns, I created a series of videos to promote awareness of safe practices in laboratory environments. 

Why did you apply for this internship?  

My main goal for the summer was to build experience in data science, and the opportunity to build data visualizations interested me the most when applying. Investigating more, I was particularly intrigued in how digital scholarship was related to the data science field. I learned how digital scholarship could be a platform to improve public access to information, preserve cultural records, and tell stories with data. This internship has opened a door for how I think about the kind of work I want to pursue going forward.  

What has been your favorite part of this internship?  

My favorite part of this internship was the collaborative environment and the sense of purpose behind the three projects. From the start, I felt genuinely supported by the team. My supervisors encouraged me to ask questions and grow both personally and professionally. That support not only made it easier to connect with them, but also with my fellow interns and build a strong working dynamic.  

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?  

I also gained valuable experience in project management. From the beginning, the team defined goals for each of the three projects and developed timelines to guide our work. I learned how to communicate effectively, adjust deadlines, and prioritize tasks to keep projects moving. The skills I learned through this internship are applicable in any professional setting, and I know I will continue to hone these skills as I take on future roles after graduation. 

Getting Up Close and Personal with Rat Brains: Lucy Sparks Mendez ‘26 

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Name: Lucy Sparks Mendez
Class Year: 2026
Major: Neuroscience, Creative Writing

Internship Organization: Kennedy Krieger Institute
Internship Title:   Undergraduate Research Assistant
Location: Baltimore, MD
 
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

We are working on collecting and processing neurobiological and neurobehavioral data of rat pups and the response that early life stress has on their development.

Why did you apply for this internship?  

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.
 
What was your favorite part of this internship?  

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. 

Can you talk about the skills you learned and why they are important to you? 

A crucial skill my internship has highlighted is problem-solving. The children I work with are between the ages of three and twelve. Between these ages, social and mental skills are being developed. To ensure appropriate behavioral tendencies and respect, I need to be skilled in giving clear instructions, being compassionate, and open-minded to different needs. This problem-solving comes with positive and negative outcomes, but I learn what works and does not. This skill will be helpful in college when finalizing my major and other important steps towards my future. Not only does problem-solving help with my academic goals, but in my daily life. Many of us need to choose between many options daily. With limited time schedules, conflicting plans, and relationships, problem-solving is integral for decreasing stress and increasing happiness. In short, I am grateful for this internship and the skills that have come with it. 

Hannah Carroll ’26 Interns at The Weitzman  

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Name: Hannah Carroll
Class Year: 2026
Major: History of Art, History, German Studies 

Internship Organization: The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History
Internship Title:   Curatorial Intern
Location:  Philadelphia, PA
  
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

Who is she? Portrait of Mrs. N Eckstein by Louis Lang, 1839

Museums are surprisingly dynamic workplaces, meaning no two days are ever the same! I have done so many different things, from accessing objects, to getting really good at using an office scanner while digitizing old exhibition files. The Weitzman is hoping to unveil some new and improved exhibitions in the coming years, and many of the tasks I have worked on have been related to the museum’s upcoming temporary exhibition for the semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) of the Declaration of Independence called The First Salute. What I think is so amazing about this exhibition, which will follow the story of the Jewish community on Sint Eustatius in the Caribbean and its involvement with the American Revolution, is that it really highlights the sometimes unexpected dynamism and diversity (of peoples, of goods, of ideas, etc.) present in the 18th century Atlantic World. I cannot wait to see and share the final project with all of you next spring!
 
Why did you apply for this internship?   

Even before working there, the Weitzman was probably one of my favorite museums in Philadelphia. Believe it or not, it is the only Jewish museum in the country which focuses exclusively on telling the stories of the American Jewish experience from the 17th to the 21st century. Working in a museum was something I have really wanted to do since I started college, and the Weitzman unique collection and specialties would help me bridge connections between many of my academic passions, such as American history and Jewish history, as well as object interpretation and material culture. I also feel that working in a Jewish museum and helping to tell these stories of American Jewish life is particularly needed in our current moment in which anti-Jewish bigotry has become commonplace in our politics and culture.  

Was there anything special about how you found this internship? 

Yes! I had really been struggling in my search for an internship, and I was talking to one of my friends who was working at the Weitzman as part of the Praxis program this spring and really loved the work she was doing. Even though I am probably not going to be able to do a Praxis next year, I reached out to the Praxis director, Tiffany Stahl, who said that she heard the museum was actively searching for summer interns and gave me the email of my eventual supervisor. I know this is incredibly schmaltzy, but if you are struggling in your search for internships, it never hurts to ask for information from friends, your advisors, or even the Career and Civic Engagement Center — it is their job, after all!
 
What was your favorite part of this internship?  

“Everything” is kind of a silly answer, but I mean it! I have loved both the breadth and depth of my work there.
  
Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

Learning how museums work has been very fulfilling as an art history major, because it has shown me what kinds of things I can do with my degree as I pursue further study. Understanding a museum from the inside out has also helped me think about how to research better, especially as I prepare to write my thesis. I have been working on solving the mystery of one particular painting in the museum’s collection, a portrait of a woman from the late 1830s. We know basically nothing about her except for her last name and the artist who painted her portrait. Uncovering her story has led me down so many different paths, as I research the life of a woman who, pending further evidence, I suspect may be the sitter. It has also been interesting (and sometimes a little frustrating) to read the internal records we have on the painting, and see how others who have attempted to identify her have tried and failed, and at times made and propagated shaky claims about who she was, somewhat like a game of art-historical telephone! Hopefully if I am similarly unable to confirm her identity, I can at least leave a better framework and documentary trail for the next person in my stead. The lives of American Jewish women before the late nineteenth century are quite under-researched (although this is slowly changing), and I hope that in the future my own research will build upon illuminating more stories like this! 

Emily Chau ’26 Explores Autism Research at CHOP 

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Name: Emily Chau
Class Year: 2026
Major: Psychology
 
Internship Organization: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Autism Research
Internship Title:   Student Research Trainee
Location: Philadelphia, PA

What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

Experimenter and confederate protocol for a study I am currently doing

This summer, I am working as a student research trainee in the Social Attention and Language Lab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s (CHOP) Center for Autism Research (CAR). I actually started this internship in the Spring 2025 semester as part of Bryn Mawr’s Praxis Independent Study program, but a lot of my responsibilities in the lab have changed. In the spring, I mostly transcribed casual conversations between speakers and autistic or non-autistic youth to investigate markers of autistic speech. I am still doing this, but I am also starting to become more involved in the front-end part of the lab’s research. For one study, I am currently training to be a confederate to have conversations with autistic or non-autistic youth. Instead of transcribing researcher-participant conversations, I will now be part of those conversations. In that same study, I am also training to be a confederate where I will instruct autistic participants to do difficult tasks as part of the study procedure. I am really looking forward to interacting with participants since most of my spring experience was transcription and shadowing studies.  

Example of two audio files and their transcriptions

I have also been added to multiple other studies that span across a variety of other speech and autism-related topics. For example, I am reviewing and editing transcripts that focus on the experiences of mothers who were pregnant/gave birth during the COVID pandemic. Later in the summer, I may start reaching out to families of autistic children to ask if they will participate in a study related to an AI reading tool. In between all of these studies and tasks, I attend talks and similar events at CHOP that explore different topics and career paths in autism research. For example, we have a speaker series where lab alumni talk about their career after leaving the lab. In the next couple of weeks, I will be attending the Linguistic Data Consortium at UPenn, and I may be able to shadow a diagnostic visit at the main hospital. In all, I’m getting exposed to many different kinds of research tasks, clinical tasks, and topics here at CAR.

Why did you apply for this internship?  

An exam room that’s set up for a study task

I applied for this internship because the mission of CAR spoke to me personally, and I felt that my unique experiences would be a valuable asset to autism research. I have a brother with autism, and we went to CHOP as kids. Because of this, I have seen firsthand the outcomes of CAR’s research through the comprehensive care and supportive groundwork that CHOP has provided to my family and other members of my community who have autism. I wanted to give back to this organization while also serving the autism community using the analytical skills I have gained as a psychology major at Bryn Mawr. I hoped to exercise my research skills while doing meaningful work in a topic I’m personally passionate about.  

I also applied because I am pursuing a degree in social work, and I intend to keep serving this population. Even though this position isn’t entirely clinical or client-facing, I hope to gain a more holistic understanding of the experiences of this population as well as what kinds of research inform social work practices. 

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship? 

I think the biggest challenge I have faced is the one I am facing right now: the independent research project and presentation. As part of the summer program, student research trainees can choose to do an independent research project and do a short presentation about it in front of all the different labs and principal investigators at CAR. Even though I grew up with an autistic sibling, I find that there are still many aspects surrounding autism that I have yet to learn about, especially when talking to other members in the lab about their diverse research interests. It has been challenging to come up with and to research a novel idea for this project knowing that the people at CAR are experts in this field, but I have been proactive in reaching out to lab members who have similar research interests for guidance. Everyone on my team and at CAR has been very friendly and open to being asked questions, so I feel well-supported in my independent research project.  

Was this internship what you expected it to be?  

Because I started this internship in the spring, I thought that the summer would be more of the same. However, this internship surprised me because of how active and busy it is in the summer. The summer program for this internship is also a lot more structured than it was in the spring because there is a set schedule for events such as alumni talks, conferences, the Linguistic Data Consortium, study visits at the research center and at the main hospital, and the student research presentation day.  

Since the summer has started, I’ve been able to meet more lab members within and outside of my team. I was surprised by how approachable and considerate lab members were because I thought there would be a stark divide between lab members and student trainees. I feel that I can reach out to people within and outside of my team about autism research as well to discuss my academic journey outside of CAR. 

Delaney Cairns ’26 Interns with AMADEUS Festival Vienna

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Name: Delaney Cairns
Class Year: 2026
Major: Psychology, Education

Internship Organization: AMADEUS International School Vienna, IES Abroad 

Internship Title:  AMADEUS Music and Arts Academy Intern
Location: Vienna, Austria

What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

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. 

Why did you apply for this internship?  

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. 

Was there anything special about how you found this internship? 

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. 

What has been your favorite part of this internship? 

My favorite part of my experience at this internship was being able to get so close with the other interns at Amadeus. I really learned how to work well with a team and we all learned how to advocate for ourselves and each other. It was so nice to have a group that supported each other with any help we needed every day. We also all learned how to communicate effectively with one another and our supervisors in a workplace environment (in another country!). 

Nora Hugo ’26 Interns with Mother & Child Education Center 

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Name: Nora Hugo
Class Year: 2026
Major: Sociology
Minor: Spanish 

Internship Organization: Mother & Child Education Center
Internship Title:  Summer Intern
Location: Portland, OR

What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

Mother & Child aims to support all families with children under 5 years that come to us. From diapers and wipes to maternity clothes to carseats, we receive and give out donated items, hoping to fill in the gaps for families who may not be able to afford these needs. Being a no-barrier organization means that, as long as we have the items they need, we are able to materially support anyone who comes to our door, regardless of their situation. More than the supplies we give out, we support clients with empathy and knowledge–aiming to give them information about local resources along with skills to help them raise their children. As an intern, I work alongside a small team, learning from them every day about the ways we can support our clients.  

Why did you apply for this internship? 

I applied for this internship because I wanted to do work that felt meaningful, and day-to-day tasks that felt fulfilling. I wanted to learn more about the Portland community and its needs, and I wanted to work with families and children. This internship has provided me with opportunities to meet these goals and learn more about what kind of work I want to do. Not only do I think the mission of Mother & Child is important, but I enjoy the work that I do every day and directly see its impact on clients.

Why did you apply for this internship?  

I applied for this internship because I wanted to do work that felt meaningful, and day-to-day tasks that felt fulfilling. I wanted to learn more about the Portland community and its needs, and I wanted to work with families and children. This internship has provided me with opportunities to meet these goals and learn more about what kind of work I want to do. Not only do I think the mission of Mother & Child is important, but I enjoy the work that I do every day and directly see its impact on clients.  

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship? 

We try to schedule appointments primarily, but we do receive a lot of walk-ins as well. This means that we never know what a day is going to look like, and I have had to learn to balance my time very intentionally. Choosing which projects to work on during downtime, managing a rush where we have clients walking in and phones ringing, and knowing when to ask for help and when to figure something out myself has been a continual challenge–but one that I have been able to meet so far. Having to think about the way I use my time is an important skill, and one that I continually work on–at my internship and in the rest of my life. 

What is most rewarding about your internship? 

Mother & Child is a nonprofit organization, funded by grants and stocked with donations. The nature of being completely donation-based is that often, we do not have the exact items that people are looking for. So, I get excited when someone wheels in a new stroller for donation, or when we receive hygiene items that we have in stock less often, or find the perfect toy for a kid who comes in with their parent. Those moments when we don’t have certain items make me appreciate them even more when we do have them, and being able to give someone an item that is hard to find feels so rewarding, even more so when I realize how much stress is alleviated just by not having to look for an item elsewhere.