(Posted June 26, 2018)

Juniata College's Shepherd Consortium interns, clockwise from left: Perry Willig '21; Jung Ho Yoo '19; Emily Malachowski '20; Olivia Charles-Pike '19; Joanna Shin '19

Photo by: Ichiro Narita '18

Juniata College's Shepherd Consortium interns, clockwise from left: Perry Willig '21; Jung Ho Yoo '19; Emily Malachowski '20; Olivia Charles-Pike '19; Joanna Shin '19

Photo by: Ichiro Narita '18

Huntingdon, Pa. -- Five Juniata College students are participating in internships this summer with the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP), where they’re learning about the dimensions of poverty in the U.S. and assisting in the improvement of distressed communities.

Participants include Olivia Charles-Pike, a junior from Wilmington, Massachusetts; Jung Ho Yoo, a junior from Gwacheon, South Korea; Emily Malachowski, a junior from Lowell, Massachusetts; Joanna Shin, a senior from Etters, Pennsylvania; and Perry Willig, a junior from Redwood City, California.

Charles-Pike works as a case worker with the Church World Service in Greensboro, North Carolina. According to the Church World Service, their mission is to “feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, comfort the aged and shelter the homeless.” Some of her duties are to be case manager for client families, act as Spanish translator during meetings, document client interactions and conduct home visits.

“The Shepherd Consortium is distinct in that it was one of the few locations that allowed me to gain the full-time experience as a case manager without having a bachelor’s degree yet,” says Charles-Pike. “All of my clients are refugees, so the combination of courses I took from Professor Beth Williams and Professor Polly Walker prepared me for how to manage consequences of conflict professionally, personally and culturally, via administration.” 

Yoo interns at Cooper’s Ferry Partnership in Camden, New Jersey. He assists in city planning with projects relating to real estate, policy and philanthropy.

"I applied for the internship because I was inspired by a Juniata student presenter who participated in a SHECP internship last year."

-Jung Ho Yoo '19

“I applied for the internship because I was inspired by a Juniata student presenter who participated in a SHECP internship last year,” he says.

Malachowski interns with the Chatham Savannah Authority for the Homeless, Tiny House Community Development in Savannah, Georgia. Her tasks include helping with the transition process for homeless veterans to the tiny house community and rewriting leases to meet the needs of the community.

“I’m studying to be a teacher, so I chose to be a SHECP intern because I want to work with diverse communities throughout my life. I feel truly prepared after taking courses, including Peace and Conflict Studies courses, that focus on diversity and real-world issues,” she says.

Shin interns in Louisville, Kentucky, at the Cabbage Patch Settlement House, a local, non-profit organization whose mission is to prepare and empower at-risk children, youth and their families.

“I want to gain experience working with diverse groups of people. Juniata prepared me for the internship by helping me with the interview process and teaching me about different poverty settings through the Poverty Seminar,” she says.

Lastly, Willig’s internship site is located in Charleston, West Virginia, at the Covenant House, an organization dedicated to advocating for and providing direct services for people in need.

He says, “I learned a lot about poverty conditions and why they exist through coursework at Juniata, so I applied for the internship because I wanted to help those who are affected.”

The SHECP is a non-profit organization, founded in 1998 as the Shepherd Poverty Alliance, that promotes poverty studies programs in undergraduate and professional schools, supports a summer internship program integrated with coursework throughout the academic year and enriches various areas of study to prepare students for many different professional and civic goals.

In addition to Juniata College, the organization is made of 24 other collegiate institutions: Baylor University, Berea College, Birmingham Southern University, Bucknell University, Centre College, College of Wooster, Elon University, Furman University, Hendrix College, John Carroll University, Lynchburg College, Manchester University, Marymount University, Middlebury College, Millsaps College, The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College, Niagara University, Ohio University, University of Arkansas-Little Rock University of Notre Dame, University of St. Thomas, University of Vermont, Virginia Military Institute, and Washington & Lee University.

SHECP partners with more than 130 nonprofit and governmental agencies to provide internship opportunities for students. The agencies, located in both urban and rural sites, focus on categories such as education, healthcare, legal services, housing, nutrition, social and economic needs and community-building efforts. According to SHECP, “students work with agencies that fit their intellectual interests in order to develop professional experience and skills for future civic involvement and employment.”

To learn more about the internship opportunities via the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty, visit https://www.shepherdconsortium.org/about-internships/. 

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.