Center For Public Interest Careers at Harvard College: FSI Program Offers Opportunity and Growth

Date: 05/31/07

It seems like just yesterday I found out that I was being given the wonderful opportunity to coordinate the exciting new CPIC Fund for Service Internship (FSI) Program. Thanks to the generosity of the Heckscher Foundation for Children, this program will place eleven Harvard undergraduates as full-time summer Interns for ten weeks in non-profit organizations or government agencies in New York City (NYC) that serve youth in the fields of education, family services, job training, health, arts and recreation.

Eighteen organizations applied to host an FSI Intern and proposed substantive, meaningful Internship positions that would give students the opportunity to do hands-on work while also learning a great deal about the organization and field. As a result of these enticing position descriptions, we had over 80 students apply to the FSI Program, and after a challenging selection process, eleven students were invited to be the first participants in the CPIC FSI Internship Program for the Summer of 2007.

To further introduce Interns to the politics, policy and practice of advocacy, they have participated in a series of Spring discussion sessions and will soon participate in weekly Summer seminars. Spring Seminar speakers included Marshall Ganz, Ph.D., M.P.A., Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government; Deborah Frank, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine and Director, Growth and Development Program, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center; Samantha Morton, J.D., Deputy Director of the Medical-Legal Partnership for Children at Boston Medical Center; and Judith Palfrey, M.D., Chief, Division of General Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston (and Master of Adams House.)

The Interns were energized and challenged through their conversations with the guest speakers. In addition, the Interns will take part in a weekly seminar series during the Summer, in which they will rotate through visiting each of the Host Organizations, exposing them to the work being done by a wide variety of non-profits that serve children in NYC. Lastly, Interns were matched with Alumni/Advisers who live in NYC. After receiving an incredible 324 responses from interested alumni/ae volunteers in the NYC Area (who responded to an email blast sent out in December regarding serving as a Summer FSI Mentor in NYC) we created an alumni/ae information survey to help us identify Advisers for the eleven CPIC FSI Summer Interns, as well as to help us determine how we can best nable everyone who has expressed interest in volunteering with CPIC to participate in the program. I am very excited about the progress the program has been making, and I look forward to helping these impressive and deserving students achieve meaningful Summer Internship experiences working for the public interest.