Friedman Direct Service Internship Scholarship

This crowdfunding project has ended, but you can still support the Friedman Direct Service Internship Scholarship here. Thank you for your continued support!

Many students are unable to pursue the internship of their choice because the organization cannot provide funding. While many of these unpaid internships involve direct service work with populations we learn about in the classroom and hope to work with in the future, students often accept alternative opportunities with higher financial support. Graduate school is a time to explore your passions and make an impact, and this scholarship will encourage students to take that leap.

Direct service internships provide students with meaningful skills to enhance their career, such as developing cultural competence and learning what it takes to implement nutrition or agricultural interventions. The internship can serve to ground the student’s academic education in real world experience.

The Goal: Please help us reach our goal of $4,000 to fund one student for a 10-week, direct service summer internship. The scholarship will support Friedman students in pursuing their desire to serve when funding opportunities are limited.

The Impact: This scholarship will help students get outside the classroom to engage in direct service while supporting community based efforts in nutrition, health and building sustainable food system. Direct service makes a direct impact. Several students in the past have been able to accomplish amazing change through their direct service work.

Alison Brown, PhD saw positive health changes happen right before her eyes developed a program called 'Keep it Real: Better Food for Better Health' at a community fitness center in Dorchester. Her program worked with women and children to cultivate fitness and nutrition skills for healthier lifestyles. It was memorable for Alison to see people grow healthier and become excited about cooking healthy foods. For Alison, direct service is about empowering disenfranchised communities while paving the way for rooted and relevant policy change.

During his second year at Friedman, Dan Hatfield, PhD, was inspired to begin a walking and running-based physical activity program for 6th grade boys in East Boston. Dan worked directly with the community to develop an evidence-based program, and saw astounding results. The boys discovered strength within themselves they didn't know they had and learned to set, track, and accomplish their goals. Dan, in turn, was inspired to do a PhD and continue to do the work that bridges the gap between research and practice communities.

Why now: This scholarship is part of a larger effort to deepen social justice education at Friedman.

Dialogues with students and faculty have identified service learning as a gap in our social justice education. Our summer internship requirement is one of the few opportunities to explore service learning before diving into a career and would also serve to develop lasting connections between community organizations, students and our academic institution.

We see this scholarship as uplifting all of Friedman, and hope you do, too.