Center for Public Interest launches program for NYC youth

Eleven Harvard undergraduates will embark on an intense internship experience this summer, working alongside New York’s most innovative nonprofit organizations and government agencies to solve challenging problems facing children today.

The Center for Public Interest Careers (CPIC) at Harvard has developed a new, highly competitive summer program — the Fund for Service Internship (FSI) program — that will provide selected students a chance to experience work in the nonprofit sector. Ten New York City organizations will participate in the program this summer, including City Squash, the Legal Aid Society, New Alternatives for Children, and Project HEALTH.

The FSI program is funded by the Heckscher Foundation for Children of New York City, which was founded in 1921 to promote the welfare of children, primarily in New York City. It funds organizations serving youth in the fields of education, family services, job training, health, arts, and recreation. The program will provide students with professional development opportunities, as well as housing and a $3,500 stipend. The first class of FSI interns will focus on youth services in the fields of public health, urban education, legal advocacy, youth recreation, and human/family development issues.

The FSI program will give interns the chance to learn about politics, policy, and advocacy through a series of spring discussion sessions and weekly summer seminars. Speakers include Marshall Ganz, lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG); Judith Palfrey, chief, Division of General Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston, and the T. Berry Brazelton Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School; Deborah Frank, professor of pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, and director of the Growth and Development Program, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center; and Samantha Morton, deputy director of the Medical-Legal Partnership for Children at Boston Medical Center.

The following students were selected from more than 80 applicants to participate in the FSI program: Joanna Bronowicka ’09, Katy Brubaker ’09, Zachary Carpenter ’08, Maria Chicuen ’10, Shane Donovan ’09, Daniella Gilbert ’09, Johan Hong ’10, Seth Packrone ’10, Ramya Parthasarathy ’09, Soren Rosier ’10, and Martha Tesfalul ’09.