Jenna Breslin, Lourdes De La Rosa, and Laura Van Horn have interesting stories to share about their 2014 and 2015 summer breaks. They each interned at unique placements locally and abroad in fulfillment of their summer internship requirement for the educational studies major.
During any given summer, between twenty to thirty educational studies majors venture out into the community to serve at various locations connected to their professional interests. These summer experiences provide opportunities for students to synthesize and apply ideas from major coursework, to learn from the expertise of practitioners in their chosen field, and to gain valuable insights regarding their own next steps in terms of class selection and future aspirations. These three students recently presented posters on their work.
Both Jenna Breslin and Lourdes De La Rosa were in local placements during the summer of ‘15. Jenna interned with The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art and Technology Newark, Ohio. As the Museum Education Intern she worked with the Education Team helping with the development and implementation of educational programming. She also researched relevant programming topics and assisted guests on the museum floor. Jenna identified common themes emphasized in many of the Education core classes within her placement such as promoting learning by doing among young students and the value of student agency in the learning process.
Lourdes interned with The Johnstown-Northridge Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools program in Johnstown, Ohio. As a servant leader intern, Lourdes helped young readers maintain or increase their decoding and comprehension skills. The program is designed to empower children through readings that focus on the topics of self, family, community, country, and world, as well as making a difference through hope, education, and action. Lourdes found connections to her coursework at Denison, situating the program within the larger historical narrative of the education system and recognizing the importance of equipping all children with the basic resources needed to succeed.
Laura Van Horn spent her 2014 summer in Durban South Africa to study education and social change. During her time in Durban she visited several schools in order to learn more about the African education system and to support classroom teachers in their work. As a part of the program, Laura was given the opportunity to pursue a research question investigating in what ways special needs education has advanced post-apartheid. Laura drew on the department’s social foundations course to make connections among the histories of the U.S. and South African education systems.
We are proud of their accomplishments and will feature their internship posters in the department this Fall!