Summer Leadership Awards Help Scholars Explore Careers

Fifteen Posse D.C. Scholars were recipients of Posse Summer Leadership Award funding in 2013. This funding allows Scholars to experience important professional development opportunities that are either minimally paid or unpaid. This year’s recipients interned at government agencies; traveled abroad to Ghana, India and Bangladesh; and volunteered with nonprofit organizations focused on HIV/AIDS, global poverty, immigration equality and wrongful incarceration, among other issues. Below are highlights from several of their summer experiences.

University of Wisconsin-Madison junior Dawn Jefferson interned at the Bureau of Diplomatic Security in the United States Department of State. Within the bureau, Dawn assisted the teams that provide security clearances for individuals seeking government employment. In addition, she attended meetings and hearings with top officials who provided great insight into foreign service careers.

“I was able to learn about both civil and foreign service, network with colleagues and learn how to achieve my goal of becoming a foreign service officer,” says Dawn.

Anna Alikhani, a senior at Sewanee: University of the South, studied molecular imaging and its use in cancer detection during her internship with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. In addition, she shadowed nuclear medicine physicians and technicians as they scanned and examined patients. Now planning to pursue a graduate program in either public health or social work, Anna’s NIH internship helped her discover her passion for improving patient care from an advocacy perspective. 

Alamerefa Doherty, also a senior at Sewanee, travelled to Dhaka, Bangladesh, to intern at the Grameen Bank, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning microfinance organization and community development bank. During her internship, she learned about the microfinance functions of the bank and prepared transactions for the new branches of Grameen America Inc. in the United States.

“The similarities I found between Bangladesh and Nigeria, where my family is from, shed light on how I could serve those in Nigeria with microfinance,” says Alamerefa. “It inspired me to continue doing work with the Girls' Leadership Camp, an education and wellness organization founded by my family for young women in Lagos, Nigeria.”