Student Grants
The Center awarded seven travel and research grants to students who traveled to Chicago, IL; Anaheim, CA; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Rome, Italy; Geneva, Switzerland; West Bengal, India; and Mauritius for work related to leadership and ethics in public health, bioethics, social impact and inequality within communities, cultural immersion to understand the realities of an emerging economic power, and empowering young leaders in a developing community.
Thirteen internship grants were awarded to students who worked in unpaid summer internships at the Advocates for Human Rights, with a focus on human rights and immigration law; the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay, to promote community engagement and mentoring; the Charles River Watershed Association, to work on water quality sampling and cleanup efforts of the Charles River; the City of Boston’s Office of Recovery Services, to do research on substance use and addiction policy; the Gateway South Asia, which partners with local nonprofits that serve the poor, orphaned, oppressed, and uneducated; the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, which advocates for immigration justice through clinical education, legal representation, and community outreach; the International House, which helps immigrants and refugees integrate into the Charlotte, North Carolina, community; the Office of Massachusetts Senator Patrick O'Connor, to work on community engagement and inter-governmental policy; the New Jersey Attorney General’s financial crimes unit; Sakhi for South Asian Women, whose mission is to end violence against women; Suffolk University Law School’s Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples Clinic and The Family Advocacy Clinic; the US Commercial Service in China, to study economic policy; and the Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust in New Zealand, which rescues and rehabilitates orphaned and injured waterfowl and other birds.
Read more about the student internship grants.
Read more about the student travel grants.
GenHERation Discovery Day Fellowship
This summer, five students had the opportunity to participate in the GenHERation Discovery Days fellowship in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco. GenHERation Discovery Day is an immersive day trip that provides high school and college women the opportunity to visit the nation's most innovative companies, network with female professionals, participate in skill-building simulations, and earn scholarships and job/internship offers.
Following is a reflection from Maria Conte '20, one of this summer’s fellowship recipients:
GenHERation at Bloomingdale's
“Be open to taking risks. You are in charge of your own career, and you can carve out your own role as you see fit.” These words from Ernst & Young executive Tasha Brown changed the way I looked at career paths. After spending five years in the same role as a marketing director for EY, she left to pursue her dream of working in higher education. She later returned to EY by creating her own role working specifically with recent graduates and interns. This combined her passion of working in higher education with her expertise at EY. Unlike the traditional paths we often hear about, Brown was able to make a non-linear shift in her career and create her own dream job along the way.
This is just one example of the many stories that were shared on GenHERation Discovery Day. Female executives from Google, Viacom, Bloomingdale's, and Ernst & Young spent the day speaking with us. We learned about their career paths, obstacles they faced, and what they wished they had known when they were at our point in life. It was very empowering to hear them speak about their experiences. There are so many opportunities and open doors that I had known nothing about. It was also useful to hear about different approaches to one’s job search, showing that there’s no one “correct” path that one has to follow.
It was also very interesting learning about the culture at the different companies. The environment of a job and how the company treats its workers is extremely important. It gave me an idea of what kind of company I would like to work for, and other things to consider when I begin my job search. Overall, the day was extremely fun and valuable, and I am beyond grateful to have had this opportunity.