2025 SHECP Internship Report

A Summer of Growth & Adaptation

For the 28th year, the SHECP Summer Internship provided a transformative experience for students from across the Consortium. The program grew significantly in 2025, with a 40% increase in the number of interns from last year. We onboarded 9 new community partners and added a new cohort location in rural Pennsylvania. The Policy and Nonprofit Leadership program, in its 3rd year, doubled in size and debuted two new partnerships in Washington, DC. To complement the two internship opportunities, we created a SHECP Fellowship open to recent graduates. From piloting new partnerships to bolstering opportunities for vocational exploration, SHECP sought creative ways to increase support for interns, and by extension, the 13 communities in which interns served.

While this was a summer of growth and adapting to new experiences for our students, this was also a summer of shifting needs and resources for many of our community partners. Amidst fluctuations in funding and staffing, we were glad to provide substantial support to these communities through intern placements. We are incredibly grateful to our partner organizations for hosting students and for the SHECP network on the ground in each city, giving students additional support and space to process through their experiences. We are also proud of how students navigated their changing environments and supported their colleagues for eight weeks on site.

To hear more from this summer, we invite you to read the full Summer Internship Report below. Thank you to everyone who made the 2025 internship season a success!

Your SHECP Team

Expanded Placements & Partnerships: With 82 interns working full time with community partners engaged in anti-poverty efforts (an increase of 40% over 2024), SHECP invested over 22,000 hours of substantive support in 13 communities this summer. Students were matched with 62 organizations, including nine new partners. 4 interns focused on issues of rural poverty in Huntingdon, PA, the newest SHECP cohort city.

Partnerships are at the heart of SHECP, particularly innovative opportunities to support students. This summer, SHECP continued existing partnerships and piloted creative ways to provide additional support – professionally, financially, and relationally – for interns. Click here to learn more about partnerships with EngageKY and PIN>>

Policy & Nonprofit Leadership (PNPL) Internships: The PNPL program offers a unique second internship opportunity for students to gain experience in public policy and nonprofit leadership while addressing issues of poverty in communities. This summer, generous support from the Middlebury Conflict Transformation Collaborative and several of our member schools allowed SHECP to double the size of the program. Six incredible students interned in policy and research-based roles in Washington, DC, lobbying for policies around wages for DC tip earners, supporting the launch of the Commission on US Rural Prosperity, advocating for fair housing legislation, participating in conferences, and networking with area experts in the field.

As part of the expanded program, PNPL partnered with two new agencies, the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Urban League. The PNPL interns served as mentors for their cohort and co-hosted the welcome dinner at the Annual Conference. Read or listen to Friday night's welcome address, "Reflecting on my SHECP Summers," by Katie Schadler (PNPL Intern with NAEH)>>

SHECP Internship Academy: This year's Internship Academy took place virtually from June 2–5 and provided additional trainings for the interns to responsibly engage with host

communities and framed the upcoming internship within the larger academic context and current economic, political, and social environment. To kick off the Academy, Dr. Katharine Shepherd, Dean of the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont, invited interns to use the Academy to reflect on “why you are where you are right now, what you can contribute to the place you’re in, and most of all, what you can learn about yourselves: your own power and privilege, and possibly, your future.”

On June 4th, Dr. Greg Duncan gave the keynote address, "Reducing Intergenerational Poverty," and provided an overview of the research and findings in the National Academies' 2024 Reducing Intergenerational Poverty Consensus Study Report. "The report examines the drivers of long-term, intergenerational poverty, identifies potential policies and programs to reduce it, and recommends actions to address gaps in data and research." (nationalacademies.org) During the summer, assignments required interns to think critically about how the barriers and potential solutions brought up in the report might have had an impact on the communities and individuals from their internship. Click here to learn about the Academy or to watch the recorded events>>

This summer, 57 SHECP Summer Interns completed the full Conflict Transformation curriculum—videos, reflections, the workshop, and summer assignments—and received a certificate in Conflict Transformation from SHECP. This new credential recognizes the time, thought, and skill students invested this summer into examining their own relationship with conflict, recognizing various sources of conflict in different settings, and exploring individual and collective strategies to use conflict as a force for change.

Academic Programming & Practitioner Insights: Academic grounding continues to be a pillar of the summer internship program, with a special focus this summer on intergenerational poverty and mobility. Students examined these themes through speaker sessions at the Internship Academy and Annual Conference, and their summer-long academic curriculum was designed to complement and deepen their on-site learning, as they grappled with the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality.

The Practitioner Insights Series invites innovative and dynamic leaders doing anti-poverty work to share how their agencies are trying innovative solutions to address poverty in their community and to reflect on their career path, including advice for current interns just beginning their own professional journeys. This summer, interns heard from:

• Michael McKee, CEO of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank

• Biz Harris, Executive Director of the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance (MELA)

• Liz Brandt, Director of Community Engagement at the Bonner Foundation and Kendra Montejos Edwards, Senior Research Associate at the Charles Butt Foundation

• Evelyn Rupert, Director of Communications for Legal Aid D.C.

Click here for more information about the 2025 Practitioner Insights Series>>

2025 Annual Conference: On August 1^st and 2^nd, SHECP interns, faculty, and staff convened on the campus of Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia for the 2025 SHECP Annual Conference. This year’s conference was co-hosted by Marymount University’s Center for Professional Ethics and was made possible by generous support from the Charles A. Frueauff Foundation.

Each year, the conference is marked by meaningful connections between students, faculty, and staff, and this year was no different. Students and staff had chances to network both formally and informally with one another, strengthening the ties between SHECP member institutions and finding common ground. The Friday evening welcome dinner was co-hosted by the SHECP’s six Policy & Nonprofit Leadership interns. Katie Schadler, welcomed attendees on behalf of fellow policy interns with her speech, “Reflecting on my SHECP Summers.” Read more about reflection and connection at the Annual Conference>>

This year's speakers, Joy Moses and Alice Lin, focused on research, policies, and or best practices related to one or more of the seven key drivers identified in the 2024 Reducing Intergenerational Poverty Consensus Study Report. In her talk, “On the Move: Understanding Housing as a Vehicle for Exiting Poverty,” Joy Moses, Vice President of Research and Evidence with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, situated current housing programs and policies within a larger historical timeline and discussed how housing is a vital avenue for exiting poverty.

Alice Lin, a tax policy expert and Visiting Tax Policy Fellow at the Georgetown Center for Poverty and Inequality, then presented on “Tax Policies to Support Low-Income Households” and spoke about her work on the intersection of tax policy and support for low-income households. Click here for more information about the Conference and speakers>>

Reflection, Connection, and What Comes Next:

Throughout the summer, through informal conversations with cohort members, local SHECP alumni and practitioners, and academic assignments, interns reflected on what they learned through on-site service and how their experiences will impact their future. This introspection continued at the SHECP Annual Conference, where, in addition to hearing research and policy presentations from local experts, interns reconnected with school peers, reflected on their recent experiences, and considered how they might carry these lessons back to campus and into their future vocations. 

"This experience has truly crystallized my interest in public policy and helped me develop a fuller understanding of the multifaceted challenges facing rural America. "

– Jeffrey Teh, 2025 SHECP intern with the Huntingdon Area School District

Every summer, SHECP interns live in community with one another. Cohort living, in which

interns converge from different schools and varied backgrounds, is designed to provide a structured space for interns to support one another, spanning the tangible needs of learning a new commute to the emotional weight of carrying others’ stories. From working together to find the local laundromat, taking turns cooking favorite meals for the group, and discovering the local landscape, students spent the summer in community and exploring community. Click here to read more about cohort community>>

"Above all, I learned that community-building is essential in anti-poverty work, and understanding other perspectives is key to creating lasting change." – Mia Remington, 2025 SHECP intern with New Arrivals Institute

As the 28th intern cohort returns to campus this fall, they join the robust SHECP network and take the next step towards continuing their lifetime of professional and civic efforts to diminish poverty and enhance human capability. Their engagement with SHECP and understanding of their on-site experience is just beginning.

"This internship has deepened my understanding of healthcare disparities and strengthened my commitment to addressing the barriers that prevent access to quality care for those who need it most." – Myleen Amendano, 2025 SHECP intern with Bradley Free Clinic

Want to help us make 2026 our best summer yet? Contact us to find out how you can get involved:

• To host an intern at your agency or a welcome event in your city, email internshipdirector@shepherdconsortium.org 

• Are you a SHECP alum interested in connecting more deeply with the SHECP Network? Contact us at internshipdirector@shepherdconsortium.org to learn more about getting involved with the Alumni Engagement Committee!

• To make a financial contribution to help SHECP reach as many students as possible, visit www.shepherdconsortium.org/support or email info@shepherdconsortium.org