A View From the Daystation
By Anna Corey, 2026 SHECP Intern with COTS – Committee on Temporary Shelter
On my first day as an intern at COTS Daystation, an adult daytime shelter in Burlington, Vermont, I had no idea what to expect. As the summer went on, I realized I never really would. The fast-paced, unpredictable nature of the work meant no two days looked the same; each morning brought new people, encounters, and challenges through the door. As the only intern for the season, I joined the team of shelter staff in their day-to-day work. Our responsibilities included serving the free lunch offered each day, operating the on-site laundry and showers, helping clients apply for local shelter, and sometimes just acting as a listening ear to someone in need of a friend.
Over time, the daily work began to reshape my understanding of the realities of homelessness. My colleagues and I were often the first faces clients saw when they entered the shelter, which meant we were sometimes the first source of support they encountered during one of the most difficult chapters of their lives. I found it difficult to resist my impulse to try and “fix” everything when I noticed a client who was clearly struggling. On busy days, sometimes the most I could offer was a fresh pair of socks and any food that was leftover.
I learned to immerse myself in the work I could do, and it was only then that I realized I was developing a perspective that I could not gain in the classroom. I entered the summer with a passion to learn about the larger policies and systems that shape human flourishing, but the Daystation taught me that truly understanding those systems requires an understanding of the everyday barriers that come with experiencing homelessness.
My summer project, organizing the seasonal Health and Wellness Fair, became one of the clearest examples of that lesson. I saw many examples of how complicated access to healthcare could become for someone experiencing homelessness. Financial constraints, limited access to transportation, paperwork, and even having to sacrifice reliable access to a meal to make it to an appointment could deter clients from receiving the care they needed. Bringing local supportive service providers directly to the Daystation offered temporary relief to some of those common barriers.
The Daystation saw a record number of visitors before noon during the Health and Wellness
fair, where local organizations shared resources and information that focused specifically on summer health challenges. Among other services, clients could have their vital signs checked, receive screenings for infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, make their own hygiene and first-aid kits, and learn about heat stroke, dehydration, sunburn, plant and insect-related rashes, stings, and bites.
Witnessing so many volunteers come together to make the Health and Wellness Fair a reality reminded me of the potential of intentional community collaboration. As Coretta Scott King said, “the greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” In the time since my internship ended, my thoughts have frequently returned to Burlington and the compassionate community I witnessed every day—both from front-line public servants and among the clients themselves.
Most of all, my thoughts have returned to those small tasks I spent much of my time doing. I initially believed that handing someone a pair of clean socks, printing a bus route, or checking in to ask how a client’s job interview went was far removed from the large-scale changes I hoped to help facilitate some day. I have since learned that the opposite is true. I still have the same ambitious goals I brought with me to Burlington, but I now realize how essential daily, on-the-ground work is for understanding what policy actually needs to accomplish.
In the future, as I continue to strive for the common good in my professional life, I want to intentionally continue the kind of work I did this summer. The everyday challenges of homelessness can be so easily overlooked when policymakers become disconnected from the people they intend to serve. I am deeply grateful to the COTS Daystation for reminding me that there is no better education than to simply exist in community, act with compassion, and remain open to the lessons that can only be learned through human interaction.
Anna Corey is University Scholar at Baylor University '27, minoring in Criminal Justice. During her 2026 SHECP Internship, she worked with the COTS (Committee on Temporary Shelter) Daystation in Burlington, VT. Each summer, SHECP interns are placed with nonprofit and government agencies that work on the front lines of poverty and serve as co-educators to students.
