SHECP Launches Alumni Engagement Committee to give alumni the chance to support future interns and programming During her 2026 Welcome Address, Dr. Jill Waity told incoming students that “It is not an exaggeration to say that taking that course (POV101 at Washington and Lee) and being involved in the Shepherd Program changed my career trajectory.” Later in the summer, students heard SHECP alumnus David Marchese explain, "This internship and this alumni network you are about to join shaped my...

Meaningful community investment is central to the SHECP Summer Internship. Interns commit to truly living in and serving their summer city, and this summer, 75 students contributed eight weeks of full-time, hands-on anti-poverty work to their communities. Across 14 cities, interns spent an average of 2,625 hours per week investing in the community through their placements, totaling 21,000+ hours of service from June to August. The SHECP Summer Internship program is what it is because of the...

By Dami Ogunbiyi, 2026 SHECP Intern with Guilford County Public Defenders Office Where I lived during the summer, police cars were quite a common sight. They drove through our neighborhood quite often - every day, actually - and over time, that became so normal. Looking back, I realize that what I was witnessing wasn’t simply crime, but the visible effects of poverty. At the time, I never questioned why some neighborhoods seemed to have constant police presence while others did not. My...