Session II

Session II: 1:30pm to 2:25pm                        LEAP Symposium 2015                         October 23, 2015

Carr 102 Untold Stories: Underrepresentation and Advocacy
From the very underpinnings of research to its application through advocacy, the work of each panelist focused on the advancement of people with traditionally underrepresented identities. Both domestically and internationally, panelists contributed to the important work of historic preservation as well as expanding access to critical resources, such as healthcare, education. Within the fields of psychology, anthropology, community planning, advocacy, and public policy, the panelists ask the questions: “How can we represent those most in need of these opportunities, and how can we best support them?” and “What does the grunt work of our ideals look like?” These internship experiences varied in scope, from a research assistant at the Weissman Center for Leadership to a social policy and governance intern at UNICEF Viet Nam. From research, to groundwork, to governing bodies and international bureaucracies, this presentation connects the stages of the process of social outreach, exemplifying the diverse ways in which students explore social change. Using various levels of micro and macro approaches, together these experiences combine to create a whole-person centered approach to intersectional social justice.
Elizabeth J. Auguste Small Conversations, Large Impact: Psychology Research and Social Change
Chrislyn Laurore UNICEF Viet Nam: Invisible Children & the Case for Anthropology
Simi Esan We Are Who We Remember.
Linda Valencia Xu Looking Forward: Investing in the Future
Clapp 203 Farming Rocks!
This panel was brought together through a mutual respect for the power of education in movements towards sustainability and environmentalism. Our internships, together, combine research, teaching, and community integration. Two panel members worked in sustainable farming and environmental education, one member worked in planning geological field trips to make geological science more accessible and enjoyable, and our fourth panelist did geological research that uncovers information about the impact of agriculture on regional ecosystems. Through all of our work, we bring together the power of environmental and geological education and information.
Megan Shadley Fire History in Southern New England
Niina Kitabayashi Farming Social Change.
Rachel Geiger Investigating the Power of Education and Community to Effect Global Poverty, Hunger, and Environmental Concerns
Anna Vaculik Dutchess County Cold Case: Inspiring the New Geologist
Clapp 206 Data and the City
All four of us have used data extensively throughout our internships which encompassed the government, consulting, technology and non-profit industries. Although our internships were in different fields, we all carried out extensive data analysis using large datasets from a broad range of topics. As a result, we explored the various interdisciplinary opportunities in the field of data science. Along with that, all of us interned in big cities like New York, Boston and San Francisco, and likewise faced similar challenges while adjusting to workplace environment and finding affordable housing. Our panel will focus on the process of finding an internship and making the most out of one. Starting from successful interviews to making valuable connections in the professional network, along with facing the challenges to life in the big city - our panel will discuss such shared experiences that might be helpful to anyone who is looking for internships next summer.
Maryam Akbar Data in San Francisco
Sukanya Sravasti Economics Outside Textbooks
Yujia Guan Litigation Consulting: Crunching Big Data & Learning the Markets
Amna Aftab Beyond Mad Men: The Rise of Programmatic Advertising
 Clapp 218 Politics for the People
Are you interested in public policy? Our presentations address the nuances of public policy on local and national levels. From organizing public service trucks to attending press conferences, we will discuss the details involved in preparing oneself for extensive research, constituent interaction, and networking opportunities. We are excited to share our experiences on public policy management through our internships with public sector offices, including health care commissions and politician outreach offices.
Alexandria Decatur Assisting with Constituent Casework and Completing Research on Local Issues: Regional Politics in New York State's Capital Region
Kira Arnott Networking Your Way through Federal Prisons, the South China Sea and Freshwater Research
Sarah Syed Behind the Scenes: An Inside Scoop Into Politics
Jaenelle Lauture Creating a Digital City abstract
Clapp 306 Planning Reforms for Children & Families
Common intersection occurred between planning curriculum, urban planning and development to help families, education, and addressing diverse needs. Our panel will explore four major subjects of community planning reform that reflects on instituting policy making to improve the livelihood and fate of children internationally, with a focus on reform advocacy in the United States. We have a panel on city urban reform and creating positive, sustainable, and environmentally friendly infrastructure in the greater Seattle Washington Area to re-connect and build communities. A panel on changing the dynamics of math curriculum to create better academic prosperity among students and to improve their psychology of how they work and succeed in the classroom. Which will also reflect on the need of productive administration to regulate helpful and problematic teachers. Followed by the exploration of the failing Juvenile Justice System in the United States and its connection to the School to Prison Pipeline, an academic phenomena that has occurred due to institutional academic changes that prioritize punishment and testing versus enriched learning. While connecting this to the greater failure of the US violating international UN child rights treaties and need for better education and justice reform to provide youth, in particular female youth of color, the foundation and support they need to live successful lives. With a final presentation exploring how English as a Second Language in Argentina provides the baseline for conversation on social justice issues and the need for intercultural education to enlighten the responsibility of educators to understand how their teaching impacts students and improves future conditions.
Jadah Quick Whose fault is it anyways?
Alexandra Slucky Juvenile Justice and the School to Prison Pipeline: Reevaluating the United States Juvenile Justice System in accordance to international guidelines
Kashfi Ahmed Providing Communication Tools to Empower English as Second Language Learners to Fight for Social Justice in Argentina
Bethany Aban A Naval City's Comprehensive Approach to Revitalizatio
Cleveland L1 Service Through Innovation: Large Outreach and Impact from Small Groups
Our internships consisted of working within a company or entity that constructed creative and innovative solutions through technology, media, film, advocacy and social justice. Through our differing and unique skill sets and media, we collectively sought to educate and bring awareness to overlooked issues and start conversations in the community. We worked at small companies and were all closely involved in the strategic planning process of bringing awareness to the missions of our companies through education, advocacy, campaigns, and film to reach a larger, targeted network of people such as cultural minority groups and adolescents. 
Maya Delany Bringing Human Rights Home
Vivian Lee The Healing Game: Bridging Youth Japanese and Brooklynites through Film
Claire Kuan Starting with Startups
Nkori Edem To Serve And Not To Be Served
 Cleveland L2 Trials, Failures, and Optimization: The Cycle to Visualize the Basic Building Blocks of Life
New research paradigms rely on existing knowledge of protein structure, behavior, and genomic data. This panel brings together four scientists who visualized the basic building blocks of life from genetic code to protein structure in the quest to answer some of the most challenging questions in human health. Using big data, toxicant-resistant fish, and mechanisms of drug discovery, each utilized unique methods to visualize the basic components of life including computer modeling, genomic sequencing, luminescence, and bacterial growth. This panel hopes to show possible applications of knowledge and skills gained in class as well as to impress one of the main principles of research: significant achievements are made possible through interdisciplinary collaboration that involves trials, failures, and optimization.
Leah Middleton When poisons overtake your home: how the Atlantic killifish adapted to the toxicants in its environment
Jeanie Lim Personalized Medicine
Pho Bui Understanding Protein Cold Denaturation with Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Patricia Walchessen Novel Drug Therapy: LL-37 Associated with Sterically Stabilized Micelles (SSM)
 Cleveland L3 Boundless Summer: Multiple Interests, Multiple Possibilities
Historically, liberal arts are defined as subjects or skills that are essential for a free person. As liberal arts college students, we are privileged to study an array of courses that feed our different interests. This interdisciplinary approach allows us to understand multiple subject areas and how they are tied to one another. Even so, we often have the impression that we can only choose one area as our ultimate career. This summer, four students challenged the true meaning of liberal arts by making the most out of their summers. They planned and created their own summer experiences in search for their career paths while feeding their varied interests. From museums to corporations, from China to England, these students exemplified the ideals of liberal arts and showed how summers can be rich and fulfilling, yet informational. The summer is your oyster. Let this panel show you the pearls that they made in summer 2015.
Courtney Kaufman From Museums to Math Tutoring: Summer Growth Through Intensive Internships
Kelly Lim Sin Ee Classroom to laboratory: Learning without borders
Hengjia Alice Fan Creativity and courage in the future career
Mariel MacGowan My Dual internship
Kendade 107 Intersections Between Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Education
What do internships at a Silicon Valley tech startup, a NYC ecommerce startup, a NYC academic publishing press, and an asset management firm in Hong Kong have in common? Through collaboration in small and high impact teams, we’ve been flexible and resourceful, and are proud to have developed remarkable leadership skills and increased autonomy in our chosen industries. Our experiences ranged from partnership building and educational app development, to training in product development, sales, and customer analysis. In our panel, we hope to address both the challenges we have faced, and how they prompted our growth, respectively proffering four unique perspectives from internships in progressively intersectional fields.
Annetta Li Bytes Better Have my Money: Internship in Internet Finance
Bermet Sargazakova If they offer you a seat on a rocket ship, you don’t ask what seat.
Arielle Tait The Business Side of Publishing
Onji Bae My Start-up Summer in Silicon Valley
Kendade 203 Axe-cent-tú-ate the Positive

“Listen to me children and-a you will hear
About the eliminatin' of the negative
And the accent on the positive
And gather 'round me children if you're willin'
And sit tight while I start reviewin'
The attitude of doin' right”

You've GOT to axe-cent-tú-ate the positive! This is something we all learned last summer through our respective research and internships. One of us worked as a trench assistant in rural Italy excavating an Etruscan archaeological site (axe). Another panel member learned how to value a business and make multi-million dollar deals at New Forest Capital (cent). Our third member surveyed individuals in Buenos Aires and Santiago for her economic honors thesis (tú). Our final panel member surveyed small businesses and individual contractors over lunchtime phone calls (ate). We all knew we would be challenged by our research and our internships, but we had no idea how much the success of our endeavors would be determined by positivity and the wonderful people involved. Our panels will explain how the people we worked with made our internship and research experiences so positive and why one should always axe-cent-tú-ate the positive in life!

Evelyn Masterson Where Are They Now?: The success of government responses to the Great Recession in Chile and Argentina
Menaka Mahtab I Dig Archaeology: Excavating an Etruscan site at Poggio Civitate.
Stephanie Lewis Positive People make Positive Experience
Amy Yan Lunch Time Bonding
Kendade 203 Expanding Educational Horizons
Around the world, students and teachers are coping with educational systems that suffer from narrow perspectives and a lack of growth alongside communities. However, some teachers and students still make the best of these systems. Join these students as they share their specific experiences with these educational systems in Kenya, Nicaragua, South Sudan, and the U.S. Equipped with a collection of unique experiences, this panel will provide different ideas and connections that seek to answer the question: what’s next for the global classroom?
Jemimah W. Kamau Harambee: One classroom, one Kenya
Tina Lugor Shaping the Future of South Sudanese Youth
Loie Hasler My Best Friend is a First Grader
Carrie Carter Improv, Fear, and the American Classroom
Kendade 305 On The Outside Looking In
Across the globe, two seniors and two juniors worked with local communities with a larger goal in many different ways. Community engagement was conducted in several different ways: through teaching archaeology, mapping the Civil Rights Movement, focusing laboratory research on curing the blind, and fighting for the rights of transgender youth. Both seniors remained at “home” in the states in Portland, ME, and Washington, DC. The juniors, on the other hand, experienced different time zones living in Dublin, Ireland, and Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile. All of our encounters have the common theme of working with groups of people and working within their culture while not necessarily being a part of it. Join us as we discuss how we channeled our outsider perspective to create positive change and growth for the communities within which we worked. More importantly come hear about the immense personal growth we gained from learning within these different communities.
Ellie Demmons Genetics for fun - How to Improve Eyesight and my Adventurous Self
Julia Godinez Educational Outreach Through Archeology on Rapa Nui (Easter Island):
Deborah Berry Summer of MLK@MLK
Meghan Schindler Mindful Activism: On Being an Advocate for Transgender Youth