Capstone Fellowship and Summer Internship Programs

Roland Park Country School’s

Capstone Fellowship and Summer Internship Programs

Madeline Kim completed a capstone fellowship in molecular biology at Johns Hopkins Medicine and Johns Hopkins University.

The RPCS Leadership and Entrepreneurship Institute Roland Park Country School believes that leadership is a process of engagement which moves people toward awareness, compassion, and action to ultimately impact the world for the better. By helping each student to be her best self and positively influence others, the RPCS Leadership and Entrepreneurship Institute equips our students with the tools to innovate and create positive change in the world of today— and tomorrow. Both the Summer Internship Program and Capstone Fellowship Program are facilitated through the RPCS Leadership and Entrepreneurship Institute.

Summer Internship Program The RPCS Summer Internship Program empowers our students to pose questions about the world, embrace new challenges and search for their purpose as they step into real-world professions.

The program connects rising seniors with professional internship experiences in a wide range of career fields to build upon previous and future classroom learning. This program speaks to our vision for an RPCS education that connects classrooms to communities and equips our students with the future directed skills that enable their success here at RPCS and beyond into their professional journeys.

Capstone Fellowship Program The Capstone Fellowship Program at Roland Park Country School launched in the summer of 2019. Available for current 11th graders, the program is application-based and allows students to dive deeper into their career interests by identifying driving questions and creating individualized research and experiential learning paths.

Each fellowship program is personalized, dynamic and innovative and results in an original student project and presentation.

From the Head of School At Roland Park Country School, we believe that we are stronger when we work together. Our school is defined by a collaborative spirit. In fact, the first of our five core values is: Build Each Other Up. Our Summer Internship Program and Capstone Fellowship Program, two initiatives that are part of the RPCS Leadership and Entrepreneurship Institute, encompass this core value. Each placement is an opportunity to empower a girl, who will one day, empower another.

We also want our students to understand that the world is their classroom, not just the walls of this school. Internships and fellowships are transformative career experiences that connect classroom learning and individual passions with real world understanding. They give students the opportunity to reflect on their leadership styles and to start thinking about their own professional journeys. Experiences like these open up pathways for future directed skills and set our students up for success. None

Each placement is an opportunity to empower a girl, who will one day, empower another.

of this would be possible without the generosity of the mentors who stepped up to offer their time, talents, resources and leadership.

From the bottom of my heart, I am so grateful to everyone who makes our Summer Internship and Capstone Fellowship Programs possible.

I hope that as you learn more about our students’ experiences this past summer, you see the joy, learning and curiosity that makes these programs so transformative for them.

Warmly,

Caroline Blatti Head of School

Caroline Kleis at her capstone fellowship in urban farming at Whitelock Community Farm.

Morgan Alexander With a passion for the law and immigration and refugee issues, a summer internship shadowing immigration lawyer Adam Crandell at Eldridge, Nachtman & Crandell, LLC, a law firm in downtown Baltimore, was the perfect opportunity for Morgan Alexander, 2020. During her weeklong internship, Morgan observed meetings with people seeking asylum from domestic violence, sexual abuse and persecution in their home countries, conducted research and prepared portfolios and applications on behalf of clients, sat in on consults with potential clients, and attended two hearings in immigration court.

Summer internship in immigration law at Eldridge, Nachtman & Crandell, LLC

After spending time with paralegals, law students, and volunteers who work on behalf of refugees, Morgan realized how exciting and interesting the law can be. Some of the best advice she received that week was to stay true to herself and always do what’s right and build great relationships with everyone to better understand their situations – words of wisdom Morgan plans to apply to other areas of life as well. “Overall, my week was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience!

I got to go to court, meet wonderful people, and hear the real life stories of immigrants and refugees. This experience showed me that I definitely want to pursue law as a career path and I am very grateful for the opportunity I had!”

Krislyn Dorsey From as early as she can remember, Krislyn Dorsey, 2020, has had a passion for helping others. She believes that the world can always be a better place and is intrigued by the work of law officers to keep citizens safe.

To better understand the criminal justice system and gain more exposure in a field she is so passionate about, Krislyn participated in the FBI Teen Academy at the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office in Woodlawn for the second year in a row. At the Academy, Krislyn participated in three days of hands-on experiences and case discussions to learn about counter terrorism, cyber and white collar crimes, gang threats and human trafficking. She also learned about the importance of linguistics, communications tools the FBI employs and ways to build trust between law enforcement and the community.

Summer internship at the FBI Teen Academy and local police departments

One of Krisyln’s favorite parts of the week was a staged robbery with the FBI’s S.W.A.T. team, where she interviewed the police officer at the scene of the crime and worked with her peers to figure out who the plant was. She was also very moved by a presentation from representatives of the Travis Manion Project, a national non-profit organization that empowers veterans and families of fallen heroes to develop and promote strong character in future generations. Krislyn rounded out her internship by accompanying Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County police officers on two routine “ride alongs.” Next year, she plans to apply for a 10-week internship with the FBI, where she would be able to work more closely with the special agents.

After this summer, Krislyn is more sure than ever that she wants to pursue a career in law enforcement and can envision how to make her dream a reality. “The FBI really wants regular people who just want to better the world,” she said. “I understand that I could have a place at the FBI and am excited to explore this further.”

Maddie Ennis The medical field has fascinated Maddie Ennis, 2020, ever since she was a young girl and would listen to stories from several physicians in her family. This summer, she had the opportunity to experience firsthand what a career in medicine would be like through a three week internship in a surgical oncology unit at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her responsibilities included checking on patients throughout the day and helping the nurses with tasks including restocking supplies, answering the phone, organizing the unit, and making a bulletin board on fall risks to educate patients and their families. Maddie also had the opportunity to shadow physicians in the emergency room, observe several procedures in the operating room, including a complicated surgery for mastectomy reconstruction (for 7 hours!), and meeting patients from around the world in the international clinic.

Summer internship in the surgical oncology unit at The Johns Hopkins Hospital

Throughout her internship, Maddie perceptively noticed differences between various medical careers and specialties and is grateful for these insights that will help her determine what career path to pursue. One thing Maddie knows for sure: as she went on her daily rounds, she most enjoyed the relationships she built with the patients and their family members. Reflecting on her experience, Maddie said, “I enjoyed talking to the patients which made it even more clear to me that in the future I want to work in a position where I have the chance to connect with people, no matter how small that connection may be.”

Alayna Gibson Alayna Gibson, 2020 has always loved designing and building things and knew she wanted to become an engineer. When she first learned about biomedical engineering on a STEM Institute field trip, the idea of helping people through this work inspired her to research the career further, which led to an interest in prosthetics. By the end of her sophomore year, Alayna had learned how to use a 3D printer to create a prosthetic hand that can grip objects.

Summer internship in prosthetics and orthotics at Johns Hopkins Medicine and Dankmeyer Prosthetics & Orthotics

This summer, Alayna spent a week shadowing the physicians at the Comprehensive Prosthetics and Orthotics Program at the Johns Hopkins Rehabilitation Network in Baltimore and Dankmeyer Prosthetics & Orthotics in Linthicum. She observed patients with limb loss getting fitted for orthotics at Dankmeyer, spent time in pediatric postoperative and adult outpatient clinics, and watched two shoulder replacements and a wrist fracture surgery. Alayna’s favorite parts were working with prosthetics and with children. She enjoyed seeing the different steps in the process of creating and fitting a prosthetic and was surprised at how individualized each person’s prosthetic was. She was also surprised to learn about the flaws that still exist with the current designs and what biomedical engineers need to work on to fix those flaws.

“I had an amazing experience with my internship,” Alayna said. “The reactions people had when they were able to walk for the first time after a long time were priceless. This internship was better than I ever could’ve imagined and I know for sure that I want to be a biomedical engineer who creates prosthetics when I’m older.”

Madeline Kim Growing up, Madeline Kim, 2020 was constantly exposed to medicine as her parents, both doctors, would play medical tapes in the car and have conversations about work. It wasn’t until her sophomore year though that Maddie discovered her passion for serving others after helping her peers cope with the tragic death of a classmate. A summer program at Johns Hopkins University after her sophomore year cemented her interest in medicine, specifically molecular and cellular biology and research.

Capstone fellowship in molecular biology at Johns Hopkins Medicine and Johns Hopkins University

This summer, Maddie took a deeper dive into the world of molecular biology through a new capstone fellowship program at RPCS. She started her project with researcher Challice Bonifant, M.D., Ph.D., in her laboratory at Johns Hopkins Medicine that studies treatments for pediatric leukemia by engineering immune cells from a patient’s blood to recognize and kill cancer. Maddie then took a five week college undergraduate course, “Introduction to Biological Molecules” at Hopkins, where she was exposed to several lab techniques, many of which she was already familiar with from her on-site work with Dr. Bonifant.

For Maddie, the fellowship was an eye-opening and valuable experience and made clear that this is the path she wants to pursue. She is immensely grateful to Dr. Bonifant and her team for the time they took to teach her about immunotherapy. She also observed firsthand what it’s like to be a woman in a field that is mostly all men. Dr. Bonifant’s work with her colleagues to bring attention and representation to other women’s work in hematology and her insights into how she manages her career and family also resonated strongly with Maddie. “Many of the lessons Dr. Bonifant taught me about being a woman in a male dominated field will continue to be valuable to me as I move onto college and beyond.”

Caroline Kleis

Capstone fellowship in urban farming at Whitelock Community Farm

In Baltimore City, 1 out of every 4 people lives in a food desert, an urban area where it is difficult to buy affordable or fresh food. When Caroline Kleis, 2020 began designing her Capstone Fellowship program – one of the first of its kind at RPCS – she decided to combine her interests in gardening/farming and the inequalities surrounding access to nutritious food, while interacting more with the Baltimore community and giving back to the city she calls home. Over the summer, she volunteered for 80+ hours at Whitelock Community Farm, an urban farm in Baltimore City that is committed to ending food deserts. Caroline kept busy harvesting vegetables, planting seeds, watering, weeding, preparing compost bins and produce for mobile markets, staffing farmers markets and assembling CSA bins.

Whitelock Community Farm is part of the Farm Alliance of Baltimore, a membership organization of urban farms, neighborhood growers and friends that strives to empower communities and improve access to urban grown foods.

“While the work was physically challenging, the social interactions were inspiring and rewarding,” said Caroline.

“Whitelock Community Farm is much more to their community than just a business, but rather a place where anyone can access nutritious foods, chat with their neighbors, or come enjoy one of the free classes or cookouts.” Caroline recognizes that the path is long to ending food deserts, but is encouraged by the city farms’ efforts to engage their communities and make their food accessible to everyone.

Alayna Gibson at her summer internship in prosthetics and orthotics at Johns Hopkins Medicine and Dankmeyer Prosthetics & Orthotics.

2019 Capstone Fellowship Placements Student

Organization

Interest

Mentor(s)

Madeline Kim

Johns Hopkins Medicine and Johns Hopkins University

Molecular Biology

Challice Bonifant, M.D., Ph.D., current parent

Caroline Kleis

Whitelock Community Farm/Farm Alliance of Baltimore

Urban Farming

Kimberly Raikes and Cheryl Carmona

Ella Pritsker Couture, Erin Draper, and Under Armour

Fashion

Laurie Newcomb, current parent; Ella Pritsker; Erin Draper; and Kelly Maher

Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

Surgery and Bioethics

Edward McFarland, M.D., current parent; Casey Humbyrd, M.D.; and Travis Rieder, Ph.D.

Kathryn and Alan C. Greenberg Center for Skeletal Dysplasias, The Johns Hopkins Hospital

Medicine and Advocacy

Julie Hoover-Fong, M.D., Ph.D.

Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Dermatology and Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

Medicine and Bioethics

Sam Lee, Ph.D. and Alexis Walker, Ph.D.

Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Orthopedic Surgery and the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Surgery and Biostatistics

Edward McFarland, M.D., current parent and Richard Thompson, Ph.D.

Kathryn Kleiser Abby Nichols

Caroline Stole

Jamie Wyskiel

Zoe Yarbrough

2019 Internship Placements Student

Organization

Interest

Mentor(s)

Morgan Alexander

Eldridge, Nachtman & Crandell, LLC

Immigration Law

Adam Crandall

Nicole Behrens

International Youth Foundation

Nonprofit

Angela Venza

Molly Booth

One Love Foundation

Nonprofit

Grace Carmichael

Kerry Cameron

Brown Advisory

Finance

Sandi Moffet, current parent; Mary Caskey Gregory, 1984, current parent; and Catherine Passano McDonnell, 1994, current parent

Alex Cashman

Jenkins Baer Associates

Interior Design

Wendy Ward

Helen Cheng

Early Light Media Company, Audrey Todd, Defining Entertainment, and JHU-MICA Film Centre, HZDG

Film

Capella Fahoome, Annette Porter and Bernadette Wegenstein

Maeve Corcoran

Connec-to-Talk, HASA

Speech and Language Therapy

Brittany O’Neill and Samantha Wendling

Eliza Cranston

JHU/MICA Film Center and Defining Entertainment

Film

Annette Porter and Capella Fahoome

Elizabeth Currie

Baltimore Shakespeare Factory

Theater

Tom Delise

Lucy Davidov

Jenkins Baer Associates

Interior Design

Wendy Ward

Gabi Dorsey

zyBooks

Computer Science

Nkenge Wheatland, 2004

Krislyn Dorsey

FBI Teen Academy and Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County Police Departments

Law Enforcement

Mike Brooks, Director of Security

Charlotte Edwards

University of Maryland Medical Center

Neuroscience

Dheeraj Gandhi, M.D.

Nadia Egbunine

Alexander Dental

Oral Surgery

Guy Alexander, D.D.S.

Tatiana Egbunine

University of Maryland School of Pharmacy

Pharmacy

Natalie D. Eddington, Ph.D., FAAPS

Student

Organization

Interest

Mentor(s)

Sophia Ellerkmann

House of Ruth

Nonprofit

Nancy Louia

Maddie Ennis

The Johns Hopkins Hospital

Medicine

Carole Blakely

Gabby Franks

University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center

Pediatric Nursing

Kimberly Shanahan

Lauren Fried

Producers

Marketing

Karen Phillips

Alayna Gibson

Johns Hopkins Medicine and Dankmeyer Prosthetics & Orthotics

Prosthetics

Mark Hopkins, PT, CPO, MBA and Edward McFarland, M.D., current parent

Payton Gore

Johns Hopkins

Sustainability

Cathy Maulsby, 1994

Maggie Hales

Connec-2-talk

Speech and Language Therapy

Samantha Wendling

Brylen Hatcher

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Food and Drug Regulations

Ewan Plant, Ph.D.

Casey Hicks

Johns Hopkins Hospital and University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center

Pediatric Nursing

Laura Smith and Kimberly Shanahan

SadĂŠ Johnson

Johns Hopkins Hospital and University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center

Pediatric Nursing

Laura Smith and Kimberly Shanahan

Lily Kauffman

Institute Of Marine and Environmental Technology

Science and Biology

Gerardo Vasta, Ph.D.

Lulu Lemken

BCT Architects

Architecture

Janet Meyer Euwer, 1990

Lindsay Lubin

Holy Angels School

Nonprofit

Megan Cosgrove

Kate Merlo

Johns Hopkins Medicine

Medicine

Michelle Rivers

Mackenzie Pitruzzella

Johns Hopkins Hospital and University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center

Pediatric Nursing

Laura Smith and Kimberly Shanahan

Lucy Regales

Equine Performance Services

Veterinary Medicine

Elizabeth Voneiff Paternotte, 1991

Sophie Regales

The Evergreen Museum

Museum Studies

Lori Finkelstein, Ph.D., current parent

Emily Savitz

Altice USA

News Broadcasting

Colleen Smith

Mehek Singh

Capital Strategies and Maryland Hospital Association

Politics

David Carroll, current parent

Becca Sturtz

Brown Advisory and Merrill Lynch

Finance

Sandi Moffet, current parent; Mary Caskey Gregory, 1984, current parent; Sandy Liotta, former parent and Catherine Passano McDonnell, 1994, current parent

Katherine Taylor

MATClinics

Medicine and Public Health

Dan Reck, current parent

Audrey Thompson

Johns Hopkins Hospital and University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center

Pediatric Nursing

Laura Smith and Kimberly Shanahan

Hannah Wang

Sea Star Beachwear, Shiffon Rings

Fashion

Libby Sunderland Fitzgerald, 1981 and Shilpa Yarlagadda

Maddy Wilson

Biohabitats

Agriculture and Economy

Taneira Cullens, 2008

Ella Zahn

Center for Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery

Dermatology and Plastic Surgery

Cheryl Burgess, M.D. and Keren Moore