TDF Connection
THE DENVER FOUNDATION’S SUMMER NEWSLETTER FOR INTERNS, SUPERVISORS, AND SUPPORTERS OF THE NONPROFIT INTERNSHIP PROGRAM!
Greetings fellow interns, TDF staff, and alumni! Welcome to the 3rd (and final) Issue of the NPIP summer internship newsletter for 2016, TDF Connection. This issue will spotlight the remaining interns in our 2016 class, as well as past events, such as the NPIP Networking event, Community Building Social, and our last two Learning Workshops. As the summer reaches its end, it’s always important to look back at all of the accomplishments of the internship program this year. The 2016 cohort was given the opportunity to connect with some amazing leaders in controversial, yet moving conversations. We learned about 21st Century Leadership, how to be a transformational leader, and what privilege looks like and what can come as a result of it. We have also been given the chance to build friendships with each other, which will hopefully turn into all of us being fellow colleagues and long term friends down the road. I hope that you all have enjoyed and learned much from this year’s internship newsletter. My hope and goal is that these newsletters have encouraged you to continue to support future The Denver Foundation’s Nonprofit Internship Program going forward; and for those of you who are first time readers, I hope you have been inspired to join those already investing in the program and the interns who are going to impact the city in the near future. Thank you again for being apart of this incredible experience with us!
Sincerely, Elijah Ross
Pooja Tandukar was born and raised in Nepal and moved to the U.S. in 2010. She just graduated from CU Boulder with a major in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a minor in Spanish. Pooja is interning at The Women’s Foundation of Colorado and She will be assisting in planning and implementing the Girls’ Leadership Council program. Pooja is passionate about working toward gender equality and accessibility of health services. She wants to work toward improving health care services among under-served populations through education and awareness by decreasing the health care service gap. In her free time she likes to go hiking, watch movies and hangout with her friends. Pooja is looking forward to meeting new people and making connections.
NPIP INTERN SPOTLIGHT!!!
NPIP INTERN SPOTLIGHT!!!
Alexandra Jackson (Alli) was born and raised in the beautiful town of Aurora. She has lived in the same house for 21 years. She attends school in Denver at the University of Denver where she has completed her B.A. in Psychology and B.A. in English. She is currently pursuing her masters in Social Work at the University of Denver. This summer she is interning with Phamaly Theatre Company. The goal of the theatre company is to empower through reenvisioning disabilities through theatrical performance, and Alli couldn’t be more excited. Alli is honored to find a non-profit which combines her passion of social justice and theatre. Specifically, with social justice, Alli’s goals are to advocate for and empower underrepresented cultures. Alli hopes to further her engagement with non-profits to expand towards community planning in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Alli will also be spending her summer seeing Hamilton: The Musical on Broadway and bonding with her new friend, a three-year-old golden retriever.
Freda Fosu was born in Ghana, West Africa, but moved to the United States with her family at 17 years old. She has lived in Colorado for about six years, and is currently a senior at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Freda is majoring in Humanities, and French, and pursuing a public health certificate. She is interning at Reach Out and Read Colorado, an early child literacy program, and she works as the communications intern. She is very passionate about issues concerning health, child development, homelessness, and poverty, and she dedicates her time learning about these issues, and getting involved to help however she can. In school, Freda is involved in organizations such as GlobeMed; an advocacy group for global health equity and social justice, Community Health; a public health service for the people in Boulder and Femme International, and an organization to raise funds to support women’s health in Kenya. She also volunteered for the Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, and interned for the I Have a Dream Foundation. Freda loves experiencing different cultures, and considers one of her accomplishments to be studying abroad in Paris for a summer. In her free time she likes to clean, organize, and watch political commentary and documentaries. Overall, Freda considers her biggest accomplishment to be her education because she believes it has made her more informed about the world, increased her ability to critically think, and has made her a good member of society overall. After college, she plans to take a gap year to do a national service corps program, go to graduate school in a health related field, and hope to live in a Francophone country to improve her French speaking skills.
NPIP INTERN SPOTLIGHT!!!
Alfredo Gallegos is originally from Nayarit, Mexico and has had the opportunity to live in Colorado, California, and Wales. He graduated in the Spring of 2016 with a degree in Sociology and Psychology and will be attending Denver University in the Fall of 2016 for a Masters in Higher Education with an emphasis in Leadership and Organizational Change. During the academic year, Alfredo keeps busy by being involved with high school students who are at risk of dropping out through his fraternity Sigma Lambda Beta. After graduating with his masters, he hopes to continue working with nonprofit organizations and eventually go back to school for his PHD. His hobbies include swimming, traveling, and working. Alfredo is a strong believer in the idea “that you can’t change the world. However, you can impact a person’s life in a positive way and change their life.”
NPIP INTERN SPOTLIGHT!!!
Aly Higgins is a native to Broomfield, CO and recent graduate of the University of Denver, Aly has come to realize two things: 1) graduation caps are in fact very itchy, and 2) the question, “What’s next?” is equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. At the University of Denver, she studied Spanish and International Studies, achieving distinction in Spanish with the completion of her thesis titled, “La gentrificación en el Northside: la reconceptualización teórica del lenguaje, el espacio público y la resistencia creativa en el contexto de We Are North Denver/Somos North Denver”. Work on her thesis (and the accompanying late night tears in the library) inspired her passion for connectedness between power and public space, community engaged research methodologies and the rhetoric of creative resistance movements. She hopes to extend her understanding of social justice in relation to the built environment at her internship with Radian, Inc. this summer. More than anything, Aly loves words. Now graduated, she hopes to enjoy a gap year before pursuing a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition to become a professor of writing. In her free time, you will find Aly trying to run an amateur travel blog, tripping on flat surfaces and dancing with her left shoulder (yes, just the left one).
NPIP INTERN SPOTLIGHT!!!
This summer, Kate Moore’s internship has been with Think 360 Arts for Learning. Think 360 Arts works to strengthen arts education across the state by placing teaching artists in schools and training educators to use arts integration in their classrooms. Kate has lived most of her life in Arvada, Colorado after also living in Illinois and Costa Rica. Now, she is a sophomore at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas pursuing a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Modern Dance. On campus, Kate is a member of Chi Tau Epsilon, the dance honors society, and the John V. Roach Honors College. In her first semester she co-authored Fort Worth Mass Incarceration: An Oral History; a collection of research and oral histories on the mass incarceration system and its intersection with race, poverty, and social justice. Kate is passionate about addressing social justice issues with art and creative expression. While she still has three years to figure out where she will be after college, her vision for her life is to continue using dance to create change in her community whether that be through performing, educating, or choreographing. In her spare time, Kate enjoys spending time with her friends and family and exploring her city.
NPIP INTERN SPOTLIGHT!!!
Past Events: Our 3rd Learning Workshop took place July 6th in The Denver Foundation’s Community Room. Our guest presenters were Dr. Eddie Moore Jr., founder of the White Privilege Conference, and Dr. Abby Ferber. In this workshop, we learned about privilege, specifically white privilege and how we should go about dealing with the situation. We also participated in an activity that taught us how we all have certain privileges that give us an advantage, and hinder other people. We learned about strategies to use our own privilege for the benefit of others.
Past Events The annual NPIP Networking Event took place July 13th at the Posner Center. The event brought together TDF staff, supervisors, board/committee members, alumni and current interns from the program. The evening was a great success, as it gave supporters of the internship program the opportunity to meet the new class, and for the interns, it was the chance to engage with people working at various levels of a nonprofit organization, and to hone in on and sharpen their networking skills. Not only did interns get to work on skills we also made real life connections and grew our networks that we could benefit from in the future.
Past Events Our 4th and final Learning Workshop took place July 21st in The Denver Foundation’s Community room. The session focused on the power of learning and stories. More importantly, these speakers dove deeper into the awareness of neighborhood leadership, philanthropy, and the application of experiences beyond NPIP and mentorship. Our guest speakers were Barclay Jones, Community Leader and Sarah Harrison, Deputy Vice President of TDF’s Philanthropic Services Group and Senior Philanthropic Planner. Barclay described to the interns the value of philanthropy and how giving can be used as a tool for social change. He also addressed the importance of supporting to community issues and underserved populations. Sarah gave a presentation on the role and importance of development work in nonprofits. We also welcomed Alumni guests David Lopez (NPIP class of 2014, currently working at Urban Land Conservancy), Genevieve Laca (NPIP class of 2007, currently working at Community Shares of Colorado), and Angela Cobián (NPIP class of 2010, currently working at Leadership for Educational Equity). The panel shared how the NPIP led them to where they are now and hosted a Q&A with interns..
Upcoming Events On August 5th, the interns will participate in the closing ceremony for the Nonprofit Internship Program (NPIP). Each of the interns will have a chance to present their Creative Expression Projects, chronicling their experiences and growth during their internships. It will be amazing and powerful to see what each intern creates and what stories will be shared over the afternoon. The closing ceremony will display just how much each intern has learned in the program while providing the opportunity to be creative and show friends, colleagues, and family what the program has meant to them and their future moving forward.
Another Great Summer in the Books! See You all Next Year!