Aspirations Take Flight for Psychology Major After Youth Center Internship
Dec. 4, 2023年，尽管害怕飞行, 24岁的Merene Budu-Smith旅行了将近5小时,距离加纳1000英里, 非洲——在云层上飞行超过10个小时. 她的目的地? bet亚洲365欢迎投注.
“回家, you do one thing your entire life and you never get to broaden your horizon with different things,她主修心理学，辅修生物学. “当我来到这里，我开始找到自己.”
离家这么远, Merene hoped to take advantage of every opportunity at Marist and found resources to help her. One included the Presidential Fund for Equity in the Marist Experience, 谁提供了约230美元,000 in total to Marist students since last spring.
Where scholarships and financial aid focus on helping with tuition costs, the Presidential Fund fills gaps for undergraduates whose financial constraints are a barrier to their full participation in the Marist experience, with a current focus on internships and courses that conclude with a travel experience.
“These can be signature experiential learning moments for students, where they explore their passions and get a chance to test them out in the real world,负责学生成功的助理教务长说 Dr. 林可卡罗尔，负责协调资金的分配.
实习让你发现自我
Merene Budu-Smith Otoo ' 24, 最下面一排，右数第二个, poses with her Finish Strong Wellness Center colleagues during her internship. 图片由Otoo提供.
对梅琳来说，这听起来是真的. Her spring internship at a City of Poughkeepsie youth center taught her many things about herself and where she could have the greatest impact.
“It’s been such a beautiful journey and at the end of day, I know exactly what I want to do. I want to help people,” said the Resident Assistant who also works in the College’s Title IX Office. “我觉得大学就是这样. 发现你是谁.”
通过总统基金的援助, Merene was able to gain valuable experience at Finish Strong Wellness Center. That stipend helped with living expenses and taxis to her internship where she invested 25 hours a week, unpaid. 她把爱传递出去, 为青少年中心购买用品, 包括工艺品和糖果, 作为她组织的活动的一部分.
“I want to say thank you to the donors because there are so many people who need that funding and this world needs a little more kindness and more generosity,梅琳说。, 她也叫咪咪.
资助学生的机会
The Presidential Fund is fully supported by donors and was started by College President Kevin Weinman, 还有他的妻子, Beth. 他们的第一笔捐款 was followed by donations from every member of the Marist Board of Trustees. The goal now is to grow the fund’s ability to help students through additional donors, given the significant demand and popularity of the life-changing experiences the Fund supports.
To date, 44名学生获得86美元,101 to help cover expenses during their unpaid or underpaid internships and 47 students used $145,短期200英镑, faculty-led travel experiences called attachment courses, 根据Rinke.
A new pile of applications will soon be under review to determine eligibility for spring semester. 对援助的需求正在上升, said 职业服务 and 出国留学 coordinators, who try not to turn any students away who have significant financial need, 由联邦学生资助标准决定. For the spring semester, aid applications for courses with travel expenses were due Nov. 1. Internship aid application period opened Monday and runs through Jan. 19.
Merene Budu-Smith Otoo '24 studying in the James A. Cannavino图书馆. 图片来源:Nelson Echeverria/bet亚洲365欢迎投注.
资金的连锁反应
Dennis Woodbine is grateful Marist has the Presidential Fund. 作为Finish Strong的创始人和CEO, he offers after-school programs at no cost to Poughkeepsie city youth who come from difficult family dynamics and experience situations that can be hard on children.
His nonprofit depends on student-interns to lead activities such as boxing, ju-jitsu, gaming, 和制作. 这项工作的核心是创伤知情护理, training he provides the interns that is helpful for careers in behavioral sciences, 喜欢心理学, 社会工作, 儿童教育.
“One of the things I appreciated most about Mimi was she would help all the kids with their homework. That’s what she enjoyed doing,” Woodbine, a 社会工作er, said. “她是一个严肃的人，这也很好.”
关心他人
Merene said her work with children inspired her to apply to graduate school at Marist. She will study health care administration combined with information systems. She wants to use this unique combination of expertise to look after the well-being of doctors and nurses, so that they can give better care to patients — a current gap in the health care field, she said.
“I realized how much you do can affect another person, consciously or unconsciously,” she said. “在未来10年, someone is going to appreciate me in a difficult part of their life, and say, “如果不是咪咪的话, I don’t know how I would have learned to manage my anger, 不要说一句坏话, 或者通过数学考试.’”
Merene will always be able to look back with the same appreciation for the donors of the Presidential Fund, 是谁帮助她在玛丽斯特大学的日子里翱翔.
