Internships

My internship with AAIUH is for 50 hours during spring 2011. I work with Dr. Mary Valmont, the Director of AAIUH's Health Science Academy ,and Lakeisha Lubin the Coordinator of the Community Health Empowerment projects.

My duties include taking part in HSA events such College Prep workshops. My role was to share my personal insights about the organization as an alumnae. I talked about my experiences to both new students and their parents and led them on a tour of the SUNY Down State facilities. In addition, I analyzed the data presented earlier regarding the alumni outreach.

I attended the March Health and Wellness day rallies with Ms. Lubin and helped her distribute information and safe sex materials (e.g., condoms). We spoke to women in the beauty salon about the importance of health and how to protect one's self.


Nicole Lesniak
LGS Sophomore
Dialogue Beyond Borders
Download the Internship Presentation (PDF 9MB)

This past semester I was able to work with Yana Kusayeva in the promotion of the Dialogue Through Dance Program, one of the two main programs run by Dialogue Beyond Borders, Inc. (DBB). DBB is an emerging nonprofit organization in Long Island that strives to promote active tolerance, defend human rights, and advance greater understanding among diverse communities by providing opportunities for learning, expression, and discussion aimed at facilitating group dialogue.

The program's goal is to raise awareness about Central Asian dance to help use dance as a form of empowerment. Dialogue Through Dance focuses on reaching out to adolescent girls from both Central Asian and American cultural backgrounds and teaching them about the significance of movement as expression, as well as a form of cultural diplomacy. In reality, we as Americans are known for becoming so caught up in our daily lives that we tend to forget to look at the world around us. Many of us are so fortunate to have more than what is necessary and this is the key to understanding how my internship connects to the global world; although internships, non-governmental organizations and other (both profit and non-for-profit) groups often initially begin to publically uncover problems societally-speaking on a small scale, it is with these small gestures that these beliefs spread.

In examining my workshop with Dialogue Through Dance explicitly, it can now be said that girls within the Adelphi University campus are aware that there are many women living today that do not possess freedom of speech and are not recognized or appreciated for their passion. Looking at how this idea can become more well-known in colleges and in our society overall, I feel that word of mouth is best. Holding more workshops and raising awareness is what will spark interest and directly a change. I can only hope girls from different cultural heritages will be able to connect to their roots and American girls can see how much pride others have for their specific culture. In reality, this semester gave me a great opportunity to learn about a different culture as well as connect it to my passion, dance. I was able to get a real feeling about how unfortunate the loss of one's heritage can be, but incorporating others can prove to be even more beneficial in spreading the awareness across borders.


Laura Pashayan
LGS Junior
Crossroads Farm
Download the Internship Presentation (PDF 4.9MB)


Michelle Raider
LGS Freshman
Planned Parenthood
Download the Internship Presentation (PDF 21.1MB)