2021 MCAN Fellows

Summer Public Policy Internship with Laura Baker Services Association

Laura Baker Services Association (LBSA) is a non‐profit intellectual and developmental disabilities services provider located in Northfield, MN. LBSA offers services to provide holistic support to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including: residential living options, family support services, creative arts and music programming.

This summer, I served as the Public Policy intern for LBSA and focused on advocacy, community/volunteer outreach, marketing, public policy work. Throughout the summer I worked on creating messaging, fliers, and infographics to visually present information related to LBSA. Additionally, I created and managed a volunteer hub to increase communication efficiency between LBSA and volunteers. I am incredibly grateful to LBSA for allowing me to work with them this summer, as I broadened my knowledge surrounding disability services providers while assisting in the process.

Discussify

We decided to work on building the interface for our startup this previous summer after winning the Carleton 2021 Startup Fellowship competition. Using web technology, we hope to improve in‐class discussions by making the small group environment more inclusive.

Discovering Emerging Medical Technology

Working as a market research intern at Siemens Healthineers Innovation Center Shanghai, I spent the summer conducting research and analysis on emerging technologies in the medical field. The four topics of interest are digital pathology, surgical robotics, surgical navigation and digital therapeutics. Throughout my internship, I focused on finding start‐ups and products in these fields that may be good candidates for collaboration with my company.

Interned at the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Animal Care Internship at the Wildlife Science Center

I worked for thirteen weeks as an animal care intern at the Wildlife Science Center in Stacy, Minnesota, north of the Twin Cities; it is an education‐centered captive animal facility that houses many different animals, though most people come to see the nearly 100 wolves. I usually fed and cleaned enclosures for animals like raccoons, porcupines, raptors, tortoises, bears, cougars, and wolves, among others. I also assisted with wolf research and care, educational tours and programs, enclosure construction, grounds maintenance, and many other diverse tasks.

Economic opportunity Intern

In the past summer, I had an amazing opportunity to work with the City of Northfield’s Economic Department. The City of Northfield’s Community Development Department launched new initiatives in 2021 to support minority‐owned business development within the City of Northfield. I worked on a few projects to help advance equal economic opportunity as part of the City’s initiatives. I worked with the City to research and craft new communication tools to increase the accessibility of City grant and loan programs for minority‐owned businesses. Furthermore, I created a toolkit that included drafted engagement emails, scripts detailing opportunities for support and funding, and contact information for people and resources for minority‐owned businesses. Overall, it was a very fun and meaningful experience.

Interned at Healthfinders.

Science Writing at Concussion Alliance

Concussion Alliance is a non‐profit organization designed to provide concussion patients with science‐ based resources to aid in their recovery and help them understand their symptoms. The science writing position requires interns to create a page on the organization’s website focused on a concussion treatment or symptom. My project addresses sleep disturbances post‐concussion, as physicians often underestimate the impact of these problems on recovery and wellbeing. The webpage first discusses how mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can disrupt sleep and extend recovery time. It ends with tips for improving sleep hygiene and finding a provider to treat concussion‐related sleep disorders

Children of Incarcerated Caregivers

This is my second year working with CIC, and I was excited to reunite with my supervisor and the other CIC interns. Returning to my role as the Community Outreach Coordinator, I was given several goals. First and foremost, I needed to recruit families that had been impacted by incarceration for our annual sleep‐away camp and bike camp. I exceeded our goal for enrollment by reaching out to hundreds of community groups, social workers, and legal professionals. I also became more involved in the operations of the non‐profit this year. I connected with several nonprofits in Minneapolis to build our network, supplemented resources on our website, and learned about the day‐to‐day operations of a non‐profit.

Interned at Washington University in St. Louis.

Interned at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Commercial Export Internship at GESTOCI

This summer I got the opportunity to travel to Cote d’Ivoire and intern at GESTOCI. GESTOCI is a petroleum stock management company that stocks petroleum for all of Cote d’Ivoire as well as parts of Mali and Guinea. I was interning in the export department which basically processed outgoing shipments of petroleum products via invoice and bank statements. Most of my daily tasks included logging amounts of petroleum products being transferred, processing invoices, and organizing transactions. Since GESTOCI is the leading stocker of petroleum products in Cote d’Ivoire, there are many transactions that occur at once and it is imperative that things are followed to a tee.

Interned at Concussion Alliance.

Interned at World Tree.