Hear about the summer experiences of the 2011–2012 Scholars

Rachel Kittaka ’12

Rachel’s 2011 MCAN Scholarship allowed me to serve with a national program called Breakthrough Collaborative. I taught pre-algebra and paper mache to underserved middle school students in Santa Fe, New Mexico along with high school and college students from across the country. The Breakthrough staff, students and co-teachers made this summer of hard work an incredibly rich experience. She collaborated with the other teachers to organize sporting events, an art walk and a career day for our students. Rachel also received instruction and coaching on how to be an effective novice teacher. Finally, her students inspired Rachel to give her best effort in the classroom every single day. This experience, made possible through MCAN, was a large factor in Rachel’s decision to pursue a career in education. Currently, she plans to teach at an urban school in Memphis, TN following her master’s coursework in urban education.

Mouhamadou Diagne ’12

Last Summer Mouhamadou participated in a Humanity in Action (HIA)’s summer Fellowship in the Netherlands. He was part of a cohort of 23 Fellows from the US, Netherlands, and Bosnia. They spent five weeks exploring the social and political roots of discrimination and discuss potential solutions; they accomplished this feat through (1) participating in daily lectures and discussions with renowned academics, journalists, politicians and activists; (2) visiting government agencies, non-profit and community organizations, museums and memorials, and (3) producing original research on an aspect of human rights discrimination. The title of his Ethnography was “‘We are all Amsterdammers’ – Accounting for Diversity and Inclusion in Dutch Schools.”

Aman Gupta ’12

In the summer of 2011, Aman was an intern with ThinkImpact’s Innovation Institute based in the Mpumalanga region of South Africa. As part of his job, Aman was involved in working with 4 local community partners to help devise a feasible strategy for the implementation of a social enterprise for income generation purposes. The team Aman worked with established a greenhouse that would cater to the nutritional gaps in the community diet while generating profit for their local partners.

Shantrice King ’13

In this video Shantrice is speaking about her summer internship at the Brooklyn Young Mothers’ Collective in Brooklyn,NY.  Its an organization in Brooklyn,NY that exist to help young mothers reintegrate themselves back into the education system.  As an intern at BYMC she had various jobs such as community outreach, researching and writing grants as well as using social media to connect with the organizations clients.

Sameena Ahmed ’12

Sameena spent her summer working in two positions, one as a research assistant in Hennepin County Medical Center, a hospital, and as a Community Health Outreach Intern at Healthfinders Collaborative. At HCMC, Sameena interacted closely with patients to communicate results of various research findings. At Healthfinders, she acted as a translator and helped with general operational logistics. It was a very rewarding, rich summer for Sameena, which would be impossible without MCAN.

Shreya Singh ’12

Shreya spent her summer interning at a London-based publishing house, Zed Books, which focuses on development, economics, environment, and gender. She spent her time conducting research to identify sources relevant to particular projects. She also got to spend some time as a marketing intern, running the social media outlets of the company, and contacting the relevant parties. This internship allowed Shreya to develop independently as a person, and gain important experience before her senior year.

Iris Wang ’13

Iris spent her summer working in a fund management company in Chicago. She worked in equity research and business development. Her duties included research, portfolio constructions, and various team projects. Iris is very grateful for her experience, as she came out with sharper research skills, as well as invaluable industry experience, where she got to apply her theoretical knowledge.

Heather Yang ’12

Heather spent the summer at the Culture & Emotion Lab at Stanford University, working on a variety of projects involving differences between East Asian Americans and European Americans as well as Europeans and European Americans in how they want to feel and how they usually feel. This psychology research experience helped Heather refine a broad range of research skills from running statistical analyses to running (as well as recruiting and paying) participants. Most importantly, it was an eye-opening experience that helped connect her to people already on the path to her career ambitions.

Melody Zhou ’13

Melody spent the summer conducting medical research in UC Davis. Her project was to study the performance of blood chemistry testing device under austere environmental conditions. It was a great opportunity to explore this unfamiliar area and it opened up a new door for her future career. It also allowed Melody to meet many peers who share similar interest with her from different schools. It was one of the most challenging and rewarding summers for Melody.

Chisa Hughes ’12

With the help of MCAN, Chisa was able to work on a small grant-funded documentary project through a television station based in the Northwest. The project focused on big band jazz within the Japanese American internment camps (particularly for the Nisei generation) as a means for exploring and asserting identity. Besides interviewing former internees and musicians, she spent a good deal of her summer working on and learning the animation software for a musical segment that will appear in the final cut.

Alex Liu ’12

Alex spent his summer working as a Research Intern at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. His responsibilities included assisting in research related to Japanese art in 15th-19th centuries. Using his Japanese skills, he performed translations and compiled summaries of his research findings. This MCAN-sponsored opportunity allowed Alex to broaden his understanding of Art History, improve his research skills, and solidify his desire to pursue graduate studies in East Asian Art History.