Gardner Career Awareness Endowment Fund

This summer I had the opportunity to work as a Regenerative Agriculture & Sustainability Intern for Gardenworks Farm LLC, a third-generation family farm located in Salem, NY. Owned and operated by the Southerland family, Gardenworks is undergoing a transformative period of growth through a shift to organic practices. Their primary crops include blueberries, dried flowers, and a variety of vegetables. With a mission of using plant-based food as healthcare, Gardenworks acts as a model of regenerative farming to its rural community.

During my summer internship at Yale, I was able to gain hands on experience working with 18 sports, spending the majority of my time with football, men's lacrosse, men's & women's hockey, and swim. At lifts, I led movement prep stations, coached proper lifting technique, and built relationships with athletes. I learned how to utilize sports performance technology, including 1080 Motion, Hawkins Force Plates, Dashr Laser Timing Systems, and Perch (velocity based training/ VBT). 

I was looking for an internship for this past summer, and on handshake came across a media internship with Roots, which was working with SOS Animal located in Santarem, Portugal. I applied and the next thing I knew, I was accepted and offered a spot. I was at SOS Animal for the whole month of July. During my time there, I learned about how to care for all sorts of animals and took care of them every day. During this process, I was also taking photos and videos to later edit and make video collages for their TikTok and Instagram.

My 2025 summer internship experience was invaluable. I was initially drawn to a banking internship because of SLU Connect Rochester/Buffalo I participated in Fall 2024. I was inspired to pursue each and every bank in Timor-Leste, including the Central Bank of Timor-Leste (BCTL), by writing interest emails hoping I can have just one reply. I was in shock when BCTL reached out to me through my phone number stating that they have openings for students enrolled in abroad programs/universities to apply for an internship at BCTL.

I worked on the Matanuska Glacier as a guide for a little over three months. For my job, I would take clients out on the glacier for around two hours where we would walk 2-3 miles while I explained features and guided them around dangerous areas. My main objective was to keep the clients safe, and if they learned something along the way thats even better! I would take 2-3 tours out a day, and in the time I wasn't giving tours, I would be completing trail upkeep, which consisted of moving whole bridges or grates through mud or ice, or other maintenance such as bridge repair. 

This summer, I had the opportunity to work in the New England Collegiate Baseball League as an Operations Intern for the Keene Swampbats. This internship lasted 2 months as we arrived at the end of May and left at the beginning of August. 

This summer I worked as Social Media and Research Intern for Jenne Young Creative. Jenne Young Creative is a website design business that works with small companies. I designed posts and posted on Instagram and Linkedin. I became fluent in both Canva and Notion, with my capstone project being to design a Notion teamspace for the business. Blogs also took up a large portion of my job where I was consistently researching topics and writing on the daily.

I was the summer environmental educational intern. I taught families, classes, and the general public about wetlands and their plants and animals. I organized and planned many events and programs for teaching the students and the public. I helped lead multiple camps held throughout the summer with children of various ages (first graders to teens). I promoted many events by creating additions to the website and creating and posting online and in-person fliers around the Swamp. 

During the summer of 2023, I took part in an internship located in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires at the School of Art and Heritage of the National University of San Martin. Here, I worked alongside Silvia Dolinko to visit the San Martin Prison Complex and the University of San Martin's headquarters within the prison to facilitate a printmaking workshop for the inmates.

I recently completed my Internship Fellowship at Neema International. This remarkable organization is unwavering in its commitment to nurturing Tanzania’s promising youth through grassroots education initiatives, emphasizing creative learning and fostering community engagement. Over the course of an immersive 8 weeks, I had the privilege to partake in a multifaceted role. From conducting heartfelt home visits to providing essential emotional counseling to older children, my involvement was deeply meaningful.

During my time working as a production line Engineer, I enjoyed the interpersonal connections and the hands-on style of work. For this reason,  I plan to direct my career into more practical directions, such as experimental physics and Chemistry. Furthermore, during this internship, I gained a lot of experience with chemical applications and I hope to use that knowledge in future jobs. I plan to use that knowledge to finish a degree in physics, followed by a PhD MD, which aligns with my interests, skills, knowledge, and work orientation.

At Northwestern Mutual, I was given a fabulous chance to connect with people, expand my network, and grow as a leader in pursuit of abundant opportunities including marketing, sales, and SMM. The summer I spent at the company not only just helped me to grow professionally but empowered me personally.

This summer, Jackson interned for Junie Joseph, a member of Boulder (CO) City Council.

In this internship, Nick continued to study the effects of spontaneous metamorphosis on Xenopus Laevis thymus glands. In addition, he and his colleagues studied the morphological changes caused by thyroid hormone and dexamethasone, a glucocorticoid. Some of these changes include tail length, brain width, gill resorption, etc. This study was conducted across different developmental stages including pre-metamorphosis, metamorphosis, and post-metamorphosis.