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OJJDP Welcomes Summer Interns

Each summer, OJJDP adds a few individuals and a great deal of youthful enthusiasm. The Office's summer intern program pairs college students with OJJDP staff who serve as mentors. For the interns, it is an opportunity to gain some real world experience in the field of juvenile justice. This year, the Office welcomed eight interns from all over the United States:

• Emily Dubick, George Washington University, Washington, DC.
• Allison Early, The George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, MO.
• Brendan Groves, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA.
• Stacy Leeds, University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ.
• Cornelia "Battle" Pincus, Institute for Policy Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
• Maia Shanklin Roberts, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
• Lucia Marie Turck, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
• Lisa Yarger, Radford University, Radford, VA.

Brendan, a Senior at Pepperdine, is representative of the interns' passion and commitment to making a difference in the lives of our Nation's youth. "Community-based problems demand community-sponsored solutions," believes Brendan. "Hundreds, if not thousands, of local solutions exist to local problems in juvenile justice today." With Dorothy Burgess, a Juvenile Intervention Specialist with the nonprofit organization Kansas Legal Services, Brendan is the co-founder of just one such local solution in Wichita, KS. The Step UP program teaches at-risk youth how to secure employment. "Beginning with a half-day seminar, we taught the youth every step required to gain a job, from talking to the manager to filling out applications and knowing when to call back. We supplemented skills training with group exercises asking each teen to brainstorm their individual talents and abilities." Brendan, who initiated another Step UP program in Los Angeles County, CA, has big plans for the future. "Step UP aims to reach more than 500 kids during the 2006-2007 school year in Los Angeles and beyond. Our purpose is to relate the skills, actions, and attitudes necessary to gain meaningful employment and to plan for tomorrow while living purposefully today. We and other community organizations will continue to fulfill our purposes, for we know that there are many teens who have not yet discovered their talents. We must help them."