Privilege & Poverty interns and staff at the Closing Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. From left: Rachel Roseman, Tiffany Nourse Sargent ’79, Jill Stauffer, Rebecca Strull, Audrey Pan, Jeanette Moreno, Alejandra Mendoza, Treasure Faith Brooks.
6 Middlebury College students convened in Cleveland, Ohio for the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty’s (SHECP) 2018 Frueauff Closing Conference to report on their efforts supporting poverty alleviate during their internship experience.
The Freuauff Closing Conference was the culmination of an eight-week internship program that provided students with the opportunity to engage in experiential, community-based learning in cities across the country. Interns learn about issues regarding economic inequality while working with nonprofit organizations in industries such as community and individual services, education, healthcare, and legal aid.
Keynote speaker, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, encouraged students to challenge systemic racism, economic inequality, and ecological detestation in their local communities. Theorharis’ keynote address focused on the power of resiliency and hope in public interest work and community activism.
Treasure Faith Brooks, rising sophomore, echoed Theorharis’ sentiments during her presentation. Brooks interned at the Office of the Public Defender in Baltimore City, MD. During her presentation, she discussed the lack of opportunities for rehabilitation and redemption in the current legal system and how the experience changed her previous views on mass incarceration and prison abolition. “Humans are not meant to be discarded,” Brooks reflected, “but at this point in time, there is no optimal solution.”
About the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty: The Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP), is a consortium of colleges and universities that are committed to the study of poverty as a complex social problem, by expanding and improving educational opportunities for college students in a wide range of disciplines and career trajectories. SHECP institutions support undergraduates toward a lifetime of professional and civil efforts to diminish poverty and enhance human capability. For more information, please visit ShepherdConsortium.org