A Note from Our Summer Intern

Most people have internships during their sophomore year of college, but thanks to NYEC and my parents’ push for me to have an educational summer, I was able to have an internship experience during my sophomore year of high school. I am Kendi Caldwell, a rising junior at Atholton High School in Columbia, MD, and this was my experience interning at NYEC.

My goal is to become a lawyer and defense attorney so I can be a part of the solution to racial inequality. The best part of my seven weeks interning at NYEC was that they wanted to make sure I really learned things of importance to me. Although I had a more general role than say the college intern would, I was still asked about my interests when I began and was able to do things that aligned with them. I helped develop the Mental Health Resource Hub, joined workshops about youth homelessness and trafficking, attended NYEC’s Youth Advisory Council (YAC) meeting, and much more. When I wasn’t active in NYEC’s policy work I was able to check website links, fix citations, and perform routine website maintenance.

I had a great experience working with the NYEC and have gained a lot of knowledge and resources from doing different tasks, attending meetings, and learning from their workshops. I plan to take everything I have learned here and apply it to my future ambitions.

-Kendi Caldwell