ALLIANCE (Summer Internships)
The Shepherd Alliance joins students from Berea College, Bonner Scholar Schools, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Washington and Lee University in summer work with agencies that seek to benefit impoverished members of society. Each summer, fifty or more students learn first-hand about the multiple dimensions of poverty in the United States by working for eight weeks with agencies that strengthen impoverished communities and assist poor persons to participate more fully in society. These agencies, located in various urban and rural sites in the Eastern United States, serve the educational, healthcare, legal, housing, psychological, social and economic needs, and community-building efforts of individuals and communities. Students participate in the selection of the agencies in which they volunteer in order to accommodate their special interests and develop their experience and skills in keeping with their academic and vocational plans.
Students are selected through an application process at each college. The process includes interviews about what they expect to contribute and to gain through their work experience. Qualifying students work with the faculty and participating agencies to determine the location and description of their summer work. Placements are determined in February. The students then begin an orientation process by contacting their agency supervisor about how they should prepare for their specific work. In early June, participating students from all four institutions gather at a centrally located site to get acquainted with volunteers from the other schools and to learn from agency supervisors and faculty about the joys, challenges, and satisfactions they should expect in their summer's work. Students leave immediately from orientation to begin eight weeks of full-time work at their respective placements. The summer work concludes in early August with a closing conference of all participants. Previously, this conference has been held at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. At the closing conference, students report and reflect on the intense experiences that they have chronicled through regular journal entries during the summer. The closing conference is a time for students to renew old acquaintances and make new ones.
Student participation from all schools is funded by a Congressional grant. Funding for the Shepherd Alliance also comes from foundation grants and Washington and Lee alumni, parents, and friends. This funding enables each qualifying participants to be reimbursed for housing, meals, and transportation to and from the work site. Grants are available for students on need-based financial aid at their college. In addition, in the past American citizens who complete a specified term of service in the United States are eligible to receive an AmeriCorps Education voucher equivalent to $1000. The Shepherd Alliance also covers the students' expenses for the orientation and closing conferences. Applicants should check with the Shepherd Alliance supervisor at their participating institution to determine the specific amount of the reimbursement, grant, and voucher for which they will be eligible.
Previous volunteers in the Shepherd Alliance express tremendous satisfaction with what they were able to do and gratitude for what they were able to learn about themselves and their vocational goals. Sometimes they learned from frustration and adversity, but they almost uniformly experienced joy and excitement in becoming friends with people whom they might otherwise have never known.
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