This summer marked the fifth session of Sacred Heart’s Summer Internship Program. Founded in 2009, by Mary Gniadek, ’04 as a gateway for students to experience future career interests before applying to college and choosing a major, the Student Internship Program (SIP) has boasted more than 50 internships since its inception. For five summers, mentors have guided students in everything from engineering and economics to industrial design, science research, and health related careers.
“I created this program because I believe first-hand experience can be highly valuable in determining one’s goals. I created the program for Sacred Heart because, as an alumna, I am confident that the students possess the maturity, intelligence, dedication and creativity that such internships require,” offered Mary.
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This summer ten rising seniors and two alumnae participated in the program working in the art and museum, business and investment management, child development, engineering, entreprenurship, law, pharmacy, and health & science related fields. Students worked closely with mentors, mostly alumnae, for a minimum of two weeks in order to gauge whether or not a certain career path is right for them. Some students remained with mentors for the entire summer because they found their internships to be so rewarding.
Maddie Ross (Shelton) worked with Dr. Nilanjana Maulik at the UCONN Health Center observing laboratory techniques, performing power point presentations at lab meetings, designing experimental protocols, and searching scientific papers. Leslie Torres (West Haven) spent her days with alumna Lindsey Heffernan at The Barnum Museum giving tours, and supporting day to day office and museum work while Meghan Stacy (West Haven) was at the West Haven Child Development Center learning the role of the RN as health consultant. Sydney Sullivan’s (Branford) Engineering and Entrepreneurship internship involved research and marketing at a start-up design studio. Alumna Sr. Mary Ellen Burns, ASCJ mentored Kanita Mote (Hamden) in immigration law at Apostle Immigrant Services while Molly Duffy, (Shelton) mentored by alumna Beth Botti, researched mutual funds, variable annunities, and other investment instruments. Morgan Brokaw, (Wallingford) mentored by current parent Mary Lou Galushko, worked in a pharmacy, Nicole Mecca (North Haven) at Artspace, Jess Venables (Monroe) assisted alumna author Rosemary O’Brien on her book Pocket Parks, and Allie Buscarello (Wolcott) participated in the Yale Discovery to Cure.
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And, two very recent grads are continuing the tradition… Tess Cersonsky (Oxford) served at the Connecticut Agricultural Station and Dominika Bajguz (Naugatuck) interned with alumna Amy Vashlishan Murray, Ph.D., a faculty scientist at Emerson College, building a genetic resource for assaying neuropeptide function in C. elegans, a transparent roundworm and model organism.
Sacred Heart Academy, an independent Catholic college preparatory school founded in 1946 by the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, successfully prepares young women in grades 9 -12 for learning, service and achievement in a global society. There are currently 500 students enrolled hailing from five counties in Connecticut – New Haven, Fairfield, Hartford, Middlesex and New London.
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