Internships help SMU students hone life and leadership skills

DALLAS (SMU) — Seven SMU students are honing life and leadership skills in summer internships ranging from Bangladesh to Dallas-Fort Worth. The public service interns’ efforts are being sponsored by SMU’s Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility and the Irby Family Foundation.

“Ideas practiced are ideas learned,” says Maguire Ethics Center Director Rita Kirk. “Helping solve community problems not only makes the learning exciting, but also encourages genuine empathy and moral reflection. These students will return to the classroom with an increased sense of urgency about our communities’ pressing needs.”

SMU undergraduates and their public service projects are:

		Rahfin Faruk (economics, public policy): Studying microfinance solutions and business ethics with Grameen Bank for the Bengali agricultural community in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Lessons learned will be applied to his own microfinance initiative in West Dallas. You can follow him on his SMU Adventures blog.
		Katherine Jones (economics): Working with Amazonian farmers to develop sustainable and nondestructive farming practices with UBELONG in Ecuador.
		Janielle Kastner (theatre studies, English): Building a safe house for victims of sex trafficking with Traffick911 in Dallas.
		Elizabeth Kobe Norris (philosophy, political science): Identifying and sourcing medical equipment with the American Friends of Le Korsa in Bethany, Conn., to assist medical centers in rural Senegal.
		Marissa Ocampo (anthropology, foreign languages): Analyzing data and identifying treatment priorities for Nicaraguan families affected by chronic kidney disease with La Isla Foundation in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua.

SMU graduate students and their service projects are:

		Yvonne Glass (human rights and social justice): Helping refugees rebuild their lives via community events to raise awareness with the International Rescue Committee in Dallas.
		Andrew Laird (law): Contributing to the enforcement of ethical norms and justice in the business world and among corporate lawyers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Fort Worth.

The Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility at Southern Methodist University seeks to heighten ethical awareness throughout the campus and in the greater Dallas community. The Maguire Ethics Center serves as a forum for the exploration of issues bearing on the public good. It brings together those who confront issues of social importance with resources and opportunity for ethical reflection.

For a complete listing of past Maguire Center internship placements, click here.

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