As the summer winds down, we bid farewell to our most recent class of Summer Associates: Lisa Shmulyan, Amber Hu, Bobby Lundquist, Stephanie Virbitsky, and Gizelle Gopez, who all provided invaluable assistance to our team on a number of projects. Penn News Officer Jill DiSanto recently interviewed Lisa, Amber and Bobby, and asked them to reflect on their time at the Center.
Lisa Shmulyan is a rising sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences from Eden Prairie, Minnesota. During the school year, Lisa writes for Impact magazine, is part of the Penn Social Entrepreneurship Movement (PennSEM), volunteers on the student board for the Institute of Contemporary Art, and mentors young people through the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project. She is also a University Scholar at Penn. “I’ve always wanted to go into a field with some kind of positive impact, and working at the Center has confirmed this belief,” she told Penn News. After helping the team on a number of projects this summer- including our upcoming guidance on substance use and a project related to social impact bonds and impact investing- Lisa now knows that what she wants to be involved in social enterprise in the future.
Amber Hu is a rising senior from Acton, California, studying Cognitive Science. Amber is also earning minors in Fine Arts and Computer Science, and is a member of the Penn’s Varsity Gymnastics Team since freshmen year. This summer, Amber provided communications, design, and IT support on a number of Center projects, such as through managing the Center’s Twitter account, updating our website, and laying out Center guidance via Adobe InDesign. “I never really considered the non-profit sector as something that intersected with my professional interests, but there’s a lot more to it than I originally thought,” Amber told Penn News. “There are so many opportunities to have a positive impact on the lives of others, and that’s something that has become more important to me.” She added that knowing that the final product she was working on was going to help others was a rewarding part of her work.
Bobby Lundquist is a rising senior from Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, studying Philosophy, Politics, & Economics. During the school year, Bobby is a resident advisor for freshmen living in Fisher-Hassenfeld College House; the president of One in Four, a male advocacy group focused on sexual violence prevention; and a disc jockey at WQHS, a student-run radio station. Bobby has been involved with Center social media communications since 2013, which he continued this summer by tracking Center social media analytics, as well as providing support on projects in early childhood education, disaster recovery in Nepal, and being able to leverage capital investments alongside grants. According to Bobby, the most satisfying part of his internship has been growing as a professional and becoming a flexible, effective team player able to adapt to changing circumstances.
From all of us at the Center: Thank you, Summer Associate class of 2015, and best of luck!
Click here for a full feature of our Summer Associate class of 2015 in Penn News.