From crisis to resilience
Disaster can take many forms, from a roaring hurricane to fractured families to homelessness. During their Jepson School of Leadership Studies summer internships, three seniors got a firsthand look at how front-line human services nonprofits move people from crisis to resilience.
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
Lizzie Camp interned at United Way Suncoast in Tampa, Florida. The nonprofit promotes educational opportunities, financial security, and community resilience in five central west Florida counties. She said she spent much of her time supporting the organization’s Disaster Resilience Team, with a specific focus on resilience efforts in Manatee, a county that suffered catastrophic hurricane damage last fall.
“United Way Suncoast hosted meetings that brought together nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and first responders to discuss disaster preparedness,” she said. “I helped research the organizations and speakers to invite to these meetings. Last year when hurricanes Helene and Milton hit back-to-back, the United Way got a lot of calls, like ‘I have 100 generators to donate. Who needs them? Where can we store them?’”
Calls like these underscored the need for creating a community conversation, said Camp, a leadership studies and philosophy, politics, economics, and law (PPEL) double major. In response, the United Way Suncoast started a chat on Microsoft Teams where people can request and donate resources.
The senior also conducted policy research in preparation for United Way Worldwide’s 2025 Advocacy Forum and Capitol Hill Day, which brought United Way representatives, including Camp, from 49 states to Washington, D.C., July 7–9 to advocate for key issues.
“We asked Florida’s senators and representatives for funding to support and raise awareness of 211, a nonemergency help line that can relieve pressure on 911 emergency help lines during crises,” she said.
MITIGATING HOMELESSNESS
Leadership studies and American studies major Sydney Hass worked to mitigate homelessness during her internship with the Christian-based Peninsula Rescue Mission in Newport News, Virginia. Since 1966, the nonprofit has operated a men’s shelter. This summer, Hass assisted the organization with its preparations to launch a 20-bed women’s shelter, which opened its doors to residents on Sept. 8.
“My day-to-day included assembling furniture, organizing storage closets, and designing a get-to-know-you page for use in the intake process,” she said. “I managed our Amazon wish list and handwrote thank-you notes to many of the people who donated over 1,700 items on our list. I was honored to be asked to edit a workbook the women will use to process what they’ve been through and to dream about a brighter future. In many ways, I was a Swiss Army knife, a utility tool for whatever needed to happen.”
When not working on readying the women’s shelter, Hass enjoyed getting to know Peninsula Rescue Mission staff and residents of the men's shelter over shared meals. One night at dinner, a resident recognized someone in a group of new arrivals.
“He saw someone he had served with in Afghanistan, who had saved his life in combat by pulling him out of a Humvee,” she said. “The staff celebrated their reunion. One staff member sat with the two reunited veterans while they talked well past curfew. I think about this a lot.”
TEACHING YOUTH LIFE SKILLS
Lexi Brown, a leadership studies and psychology major, interned with a supervised independent living program operated by the nonprofit Valley Youth House in Westchester, Pennsylvania. She interacted with five women ages 16 to 20 in the foster care and juvenile detention systems. Her own family recently became a foster family to a four-year-old girl, so this internship enabled her to gain a better understanding of foster care while exploring her interest in social work, she said.
“As an intern, I led one-on-one workshops on emotional regulation skills, career exploration, and job interviews,” the senior said. “The youth appreciated the interview tips I shared. One became noticeably more confident during the mock interviews, which set her up for success when she interviewed for an actual job.”
Brown, who is only slightly older than the youth living in the home, acknowledged that the work was both challenging and rewarding. “Teens can be very moody and sometimes resist even the simplest requests,” she said. “When they open up and ask for help, you know you have gained their trust.”
She attended two juvenile probation court hearings as well as a family court hearing where the judge asked the teen if her Valley Youth House foster placement was still a good fit.
“Teens can sign themselves out of foster care at age 18,” Brown said. “But most will sign themselves back in after realizing they can’t manage by themselves. The supervised independent living program is designed to give them the skills to live on their own when they age out of foster care between ages 22 and 25.”
The Jepson School awarded the three seniors Burrus Fellowships to support their internships.
Reflecting on the impact of her fellowship, Hass recalled a conversation she had with her father during her long search for an internship: “I’ve been asking, what can an internship do for me? Maybe I should switch the question and ask, what can I do for my community with 400 hours of paid volunteer work? How can I make a difference?”