Spring 2022 Recipients
Andrea Hernandez
Healthcare with a focus in Neurological Disease solutions
Andrea Hernandez is a senior at Loyola University Chicago majoring in neuroscience following the molecular cellular and pre-med track. Andrea wants to become a physician and an independent health services researcher in order to develop innovative and accessible healthcare solutions for patients with neurological conditions such as movement disorders.
Throughout Andrea’s experience in her internship, along with her courses at Loyola, she became motivated in studying neurodegenerative diseases. Ever since her exposure to research at Rush University Medical Center two years ago, Andrea has continued participating in research dedicated to telemedicine for patients with Parkinson’s Disease. Within her internship, Andrea had the privilege of investigating how to reduce barriers such as transportation and access to specialized care by studying the feasibility of delivering care directly to the patient’s home.
Ashley Klocke
Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Ashley Klocke is a senior at Loyola University Chicago pursuing her Bachelor’s in criminal justice and sociology. She is currently a Petty Officer Second Class in the United States Navy Reserves. She has achieved academic excellence and holds a lifelong membership to the Alpha Phi Sigma Criminal Justice Honors Society. This past year, she was an intern for the Algonquin Police Department in Illinois. Throughout her undergraduate career, Ashley has developed a passion for research and intelligence analysis through her positions held with the Department of Defense and Investigations Department at her internship. With the experience she acquired through these positions, she hopes to continue to serve her community.
During her Spring 2022 semester, Ashley is completing a 16-week internship with the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA), a state agency dedicated to improving the administration of criminal justice. As a research intern, Ashley collaborates with a research team that manages the R3 (Restore, Renew, Reinvest) Grant Program for Illinois. Her work assists in providing funds for Chicago communities that have been harmed by violence, excessive incarceration, and economic disinvestment. Currently, she contributes to this project by creating feedback surveys for applicants that notify the research team of any possible discrepancies for the applicants during the application process. The perspective that Ashley has gained from interning with ICJIA has allowed her to critically reflect on the diverse discussions that are necessary to help spread awareness of the issues that these communities are enduring.
Callie Bergeron
Penguin Foot Pottery
Callie Bergeron is currently a senior at Loyola majoring in sculpture and ceramics with a minor in women and gender studies. Callie has been pursuing ceramics for fourteen years, but her work has expanded through her experience at Loyola. She has a love for reading, cooking, and the outdoors, as well as all things creative.
Penguin Foot Pottery is a ceramics studio and school specializing in art classes. During her semester-long internship at Penguin Foot Pottery, she assisted instructors and students, formulated and refined glazes, and learned new techniques from professionals. Penguin Foot provided Callie with the opportunity to learn and create alongside people of every skill level, and gave her insight into the everyday running of a ceramics studio, especially one that strives to be inclusive and safe for people of all identities and walks of life.
Enkh-Ariun Munkhgerel
Haymarket Center
Enkh-Ariun Munkhgerel is a senior pursuing a Bachelor's in social work and a minor in entrepreneurship. Enkh-Ariun is an international student from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and chose to study abroad because she values intercultural growth, adventure, and exploring new experiences outside her comfort zone.
Currently, Enkh-Ariun interns at Haymarket Center where she facilitates group counseling and engages with patients experiencing drug and substance use disorder in the Women's Integrated Treatment. Enkh-Ariun completes a multitude of tasks not limited to lecturing and focusing on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, recovery, and patient care work and therapy. Haymarket has helped Enkh Ariun acquire training relevant to social work such as clinical skills, intersectionality, group work, therapeutic communities, crisis intervention, micro/mezzo/macro practice, and so forth. As she serves a diverse and culturally rich clientele, Enkh-Ariun is determined to grow, impact, be open to versatility, equity approaches, and the importance of healthy allyship.
Ellery Jenkins Therriault
49th Ward Chicago Alderman Maria Hadden
Ellery Jenkins Therriault is a senior majoring in Political Science who is interning at Alderwoman Maria Hadden’s office of the 49th Ward of Chicago. Ellery has always been interested in public policy and hopes to utilize his interests in various policy issues by pursuing a career in policy analysis or non-profit work. Ellery’s policy interests range from equitable infrastructure to foreign policy. Being from Chicago, he is especially passionate about urban policy matters.
At Ald. Hadden’s office, Ellery supports the office staff where needed. This primarily includes answering constituent calls like informational inquiries, local concerns, or calls from various city departments. Oftentimes, handling constituent phone calls can include filing a service request with the city for whatever issues residents may be facing, such as potholes in alleys or streets, rodent infestations, overgrown trees, streetlight outages, illegal parking, water or sewer outages, criminal activity, or landlord-tenant disputes. Additionally, Ellery spends time developing and updating the 49th ward website, particularly keeping information on COVID-19 relief resources and utility and housing assistance up to date for constituents to easily access. Moreover, Ellery’s duties also include making calls to Chicago City Departments for assistance, hanging up public information flyers, or researching new resources to add to the 49th ward website.
Gabriella Alghini
Northwestern Cardiac Rehab and Nuclear Cardiology units
Gabriella Alghini is a senior studying exercise science from Thousand Oaks, CA. On campus, Gabriella is a member of Chi Omega Lambda Mu, Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society, and the Exercise Science Mentorship program. Off campus, Gabriella works as an EMT-B in Skokie, IL. After graduation, Gabriella hopes to start her career as an Exercise Physiologist and get her masters in Exercise Science.
Gabriella is interning with Northwestern’s Cardiac Rehab and Nuclear Cardiology Units. The goal of cardiac rehab is to help strengthen a patient’s heart after a cardiac event. In nuclear cardiology, Exercise Physiologists administer exercise and pharmacological stress tests as part of cardiac perfusion studies. Gabriella is tasked with recording blood pressures for rehab patients, managing telemetry equipment, preparing equipment for exercise stress tests, talking with patients about stress test procedures, preparing patients’ skin for and placing ECG leads, observing ECG tracings, and noting abnormalities under the supervision of other Exercise Physiologists. She also helps to create patient education materials.
Gillian Cookerly-Dietrich
The Office of IL Senator Tammy Duckworth
Gillian Cookerly-Dietrich is a current senior at Loyola studying political science and global studies with minors in Spanish and anthropology. She has held leadership positions on-campus in organizations including Alpha Chi Omega, Loyola Club Softball, and the Department of Residence Life, as well as at her longtime resident summer camp. She has a passion for youth development, serving others, and strengthening her communities.
Through her internship with Senator Tammy Duckworth’s Chicago office, Gillian assists the casework team in solving issues that constituents may have with other government agencies. She also helps with projects focused on education and is currently developing her own legislative proposal on educational grants.
Marisa Bowman
Greenlight Family Services
Marisa Bowman is a senior majoring in psychology and cognitive/behavioral neuroscience at Loyola. Marisa is involved with the Interdisciplinary Honors Program and has worked part-time at Subway for four years during her undergraduate program. She plans to attend graduate school for psychology or neuroscience following a gap year in which she hopes to gain more field experience in a full-time job.
Marisa interned at Greenlight Family Services under their counseling program which provides twenty free sessions of therapy for college students who have experienced sexual assault. Her ongoing project was primarily student outreach in which her responsibilities included managing Greenlight’s social media platform, connecting with student organizations, and leading discussions at on-campus events to inform students of this crucial resource. She has participated in meetings in which she gained experience speaking with professionals about intimate partner violence and sexual violence. Marisa has a passion for helping survivors of sexual assault reconnect with their minds and bodies to instill hope after a traumatic experience.
Maya Gomez
Rainbow's for All Children
Maya Gomez is a 4th year majoring in human services with minors in psychology and art history. During most of her time at Loyola, Maya has been a student leader through the peer advisor program where she has grown in her skills as an interpersonal, organized, and passionate leader. Maya is originally from San Clemente, California, and hopes to return after graduation to establish a career in helping others with her family and friends close by.
Maya completed her human services fieldwork requirement at Rainbow’s for All Children in Evanston as a fundraising and event planning intern. Rainbow’s for All Children is an international, non-profit organization that trains volunteers at community-based sites to lead structured, age-specific support groups for children who are grieving loss. As an intern, Maya worked on a number of different projects such as researching grants that Rainbow’s may be eligible for, thanking donors through phone calls, and researching the impact COVID-19 has had on children in regards to grief and loss. Maya also assisted with the beginning of a new program offered through Rainbows called RYLA (Rainbows Youth Leadership Academy) and helped with various fundraising events. Her favorite part of the internship was connecting with her co-workers in the office and learning to take on new roles and tasks as needed.
Sarah Gerards
Gerber/Hart Library and Archives
Sarah Gerards is a junior studying history and global studies at Loyola University Chicago. Sarah is involved on campus in the Interdisciplinary Honors Program, serves as the gHu External Coordinator for GlobeMed, and is involved in the history club and honors society. Sarah is passionate about world history and global social justice.
During her Spring 2022 semester, Sarah had the opportunity to intern at the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives. Gerber/Hart is the Midwest's largest and oldest LGBTQ+ library and archive. During her time at the archives, Sarah worked on a collection of t-shirts that related to LGBTQ+ history. To do so, she worked to research the histories of the t-shirts, date them, and digitally catalog them so they would be easily accessible to future scholars. Sarah's favorite part of her internship was learning more about Queer history and examining material artifacts.
Serena Napolitano
Modern Luxury
Serena Napolitano is a junior studying multimedia journalism with a minor in philosophy on the pre-law track. Serena has been involved with Loyola’s New Student Program as an Orientation Leader and is now the Programming Intern for First-Year Orientation.
During the Spring 2022 semester, Serena interned with the nation’s largest luxury media company, Modern Luxury, as a Digital Editorial Intern. Throughout her time, Serena conducted interviews with professionals around the nation and wrote articles that are published across their brands. One of her favorite projects was interviewing the founders of a well-known beauty line, born and raised in Colombia, sharing to all of Modern Luxury’s readers the influential story of a minority-owned business.
Sophia Alvarado
Loyola University Chicago's Urban Agriculture Program
Sophia Alvarado is a junior pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with a minor in anthropology at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Environmental Sustainability. Additionally, Sophia is pursuing a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Sustainability (MSESS) through Loyola’s Dual Degree Program in Sustainable Business Management.
During the Spring 2022 semester, Sophia is an intern in Loyola University Chicago’s Urban Agriculture Program, where she has learned the different program rotations of aquaponics, indoor mushroom production, gardening, and hydroponics. During the internship she has gained hands-on experience from each greenhouse rotation, learning different aspects of greenhouse management. This experience is helping her to better understand urban agriculture's role and its place in society. As part of her internship, she is working on the Winthrop Shade Garden redesign and implementation. The goal of the redesign is to focus on utilizing native edible plants, native flowers, and herbs. By focusing on native plants, the redesign will require little maintenance and should attract butterflies and other pollinators to the area.
Yesenia Muñoz
Pediatric Developmental Center at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center
Yesenia Muñoz is a senior at Loyola University Chicago pursuing a major in psychology with a focus on the pre-med path. In her undergraduate years, Yesenia has filled her experiences with volunteer work in various departments at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center (AIMMC) and now holds a job in their Guest Services department. On campus, she holds a role as the Treasurer for both Mujeres en Medicina & Psi Chi, while also working as a Resident Assistant for Residence Life. Additionally, she works alongside a Loyola faculty member to fulfill research that aims at identifying the impacts of COVID-19 at a School-Based Health Center.
Yesenia is interning at the Pediatric Developmental Center at AIMMC and assists the center in various aspects. She observes medical diagnostic evaluations where a developmental pediatrician and various therapists assess a child’s development through work play. She attends didactic seminars and parent training to collect information for a podcast she’s creating for English and Spanish speaking families that have children with Autism. She also facilitates a group therapy session alongside a behavioral therapist and an extern to help children develop basic life skills. In addition to those tasks, she helps create visual supports for patients.
Sam Spain
Step Up for Mental Health
Sam Spain is a senior undergraduate student at Loyola University Chicago pursuing a degree in psychology and sociology with a minor in photography. She is a first-generation college student from Chicago, Illinois, with a passion for advocacy and research. She is involved in a developmental psychology lab where she is currently working on her senior thesis. Sam is also a Resident Assistant, fostering community for students living on-campus. She is the chapter president of Loyola’s Best Buddies chapter and vice-president for Loyola Photography Club. After graduation, Sam intends to take a gap year to gain more research experience before applying to graduate programs in psychology.
Throughout the spring 2022 semester, Sam interned as a Peer Support Facilitator at Step Up for Mental Health, a non-profit organization that supports families dealing with mental health issues primarily in the Chicagoland area. As an intern, Sam provided support and assistance to individuals in need or in crisis by operating the helpline, engaging in one-to-one peer chats, managing client casework, and leading a peer support group for parents of children with mental illnesses. Sam also coordinated educational outreach on the topic of mental health in the bisexual community by creating and co-hosting a podcast. Sam enjoyed being able to assist individuals and see the positive impact it had on their lives.
Andrea Hernandez
Healthcare with a focus in Neurological Disease solutions
Andrea Hernandez is a senior at Loyola University Chicago majoring in neuroscience following the molecular cellular and pre-med track. Andrea wants to become a physician and an independent health services researcher in order to develop innovative and accessible healthcare solutions for patients with neurological conditions such as movement disorders.
Throughout Andrea’s experience in her internship, along with her courses at Loyola, she became motivated in studying neurodegenerative diseases. Ever since her exposure to research at Rush University Medical Center two years ago, Andrea has continued participating in research dedicated to telemedicine for patients with Parkinson’s Disease. Within her internship, Andrea had the privilege of investigating how to reduce barriers such as transportation and access to specialized care by studying the feasibility of delivering care directly to the patient’s home.
Ashley Klocke
Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Ashley Klocke is a senior at Loyola University Chicago pursuing her Bachelor’s in criminal justice and sociology. She is currently a Petty Officer Second Class in the United States Navy Reserves. She has achieved academic excellence and holds a lifelong membership to the Alpha Phi Sigma Criminal Justice Honors Society. This past year, she was an intern for the Algonquin Police Department in Illinois. Throughout her undergraduate career, Ashley has developed a passion for research and intelligence analysis through her positions held with the Department of Defense and Investigations Department at her internship. With the experience she acquired through these positions, she hopes to continue to serve her community.
During her Spring 2022 semester, Ashley is completing a 16-week internship with the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA), a state agency dedicated to improving the administration of criminal justice. As a research intern, Ashley collaborates with a research team that manages the R3 (Restore, Renew, Reinvest) Grant Program for Illinois. Her work assists in providing funds for Chicago communities that have been harmed by violence, excessive incarceration, and economic disinvestment. Currently, she contributes to this project by creating feedback surveys for applicants that notify the research team of any possible discrepancies for the applicants during the application process. The perspective that Ashley has gained from interning with ICJIA has allowed her to critically reflect on the diverse discussions that are necessary to help spread awareness of the issues that these communities are enduring.
Callie Bergeron
Penguin Foot Pottery
Callie Bergeron is currently a senior at Loyola majoring in sculpture and ceramics with a minor in women and gender studies. Callie has been pursuing ceramics for fourteen years, but her work has expanded through her experience at Loyola. She has a love for reading, cooking, and the outdoors, as well as all things creative.
Penguin Foot Pottery is a ceramics studio and school specializing in art classes. During her semester-long internship at Penguin Foot Pottery, she assisted instructors and students, formulated and refined glazes, and learned new techniques from professionals. Penguin Foot provided Callie with the opportunity to learn and create alongside people of every skill level, and gave her insight into the everyday running of a ceramics studio, especially one that strives to be inclusive and safe for people of all identities and walks of life.
Enkh-Ariun Munkhgerel
Haymarket Center
Enkh-Ariun Munkhgerel is a senior pursuing a Bachelor's in social work and a minor in entrepreneurship. Enkh-Ariun is an international student from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and chose to study abroad because she values intercultural growth, adventure, and exploring new experiences outside her comfort zone.
Currently, Enkh-Ariun interns at Haymarket Center where she facilitates group counseling and engages with patients experiencing drug and substance use disorder in the Women's Integrated Treatment. Enkh-Ariun completes a multitude of tasks not limited to lecturing and focusing on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, recovery, and patient care work and therapy. Haymarket has helped Enkh Ariun acquire training relevant to social work such as clinical skills, intersectionality, group work, therapeutic communities, crisis intervention, micro/mezzo/macro practice, and so forth. As she serves a diverse and culturally rich clientele, Enkh-Ariun is determined to grow, impact, be open to versatility, equity approaches, and the importance of healthy allyship.
Ellery Jenkins Therriault
49th Ward Chicago Alderman Maria Hadden
Ellery Jenkins Therriault is a senior majoring in Political Science who is interning at Alderwoman Maria Hadden’s office of the 49th Ward of Chicago. Ellery has always been interested in public policy and hopes to utilize his interests in various policy issues by pursuing a career in policy analysis or non-profit work. Ellery’s policy interests range from equitable infrastructure to foreign policy. Being from Chicago, he is especially passionate about urban policy matters.
At Ald. Hadden’s office, Ellery supports the office staff where needed. This primarily includes answering constituent calls like informational inquiries, local concerns, or calls from various city departments. Oftentimes, handling constituent phone calls can include filing a service request with the city for whatever issues residents may be facing, such as potholes in alleys or streets, rodent infestations, overgrown trees, streetlight outages, illegal parking, water or sewer outages, criminal activity, or landlord-tenant disputes. Additionally, Ellery spends time developing and updating the 49th ward website, particularly keeping information on COVID-19 relief resources and utility and housing assistance up to date for constituents to easily access. Moreover, Ellery’s duties also include making calls to Chicago City Departments for assistance, hanging up public information flyers, or researching new resources to add to the 49th ward website.
Gabriella Alghini
Northwestern Cardiac Rehab and Nuclear Cardiology units
Gabriella Alghini is a senior studying exercise science from Thousand Oaks, CA. On campus, Gabriella is a member of Chi Omega Lambda Mu, Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society, and the Exercise Science Mentorship program. Off campus, Gabriella works as an EMT-B in Skokie, IL. After graduation, Gabriella hopes to start her career as an Exercise Physiologist and get her masters in Exercise Science.
Gabriella is interning with Northwestern’s Cardiac Rehab and Nuclear Cardiology Units. The goal of cardiac rehab is to help strengthen a patient’s heart after a cardiac event. In nuclear cardiology, Exercise Physiologists administer exercise and pharmacological stress tests as part of cardiac perfusion studies. Gabriella is tasked with recording blood pressures for rehab patients, managing telemetry equipment, preparing equipment for exercise stress tests, talking with patients about stress test procedures, preparing patients’ skin for and placing ECG leads, observing ECG tracings, and noting abnormalities under the supervision of other Exercise Physiologists. She also helps to create patient education materials.
Gillian Cookerly-Dietrich
The Office of IL Senator Tammy Duckworth
Gillian Cookerly-Dietrich is a current senior at Loyola studying political science and global studies with minors in Spanish and anthropology. She has held leadership positions on-campus in organizations including Alpha Chi Omega, Loyola Club Softball, and the Department of Residence Life, as well as at her longtime resident summer camp. She has a passion for youth development, serving others, and strengthening her communities.
Through her internship with Senator Tammy Duckworth’s Chicago office, Gillian assists the casework team in solving issues that constituents may have with other government agencies. She also helps with projects focused on education and is currently developing her own legislative proposal on educational grants.
Marisa Bowman
Greenlight Family Services
Marisa Bowman is a senior majoring in psychology and cognitive/behavioral neuroscience at Loyola. Marisa is involved with the Interdisciplinary Honors Program and has worked part-time at Subway for four years during her undergraduate program. She plans to attend graduate school for psychology or neuroscience following a gap year in which she hopes to gain more field experience in a full-time job.
Marisa interned at Greenlight Family Services under their counseling program which provides twenty free sessions of therapy for college students who have experienced sexual assault. Her ongoing project was primarily student outreach in which her responsibilities included managing Greenlight’s social media platform, connecting with student organizations, and leading discussions at on-campus events to inform students of this crucial resource. She has participated in meetings in which she gained experience speaking with professionals about intimate partner violence and sexual violence. Marisa has a passion for helping survivors of sexual assault reconnect with their minds and bodies to instill hope after a traumatic experience.
Maya Gomez
Rainbow's for All Children
Maya Gomez is a 4th year majoring in human services with minors in psychology and art history. During most of her time at Loyola, Maya has been a student leader through the peer advisor program where she has grown in her skills as an interpersonal, organized, and passionate leader. Maya is originally from San Clemente, California, and hopes to return after graduation to establish a career in helping others with her family and friends close by.
Maya completed her human services fieldwork requirement at Rainbow’s for All Children in Evanston as a fundraising and event planning intern. Rainbow’s for All Children is an international, non-profit organization that trains volunteers at community-based sites to lead structured, age-specific support groups for children who are grieving loss. As an intern, Maya worked on a number of different projects such as researching grants that Rainbow’s may be eligible for, thanking donors through phone calls, and researching the impact COVID-19 has had on children in regards to grief and loss. Maya also assisted with the beginning of a new program offered through Rainbows called RYLA (Rainbows Youth Leadership Academy) and helped with various fundraising events. Her favorite part of the internship was connecting with her co-workers in the office and learning to take on new roles and tasks as needed.
Sarah Gerards
Gerber/Hart Library and Archives
Sarah Gerards is a junior studying history and global studies at Loyola University Chicago. Sarah is involved on campus in the Interdisciplinary Honors Program, serves as the gHu External Coordinator for GlobeMed, and is involved in the history club and honors society. Sarah is passionate about world history and global social justice.
During her Spring 2022 semester, Sarah had the opportunity to intern at the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives. Gerber/Hart is the Midwest's largest and oldest LGBTQ+ library and archive. During her time at the archives, Sarah worked on a collection of t-shirts that related to LGBTQ+ history. To do so, she worked to research the histories of the t-shirts, date them, and digitally catalog them so they would be easily accessible to future scholars. Sarah's favorite part of her internship was learning more about Queer history and examining material artifacts.
Serena Napolitano
Modern Luxury
Serena Napolitano is a junior studying multimedia journalism with a minor in philosophy on the pre-law track. Serena has been involved with Loyola’s New Student Program as an Orientation Leader and is now the Programming Intern for First-Year Orientation.
During the Spring 2022 semester, Serena interned with the nation’s largest luxury media company, Modern Luxury, as a Digital Editorial Intern. Throughout her time, Serena conducted interviews with professionals around the nation and wrote articles that are published across their brands. One of her favorite projects was interviewing the founders of a well-known beauty line, born and raised in Colombia, sharing to all of Modern Luxury’s readers the influential story of a minority-owned business.
Sophia Alvarado
Loyola University Chicago's Urban Agriculture Program
Sophia Alvarado is a junior pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with a minor in anthropology at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Environmental Sustainability. Additionally, Sophia is pursuing a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Sustainability (MSESS) through Loyola’s Dual Degree Program in Sustainable Business Management.
During the Spring 2022 semester, Sophia is an intern in Loyola University Chicago’s Urban Agriculture Program, where she has learned the different program rotations of aquaponics, indoor mushroom production, gardening, and hydroponics. During the internship she has gained hands-on experience from each greenhouse rotation, learning different aspects of greenhouse management. This experience is helping her to better understand urban agriculture's role and its place in society. As part of her internship, she is working on the Winthrop Shade Garden redesign and implementation. The goal of the redesign is to focus on utilizing native edible plants, native flowers, and herbs. By focusing on native plants, the redesign will require little maintenance and should attract butterflies and other pollinators to the area.
Yesenia Muñoz
Pediatric Developmental Center at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center
Yesenia Muñoz is a senior at Loyola University Chicago pursuing a major in psychology with a focus on the pre-med path. In her undergraduate years, Yesenia has filled her experiences with volunteer work in various departments at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center (AIMMC) and now holds a job in their Guest Services department. On campus, she holds a role as the Treasurer for both Mujeres en Medicina & Psi Chi, while also working as a Resident Assistant for Residence Life. Additionally, she works alongside a Loyola faculty member to fulfill research that aims at identifying the impacts of COVID-19 at a School-Based Health Center.
Yesenia is interning at the Pediatric Developmental Center at AIMMC and assists the center in various aspects. She observes medical diagnostic evaluations where a developmental pediatrician and various therapists assess a child’s development through work play. She attends didactic seminars and parent training to collect information for a podcast she’s creating for English and Spanish speaking families that have children with Autism. She also facilitates a group therapy session alongside a behavioral therapist and an extern to help children develop basic life skills. In addition to those tasks, she helps create visual supports for patients.
Sam Spain
Step Up for Mental Health
Sam Spain is a senior undergraduate student at Loyola University Chicago pursuing a degree in psychology and sociology with a minor in photography. She is a first-generation college student from Chicago, Illinois, with a passion for advocacy and research. She is involved in a developmental psychology lab where she is currently working on her senior thesis. Sam is also a Resident Assistant, fostering community for students living on-campus. She is the chapter president of Loyola’s Best Buddies chapter and vice-president for Loyola Photography Club. After graduation, Sam intends to take a gap year to gain more research experience before applying to graduate programs in psychology.
Throughout the spring 2022 semester, Sam interned as a Peer Support Facilitator at Step Up for Mental Health, a non-profit organization that supports families dealing with mental health issues primarily in the Chicagoland area. As an intern, Sam provided support and assistance to individuals in need or in crisis by operating the helpline, engaging in one-to-one peer chats, managing client casework, and leading a peer support group for parents of children with mental illnesses. Sam also coordinated educational outreach on the topic of mental health in the bisexual community by creating and co-hosting a podcast. Sam enjoyed being able to assist individuals and see the positive impact it had on their lives.