For some of SLU’s experiential learners, this fall’s internship was the first time they ever used an office phone. For others, it was their first time in an office, period. Several raved about the Work, Culture and Politics in New York City course, which took them on eye-opening field trips to places like the Department of Sanitation. And many noted the satisfaction of taking classes covering topics that are interrelated with their work.
Participants in the Union Semester and Community Semester programs got together earlier in December to celebrate and share what they learned during their placements in workplaces from union headquarters to a transgender medical clinic. Two of them, Alex Pellitteri and Jules Vasquez, accepted offers to continue at their workplaces.
Students in both programs spend 20 hours per week at their internship and take four classes at SLU over the course of the semester. Here’s a look at the rewards that four interns reaped from novel experiences.
Alex Pellitteri
A Brooklyn native who lives in Sunset Park, Alex took a train to a bus to a long walk in order to reach his internship on Staten Island at Local 153 of the Federation of Catholic Teachers. This was the first time Local 153 hosted an SLU intern – and they ended up offering Alex a part-time job.
“I’m going to work as their membership coordinator, and I’ll be assisting with some of their current contract campaign. They also want to be able to build more solidarity and relationships with parents and other community organizations,” he said.
Alex, 25, had no experience with Catholic school. But in a previous post at the New York State Nurses Association, he’d already worked in the unglamorous but crucial membership function: “It’s how the union collects dues and has money to function,” he said. “You can’t organize if you don’t know who’s eligible to be in the bargaining unit.”
Alex got his B.A. in Political Science at Hunter College. In SLU’s Union Semester, he said, “I really liked how there was a combination of the more academic and theory-based practice, as well as the hands-on field experience.”
Jules Vasquez
Jules grew up in the Hudson Valley, and until now his work experience was mostly physical labor. After a few months interning at the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), however, he had already designed a quintessential NYC policy document: a new report laying out NYIC’s recommendations for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s first 100 days in office.
Jules, 23, had been interested in graphic design and hoped the internship would give him design exposure. He’s grateful to NYIC for immersing him in graphic design precepts and projects, to the point where he’s going to stay on at NYIC as an in-house designer on contract.
“I definitely feel much more confident and empowered because of this experience,” said Jules, who eventually wants to do transportation and environmental organizing back in the Hudson Valley.
He noted that the group field trip to NYU’s Tamiment Library and Wagner Labor Archives gave him fresh artistic inspiration. Seeing old documents and pamphlets showed Jules “how much art, especially, really did so much for cohesion of social movements,” he said.
Dan Gray
Dan is an ambitious singer and performer who wanted to learn more about unions. The 32-year-old Florida native was glad to be placed at Writer’s Guild of America East so he could be in the arts world or arts-adjacent. He started out researching sports media, which he knew little about – yet his work ended up making an impact.
Dan’s tasks had him researching a number of workplaces, including some very much in the news. The major Paramount-CBS deal resulted in ongoing layoffs at both companies, and Dan’s research helped the union deliver protective information so workers would have a better chance to keep their jobs.
“That was really crazy to me. Like, in the middle of the semester, just seeing everything turn 3D. It felt like everything became 3D to me,” Dan said. “Because at first I was like, ‘Oh, I’m just making lists, whatever,’ but then it was like, ‘No, actually I just kind of helped thousands of people, maybe?’”
Dan lives in Bed-Stuy and has worked in medical billing for years, so next he plans to get a certificate in that field from CUNY SPS. More union involvement probably lies ahead too. He’s always heard his mother say that she loves her union at Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
“It kind of all started making sense once I was in it,” Dan said. “Every day after class, I would call my mom and fill her in on what I learned. She was kind of like my outlet, because I know she was so interested. She was so happy to see me learning more about unions.”
Zoe Benjamin
Zoe was drawn to Community Semester because she wanted to volunteer for a trans rights organization. She didn’t find an opportunity on her own, and knew that SLU would help to make a match. She was placed in a location that’s new to the program: the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai.
There, she learned the most about trans matters during the extensive onboarding. After that, much of her work was doing patient navigation and outreach for patients who needed extra support with obtaining HIV treatment.
A Connecticut native, Zoe moved to NYC after getting a B.A. in Theatre at Ball State University in Indiana. The 23-year-old works on theater and singing projects – and her internship reinforced her desires to continue with artistic creation.
“For community organizing, there’s a lot of stuff that I’m still ruminating on. I think I’m finally understanding what people mean in terms of how important relationships are to getting stuff done, and that always felt really abstract to me,” Zoe said.
“I think it has made me realize that if I continue to build relationships through making art, at some point when I feel passionate about one project or another, I have a base already of people who will show up. So I think that’s been a cool realization through community organizing.”