Meet the 2022 interns

 

Alice Choe is in her last year of the Master of Public Health (MPH) in Community Health and Prevention program at Drexel University. She worked on the Robin Hood Mobility LABs project.

Sarah Khullar recently graduated with an MS in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. She supported the City of Philadelphia Anti-Violence Community Partnership Grant Program.

Pegah Maleki received her MPH and MSW from the University of Pennsylvania. Her internship focused on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Digital Learning Infrastructure Capacity and Knowledge Sharing project.

Ola Onawole holds an MPH in Community Health and Prevention from Drexel University. She interned with the Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative’s Justice and Governance Partnership.

An evaluative lens

Throughout the spring and summer, the 2022 cohort participated in all-staff and team meetings to learn more about Equal Measure and the projects they’d each support:

• Robin Hood Mobility LABs, an initiative that engages with place-based partners to develop community-driven solutions to sustainably lift families out of poverty
• City of Philadelphia Anti-Violence Community Partnership Grant Program, which brings new resources for violence prevention and intervention funding to organizations doing critical work in neighborhoods across Philadelphia
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Digital Learning Infrastructure Capacity and Knowledge Sharing, to inform foundation strategy and awareness about digital learning infrastructure that drives equitable student success at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and in higher education more broadly
• Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative’s Justice and Governance Partnership, a collaboration among government and communities to improve justice-related policies

The internship program also included recommended readings that spanned systems change, racial equity, and evaluation practice. To expand each person’s evaluation experience, projects entailed quantitative and qualitative activities managed by a director or senior director.

When Alice joined the Robin Hood project, the Equal Measure team had started to evaluate Mobility LABs’ first year of implementation. “I reviewed and cleaned survey data from local partner sites, then analyzed the results,” she said. “I also qualitatively coded interview transcripts and came up with themes for each site. It was impactful to learn what communities across the country are doing to support and empower their residents to achieve economic stability, autonomy, and a sense of belonging.”

For Sarah’s work with the City of Philadelphia evaluation team, hearing from program grantees proved especially powerful. “I particularly enjoyed participating in interviews with grantees because I was able to hear the first-hand experiences of people who are doing gun violence prevention work,” she said. “To further my qualitative skills, I learned how to use the software program NVivo, create a codebook for qualitative analysis, and develop a focus group protocol.”

All interns contributed to final products ranging from infographics to presentations for clients.

The intersections of social change

Equal Measure’s cross-sector expertise and focus on systems change surfaced as a benefit to the cohort. Each intern’s background reflected an interdisciplinary approach to project work, as well, as the group brought their training from fields such as community health, policy, and social work.

All projects’ focus areas―economic mobility, anti-violence interventions, digital learning, and criminal justice―intersected with the need to examine structural barriers in creating more equitable communities. For this reason, the interns also underscored the importance of equitable evaluation, learning alongside project teams and applying equitable practices in real time.

“It’s been an awesome opportunity to learn more about how Equal Measure functions internally, specifically the commitment and integration of equity into all steps of a project,” Pegah noted. “I’ve learned more about equitable evaluation: its intention, importance, and application. But I’m mostly grateful for the immersive learning experience, to see it in practice.”

As the 2022 cohort wraps up this fall, project teams will continue to build on the contributions from each intern. Applications for the next cohort open in 2023.