2023 Summer Bulldogs Report

1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs

SB23 Report

This summer, 90 Yale College and Graduate School students completed exciting internships through1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs. These interns, most of whom were on financial aid and /or first generation, had paid or award-funded internships in 61 nonprofits, arts, government, public service, and for-profit organizations. Award-funded students were supported by over $286,000 through Yale OCS’s Summer Experience Award (SEA) and fellowships from the Yale Office of Fellowships & Funding.

“As a Yale alumna,” says Kimberly Jones ’00, Council for Opportunity in Education’s new President, “I am supremely proud of the efforts of the university to support students – particularly those from low-income, first-generation backgrounds – in taking advantage of experiential learning through funded public service internships. These formative experiences often direct the course of a student’s life following graduation and, as a former financial aid recipient myself, I know they would not be possible without the resources provided by the University.”

Some highlights from our 2023 1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs internship program include:

  • 75 different internships across the U.S. and abroad; 90 student interns
  • Work model: 22 remote only, 8 in-person, 31 hybrid
  • FGLI breakdown: 70% first-gen; 96% on financial aid
  • Interns class breakdown:  33% Rising Sophomores; 41% Rising Juniors; 20% Rising Seniors; 3 Seniors; 2 graduate students
  • 61 hosts participated: 10 Yale faculty (16%), 30 Yale alum (49%)
  • Host organization breakdown: 5 for-profit; 51 non-profit (84%); 9 arts; 2 government; 7 university; 3 law; 26 STEM; 21 health; and more (See Footnote (1) for the List of 2023 1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs Internships.)
  • 5 alumni volunteers

IMPACT

Stephan

“I’m grateful for having been connected with my summer internship through the Summer Bulldogs program,” says Stephan O. ’24 who interned with Generation Mental Health. “Navigating the internship process is incredibly stressful because it seems like everyone knows where to pluck out these really cool opportunities out of thin air, but the Summer Bulldogs program helped me feel like I knew where I could get these same opportunities just as easily as my peers.”

“As an intern, I was able to play a leading role in driving real-world impact through a variety of important quantitative and qualitative projects, says Wendy Z. ’25 who worked at the Public Health Corps (PHC) program of New York City Health & Hospitals. By engaging with every aspect of the PHC program, especially at the patient-provider level, she was able to “understand truly how big of an impact community health workers have.”  She says, “This was the first internship I have had, and I think I grew a lot professionally through this experience.  I was able to learn a lot and interact with many different types of people at the office — many of whom share similar academic and other passions as I do!”

For Mia G. ’26, her internship with the Yale School of Public Health RENEW team “opened her eyes” to “the reality of nationwide public health issues. It’s one thing to know an issue; it’s another to listen to the stories of those affected and truly begin to understand it.”

New Graduate and Professional School Interns

In addition to our support for college students, this year we piloted offering internships for post-graduate students. Two PhD students conducted research on contested monuments in Japan and the Czech Republic which will lead to an Andrew Mellon Foundation awarded project of an interactive map that documents controversial monuments and actions being taken to address them.

“1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs has given me an invaluable chance to take academic interests—in the history of militarism in Asia—and present them to a public audience through an internship at World Heritage USA,” notes Henry Z. PhD ‘27. “I am very grateful for the opportunity, and my dissertation project has already benefited greatly from the work I’ve done here.”

On our host partners. 

“The program is invaluable,” according to Bora Lee, Chief of Staff, Fifth Avenue Committee, which is “committed to racial, economic and social justice and that isn’t possible without staff and interns who understand what that means at a personal and deep level.” Our 1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs intern, she tells us, “very much aligned with our values and was able to provide unmeasurable impact to our community because of her relation to our work in a personal way.”

As a small nonprofit, the 1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs projects “were key for us in understanding two areas of mission driven services,” writes Leigh Doherty, Executive Director of Literacy Network. Finding time to conduct such research internally would have been near impossible. The work of the interns allows us to move forward with key knowledge and in a timely manner. We are so grateful.”


“This is Springtide’s second year participating in the program, and we were once again impressed by (and grateful for) the high-quality work and contributions of Yale’s First-Gen students to our organization,” expressed Nabil Tueme, Senior Research Associate at Springtide Research Institute.  “Our intern this year, Tsion A. ‘26, was fantastic and has a bright future ahead of her. Thank you for connecting her with us and we look forward to participating again next summer.”

Total 2020-2023 results

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, our Yale alumni volunteer-led initiative has placed 239 FGLI students in summer internships. They’ve worked in research at Yale, arts, education, government, public service, and social justice programs.  They’ve been funded by over $787,000 in awards from the Yale SEA program and Office of Fellowships and Funding.

  • 2023 – Placed 90 Yale College and Graduate School FGLI students (70% first-gen; 96% on financial aid) in 61 internship projects, funded by over $286,000 in fellowships and awards, and over $37,000 in pay.
  • 2022 – Placed 99 Yale College FGLI students (63% first-gen, 95% on financial aid) in 74 summer internship projects (2), funded by over $323,000 in fellowships and awards. 
  • 2021 – Placed 44 Yale College FGLI students, reflecting 70% with 27 faculty from the Yale Schools of Management, Medicine, and Public Health and two non-profits, and funded by $153,000 in awards from SEA and Yale Fellowships and Funding Office. One measure of our success is that YSPH faculty hired 5 of our Summer Bulldogs interns to continue their work and paid throughout the 2021-2022 academic year. 
  • 2020 – Placed 6 Yale College FGLI students funded by $24,000 in SEA awards with Professor Daniel Markovitz at the Yale Law School.

In Conclusion

Now in our 7th year, 1stGenYale’s mission supports first-generation low-income Yale alumni by creating a community to connect, share, and support each other and students through intentional programming such as this internship program. By celebrating cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, and thought diversity, we provide our 6,000 alumni & student members with a home of inclusion, opportunity, and lifelong friendships. We strive to have a positive impact on the lives of our students and fellow alumni – all in tandem with Yale and the YAA mission.

“It was an entirely new field,” said Jaxon H. ’25 of working at the New York Film and Music Foundation. “I gained valuable skills and feel well equipped to apply to similar internships and jobs in the future.” 

“Through 1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs, I have been able to secure an internship with a great company and have gained valuable skills!”  Felicia F. ’25 worked at Team Pennsylvania, a statewide entity co-chaired by the Governor and a private sector leader to accelerate Pennsylvania’s economy.

See additional quotes from student interns and sponsors in the Appendix.

Footnotes

(1) List of 2023 1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs Internships – ____________________—

(2) List of 2022 1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs Internships – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b5FOV8gyVYJLCe3LoD8YSHt1W-KzN2z1W4C3d7svGy0/edit?usp=sharing

Appendix

2023 1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/DZmB4jYRdBHc2M4w9

2023 Spotlights on 1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs: _____________________

2022 1stGenYale Summer Bulldogs Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jQYMsnZTgoy7qx9n8

Recordings