About Us
June 18, 2020
New Partnerships and a Summer Reinvented
During the spring and early summer, while many internships and jobs were lost, we are proud that our partners, team and fellows coordinated to create world class internship projects to ensure that every Jeannette K. Watson Fellow has a remarkable summer experience. A few highlights:
-A new strategic partnership with the The Aspen Institute, a global nonprofit committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. This summer seven Watson Fellows are working with Aspen on complex social challenges including trust-building in the contact tracing process, and a global healthcare campaign to raise awareness, create action, and measure the impact of COVID-19 crisis efforts in marginalized communities.
-5x Growth in our Resilience Commitment. In 2016 we began our urban resilience work, an area that fellows showed interest as future policy makers and sustainability leaders. Last summer at the Rockefeller/100 Resilient Cities Summit in Rotterdam we committed to doubling down on this work. We are happy to share that in 2020 we have five times the number of urban resilience internships this summer than in 2019 including placements in the mayors’ offices of Houston, Pittsburgh, Sydney and in the Resilient Cities Catalyst in New York City.
While all fellows are working remotely this summer, they are with world-class local and global partner organizations including The Bail Project, Justice Centre Hong Kong, IBM Corporate Social Responsibility, the NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, and many more.
-Watson + Design For America This summer many fellows are developing world-class innovation skills through a partnership with Design for America so they can transfer the summer learning to their own communities and beyond.
A complete list of Watson Fellow 2020 Internships
Aaron Fernando (John Jay) - The Bail Project, CA
Ana Maria Oliynyk (CCNY) - Mayor’s Office of Resilience, Houston, TX
Annabel Gregg (Hunter) - Urban Justice Center, Safety Net Project, NYC
Alina Camejo (Baruch) - IBM Corporate Social Responsibility, NYC
Camille Wilson (Hunter) - The Bail Project, CA
Christy Suquitana (Queens) - NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs
Devashish Basnet (Hunter) - Justice Centre Hong Kong
Evelyn Austin (St. John’s) - Resilient Sydney, Australia
Fatu Amara (CSI) - University of Oxford, United Kingdom
UK Isabel Gouse (Hunter) - NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice
Jessica Duque (Pace) Institute for Economics and Peace (spring 2020), Australia
Jewel Antoine (St. John’s) Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, CA
Karishma Malhotra (Baruch) - Bank of Montreal, IL
Kharan Pierce (St. John's) - NYC Office of Emergency Management
Marlyn Paulino (Queens) - Center for Health and Gender Equity, Washington, DC
Melissa Lent (Hunter) - Gotham Gazette, NYC
Musarrat Lamia (John Jay) - NewCities Foundation, Canada
Nina Daro (Brooklyn) - AFL-CIO, Washington, DC
Rene Clever (Lehman) USC, Institute for Creative Technologies, CA
Rene Yaroshevsky (Queens) - West Africa Centre for Counter-Extremism, Ghana
Roy Quintuna (Brooklyn) - NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice
Salma Mohamed (Brooklyn) - SolidarityNow, Greece
Shakila Khan (Hunter) - Museum of the City of New York
Sumana Ali (Lehman) - NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice
Teagan Sweet (St. John’s) - University of Notre Dame, Actinide Center of Excellence, IN
The Aspen Institute, Global Innovators Group: New Solutions Project
Hamida Chumpa, Baruch College
Hannah Tetreault, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Mohamed Magassa, Lehman College
Renuka Surujnarain, Queens College
The Aspen Institute, Global Innovators Group: Health for All Project
Luz Maria Cespedes, The City College of New York
Raquel Merino, Brooklyn College
Sahiti Kovvuri, Baruch College
Resilient Cities Catalyst: COVID Economic Recovery Project
Amanda Zhu, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Amelia Smyth, The City College of New York
Jacob Sellman, Hunter College
Nibras Ahmed, Hunter College
Resilient Cities Catalyst: Food Systems & Government Innovation Project
Clyde Drayton, St. John’s University
Julie Margolin, Baruch College
Resilient Cities Catalyst: California Resilience Partnership Project
Jenna Chandu, St. John’s University
City of Pittsburgh: Sustainability and Resilience, Food Security Project
Alyssa Mae Alvarez, Pace University
Ethan Giroux, Marymount Manhattan College
Ethan Burrell, St. John's University
Yvonne Scorcia, Queens College
Anna Shvetsova, Hunter College