Alumni and Parents Support Learning Outside the Classroom
Peter “Bear” St. Michael, C’16
Math major Peter “Bear” St. Michael came to the College all the way from Maui, drawn, he says, by the opportunity to live and learn in the University’s urban environment. He has loved his math courses, but what has taught him the most is his work at Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships, where he is the Gershwind Family Foundation and Bennett Family Foundation Student Intern. At the center, he has had the chance to mentor West Philadelphia high school students, analyze their classroom space, and lead them in a campus beautification project based on research he helped them conduct, among other exciting opportunities.
St. Michael’s work with the Netter Center has become a real focal point of his education and even led him to declare a minor in urban education. Of the internship experience, he says, “With the learning opportunity of an internship, students have the chance to explore and create real products that actually can be implemented, that actually affect people. You’re not making widgets; you’re not looking at how people changed things in the past. You are changing things, for real, creatively, actively, right now—you have already begun to genuinely and meaningfully contribute to society, to humanity.”
Stacey Bennett, C:95, with husband Michael
Netter Center Board Member Stacey Bennett, C’95, and her brother, Library overseer Erik Gershwind, W’93, created the internship hoping for just that outcome. Bennett is impressed with the energy and commitment St. Michael brings to his role. “He has so many incredible qualities,” she says. “It’s exciting to see people with that kind of promise and that kind of future taking an interest in change in the community, not just focusing on themselves but on the larger society.”
Louise and Peter Havens, PAR'05, PAR'08, with students supported by their internship fund, from left, Nathan May, C'17; Ashley Terry, C'16; and Beatrice Field, C'17 (photo credit Jean-Marie Kneeley)
Former Penn parents Louise and Peter Havens also support internships for College students. Their internships focus on the humanities and provide paid summer work experiences for students at places such as Kelly Writers House, Van Pelt Library, and the Penn Museum.
In making their gift, the couple recognized that many students must work over the summer to make ends meet, and wanted to give them a way to support themselves while still advancing their education. Peter Havens, a financial advisor with a particular interest in medical science, says he felt fortunate as a Harvard economics and pre-med student to find summer work at a hospital. “It was good to be able to focus on something that was giving me practical knowledge about what I was learning in the labs at Harvard. I was on hospital floors; I was assisting people who were sick. It was a tremendous educational experience, a real-world experience.”
Like Bennett, Peter and Louise Havens have gotten to know the students who participate in the internships they support. Each year, they host a dinner with the interns to learn about their summer experiences. “We enjoy it a great deal,” Peter Havens says. “We’ve met very interesting people—they’re neat kids—and we’ve learned what they’ve done and what it meant to them.” The Havenses are pleased to be able to help them add an experience to their resumes that might give them an advantage in the job market, but they are even happier to know that they are helping them do something that is meaningful to them and to their education.