Dana Stamos, a junior sociology major from Evanston, Illinois, spent her summer as an intern at Anna’s Arts Camp for Kids in New Orleans, courtesy of an APEX (Academic Advising and Experiential Learning) Fellowship from The College of Wooster. Anna’s Arts is a non-profit organization that primarily serves students from low-income communities to support them emotionally and academically through education and the art. Dana’s responsibilities included teaching soccer, supervising art classes and teaching a reading class to first, second and third grade students.
Being an APEX Fellow and a Shepherd Program participant (a consortial program for the interdisciplinary study of poverty and human capability founded by Washington and Lee University), Dana also learned to live off $14 a day, in order to better empathize and understand the challenges faced by families living in poverty. “This experience is helping me to see through the eyes of a population I hope to be working with in the future,” said Dana, “and so far is has been quite humbling.”
Through her experience, she realized that although inequity permeates the American education system, children with a support system outside of the classroom are more likely to succeed than those from families who do not have the time or money to properly support their child’s educational future. As a result, she plans to teach in an inner-city school in the future.
By Kanika Issar ’15