Two students from Adelphi University’s unique internship program, the Jaggar Community Fellows, have completed their research at Port Washington-based environmental health non-profit, Grassroots Environment Education.
The late Scott Jaggar and his wife Angela created this student opportunity at Adelphi with the expectation that interning in the non-profit sector on Long Island would provide life-changing experiences for motivated young people. The Jaggar Community Fellows Program is a competitive, paid internship for non-graduating students.
The students, Ishna Kapoor and Risikatajoke Oladimeji, worked primarily on two Grassroots programs: the “ChildSafe School,” a comprehensive blueprint for making school environments safe for children and staff and “Your Life, Your Choice,” a new website/curriculum for teaching environmental health to teens in health education classes in high schools.
Both students gained a deep understanding of complex environmental exposure issues by researching peer-reviewed academic studies to support the programs.
“Ishna and Kat’s work was invaluable to us as we are a science-driven organization and it is critical that we keep up with the emerging science on exposures, especially those that relate to children’s environments,” said Patti Wood, the executive director of Grassroots. “This experience is a wonderful gift from the Jaggars for both the participating non-profits and the interns.”
