Category: Praxis Independent Study

Catherine Utzinger, BMC ’26

Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Jamie Taylor

Community Partner: JackLeg Press

Praxis Site Supervisor: Jennifer Harris

Praxis Poster:

PIS Catherine R Utzinger

 

Further Context:

During the JackLeg Press Internship, I had the opportunity to work witha cohort in order to review submissions, network, learn the review and editing process, as well as how an independent publishing firm operates. During the semester, I was responsible for reading submissions that were around 30-40 page submissions through JackLeg’s submission portal and ranking each submission on a scale from 1-5. I then wrote 350-word reviews to justify my ranking and explain whether I thought that each submission should proceed in the submission process. If accepted, the author of the piece would submit their full manuscript for further review.
Every few weeks, we had team meetings with Jennifer Harris and the rest of the JackLeg editorial team to discuss techniques and build our critical skills.

We also got to attend the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in Baltimore where we tabled for JackLeg and had the opportunity to speak with authors that the press has published! I also got to network with other independent presses at the Bookfair and exchanged
information with many different people. Listening to panels and readings such as Carmen Maria Machado reading her new short story was so amazing and I also got to meet Maria Pinto, the author of a book that I’ve been reading for my thesis!

Overall, interning at JackLeg has been incredible. I’ve learned how the submission process works at an independent press and I developed important submission review techniques such as how to identify professional craft and sentence variation. I will be continuing to read
submissions for JackLeg over the summer and I look forward to continuing to work with them!

Lee Cheeseman, BMC ’27

Praxis Course: JackLeg Press Editorial Internship    

Semester: Spring 2026  

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Daniel Torday   

Community Partner: JackLeg Press 

Praxis Site Supervisor:  Dr. Jennifer Harris 

Praxis Poster:   

PIS LeeCheeseman

 

Further Context: 

This semester, I served as an editorial intern for JackLeg Press, a small independent publisher of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and drama. I’d been trying (and failing) to get a publishing/editorial internship since the summer before my freshman year of college so I was so excited this opportunity came along! My work consisted of reading through JackLeg’s backlog of fiction and creative nonfiction queries, short excerpts authors submit from longer completed manuscripts. I rated and reviewed each piece based on JackLeg’s specific standards and gave my recommendations for whether I believed they should move on to the next round of evaluation. While most of the pieces I read were not to my taste or not up to JackLeg’s standards, I still felt like I was learning from everything I read. In almost every piece I found an element of syntax, style, or language that I could incorporate into my own writing. I also encountered genres and types of writing that I never would’ve sought out on my own, broadening my horizons and understanding of what literary fiction and creative nonfiction can be. 

In my coursework, I read The World She Edited by Amy Reading, a biography of Katerine S. White, a Bryn Mawr alumna who went on to become an incredibly influential fiction editor at The New Yorker. I went on to apply many of the things I learned about her editorial process to my own work with JackLeg. It was also just fascinating to learn about the life and legacy of a Bryn Mawr alumna who I hadn’t before heard of, I even found out we shared many things in common! For example, she was an editor for the Tipyno’bob, Bryn Mawr’s student literary magazine during her time and I’m an editor for Nimbus, Bryn Mawr’s current literary magazine!   

One of the coolest aspect of my internship was that I got to go to AWP, the largest conference for writers and publishers in North America! It was an amazing opportunity to feel for the first time that I was surrounded by a community of writers and artists all supporting one another. I went to panels on a wide array of topics hosted by writers I deeply admire such as Deesha Philyaw and Richard Siken.   

In my time with JackLeg I absolutely felt myself grow both as a writer and an editor. The skills I learned from reading and critiquing so many pieces are absolutely valuable in their own right but they also helped me bring a more critical eye to my own creative writing which will be incredibly useful to me as I prepare to begin my creative writing capstone next semester. 

Rai Mitra Thakur, BMC ’27

Praxis Title: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026

Community Partner: Hebrew Immigration Aid Society of Pennsylvania

Praxis Site Supervisor: Rona Gershon

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Marissa Golden

Praxis Poster:

PIS Rai Mitra Thakur

 

Further Context:

I wanted to work in the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) Pennsylvania because I wanted to understand the immigration crisis in the U.S. on a deeper level. As an intake intern this spring, I was able to get a much closer look and directly talk to multiple people about their experiences and see first hand the legal effects that the current administration has on these individuals. I interacted with clients one-on-one through the intake process, which I highlighted at the top of my poster. The intake process would be done through phone call, and I would always make sure if I needed to also contact a translator.  

The client base for this non profit organization centers around immigrants, which include people who are not proficient in English. Especially with how complicated the immigration process is, the role of translators is so crucial for transparency. By using a familiar language to connect with the client, there is an already more established footing for the client to explain their story to the fullest extent without the constraints of a language barrier. The question and answer section of the process is meant to figure out what sort of immigration relief the client is seeking and their background.  

The question and answer section is also the most time taking part of the process because I am transcribing and summarizing the details of the clients background into legal writing. Additionally along with their narrative, I ask questions related to what services the client is looking for. Afterwards I then enter the client’s information into the databases for HIAS PA. The whole intake process would not be useful if the recordkeeping was inefficient and there were too many details missing on the record, making it vital to ask clarifying questions and making sure their story is properly illustrated. 

The clinics in HIAS PA were my most favorite events during this semester. I enjoyed witnessing the collaboration between different groups that share similar goals, such as ALCAMO and pro-bono attorneys. Having clinics was also a way to tackle a lack of funding by still being accessible to clients. These clinics can be found in neighborhoods or easy to reach physical spaces. The audience can be pre-built as well depending on the purpose of the clinic, an example being if it was specifically a session about doing paperwork around getting U.S. citizenship.  

When we are unable to take a client’s case we don’t leave the client with no other options, instead we provide a pre-made list of attorneys and organizations that might have the capacity in their area. There are also cases where we send the clients information about “Know Your Rights”, which centers around understanding your rights if there is ever an encounter with law enforcement. I really loved the Know Your Rights information that HIAS PA compiled thoughtfully that links to other resources and videos, especially with how frightening it is for immigrants to encounter law enforcement and ICE at this period in time. 

Finally, for my broader reflections, I really was disappointed to see that a lot of the forms of relief available for immigrants mainly center around trauma. This is true for the Asylum status, T-Visa, U-Visa, VAWA, and more all of which force the victim to use their trauma to stay in the United States. The funding for non-profits like HIAS have been cut massively, forcing the workforce to shrink and ultimately have to pivot in their strategies of helping immigrants navigate immigration. HIAS PA does this by strengthening their legal advocacy team and hosting more clinics. Lastly, while HIAS PA is meant to only intake the cases of those that are the most impoverished under the poverty line, I believe that the current poverty line is too high. I believe that those who are just above the poverty line are still significantly struggling financially and need more access to affordable prices. Overall, this entire experience has opened my eyes about immigration processes and I was so fortunate to have this opportunity to hear from the Philly Immigrant community directly. 

Priyanka Regmi, BMC ’27

Praxis Course: Language Research in Autism

Semester: Spring 2026    

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Sarah Conlin

Community Partner: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Praxis Site Supervisor: Meg Lyons

Praxis Poster:   

PIS Prii Regmi

 

Further Context: 

This semester, I had the opportunity to work at Dr. Julia Parish-Morris’s Social Attention and Language (SoAL) Lab at the Center for Autism Research (CAR) at CHOP. The lab focuses on studying clinical language and social attention in individuals with neurodevelopmental or psychiatric differences, with the goal of better understanding social communication across the lifespan. A key focus of the lab is using tools like natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to study communication, especially in understudied groups such as autistic girls. 

My main work in the lab was on the SAGA (Sex and Gender in Autism) study, which looks at early development and sex differences in children. This study examines how autistic and non-autistic children communicate and interact through interviews and conversations, as well as structured research and clinical tasks. Study visits include activities like eye-tracking, parent-child interaction, and friendship questionnaires, along with clinical assessments such as language tests, IQ tests, and autism evaluations. Seeing how all of these pieces come together helped me understand how research can capture both social and clinical aspects of development. 

A large part of my role involved transcribing natural language data from interviews and conversations across different studies. These included interactions between participants and clinical research staff, psychologists, parents, and peers across a wide age range. This work required close attention to detail and showed me how complex and nuanced communication can be. I also helped with data entry, organizing information from run-sheets and questionnaires into REDCap while maintaining confidentiality and accuracy. 

Beyond these tasks, I had the chance to shadow in-person study visits for the SAGA project, which gave me a better sense of how research is conducted in real clinical settings.  

One of the most meaningful parts of this experience was seeing how the SoAL lab focuses on autistic girls as an understudied group. Working on SAGA deepened my interest in research on underrepresented communities and the gaps that still exist. I’vealways been interested in social justice and understanding how structural inequalities affect mental health, and this experience helped connect that to my academic goals. Learning that many diagnostic tools are based mostly on male samples and hence may miss autistic girls, made the work feel especially important and showed me why this research really matters. 

Sofia Platzman, BMC ’27

Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Professor Corredor

Community Partner: U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)

Praxis Site Supervisor: Mary Lagdameo

Praxis Poster:

PIS Sofia_Platzman_Praxis Poster Final- SP

 

Further Context:

Over my first semester of interning with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), my entire academic focus has become concentrated on the work I am doing with USCRI and immigration policy. I have always held a deep passion for immigrant justice, due to personal relationships in my life, yet it was not until my sophomore year of college at UC San Diego that I learned about opportunities for immigration-related advocacy, through a course called “The Politics of Immigration.” This course created the foundation of knowledge for immigration policy that led me to intern at USCRI as a Bryn Mawr transfer student. 

For the past four months, I have interned for the Development Team at USCRI. When I began this position, I hardly knew the function of grants for nonprofits, much less how to write one. I understood that the Trump administration was targeting organizations supporting migrants and refugees, but I did not comprehend the real-life, painful impacts of these attacks. Now, I understand the immense and immeasurable impact grants can offer, as well as the consequences of the Trump’s administration cruel policy changes. 

My internship began with an onboarding process that involved bringing myself up to speed on the current state of immigration policies in the United States. I watched webinars, read briefings, engaged with news articles, and wrote up summaries of all that I learned. Next, I began to enter into the world of grants. I started out by researching potential grants that we could apply to. This project evolved into becoming involved with the work of ending the grants themselves. Through these steps, I began to learn the ins and outs of what goes into writing grants: from the research to the communication with field offices and other teams to the draining of a budget and creation of the grant itself. I am now working on drawing one $20,000 grant to support USCRI’s legal services and one $100,000 grant to fund a virtual ESL program. These two grants have provided me with an invaluable foundation in the work that goes into grant-writing.

As one example of the intersection between grant-writing work and immigration advocacy, on October 17th, USCRI announced the closure of Rinconcito del Sol, a shelter for unaccompanied migrant girls, due to a reduction in federal funding. From my current position of understanding the role of funding in decisions such as this one, I wish there was a grant large enough to have saved this program from the Trump administration’s budget cuts. Given that the focus of my interests is intersection of migration and gender/sexuality studies, this news touched me deeply. It feels like a permanent reminder that the work I am doing at USCRI—actively addressing funding gaps and identifying communities in need of that funding—has tangible consequences. For all the forces out there trying to harm migrants in this country, we need just as many to fight alongside migrant communities. 

If anything, this understanding, of the role we can all play in supporting migrants’ fundamental rights and of the countless people working to protect these rights day in and day out, has been my greatest takeaway from this internship so far. It is so easy to become disillusioned from reading the news and looking at actions, such as the closure of Rinconcito del Sol, yet there are so many people out there fighting for justice—for what is right. It is the privilege of a lifetime to witness the endless passion and care and curiosity shown by this community of migrants, survivors, activists, leaders, grant-writers, field office managers, and more.

I am excited to see where my academic focus on immigration justice will carry me. Over the summer, I will be heading to study abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science and  will be taking a course called, “International Migration: Power, Policy and Lived Realities.” This focus of study will extend into next semester at Bryn Mawr with the course, “Cities and Immigration.” I will also be continuing my internship at USCRI next semester but working as a branch between the Development Team and the Policy & Advocacy Team; this opportunity will be an incredible new direction to continue developing my grant writing skills, while also learning more about the policy side of immigration work. If there is any message I can leave to readers, please remember: for all of the despair surrounding attacks on immigrants’ rights, there are even more people who will never give up in the pursuit of justice. There is even greater hope in this world than there is violence.


Quin Gerber, BMC ’27

Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Kalala Ngalamulume

Community Partner: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Praxis Site Supervisor: Rene Najera

Praxis Poster:

PIS Quin_Gerber_Praxis Poster (2)

 

Further Context:

The opportunity to intern with The College of Physicians of Philadelphia was  incredible for me as a History and Public Health double major. Throughout the semester, I  worked on helping to update the History of Vaccines project. Before this semester, the project was solely managed by my supervisor, Dr. Najera, who also manages several other projects at the College, so many pages had not received attention for several years. I went
through the website and created a priority list for which pages had the most pressing issues. These issues ranged from dead links to outdated statistics to a few complete overhauls, in the case of Ebola and Malaria, for which vaccines have been approved in the last couple of years. From there, I conducted research to make any necessary updates. The updates I have noted will be rolled out beginning this summer.

I was able to learn a lot from this experience. I have never worked for a nonprofit organization before, so it was valuable for me to learn how to balance maintaining nonprofit status with the highly contentious issue of vaccination. I also learned how to critically read and interpret a wide variety of sources, and to consider the agenda any source may have. Finally, I developed informed hope for the future of public health. Countless breakthroughs have been made since these pages were last updated only a few years ago, and the future of vaccine advancement is bright. I am so grateful to the Praxis program, The College of Physicians, and my advisor, Kalala Ngalamulume, for this opportunity.

Macey Ellis, BMC ’26

Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026   

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Rocco Palermo     

Community Partner: Colonial Pennsylvania Farmstead     

Praxis Site Supervisor: Sarah Lerch  

Praxis Poster: 

PIS Macey _Ellis_Praxis Poster 2026- Macey Ellis_compressed

   

Further Context: 

My praxis this semester was at Colonial Pennsylvania Farmstead, a Revolutionary era living history site in Ridely Creek State Park. I stumbled upon this site last fall when I was visiting a bunch of historic sites in the state for fun. I attended their Harvest Home event which had many different interpretive activities, my favorites being textile dyeing and cider making. I love living history and historical interpretation and reached out to the director to see if there were any openings which I how I became their intern! The site was actively lived in from 1690s until the late 1950s or 60s when it then became a historic site. What is unique about the site, is in the 1970s a series of archeological excavations were undertaken around the house and the farm. The site was rebuilt using colonial techniques and with the architecture being based on the arkeological evidence found during excavations.  

The materials that were excavated in the 1970s were numerous and has never been formally studied or organized and digitized. My goal for this internship was threefold:  

    1. Assessing the expanse collection to aid in acquiring funding and creating a basic catalog. 
    2. Organizing the artifacts based on material, photographing the artifacts, and creating a database.
    3. Help to create summer archeology programming for children, using the archeological material found at the site in addition to supplemental materials suitable for kids.

All goals were accomplished in one way or another. It has been estimated by me and others that the collection could contain upwards of 10,000 artifacts, which is not including all the archival written materials and maps from the excavations. One of my goals was to help the site by examining and cataloguing what is in the collection and I very quickly realized that my expectations of finishing everything in one semester was not possible.  

What I was able to accomplish was to begin digitizing archival materials like excavation diaries and inventory logs from the first trench CPA. I was also able to create a collections database for the archeological materials that were excavated using FileMakerPro, however, I was only able to get through the buttons, of which there are 523 entered into the database currently. While working my way through CPA, I noticed that a good chunk of the collection was missing from our storage. So, a new goal of my internship was to reach out to other institutions around the greater Philadelphia area to see if they had parts of our collection (they did not, but they did supply helpful next steps).  

Another facet of my internship was to help add archeology to education program which I was able to see in action at the site’s Easter event where I ran a table with teaching materials I created and a hands-on activity for the kids.  

 Overall, I have learned so much from this internship! I was the expert coming in, and helping create a database which not only allowed me to advance my data entry skills but also allowed me to lead in a professional setting. I also chose to do this internship for selfish reasons as I absolutely LOVE living history sites and working with the wonderful staff and working on site with guests has solidified my love and filled my cup! I also learned that plans change and goals can change with them, at the end of the day a database filled with 523 buttons is a lot and a good foundation for future projects. (PS. Go visit a historic site!)  

Maya Wallace, BMC ’27

Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Marissa Golden

Community Partner: The Public Interest Network

Praxis Site Supervisor: Marites Velasquez

Praxis Poster:

PIS Maya_Wallace_Praxis Poster 1

 

Further Context:

As an intern with The Public Interest Network (TPIN), I have created a wide range of digital content for environmental and consumer advocacy issues. Some notable assignments I worked on included creating an image about deep sea mining plans in Alaska, highlighting the need for wildlife crossings and developing emails for the save the bees campaign. Over the spring semester, I additionally discovered a few key takeaways related to the strategies of TPIN and connections with the operations of advocacy organizations as a whole.

For one, TPIN seeks to build transpartisan support for their issue areas. With the current polarized political climate, they find value in connecting people around common sense issues. As a result, they form coalitions with a wide range of groups across the political spectrum. For example, TPIN pushes for alternatives to unsafe pesticide usage with the Make American Healthy Again movement, mobilizes support from hunters and anglers for wildlife crossings and advocates for the military right to repair.

Since the Reagan era, environmental nonprofits were largely cut out of political processes on the Hill for the first time. Previously reliant on insider connections, these organizations adapted by widening their support base to the general public. TPIN follows a similar strategy of reliance on communities directly, shielding them from instability on the Hill and preventing them from becoming beholden to any one interest. As the D.C. political climate becomes unfavorable to environmental and consumer advocacy interests, TPIN builds support throughout the country.

In line with their transpartisan agenda, TPIN pursues incremental change alongside long-term goals. Many of us may internally hope to achieve ideal goals, like developing a completely sustainable future with solar and ending the use of toxic pesticides that harm public health. However, political realities impede these larger plans. Part of the changemaking process for TPIN includes compromise, working towards small improvements that inch us towards a better future for the environment and consumers.

To work towards these goals and support their long-term operations, organizations in the network gain funding from a diverse array of sources. TPIN primarily receives money from small-scale donors, limiting their reliance on a few major entities. Additionally, the format for fundraising varies. Emails highlighting major issue areas contain a fundraising component, and in-person canvassers raise money for campaigns while broadening the support base of TPIN. This funding strategy allows TPIN organizations to flourish even as federal funding dries up for some other nonprofits.

Beyond their organizational strategies, I learned a great deal about issue areas as an intern with the network. I wrote about crossings that connect fragmented wildlife habitats, the removal of bee-killing pesticides from retail shelves and the recall of dangerous AI toys. Behind all of these campaigns, however, are strategies supporting a network of organizations committed to standing up for the public interest and our environment. The range of tactics TPIN employs to sustain their organizations and make progress on these issues is truly remarkable.

Tallulah Stallvik, BMC ’28

Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Daniel Torday

Community Partner(s): JackLeg Press

Praxis Site Supervisor: Jennifer Harris

Praxis Poster:

PIS TallulahStallvik

 

Further Context:

As my poster details, my work as an intern at JackLeg Press was very focused, consisting of practically the same repeating task for the whole semester. This level of consistency allowed me to dive incredibly deep into how I was approaching my reviews and how I was reading the poems in the first place — hence why I chose to focus on the reading process itself and the “craftsmanship” of the poetry for my poster. Centering the idea of craftsmanship in my reviewing played the largest role in controlling
aesthetically-driven bias. It was a challenge, though, to make this dissection. To a certain extent, all aspects of poetry — even the ways formal craft elements are utilized — are subjective, and therefore victim to overlaid aesthetic bias. Growth in this area was truly a by-product of the sheer amount of time dedicated to the repetitive motions of reading submission after submission. In terms of a life progression, this internship worked in tandem with and built off of my time as an intern for the online poetry magazine Poetry Daily last summer. I bring this up because of the way in which reading as an eye of a press differed from that preliminary experience evaluating poetry for individual publication to a magazine. I felt my opinions were imbued with a more significant weight, which led me to be even more intentional with every thought and review. Publishing a poetry book is introducing the world to someone’s work in the exact form, order, and overall presentation that the artist intends for the work; it is allowing space for this person’s work. Aside from this feeling of responsibility, being a part of this process was somewhat out-of-body; I kept asking myself why does my opinion of someone’s work matter? But, of course, the literary community is built on this massive web of “peoples’
opinions.” In good faith, it is the thoughts and contributions of a whole array of people that make arts communities strong.

Kathryn Gentry, BMC ’27

Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026 

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Jamie Taylor 

Community Partner(s): Jackleg Press 

Praxis Site Supervisor:  Jennifer Harris 

Praxis Poster:

PIS KathrynGentry

 

Further Context:

My main goal for this internship was to learn about the world of book publishing and independent presses. As a Literatures in English major at Bryn Mawr, I have spent my academic career looking at published material, but had not had the opportunity to work with the raw material of written work. Before embarking on this internship my goals were to develop editorial judgement and literary evaluation skills. I was thrilled by the prospect of working at Jackleg, and with Jen, to fulfill these goals. 

As editorial interns at Jackleg, my cohort worked with Jen and the Jackleg team to evaluate submissions for publishing. Interns would read submissions, rate them, and write a brief blurb about the work and our opinions. This review process was incredibly rewarding—it provided me with new perspectives on how writing develops. I enjoyed reading critically and noting areas in pieces that could be improved. Through this internship I also developed my ability to write concise reviews on pieces. For each submission that we read, interns would write a 350-word blurb about what we liked and didn’t like about the piece. Through these writing submissions I learned how to think critically about writing style. Perhaps more importantly, I also learned how to saturate my own opinion into these blurbs. It is easy to write off a piece as objectively ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ but it was harder to figure out exactly what I liked or didn’t like about a writing sample.  

Through funding from Bryn Mawr’s Praxis program, my internship cohort had the opportunity to attend the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Baltimore. This event was an incredible opportunity to network and learn more about the industry. My fellow intern/friend Catherine Utzinger ’26 and I were attended a reading by author Carmen Maria Machado and caught up with Bryn Mawr alumna Quinn Christensen ’24. This conference was a great opportunity to see what future careers in publishing might resemble. I am so grateful that through Jackleg and Bryn Mawr I was able to attend this conference, it was a fantastic networking and learning opportunity.  

At the end of the semester, looking back on my time with Jackleg, I can say that I have gained perspective into independent publishing and have developed my editorial skills. I felt that I got a hands-on experience of evaluating submissions. Writing these reviews has gotten easier and I have gained industry vocabulary that will help me as I seek out other jobs in publishing. I have also begun building a network of publishing professionals: Jen, my internship cohort, the folks at Jackleg, and people I met at AWP. Ultimately my internship gave me a fantastic opportunity to gain work experience in the industry, meet mentors and peers, and develop essential skills for a career in publishing.