Four interns have joined CCRC this summer to provide support to the communications and research teams. The undergraduate students represent diverse fields of study including marketing, communications, English, elementary education, and political science.
The communications interns are producing content for the CCRC website, including writing for the CCRC blog and social media accounts. The research interns are assisting the research teams on projects involving dual enrollment and student advising. We welcome them to CCRC and hope the work they do will provide them with valuable skills that will support their future careers.
Claribeth Gutierrez is a rising senior at Baruch College majoring in marketing management. She has joined CCRC this summer as a communications intern. A first generation student, Gutierrez transferred to Baruch College from SUNY Orange, where she earned her associate degree in business administration. Her experiences while transitioning into college and navigating through the transfer process have made her passionate about finding ways to make student resources more accessible. Gutierrez believes that community college can be an affordable way for students with limited financial resources to pursue higher education, but that the colleges need to provide effective financial and advising support to their students.
At CCRC, Gutierrez wants to develop her professional communication and writing skills. She is specifically interested in learning more about the challenges faced by transfer and first generation students and the potential solutions community colleges could adopt to improve their experiences. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in marketing with a focus on digital and brand marketing. Gutierrez believes this internship experience will help her hone her skills to create content that communicates meaningful messages to different audiences.
Samson Jue is also working as a communications intern at CCRC this summer. He is a rising senior at the College of Staten Island, majoring in communications with a concentration in design and digital media. Jue is interested in community college research because of the important role community colleges play in promoting upward mobility and providing a cost-effective way to help high school students transition into college. He also believes improving community colleges can make higher education more inclusive for everyone.
During his internship at CCRC, Jue hopes to strengthen his research skills, network with professionals, and gain hands-on experience in the communications field. Once Jue graduates, he hopes to land a full-time position at a major corporation or government agency.
Naomi Long is a senior at George Washington University majoring in political science. Previously she attended Brookdale Community College where she earned an associate degree in political science. She is passionate about improving access to higher education and the transfer experience. Her experiences as a first generation and transfer student have driven her interest in creating inclusive communities by using policy research to support underserved college students. Long gravitated toward community college research after working as a government relations intern for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO). There she helped promote initiatives that support the affordability and accessibility of higher education.
At CCRC, where she is a research intern, Long is working on a project to create a framework that colleges can follow to improve student advising. She is excited to develop new data analysis and collection skills. In the future, Long hopes to continue helping nontraditional students complete higher education by creating practical pathways that help students achieve their education goals.
Narju Nawar is working with the Dual Enrollment Equity Pathways (DEEP) team and the communications team at CCRC. She is a rising junior at the City College of New York, pursuing a double major in English and elementary education with a minor in psychology. Nawar is interested in how higher education can become more accessible for students who have traditionally faced barriers in college and how it can support students from different backgrounds and at different stages of life. Through her work at CCRC, she has become particularly interested in how dual enrollment programs can benefit underserved students.
Through her CCRC internship, Nawar wants to learn about research methods and the impact research can have on the world. In the future, she wants to explore neurodevelopmental research and child development, focusing on how children learn, develop, and respond to their environments.
