Community News

Sixteen college students from Bucks County have been chosen to participate in Foundations Community Partnership's 2016 Summer Youth Corps, which offers paid student internships at local non-profit human service agencies in Bucks County serving children, youth and families. The program provides students the ability to gain practical experience while helping to effect positive change in the community by working at non-profit human service agencies.

This is the ninth consecutive year that Foundations has offered the internship program, expanding from 11 students in its inaugural year to 16 students this year. Non-profit agencies have the benefit of additional helping hands and the students gain meaningful work experience with groups that are making a difference in Bucks County, as well as earning college credit through a partnership with Bucks County Community College.

Interns are able to experience “service learning”, a form of experiential education where students learn to solve community problems and achieve real objectives for the community while earning college credits. Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. Service-learning is different from volunteerism in that it is a teaching and learning approach that integrates community service with academic study to enrich learning, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.

“Our Summer Youth Corps combines community service with academic study,” said Ron Bernstein, Executive Director of Foundations Community Partnership. “The program gives students the chance to gain college credits while participating in a meaningful work experience. Many of our Partnership in Education winners have been selected for the Summer Youth Corps so they can continue their community service work.”

Field Supervisor Alyssa Gubicza leads this year’s Summer Youth Corps. She is currently a social work graduate student at Temple University.

Students in the 2016 Summer Youth Corps program have been placed in the following locations:

1. Quakertown resident Marissa Cubbage is working at Ivy Hill Equestrian in Perkasie. She is studying Environmental Science at Juniata College.
2. Warminster resident Pooja Ghandi is assisting the Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Bucks County in Jamison. She is majoring in Speech Therapy at LaSalle University.
3. Doylestown resident Jade Hebling is working at the Bucks County Children’s Museum in New Hope. She is a Marketing major at Emerson College.
4. Bensalem resident Ankita Patel is assisting Ridge Crest in Sellersville. She is a Biology major at Villanova University.
5. New Hope resident Madeleine Weick is interning at A Woman’s Place in Doylestown. She is attending University of North Carolina Wilmington studying Biology.
6. Yardley resident Jamie Driscoll is interning at NOVA. She is studying Gender Studies at American University.
7. Jamison resident Vlad Chutchev is interning at the Community Conservatory in Doylestown. He is a Business and Piano major at Liberty University.
8. Doylestown residentMorgan Bryan is a working at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown. She is majoring in Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State.
9. Sellersville resident Nicholas Parsons is assisting the Bucks County Housing Group in Ivyland. He is attending University of Pennsylvania as a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics student.
10. Jamison resident Cassandra Alexander is working at Chandler Hall in Newtown. She is studying Oceanography at Millersville University.
11. Lahaska resident Jessye Kurtz is working at Gilda’s Club in Warminster. She is studying Counseling Psychology at Delaware Valley University.
12. Quakertown resident Danielle Stark is assisting Central Bucks Family YMCA in Doylestown. She is studying Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh.
13. Coopersburg resident Catherine Stanell is interning at the AARK in Chalfont. She is a Pre-Veterinary major at Hamilton College.
14. Doylestown resident Kailey McCrorey is assisting the YWCA in Feasterville/Trevose. She is a nursing student at University of Pittsburgh.
15. Doylestown resident Ryan Devlin is working at Habitat for Humanity in Chalfont. He is Engineering major at Purdue University.
16. Richboro resident Shaina Shikoff is working at Potential, Inc. in Newtown. She is studying Engineering at George Washington University.

Students who have completed their freshman through junior year at college and who are residents of Bucks County are eligible to participate in Foundations Community Partnership’s Summer Youth Corps. The 10-week service-learning internships are subsidized by Foundations Community Partnership.

Foundations Community Partnership is a philanthropic grant-making foundation supporting the behavioral health and human service needs of children and young adults in Bucks County. Foundations Community Partnership provides grants and technical assistance to non-profit organizations, awards scholarships to Bucks County high school seniors, subsidizes service learning internships for college students, underwrites community education programs and supports behavioral health education and research. To learn more about Foundations and its mission please visit their website at www.fcpartnership.org or contact them at 267-247-5584.