LA&S Awards Two Summer Internship Scholarships

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has awarded two $1,000 summer internship scholarships to students Christine Rivera (Sociology) and Julian Mostachetti (History/Political Science).

In a competitive process, the scholarships are awarded to strong students who have secured low-paying or unpaid summer internships.

The summer internship scholarships are made possible by generous donations from SUNY New Paltz parents, alumni and friends to the Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Fund.

Rivera will intern at the New York Center for Juvenile Justice. She will work with a team of lawyers from Mental Health Legal Services, which represents mentally ill patients across New York City. The internship will require twice weekly visits to court and research in residential children’s psychiatric units to gather data for a research project on juvenile offenders. Rivera said her project will advocate for raising the age of criminal responsibility and granting leniency to youth offenders traditionally tried as adults. Rivera, who is minoring in Psychology, plans to pursue a career as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker working with troubled and underrepresented youth.

Mostachetti will intern for “The Borgen Project,” an online community organization dedicated to spreading awareness about the crisis of global poverty. Mostachetti’s primary responsibility will be to submit weekly journal articles that raise awareness of global poverty and advocate for U.S. citizens’ action to stem the crisis.

In his application essay, Mostachetti credits his History courses at New Paltz with educating him about the desperation and civil unrest that frequently result from poverty. He expressed a desire for a world in which “the basic rights to life and opportunity” are extended to all.

Mostachetti hopes to attend graduate school and is considering a career with a non-profit organization.

Scholarship recipients will be invited to give a brief oral presentation about their internship experiences in the fall, tentatively during Alumni Weekend in September.

– Despina Williams