Maryville College announces recipients of Summer Lilly Internships

May 31, 2005
Karen B. Eldridge, Director of News and Public Information
865.981.8207; karen.eldridge@maryvillecollege.edu

Presentations at the Library of Congress.

Shadowing doctors and hospital administrators.

Research on the attachments between mothers and their children.

These are just a few ways Maryville College students will be spending the summer of 2005. As a part of the College’s Initiative on Vocation, 10 students were selected to participate in the Summer Lilly Internship Program.

Funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., the College’s Initiative on Vocation gives students an integrated four-year opportunity to explore and consider their future lives and work in relation to a sense of calling and wider purpose – and how that purpose relates to their religious faith or existential convictions.

The internships, created to enable Maryville students to get first-hand experience in quality professional, non-profit or corporate work settings, provide students with room and board and a stipend for their summer work. In addition to hands-on experience, the program places emphasis on reflection – thinking about the work accomplished.

According to the program’s guidelines, at the completion of the internship, “each student will be required to write a two- to three-page paper articulating how the summer experience helped him or her to clarify his or her sense of [vocation], how that experience related to his or her faith/core convictions and whether and how that type of work meets the genuine needs of the community.” Guidelines also stipulate that interns meet with the College’s director of education and discernment for follow-up reflection and conversation.

Below is a listing of students who were selected for this year’s program and a description of their summer-long exploration of vocation:

Rising senior and sociology major Savannah Chandler will be enjoying time spent in Tacoma, Wash., this summer with World Vision. She will be organizing a back-to-school rally in a low-income area to emphasize the importance of education. The event seeks to promote education by offering health check-ups and educational give-a-ways. Chandler will be coordinating with local churches and other organizations in event planning.

Ginger Lovingood, a biology major who just finished her junior year, will be spending her summer with the East Tennessee Medical Group in Alcoa, where she will shadow doctors and learn about different procedures in the laboratory.

Rising junior Tomas Mann will spend the summer at a molecular pathology lab in Maryville. He will be drawing from his experiences as an engineering major.

John Newman will be using his skills learned in his art major to “brush-up” the Federal Building in Knoxville. Newman, a rising junior, has been leading a team of students to help paint a mural for the Federal Building, and he will do similar tasks for the Knoxville Museum of Art throughout the summer.

The Child and Adolescent Development Laboratory at the University of Tennessee’s Psychology Department will be staffed with research assistant Emily Nybo, a raising junior psychology major at the College. Her main task will be researching mothers, children and their attachment to each other, physically and emotionally.

Sharon Patrick, a rising senior studying history for teacher licensure, will end her summer internship by traveling to Washington, D.C., to present her collection of oral histories to the Library of Congress. As a part of the Veteran’s History Project, Patrick will be collecting oral histories of veterans throughout the region.

Senior psychology major Michael Smith will be helping with anger management and rehabilitation classes this summer at the Helen Ross McNabb Center in Knoxville’s inner city.

After finishing her freshman year, environmental studies major Katie Warner, will spend her summer helping the Cumberland Alliance reach non-profit status apart from its affiliation with the Nature Conservancy. The organization strives to create sustainable living on the Cumberland Plateau by working with and through like-minded organizations.

Eric Weatherbee will delve into hospital management and administration at Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville. Vocationally interested in hospital administration, this economics major and rising senior will have the opportunity to learn about day-to-day operations of the hospital, which will include glimpses into human resources, management and relationships between administration and hospital staff.

Caleb Whitworth will be looking to see if his vocational calling fits within non-profit organizations. At the New Hope Children’s Advocacy in Maryville (a center designed to help children make a smooth transition into foster homes), Whitworth will do everything from answer phones to help bathe and comfort children. He is a senior studying history for teacher licensure.

Maryville College is ideally situated in Maryville, Tenn., between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Knoxville, the state's third largest city. Founded in 1819, it is the 12th oldest institution of higher learning in the South and maintains an affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Known for its academic rigor and its focus on the liberal arts, Maryville is where students come to stretch their minds, stretch themselves and learn how to make a difference in the world. Total enrollment for the fall 2009 semester is 1,103.