In the summers of 2015 and 2016, I interned at the Poetry Center of Chicago, a not-for-profit organization that curates public readings and sends poets to teach poetry in schools that may not otherwise be able to offer poetry education. While I was there, I took on an independent project to create a digital archive of the poets and writers who have read at the Poetry Center since its founding in 1974. After two summers of intense work and a lot of quality checking, the archive went live this past October. ...Read more about the archive

Cow Tipping Press is a small not-for-profit that offers creative writing classes for adults with developmental disabilities and publishes their resulting work. I learned about this organization through the Civic Engagement Center and taught two classes with them prior to interning last fall. My experiences brought issues of underrepresentation to my awareness. The organization’s literary focus nuanced my understanding of diversity by challenging dominant notions that people with developmental disabilities cannot create original works of art. ...Read more about Cow Tipping Press