Washington and Lee University

Washington and Lee University
Julie Anderson '05
Shepherd Poverty Student
The Shepherd Poverty Program has provided me with the opportunity to explore the intricacies of poverty and inequality. The Program took me inside classrooms at local schools, to a camp for grieving children in the Blue Ridge Mountains and within a group home for mentally ill homeless women in Washington, DC.
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Shepherd Alliance

Summer Internship Program

The Shepherd Alliance unites student interns from Berea, Middlebury, Morehouse and Spelman colleges; Washington and Lee University law and undergraduate programs; and participating Bonner Scholar institutions with agencies that work to benefit impoverished members of society. Students learn first-hand about the multiple dimensions of poverty in the United States by working for eight weeks to strengthen impoverished communities and work alongside individuals seeking to improve their communities. The agencies, located in various urban and rural sites in the United States, focus on education, healthcare, legal services, housing, hunger, social and economic needs, and community-building efforts. Students work with agencies that fit their intellectual interests in order to develop their experience and skills for future civic involvement and employment. 

Fields of Service:

  • Business and Economic Development
  • Children's Services and Education
  • Community Action
  • Healthcare
  • Homelessness, Ministry and Social Services
  • Legal Aid: Civil and Criminal
  • Hunger
  • Environmental Issues

Nuts and Bolts:

  • W&L administers the Alliance in collaboration with each participating schools and the Bonner Foundation
  • The Alliance is competitive with an application and interview process at each institution
  • Students work with their university contact and the Shepherd Alliance coordinator in securing an internship
  • The internship is educational in that students are expected to challenge and test classsroom knowledge against first-hand experience with poverty, removing barriers, and enhancing capability to overcome it.
  • The Alliance begins with a two-day Opening Conference and ends with a two-day Closing Conference
  • Students from the different schools live and work together, creating new friendships
  • The Shepherd Alliance aims to create an immersion experience in a safe and healthy, but modest life-style for eight weeks
  • Journaling is encouraged for all interns and required for some

2009 Alliance Internship Blog

  • Happy Endings and H1N1
    So, It’s been a  REALLY long time since I posted here…but I have been reading everyone else’s blog posts. For the most part, when I come back from work I’m just so bone tired that I can’t even gather the energy to lift a finger, much less update on my work here.  But here goes. The women [...]
  • Last Week in Lexington, VA
    Although I am very much excited about being reunited with my friends and family back home, I can’t help but think about the people I will be leaving here in Lexington. I would like to think that in some way I have positively affected this community. But most importantly, I’d like to take a moment [...]
  • Familiar Faces
    Six weeks down and two weeks left.  I remember how during my first few weeks I spent a couple hours everyday just hanging out in the Drop-In Center attempting to shift from being an outsider to a familiar face.  That was a slow process.  As time passed though, people who I had never spoken with except [...]
  • The Real World D.C.: Less Than Two Weeks
    “Two more weeks, two more weeks,” this is what you will hear as the bases of much conversation amongst most of the D.C. interns. Its hard to believe that almost eight weeks ago we all embarked on a journey together that has quickly passed us by. The residents of Curley Court all have been heavily involved [...]

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