Table of Contents
Intro
Bios
Our Interns’ Accomplishments
Some Words from Our Interns
Introduction to Our Interns
During the summer of 2021, YSEA recruited four interns from Yale (Victor Liu, Erin Bailey, Patricia Adaya, Luna Aguilar) for the first time in YSEA history to help YSEA with a multitude of projects and initiatives. Since YSEA is a volunteer-run nonprofit and its board members have full-time jobs elsewhere, these interns were instrumental in pushing forward a number of YSEA’s initiatives. They tackled each project they took on with vigor and turned these projects from ideas into reality!
YSEA then recruited another intern for the summer of 2023, Jessica Yu, to pioneer the new podcast series Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Yale. In this series, Jessica interviews Yale alumni, faculty, administrators, and students who are actively involved in innovation and entrepreneurship on campus, in New Haven, and around the world. Producing the first five episodes of the podcast, she has been indispensable with the successful launch of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Yale.
Bios
Jessica Yu ‘26 is a sophomore at Yale University studying molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, with an interest in women’s health and aging biology. She does research on the reproductive system at the Yale Medical School, interns for Planned Parenthood, and is a poetry editor for CORTEX magazine.
Victor Liu ‘24 is an Astrophysics major at Yale. Raised in Brooklyn, NY and a child of immigrants, he is a first-generation American college student passionate about science and scientific research. In high school, he was heavily involved in his school’s Science Olympiad team, co-leading the Astronomy and Dynamic Planet events and winning multiple medals at competitions. At Yale, Victor is doing research in the Bailyn lab on X-ray binaries in addition to interning at YSEA this summer. As an intern, Victor has spearheaded the YSEA website renovation effort, introducing multiple pages of new content emphasizing YSEA’s collaborations with student organizations on- and off-campus as well as highlighting YSEA’s grant program, among many other miscellaneous tasks. He is currently serving on the technology committee for YSEA and hopes to continue serving YSEA throughout his undergraduate years!
Erin Bailey ’24 is a prospective Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (MB&B) major in Davenport College. From Denver, Colorado she has always been fascinated by the natural sciences and their intersections with other fields and the humanities. Before coming to Yale, Bailey participated in the International Summer School for Young Physicists at the Perimeter Institute and was involved in many groups focused on getting more women into STEM fields at her high school. On campus, Bailey is an editor for the Yale Daily News and the captain of the Yale Women’s Water Polo team. As a YSEA intern, Bailey is passionate about understanding how the history of STEM education effects teaching today as well as increasing grant accessibility.
Patricia Adaya ’22 is a Global Affairs & Economics major at Yale University. She immigrated from the Philippines to Berkeley, CA and became passionate about empowering marginalized communities. At Yale, she became the National Director of Project Management for Circle of Women where she works to increase access to secondary school education for girls in developing nations. She was also a Project Manager at Yale Net Impact, helping nonprofits like the Connecticut Forum with their marketing and corporate sponsorships strategy. Last summer, she interned at TechnoServe where she crafted a broad-based strategy for the Enterprise Development and Agricultural sectors for the Southern Africa region, culminating in a comprehensive case study. She leveraged skills in data analysis and strategic planning to undergo SWOT and GAP analysis whilst identifying potential multi-million dollar partnerships in the financial sector. Patricia is a current YSEA summer intern where she is working on developing a long-term social media strategy to achieve their mission of increased access to the YSEA grants, in addition to building a welcoming community for alumni and students in the STEM field. She hopes to continue supporting YSEA in the future!
Luna Aguilar ‘24 is a biomedical engineering major at Yale. Born and raised in Morristown, New Jersey, she has always been fascinated by the world of STEM. She served as the vice president of her school’s engineering club and attended STEM college programs every summer. At Yale, Luna is a co-founder of a mentorship program for underrepresented groups in STEM, connecting Yale undergraduate and graduate students of similar identities. She also serves as the Mentor Director for New Haven REACH where she mentors local high school seniors with their college applications and attending La Casa Cultural events. Currently she is serving as a YSEA summer intern and hopes to keep supporting YSEA in her undergraduate years and beyond!
Our interns have:
- Identified and interviewed Yale alumni, faculty, administrators, and students to produce the inaugural five episodes of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship podcast. (Jessica Yu)
- Renovated the YSEA website, modernizing it and adding lots of content detailing YSEA’s involvement and support on- and off-campus. (Victor Liu)
- Updated missing info from the old YSEA website. (Victor Liu)
- Clarified the information on the previous webpage on YSEA’s grants program and created a landing page with extra information and resources for YSEA’s grants, increasing accessibility to YSEA’s grants and helping with the grant writing process. (Victor Liu)
- Interviewed past grantees and articulated the value that YSEA has for its grantees into words. (Patricia Adaya)
- Drafted a plan of action and social media strategy for YSEA’s social media accounts. (Patricia Adaya)
- Analyzed data from YSEA’s grant spreadsheet to generate meaningful statistics about the grant program, which can be found in an infographic created by Luna Aguilar here. (Patricia Adaya)
- Organized the seeds of a book talk series with the Yale Alumni Association. (Patricia Adaya)
- Comprehensively researched YSEA’s history by diving deep into the YSEA historical archives at the Sterling Memorial Library. (Erin Bailey)
- Created a fully detailed Wikipedia page for YSEA. (Erin Bailey)
- Interviewed YSEA board members to understand their origin story with YSEA and how they see the organization moving forward. (Erin Bailey)
- Created brand new logos that capture the spirit and motivations of the nonprofit. (Luna Aguilar)
- Created promotional materials for and advertised the annual YSEA summer picnic event in Central Park, NYC. (Luna Aguilar)
- Created an eye-catching infographic detailing the geographic reach of YSEA’s board members, the organizations that YSEA supports, basic statistics and information behind YSEA, and statistics on YSEA’s grant program. (Luna Aguilar)
YSEA is very proud of its interns for all they have done and bringing an energetic presence to the organization!
Some Words from Our Interns
Here are some words that our interns would like to share about their experiences working with YSEA!
“Working with YSEA this summer has been an amazing experience. The board members are all extremely friendly and supportive, and the other interns are great team partners. During my internship, I renovated the YSEA website to include new content emphasizing YSEA’s grant program and collaboration with student organizations on and off-campus. As a result, I gained extensive experience in modern web development. I was also able to develop skills in informational interviewing and consulting on projects because of the trust and opportunities the board gave me. My work will help direct web traffic to YSEA, increasing awareness of the multiple avenues of support it offers to students. My overall experience with YSEA has been very positive, and I have gained much from my time spent interning with the organization. I would highly recommend any future Yalies to sign up as interns for YSEA for the upcoming summer! I am so grateful to YSEA and Elissa Levy for this incredible experience.” – Victor Liu
“My internship with YSEA was an incredibly valuable experience that exposed me to the day to day operations of non-profit organizations and gave me hands-on experience working with a team doing project based work. My project, which centered around historical research, allowed me to explore the intersections of many things that matter to me including science education, representation in STEM and the history of science. Working with the fellow interns allowed me to gain practical experience consulting on projects and identify areas for growth and solutions in a non profit space. I am so grateful to 1stGenYale, YSEA, the CIPE and especially the President, Elissa Levvy, for this opportunity.” – Erin Bailey
“This summer, I got the opportunity to intern with YSEA and work with an amazing group of alumni. I was able to leverage my experience working in communications, social media, and consulting in order to develop a long-term social media strategy for YSEA. My work will help YSEA achieve expanded visibility of the YSEA grant, in addition to furthering their mission of connecting alumni and students together in the STEM field. I also got the opportunity to analyze YSEA grants data and create visuals to better communicate YSEA’s impact. I am so grateful to my fellow interns, the YSEA board, 1stGenYale, and Elissa Levy for this incredible experience.” – Patricia Adaya
“My experience interning with YSEA has been invaluable and I am grateful for the opportunities that have been presented to me in my time with this organization. This was my first experience as an intern and I found it to be nothing but positive. From moderating a conversation with distinguished awardees to creating graphics to visually describe YSEA, the skills and experiences I gained are numerous and unforgettable. My main task as an intern was to update YSEA’s logo for social media. This served as an opportunity to learn how to use online illustration platforms in order to create various logo designs and I am thankful for receiving this opportunity to grow as an artist. This served as exposure to a potential career in which I can see myself and I would not have discovered this otherwise. I got practical consulting experience as I presented my designs to the board and received feedback from everyone to eventually create logos that satisfied the board. Working with the board and interns has been transformational. A special thank you to 1stGenYale, Elissa Levy, and the YSEA board.” – Luna Aguilar
“The board members are all extremely friendly and supportive, and the other interns are great team partners.” – Victor Liu
“My internship with YSEA was an incredibly valuable experience that exposed me to the day to day operations of non-profit organizations.” – Erin Bailey
“This summer, I got the opportunity to intern with YSEA and work with an amazing group of alumni.” – Patricia Adaya
“This was my first experience as an intern and I found it to be nothing but positive.” – Luna Aguilar