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Elizabeth Kessler '10 finds that helping people can be a full-time job. For her internship this summer, Kessler is working at the Family Partnership Center (FPC) in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. She helps the president of the center to coordinate initiatives and facilitate collaboration between the 23 organizations in the building, in order enrich relationships within the center and improve its services. "If these organizations do not reach out to each other, the FPC becomes just one more regular old office building," she says.

Bill Purcell '76 has been appointed director of Harvard's Institute of Politics (IOP) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, starting September 1. The former mayor of Nashville, Tenn., Purcell has worked in public service, law and higher education for more than 30 years. He will succeed former U.S. Congressman James A. Leach (R-IA), who served as IOP director for the 2007-08 academic year.

For Casey Green '09, the path to her summer research project began with two Hamilton courses. As a double major in classical languages and history, Green was taking a class on the American founding era and another on Virgil's Aeneid. Both courses discussed the ideal of a republican mother, and Green was interested by how close those ideals were. "I instantly saw a connection," she says.

Emily Chamberlain '10 feels she's been thrown into the real world with a vengeance. The rising junior is interning for the Honorable William K. Sessions III, a U.S. district judge for the District of Vermont and vice-chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

The corn may not be knee-high yet, but the Hamilton Community Garden is growing enthusiastically. The garden, a half-acre plot behind the Ferguson House parking lot, is being cared for by three students over the summer. Andrew Pape '10 and Chris Sullivan '09 are planting and tending the main garden, while Melissa Balding '09 will oversee the 1812 Heritage Garden.

For Kate Fillion '10 (Clinton, Conn.), working with children this summer isn't just fun and games. The rising junior is working as an intern at the Children's Psychiatric Partial Hospital Program (PHP), run in conjunction with the Yale Children's Hospital Child Psychiatric Inpatient Service (CPIS). The program serves children aged 4 to 14 and offers schooling, therapeutic recreation and music therapy, as well as individual and group therapy. It employs doctors, nurses, counselors and social workers as well as student interns.

"I've always found immigration really intriguing," says Meaghan LaVangie, a rising senior from South Portland, Maine. "Maybe because it's so controversial, that's why I'm drawn to it." LaVangie will spend this summer working on a project funded by an Emerson Foundation grant, in collaboration with Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Shelley McConnell. LaVangie will investigate the relationship between civil society and democracy by studying Border Angels and No More Deaths, two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that give humanitarian aid to illegal immigrants on the Mexican border.

Sometimes being active in your college and also in your home community isn't as difficult as you might think. For Rachel Bigelow '10, it's the same thing this summer. The Ilion native, funded by the Levitt Community Service Fellowship, has taken up the reins of the Utica Refugee Community Garden, located at the F.X. Matt Apartments, a public housing unit in Utica. Bigelow is working with Judith Owens-Manley, associate director for community research at the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center. Her project was started last year by Jenney Stringer '08, who also received funding from a Levitt Center grant. Stringer negotiated with the Utica Municipal Housing Authority (UMHA) to receive permission to start the garden, and then worked with volunteers and residents to get the project off the ground.