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SAEP's "Summer" Internship Program

Since 1997, SAEP has hosted intern/volunteers from the Northern Hemisphere for two to three months during their summer holiday break, which occurs during the South African winter. This year, we have another outstanding group of interns from colleges and universities who have sent interns to us before, such as Duke University in North Carolina and Grinnell College in Iowa. We also have for the first time, interns from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania (2), St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, and Emory University. Read more about them below. If you are interested in becoming an SAEP intern or volunteer, see the information at the bottom of this page.

Katie Cassling

Katie Cassling is from Holden, Maine, and is studying economics and political science at Swarthmore College.

She is 21 years old and will be a senior in the fall. She has two little sisters and a cat, two dogs, a bird, a guinea pig, and a fish. Her favourite colour is red.

At SAEP, Katie is teaching and tutoring in economics and working in the Early Childhood Development centres supported by SAEP. She adores working with the little kids. In the future, she would like to study law and economic development. Her favourite things are cooking, travelling, reading, and running.

The country that she would most like to visit is Thailand.

Kristin High

Kristin High is a 20 year-old student from the USA. She has just completed her second year at Duke University in North Carolina.

On the academic front, Kristin enjoys studying how the economy affects social policy. In five years time she hopes to be analyzing public policies in Washington DC.

While at university Kristin is studying race relations, and her hobbies include music, rugby, and tutoring and mentoring children.

While in Cape Town, Kristin is researching SAEP’s volunteer programme and the Center for Innovative Education and Community Service that SAEP is creating. She also goes out to the township of Philippi with other SAEP volunteers to tutor and work at the early childhood development centres (crèches).

Kristin is enjoying South Africa and would like to travel to French speaking countries in West and North Africa with her parents and two siblings.

Rachel Ackoff

Rachel Ackoff originally hails from Claremont, California, where she became involved in the student environmental movement in her sophomore year of high school.

Since then, she has been a national leader of the Sierra Student Coalition, the student-run arm of the Sierra Club.

Rachel found SAEP by googling ‘environmental organizations in Cape Town’, and eagerly sent off her resume. She is excited to be interning for SAEP because she will be able to focus on SAEP’s environmental education programmes (like outdoor excursions) and help to add more environmental content to its other programmes (like the Township Debating League).

Back home, Rachel is a rising senior at Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia. She is a political science major and a religion minor. She enjoys camping and hiking, playing board games, and cooking vegan Shabbat dinners.

Erinn Croco

Erinn Croco, 21, comes from the small town of Amana, Iowa in the USA, where she was born and raised.

Currently studying Psychology and Gender Studies at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, Erinn is taking time out to visit South Africa and volunteer at SAEP. In her spare time, Erinn enjoys travelling, meeting new people, swimming, and playing with her niece and nephew.

Erinn has three siblings, an older brother who is married with two children, and both an older and a younger sister.

One of Erinn’s ambitions is to live on every continent in the world. She loves all sorts of food from many different places including India, where she spent 6 months.

At SAEP, Erinn works closely with the gap-year interns, spends time in the ECD centres, and is undertaking an evaluation of SAEP's gap-year programme.

In five year’s time she sees herself living in one of the countries she has visited, working for an NGO or undertaking postgraduate studies.

Blair Thompson

Blair Thompson, from Annapolis, Maryland in the USA, is spending the (northern) summer of 2006 as a volunteer at SAEP. She is an only child who lives with her parents in a small town an hour from Washington DC. Her home community has lots of retired people in it, and is very peaceful and quiet. She is a student at St. John's College in Annapolis.

At 20 years old, Blair’s interests include reading, writing poetry, foreign languages and science. Her hobbies are basket ball, art, chatting and laughing with friends, and sleeping.

In five years time, Blair sees herself travelling and preparing for her advanced studies at University. She would love to visit other parts of Africa, and also Japan, because she likes the people and the beautiful villages.

Blair is very excited to be a volunteer at SAEP. She is especially keen to help SAEP with their Touchstones programme and to tutor high school learners. She enjoys being at SAEP because while everyone is always busy, there is a laid back atmosphere.

Lena Gieschen

Lena Gieschen, 24, is half way through her five-year biology degree at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, northern Germany. She is spending six months as an SAEP volunteer.

Lena used the internet and email to find out about internships and volunteer programmes in South Africa. SAEP was listed on a site run by Working Abroad (www.workingabroad.com) and Lena got in touch with SAEP Programme Director, Norton Tennille, who helped her to organise her trip.

Since arriving in April, Lena has spent most of her time teaching biology to township Grade 12 learners, who will write their final secondary school exams at the end of the year.

See German SAEP Volunteer Takes Biology to Township Schools

Sarah Nicholson

Sarah is from Portland, Oregon and goes to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in the USA. She is pursuing a degree in anthropology and would like to continue her studies somewhere in the field of health or medicine.

Sarah spent a semester at the University of Cape Town in 2005, and so is excited for this opportunity to be back in Cape Town again this year. Her time at UCT got Sarah interested in HIV/AIDS, so she is looking for any opportunity to affect change in this area within SAEP's programs.

Sarah also hopes to help with the implementation of a sports program for learners in Philippi, and the possibility of a drama project focused on HIV/AIDS. She is excited to be able to work with SAEP, and has had a lot of fun so far with teaching in the high schools and helping out in the crèches!