PR Students Rev Up Nonprofits

It's hard for school kids to learn without basics like pens, crayons, notebooks and glue. At UC, students are encouraged to learn with the help of another basic element of education - real-life experience in their fields of study.

Both of these principles come together in a paid internship for UC master's student Ambuja Joshi that is now giving her one of the most satisfying educational experiences of her life.

Joshi, a graduate student in communication in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, interns for Crayons to Computers, a nonprofit free store serving teachers in Greater Cincinnati schools. The store's mission is to ensure that children in the Tristate have the basic tools they need to learn, even if their families and school systems cannot afford them. The Bond Hill store relies mostly on donations of surplus goods, volunteer help and financial sponsors to meet its goals, so it could not ordinarily afford to hire an intern like Joshi.

Instead, the Crayons to Computers internship came about via a program funded by Scripps Howard Foundation. The foundation's support provides much needed assistance to area nonprofits by matching them to UC communication students seeking opportunities to put their skills to work. Lisa Newman, director of undergraduate studies in the UC communication department, and Patty Cottingham, executive director of Scripps Howard Foundation, established the partnership in fall 2001.

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