Social Impact Scholarship Benefits the Community and Students Alike

Despite fewer in-person opportunities for service learning this past year, Fairfield Dolan students found ways to dedicate their time to vital initiatives.

Launched in 2020, the Fairfield Dolan Social Impact Summer Internship (SISI) program was established to connect students seeking valuable internship experience with local non-profit organizations. The SISI funding allows students to defray the costs related to internships, and this past summer two students participated in the program.

Arianna Lavelle ’22 applied for an opportunity at Families Behind the Badge Children’s Foundation, a Philadelphia-based non-profit that supports the families of fallen first-responders. The marketing major was not only drawn to their mission of helping children and building community but welcomed the chance to put her digital and social media focus to work.

A native of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, Lavelle was offered the job as special events and marketing intern.

“I helped take care of all the social media and email communications to promote our activities and fundraisers,” she said. The organization’s biggest fundraiser is called Ben to the Shore, a 65-mile bike ride from the Ben Franklin Bridge to the beach. The group also facilitates many other smaller events throughout the year to promote goodwill between first responders and the community. For example, the organization’s Police Youth Alliance program strives to create positive relationships between the police and children; one activity included planting a garden at a grade school in South Philadelphia.

After just a few weeks at her internship, Lavelle said, “My bosses made it clear that they really valued my input, and they showed me what goes on behind the scenes of a successful organization. I love working with children and am honored to have received the SISI scholarship!”

The other recipient of SISI funding was Dante Gizzo ’22, an information systems and operations management major with a minor in business analytics. As part of an information systems course he took the previous spring, Gizzo had been paired with classmates to assist the local organization Green Village Initiative (GVI). The non-profit is dedicated to growing food, knowledge, leadership, and community through urban gardening and farming, to create a more just food system in Bridgeport, Conn.

Gizzo’s focus was to assist GVI with establishing a more sophisticated database management system. He split his time working in the gardens and the Reservoir Community Farm while continuing with the database project. During the summer, Gizzo’s focus shifted to finding the best Customer Relationship Management (CRM) website for GVI. While working in the gardens, he helped with various farm projects and participated in a GVI Volunteer Day where he worked with GVI Youth Program students and other volunteers to rebuild garden beds for Columbus School in Bridgeport, Conn.

“Working with GVI was a dream come true,” said Gizzo. “It has been rewarding to combine my coursework with hands-on community service.” l D Arianna Lavelle ’22 Dante Gizzo ’22