Summer Internship Celebration Hosted by Exelon

In July, Posse Chicago held its annual Internship Celebration, which was generously sponsored by Exelon Corporation, the nation’s leading competitive energy provider. More than 100 guests gathered to celebrate the accomplishments of Scholars whose summer internships with Posse Career Program partners provided invaluable professional development opportunities.

Two Scholars, Oberlin College senior Vernon Fleming and Agnes Scott College junior Georgina Espinoza, shared the importance of their internships at Kirkland & Ellis and Exelon, respectively. Georgina, who interned at Exelon last summer as well, worked with Exelon’s chief of staff to Jonathan W. Thayer, the company’s chief financial officer and a member of the Posse Chicago Advisory Board.

Eva Nagao, the managing director for the Exoneration Project, a Posse Career Program partner and national pro bono legal clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, addressed Scholars and their employers.

“The Scholars we work with have changed our work,” said Eva. “They arrive with the framework to analyze the institutions that we work daily to reform and replace. They arrive with compassion and understanding for those stuck in cycles of oppression, criminalized and largely invisible to many. Most important, they come ready to work. What sets Posse Scholars apart from other interns? They are fearless. They are idealistic. They are determined to be the change they want to see in the world.”

Since 2011, the Exoneration Project has hired nine interns, including Zainab Wadia, a Posse alumna of Carleton College who currently serves as the Exoneration Project’s full-time intake coordinator.