Kaleena Seeley - 2006 Outstanding Co-op Award
The following is an excerpt from her nomination paper drafted by Lisa Worsh, Co-op Faculty:
Kaleena graduated in 2006 with a Sociology degree from the College of Arts and Sciences. She completed two co-ops and earned an Outstanding Co-op Award.
She completed the following co-ops:
The following is an except from her nomination paper drafted by Lisa Worsh, Co-op Faculty:
Kaleena sought out (and successfully landed) especially challenging experiences for her co-ops and has received glowing reviews from her supervisors. Most impressively, she demonstrated great determination and a willingness to gain valuable experience, even if the ideal opportunity was unpaid.
Kaleena chose Sociology as her major from the very start of her college career. In her freshman year when she was asked “what do you want to do with a Sociology degree”, she didn’t know what to say. After her co-op prep class she stated that, “my main desire is to either work at a non-profit organization, participate in fundraising, or deal with an industry involved in advocacy of some kind”. Even many years later, she has remained true to that goal. Both of her co-op positions were involved with advocating for social change and equity in some form or another.
At her position with the US Department of Education-Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Kaleena was responsible for very important and confidential matters. The majority of her time was spent processing and responding to requests for information from legal cases under the Freedom of Information Act. The OCR investigates discrimination complaints filed against educational institutions. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows anyone to request documents from case files of a government agency. After a FOIA request was made, Kaleena would make copies of documents and remove personally identifiable information regarding complainants and third parties to protect their privacy. Because she completed her work in record time, she was also asked to help staff investigators and attorneys in investigations. This included information gathering/ interviews, data analysis, researching complaint issues, and drafting case documents.
For Kaleena’s second co-op she wanted to continue with educational advocacy, but was interested in “approaching advocacy against discrimination from a completely different angle - through the non-profit sector as opposed to through a government-run agency.” After an exhaustive search of potential co-op employers, Kaleena discovered the AGELE agency in Ann Arbor Michigan. Although the position was not funded, Kaleena accepted it with glee. She found a supplemental research position, and also worked part time at a bakery to pay for living expenses. She worked 60-65 hours a week, and still wrote to me regularly to express her happiness and satisfaction with her choices.
AGELE (the Association for Gender Equity Leadership in Education) is a non-profit organization which raises awareness of gender inequality in programs and services within the national educational system. They also increase knowledge and support through research, outreach, and collaboration. Kaleena interviewed members of AGELE, wrote articles for the national newsletter, and made all past AGELE newsletters available on the website. She assisted with a number of training workshops for Michigan teachers on utilizing equitable teaching practices and learned a variety of research methods. She attained a scholarship to attend a grant writing workshop, and helped seek out potential funding sources for AGELE. She also assisted in the development and implementation of internet survey research which assessed the needs of the agency’s membership. Kaleena was also funded to attend, and present, her research findings to the Steering Committee at the 2005 AGELE National Conference in Honolulu Hawaii.
One of the positions that Kaleena found to supplement her income while in Michigan was a Graduate level research position at the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work. She worked with them on their partnership with the Office for Violence Against Women (an office within the US Department of Justice) on a survey project looking at domestic violence, shelters and supervised visitation centers nationally.
In the future, Kaleena “intends to use everything I’ve learned during my time working for AGELE as an experiential real world background into how our society’s inequalities are played out and dealt with in the present, past and future. Now instead of asking “what do we do about this?” in class, I can present a qualified answer based on the efforts I gave within AGELE and the efforts I witnessed by the hundreds of member of this volunteer-based organization.”
In her last year at NU, Kaleena completed a Directed Study related to her work at AGELE and continued to lead the Sociology and Anthropology Student Association. She also participated on student panels and shared her experiences and insights with her peers.
UPDATE on Kaleena since she has graduated
Kaleena now works (February, 2010) at the US Department of Education-Office for Civil Rights (OCR) again. This time as a Civil Rights Investigator. She is doing a fabulous job and helps hire the new co-ops there.
Page from the awards booklet