New Riley Institute RISE internships puts students in the community

This summer, the Riley Institute launched the Riley Institute Summer Experience (RISE), a guided internship program focused on connecting Furman students with partner organizations across the Upstate. Throughout the 10-week program, eight RISE interns worked full time at five area nonprofits that address the root causes of social and economic challenges in the Greenville community.

Hosting organizations included Greater Good Greenville, Institute for Child Success, and Sustaining Way.

Gabrielle Harvey ’27, a business and communications studies double major from Rock Hill, South Carolina, worked with Greenville Together, a newly created initiative to end homelessness in Greenville. During her internship, Harvey was involved in the foundational stages of nonprofit development. She helped create a strategic marketing plan and designed outreach efforts to educate the community about homelessness.

“As an aspiring attorney, I developed critical thinking and communication skills during my internship that have been invaluable. I was asked to communicate complex subjects in a manner that could be easily understood by the general public, and I saw the transformative impact that effective messaging can have,” Harvey said.

Harvey was included in strategic conversations with leaders of Greenville Together and interacted with the organization’s Lived Experience Council, an advisory group whose members have experienced homelessness in recent years.

“There are many misconceptions held by people regarding the issue of homelessness, and the only way to shift those harsh mental models is through facts, data and storytelling,” Harvey said. “Hearing from members of the Lived Experience Council shaped the tone and direction of my entire project, reminding me of the real lives and stories at the heart of our work. The experience also pushed me to ask myself how I can use my future legal profession to help vulnerable communities get access to the necessary resources needed to live a dignified life.”

Beyond the work at their host organizations, RISE interns also participated in weekly meetings, facilitated by Riley Institute Director of Student Programs Kendall Gallagher-King. During these meetings, students heard from nonprofit leaders and considered how the work of their organization intersected with local, statewide and national policy.

“The weekly meetings provided students with insight into a wide range of nonprofit work, including various initiatives, frameworks and funding models. They were also able to hear about the career trajectories of various nonprofit leaders, exposing them to a variety of career pathways and lessons learned by others along the way,” Gallagher-King said. “In addition, we incorporated professional development that would benefit the students during their internships and in their future professional careers.”

Weekly meetings were also a time for community building among the cohort of students and provided an opportunity to share updates on their work, discuss workplace challenges and find common themes between their diverse roles.

“The weekly Tuesday meetings through the RISE program were incredibly valuable,” said True DePaoli ’27, from Columbia, South Carolina, who interned at the Institute for Child Success. “Hearing what the other interns were working on at their nonprofits expanded my understanding of different community needs. The meetings also offered a space for encouragement, advice and learning from one another’s challenges and successes.”

Reflecting on the inaugural year of leading the RISE program, Gallagher-King said, “This experience is representative of what Furman’s institutes are here to do—connect students to our wider community in ways that benefit Greenville and shape the trajectory of students’ studies and professional lives. The fact that engaged learning opportunities like this are guaranteed for all Furman students as a part of their undergraduate experience is remarkable, and I am so proud The Riley Institute got to be a part of making that possible this year.”