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ARZA-CIRI Internship Program

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Angela Rossi Zurowski Anderson

Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (ARZA-CIRI) Internship Program
Department of Social Sciences
Western Connecticut State University (WCSU)

Program Description and Objectives

This initiative is designed to remember Ms. Angela Rossi Zurowski Andersen, and her devotion to the cause of helping new immigrants, by providing a Social Sciences student with a paid internship at the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (CIRI), (formerly the International Institute of Connecticut (IICONN)) in Bridgeport, where she worked as the Executive Director.

Angela was born in Waterbury on December 12, 1978, daughter of Regina “Gina” (Rossi) Priest of Cheshire and Anthony J. Zurowski Jr. of Cheshire. She graduated from Cheshire High School Class of 1996. She completed her undergraduate work at Western Connecticut State University and her Masters of Science at Southern Connecticut State University, earning both degrees in the field of political science. She was the Executive Director at CIRI, then IICONN, for several years and sat on the board of the Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust, devoting her life to the non-profit sector. Angela made it her mission to enjoy every moment of her life while keeping her unique sense of humor intact right until the end.

The CIRI, then IICONN, founded in 1918, provides immigration services to over 3,000 individuals in the state each year. CIRI is a non-profit, non-sectarian agency dedicated to helping foreign-born persons achieve self-sufficiency. Their services include refugee resettlement, basic needs, English classes, job training and placement, counseling, translation/interpretation services and legal assistance. CIRI advocates for fair and equitable treatment of immigrants, refugees and others, and works to increase public awareness of the contributions of foreign-born persons to American culture and values. For more information on CIRI, visit their website: https://cirict.org/

In Angela’s memory, numerous private donors contributed the means to create a paid internship position with CIRI each year, hereafter referred to as the ARZA-CIRI Internship Program. The program offers student interns the opportunity to learn about and contribute to the mission of CIRI, and offers CIRI the chance to work with and learn from a Social Sciences student intern each year.

The ARZA-CIRI Internship Program meets the mission and objectives of the University by providing

  • Strong skills in communication, problem solving and critical thinking
  • Opportunities for experiential, cooperative and field experiences
  • A strong sense of commitment to public service

The ARZA-CIRI Internship Program offers interns the opportunity to achieve the following Student Learning Objectives:

  • To learn about a state-wide non-profit human services agency that addresses the need to provide new immigrants and refugees in Connecticut with services to help them become self-sufficient, integrated and contributing members of society
  • To understand one’s own philosophy and role in providing public service
  • To develop skills and strategies to manage common human services challenges such as motivating people, working with people’s strengths and weaknesses, managing interpersonal communication, demonstrating empathy, boosting morale, and managing difficult situations, conflict and change effectively
  • To understand and manage one’s own strengths and weaknesses
  • To learn about fiscal responsibility, transparency, accountability and being able to manage budgets and resources effectively
  • To act as an ethical service provider, to have integrity, and to live in alignment with one’s values
  • To be able to balance one’s personal and professional responsibilities

ARZA-CIRI Internship Program Logistics and Timeline:

  • Internship Timing and Location:
    • One to two interns per year will be selected on an ongoing basis as likely candidates emerge, usually in March or October of each academic year
    • Interns will be placed at the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (CIRI), 670 Clinton Avenue, Bridgeport, CT, 06605
  • Application Process:
    1. Eligibility:  WCSU full-time undergraduates, majoring in Social Sciences, with a minimum of 45 or maximum of 105 credits, are eligible to apply for the ARZA-CIRI Internship Program. Any member of the Department of Social Sciences (Full or part-time faculty, students or staff) or the Dean of the Macricostas School of Arts and Sciences may encourage students to apply for the program.
    2. Application process: Candidates should submit a current resume, an unofficial copy of their transcript, and the names and contact information for two references (at least one should be an academic reference). Application materials should be submitted as email attachments to the Program Coordinator, currently Dr. R. Averell Manes, at manesa@wcsu.edu. For more information email Dr. Manes or call her at (315)869-0869. Candidates will be contacted regarding their applications within three weeks, ahead of course registration.
  • Program Awards:
    1. Students accepted into the program will receive a $1,500.00 Award. The award may be used for any expenses, and will be provided to the student in the form of a disbursal check if the student’s WCSU account is paid-in-full at the time of disbursal. (Please note: each year $1,000 of the award is provided by the ARZA-CIRI (formerly ARZA-IICONN) Fund, held in the WCSU Institutional Advancement Office, and $500.00 is provided by the WCSU Office of Alumni Affairs.)
    2. Students accepted into the program will receive three academic credits during the semester of their internship, supervised by the Volunteer Coordinator of CIRI, and the ARZA-CIRI Internship Program Coordinator or by a full-time faculty member/advisor in their area of study.
  • Program Requirements:
    1. Internship placements will require eight hours per week for fifteen weeks, beginning during the second week of the semester and ending during the last week of the semester, for a total of approximately 120 hours, on site, at CIRI. Preferably the student will intern at CIRI on one day a week, but to be negotiated depending on the needs of the placement site and the student’s schedule commitments. (The ARZA-CIRI Program Coordinator will complete and submit a Student Independent Study form, with a standardized proposal, to the Social Sciences Department Chair, in order for the student to receive academic credit. Students may receive ANT, ECO, PS, SOC or SS 297 credit.) Please note: Interns must have a vehicle in order to commute to CIRI, located in Bridgeport, CT, and to assist CIRI’s clientele.
    2. Interns will be required to read several scholarly articles and/or texts, based on their interests and selected in coordination with the Program Coordinator and their Academic Advisor.
    3. Interns will discuss their readings and CIRI placement during three mandatory Reflection Sessions, with the Program Coordinator, scheduled during the course of the semester. Sessions will take place virtually or on-the-ground, based on current conditions.
    4. Interns will be required to write a Final Reflection Paper, with the guidelines provided by the ARZA-CIRI Program Coordinator. This essay will be submitted to the Program Coordinator by Monday at noon of final exam week.
    5. Interns and the CIRI Volunteer Coordinator will each complete an evaluation of ARZA-CIRI internship, using forms provided by the Program Coordinator. The Student Evaluation portion of the form must be submitted with the Final Reflection Paper.
  • Program Benefits:
    • Financial awards
    • Experiential/Service-Learning/Internship opportunity with three academic credits
    • Resume enhancement for future employment and/or graduate education
    • Improved public service, communication and other “real world” skills
    • Potential letters of recommendation from CIRI personnel and Program Coordinator
    • Future employment opportunities at CIRI and their sister organizations
    • Networking opportunities and connections
    • Contributing to the community
    • Enhanced confidence and competence
  • Program Sponsors:
    • Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants
    • Macricostas School of Arts and Sciences at WCSU
    • Department of Social Sciences at WCSU
    • Office of Institutional Advancement at WCSU
    • Office of Alumni Affairs at WCSU
  • Program Coordinators and Contacts:
    • Volunteer Coordinator,
      Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (CIRI)
      CConnor@cirict.org
      www.cirict.org
      (203) 336-0141
    • R. Averell Manes, PhD
      ARZA-CIRI Coordinator and Professor Emeritus of Political Science,
      Department of Social Sciences, WCSU
      manesa@wcsu.edu
      (315) 869-0869
  • ARZA-CIRI Intern List:
    • 2016: Alexa Hinds
    • 2017: Brianna D’Arcangelo
    • 2018: Andreia Silva
    • 2019: Lauren Conrad
    • 2020: Caroline Albano
    • 2022: Claire Eastwood
    • 2023: Vitoria Viera and Tara Jamil
    • 2024: Joanna Pardo
    • 2025: Niko Bass, Joanna Pardo, and Ashleigh SanFanAndre
    • 2026: Niko Bass and Ashleigh SanFanAndre

About Dr. Laurie Weinstein

Dr. Laurie Weinstein is Professor Emeritus at WCSU Anthropology. Although she is retired, she still teaches for the Department and handles the Permaculture Garden logistics or everything from grant-writing to managing the student interns and networking with the food pantries in the Danbury region. The Permaculture Garden was her initiative when she was Chair of the JGC. When she is not working at WCSU, she is writing her books about Native England (Between Two Rivers and Two Wars: Western New England in the 18th century with Dr. Lucianne Lavin, for U of Arizona Press) and managing a major series for the U of Arizona Press. Weinstein also started the Archaeology Program and CRM minor at WCSU and she still consults with state officers, local museums, and historical societies about regional culture history. In particular, she is active with the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, CT. Dr. Weinstein has a lot of pets and helps to rehab small animals up in Massachusetts where she lives.

About Dr. R. Averell Manes

Dr. R. Averell Manes earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She taught comparative politics, research methodology and conflict resolution courses at WCSU for 28 years. As the founder and Director of the Conflict Resolution Project, she offered information, training and services to members of the WCSU from 1995 to 2020. Since its inception in 2008 until 2019, Dr. Manes co-founded, co-chaired and coordinated the Hancock Student Leadership Program with the Office of Academic Affairs. She served as the faculty editor of the Social Sciences Journal from 2001 to 2016. A conflict analysis and resolution specialist, she continues to work as a consultant, trainer, and intervener with non-profit organizations, government agencies, public and private schools, businesses, and private individuals. In 2021, the R. Averell Manes Gender Equity Award was created in recognition of her career of service in the fields of gender justice and conflict resolution. Currently, she is a Faculty Affiliate at the Program on the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC) at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.

About Dr. Christine Hegel-Cantarella

Dr. Christine Hegel holds an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She teaches courses on economic and legal anthropology, public anthropology, qualitative research methods, and the Middle East, among others. In 2017, Hegel received the CSCU Board of Regents Award for Teaching Excellence. Her current research project examines and contributes to the fight for livelihood rights for waste pickers (also called canners/informal recyclers/micro-haulers), for which she conducts field research in Brooklyn, New York and collaborates with local and global organizations. Prior collaborations have taken her to Finland to study hockey workers as part of research on Arctic economies, and she has undertaken a number of projects since 2012 focused on the intersections between design and anthropology. Her recent co-authored book, Ethnography by Design: Scenographic Experiments in Fieldwork, (2019, Routledge) with George E. Marcus and Luke Cantarella, offers a model for using design thinking and methods for ethnographic research. She has been awarded research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Fulbright Commission to conduct ethnographic research in Cairo and Port Said, Egypt, on on the use of legal fictions to reconfigure debt relations. Hegel has authored essays for the edited volumes Collaborative Anthropology Today: A Collection of Exceptions (2021, Cornell University Press) Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa Into the New Millennium (2013, Indiana University Press) and Family Law in the Muslim World (2016, I.B. Tauris) and articles, essays, and reviews in The Anthropology of Work; Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference; American Anthropologist; Cultural Anthropology; Anthropological Quarterly; and Law, Culture, and Humanities Journal. Her website is http://christinehegel.com/wp/

About Dr. Howell Williams

Dr. Howell Williams holds a PhD in Politics from the New School for Social Research. His doctoral dissertation, “Re-Focus on the Family: The Development of a Liberal Family Politics,” was awarded the 2017 Hannah Arendt Dissertation Award in Politics. Williams researches the relationship between families and the state in America politics from the mid-twentieth century to the present. This research combines Williams’s interest in welfare policy, political discourse, and the rights of women and LGBT people. Williams incorporates these research interests into his political science classes on a range of topics, including American government, political institutions, political theory, and gender and sexuality politics. He has fellowships from the British Library and the U.K. Higher Education Academy. His writing has appeared in PS: Politics & Political Science, American Immigration (2nd Ed.), and The Guardian, and he contributes political commentary for the BBC. His current research project is a book on family values rhetoric in the contemporary Democratic Party.

About Dr. Robert D. Whittemore

Dr. Robert D. Whittemore earned his Ph.D. at the University of California in Los Angeles. After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer and teacher and educational director for a child development center in Massachusetts, he did ethnographic fieldwork among the Mandinka people of the Casamance region of the Republic of Senegal. He also worked in urban Los Angeles with the developmentally disabled. As an associate of the Institute for Writing & Thinking at Bard College, Whittemore, in his classes at Western, explores the relationship between writing and thought, underscoring the importance of developing the kind of ethnographic sensibility essential to global citizenship. His wife, Elizabeth, who has collaborated with him on some of his research and writing, is a poet, playwright and novelist. Their eldest daughter, Miranda, is a novelist and their youngest, Vanessa Kai, is a filmmaker.

About Jessica Anderson Schofield

Dr. Jessica Anderson Schofield earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Missouri in 2017 and a B.A. in Global Studies and Political Science from South Dakota State University. She specializes in the study of international relations and comparative politics. Her research focuses primarily on issues relating to international human rights and enforcement of human rights law through international courts, and she is currently working on a project examining allegations of African bias in the International Criminal Court. Dr. Schofield also conducts research on topics relating to women’s rights, political violence, and African politics. She has presented her research at numerous national and international conferences, and her work on human rights theory has been published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Empirical International Relations Theory. 

About Dr. Manoj Misra

Dr. Manoj Misra earned a PhD in Sociology from the University of Alberta, Canada. Before joining this university, he was an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Development at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Republic of Korea. After the completion of his PhD, Dr. Misra was invited as a visiting research fellow at the Agrarian Alternatives cluster at Heidelberg University, Germany. His writings have won best graduate paper awards at the American Anthropological Association and the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development. He has published research articles in top-tier academic journals including in the Journal of Agrarian Change, Agriculture and Human Values, and Climate and Development. He also regularly writes in newspapers and magazines. His research interests are agrarian change and food sovereignty, energy issues and climate justice, and development dispossession in South Asia.

About Dr. Carina Bandhauer

Dr. Carina Bandhauer, Professor of Sociology, earned a Ph.D. at Binghamton University in 2001. She specializes in the sociology of racism, immigration, Latino/a/x studies, and globalization with a regional specialization in Latin America. Her research focus is on the study of racism, the anti-immigrant movement, international migration and globalization. Bandhauer is committed to teaching, researching and working to achieve social justice through awareness. Dr. Bandhauer founded Undocumented Student Services at WCSU in 2017 in conjunction with Connecticut Students for a Dream, and coordinates the UndocuAlly Task Force. In 2020 she co-founded and now co-chairs the Racial Justice Coalition. Dr. Bandhauer has ongoing partnerships with humanitarian groups in El Salvador where she has worked with rural communities since 1993. Dr. Bandhauer served as creative consultant for the production of the film, “El Pueblo Unido,” which documented her work in El Salvador and premiered at the Montreal Film Festival in 2004. Dr. Bandhauer hosts a variety of alternating speakers series on campus including a Latinx Speakers Series; an Undocumented Speakers Series; a Racial Justice Speakers series; a Transnational Families Speakers Series; and a geographically rotating International Social Sciences Symposium. Please feel free to email to find out what’s on the horizon!