Marlise Pierre-Wright '12 MPA '16, a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and a native of Stamford, Conneticut, graduated in English with certificates in Spanish and African-American studies and a focus specifically on the representation of trauma and mental illness in literature. As an Adel Mahmoud Global Health Scholar, she researched the mental health conditions of post-Katrina New Orleans as part of her senior thesis work. Pierre-Wright hopes to increase accessibility of mental health care to survivors of major disasters and to victims of sex trafficking. She interned at the Department of Health and Human Services' Family Violence Prevention and Services Program during the summer of 2011. Her fellowship, was with the Department of Health and Human Services' Regional Office for the Administration for Children and Families in Boston.

Without SINSI, I would not have had the opportunity to learn first-hand about public sector human services careers. I wanted to find a way to apply my skills as an English major and my research on the representation of trauma and violence in literature to the real world. SINSI allowed me to intern for the summer in the Family Violence Division of the Department of Health and Human Services. I was able to use my research in violence as well as my analytic skills as an English major to understand the field of domestic violence from a policy stand-point. Throughout my internship, my supervisors and other program specialists in the Family Violence Division mentored me in the field of human services policy and will serve as valuable contacts for my future career in public service.