The TMC Welcomes New Staff Member and Two New Interns

Jeremy Shenk joins the staff of the Thomas Merton Center staff after two years of doing field organizing for the Health Care Workers Council of the United Steelworkers of America. Before that, he attended Goshen College in Goshen, IN, and had internships at the Washington Peace Center in DC and Project Abolition in Goshen. After the past two years spent almost entirely on the road away from his home in Pittsburgh, Jeremy is excited to not sleep in hotel rooms and to plug into a multi-issue resource center. He brings to the table lots of energy and a passion for work that can better his community, his city and the world. Jeremy will be the full-time Administrative Assistant and looks forward to serving the TMC to the best of his ability.

New intern De’Anna Caligiuri is an undergraduate student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work.  Her social work interests lie in understanding the systemic causes of social problems and inequalities, and in taking a social action and advocacy approach for macro-level change.  Her frustration with institutionalized injustices has made her realize that she should be working for such changes rather than taking the more known social work role in direct practice.  De’Anna will be working on the single-payer healthcare project to ensure that the uninsured are empowered and able to be their own advocates. She’ll also be helping with the School of the Americas Watch of Western PA project for the school year. 

New intern Amanda Zeiders transferred here from Jamestown, NY, as a junior in the social work program at the University of Pittsburgh.  She says she feels privileged to have the opportunity to intern at the Thomas Merton Center, since macro social work practice is something that she’d like to focus on in the future.  Amanda will be interning with Save Our Transit spending most of her time creating an awareness of the public transit issues within the community of Pittsburgh, as well as encouraging others to become involved in their community’s issues and advocate for change. 

 
Left to Right: De'Anna Caligiuir, Amanda Zeiders and Jeremy
Shenk. (Photo by Marie Skoczylas)