Summer Internships may be difficult to fund if a student has high dreams of traveling abroad or developing his or her own program, but the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility makes funding attainable for SMU students.

The Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility held a luncheon on April 7 in honor of their five grant recipients for summer’s internship programs. The recipients ranged from a graduate student to law school students to an undergraduate student.

The center has served over 60 agencies in 12 Texas cities, nine states and six countries. For the past nine years the center has been providing grants to over 70 SMU students for public service and research in ethics.

“The Maguire Center provided the impetus for me to look for a way to apply my passion for law to the greater good,” said Alan Kolodny, a grant recipient and first year SMU law student.

Kolodny will be assisting Lone Star Legal Aid of Harris County where he will help needy clients with housing and consumer law problems in the greater Houston area. He will offer his services in representation allowing Lone Star to help more people in need of housing.

Lydia Butts, an undergraduate SMU student and Maguire Center grant recipient, will travel this summer to New Delhi, India to work with STOP, Stop Trafficking Oppression and Prostitution of Children and Women. She will help reintegrate girls into society who have been rescued from brothels by encouraging them to be in control of their own life decisions.

Debra McKnight, a SMU graduate student, will work this summer with the SMU Women’s Center to design an interactive multimedia program to educate secondary school teachers about sexual orientation issues with their students.

“I have seen the elements of constant harassment the students go through,” said McKnight. “And the educators can be the hardest people to teach,” she finished.

McKnight will model part of the program after the Allies Safe Zone Project here at SMU.

The mission of the Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility is to recognize, honor and model ethical behavior. Through this mission the center provides students the opportunity to gain experience which reinforces the knowledge they have learned in the classroom.

The grants enable the students to participate in public service, which financial circumstances may otherwise not allow. To apply for the grants one must be an SMU student who has located a qualified placement site in a sponsoring agent for a summer internship. For more information on the Maguire Center grants go to http://www.smu.edu/ethics_center/home.