Paris Internship Program

Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color provided the impetus for WIF to create its Paris Internship program.

Through various sponsors, three of the six women accepted into our Paris Summer Internship program from 2016 through 2018 – Sojourner Ahébée from Stanford University, Sekai Abeni from the Juilliard School, and Hanna Gressler from the American University of Paris – worked on arts projects involving filmmaking and /or poetry.

In addition to performing research and writing poetry, Hanna Gressler also reported on the explosion of vegan shopping and dining options that are accessible on a student budget.

Two of our 2017 interns investigated Paris and the surrounding suburbs from a culinary perspective, preparing Haïtian and Indian meals (Tatiana Balabanis from Stanford University and Samantha Gilliams from the American University of Paris, respectively) and writing about their experiences doing so.

Maija Brennan was a rising senior at Smith College when she curated the online art exhibition entitled Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture during her 2019 WIF summer internship.

In 2019, WIF also welcomed its first Winter-Spring intern. From January through May, Ph. D. candidate Elizabeth Adamo researched the lives of multiple African-American and Afro-French women as part of her gender-based studies on post-colonialism and the African Diaspora in France. She created content for WIF’s African Diaspora Cultural Impact in Paris (ADCI Paris) Facebook group and wrote articles for the Entrée to Black Paris blog.

After a year’s hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we welcomed Samantha Dougherty from Pennsylvania State University to the 2021 summer program.  Sam remotely provided technical support for our online Art & Conversation experience and wrote essays through which she explored the intersections between political science, art, and philanthropy.

In 2022, we welcomed our first Autumn intern. American University of Paris (AUP) junior Marteena Mendelssohn managed our social media presence with the intent to improve public awareness of our achievements and attract financial and in-kind support for our projects and programs.

Before completing her program, Marteena onboarded our 2023 Winter/Spring intern, Anisa Williams.  Anisa was a sophomore at Parsons Paris when she began her internship.  From January through May, she continued the work begun by Marteena and brought fresh perspectives to content curation for our ADCI Paris platforms.

During the 2023-2024 academic year, we welcomed our first UK-based intern, Dany Uyanik, to work on an IP project in the fall and AUP senior Regina White to work on social media and research projects in the spring.

Click on the posts below to learn more about our interns and the projects they’ve undertaken during their time with WIF.