The University of Dayton’s Women’s and Gender Studies program allows students to engage with pressing societal issues through the Gendered Injustices and Violent Extremism (GIVE) internship program, a federally funded project.
Interns learn and teach about violent extremism in Ohio through a gendered lens via a combination of training and collaboration with community organizations that include the Artemis Center, the Q+ Health Alliance and the Dayton Metro Library.
Jamie Small, associate professor of sociology and Roesch Chair in Social Sciences, is the program’s creator and advisor.
“I started this program for students to engage more directly on the work of violent extremism in Ohio,” she said. “We do a lot of community-based outreach and education awareness raising related to violent extremism.”
The GIVE Program is a partnership between UD's Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work and the UD Human Rights Center. The focus of the program is the intersection of gender and domestic violent extremism.
GIVE increases students’ skills in dialogue, community engagement, event planning and social media communications while working with community partners and other students on campus.
“This program gives students the opportunity to focus on technical skills related to project management, working with different team members, both on and off campus, and producing events in the community,” Small said.
The GIVE program explores how women are more likely to be victims of violence and how men are more likely to be perpetrators, according to Eric Litterer, a senior sociology major and women’s and gender studies minor from Columbus, Ohio, who was part of the program during the 2024 spring semester.
Sydney Nowak, a junior applied mathematical economics major and women’s and gender studies minor from Brunswick, Ohio, participated during fall 2024. Nowak met with community partners to learn more about violent extremism and then hosted campus events to share that information with fellow students.
“As someone whose major is outside of the social sciences, I saw this internship as a chance to step outside my comfort zone and build skills in community engagement,” Nowak said. “It was a great opportunity to connect with people I wouldn’t typically interact with through my major.”
Litterer and Nowak attended the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh last fall, where they met sociologists and violence-prevention professionals and expanded their understanding of prevention strategies and policy development through panels and breakout sessions.
Litterer said the experience supported his post-graduation plans to do social research.
“Doing this internship helped build skills like community outreach and learning how to present data,” he said.
While the program primarily attracts juniors and seniors, all students with a strong drive for intensive experiential learning are encouraged to apply.
“We train students extensively, but they need to be willing to try something new and take ownership of their learning,” Small said.