The new season arrives with changes and growth at our organization. This spring, we are excited to announce the arrival of four new interns. They will be helping us with volunteer recruitment, training, program promotion and event planning through this semester. 

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Aaron LaGarde    CASA Recruitment and Leadership Intern

Aaron is a 5th year Communication Studies Major at the University of Georgia. During his tenure at UGA, he has been a member of the UGA Track & Field team, the Black Theatrical Ensemble, and most recently the Leadership & Service program. For the spring of 2012, Aaron will be the Recruitment and Leadership Intern helping to promote and increase awareness to the CASA program.  


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Megan Sullivan      CASA Intern

Megan is a first year MSW in the Community Empowerment and Program Development Track. While working with a small NGO in West Africa, she identified a passion for creating and implementing community based initiatives, which led her to UGA's school of social work.  Megan has joined Athens-Oconee CASA as an intern and looks forward to serving local families and children in crisis.


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Tochuku Ikediowu      Children First Intern

Tochuku is obtaining her Master’s Degree in Social Work at the University of Georgia. She earned a Bachelors of Science Degree majoring in Psychology and a Bachelors Degree in Health Promotion and Behavior also at UGA.  Tochuku works at Children First to develop a new transitional living facility that prepares children who have aged out of the foster system to be productive, independent young adults.  After completing her Master’s Degree, she would like to work for the Department of Juvenile Justice.


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Fay Zifei Chen    Public Relations and Social Media Intern

Fay is pursuing her master’s degree in Public Relations at the University of Georgia. She has a bachelor’s degree in China majoring in English and Business Administration. While working as a volunteer in Ukraine for children in summer camps and orphanages, she developed her passion to help children who suffer from family crisis and to bring their smiles back. Fay joined Children First as the Public Relations and Social Media Intern to manage social media accounts and to assist Mary with event promotion.


 
 
Sydney Sconza: Intern for Athens-Oconee CASA Program

Sconza is from from Slidell, Louisiana and earmed her B.S. in Psychology from Louisiana State University in 2008. She now resides in Athens and is a graduate student at the University of Georgia in the Master’s of Social Work program. Most recently, Sonza has worked in experimental health psychology and neuropsychological testing. She hopes to work with children and teenagers in schools and other at risk populations in the future. 


Mariah Moran: Intern for Family Time Visitation

Moran is a graduate student at the University of Georgia, pursuing a Master of Social Work.  She fell in love with social advocacy and cultural social issues after teaching abroad in Syria and South Korea for several years. Moran plans to pursue a PhD in Social Policy and teach at the collegiate level. She enjoys watching movies, cooking, and going to the gym. 


Chris Stokes: Intern for Family Time Child Support Engagement

Stokes is a graduate student at the University of Georgia, where he is getting his J.D. from the UGA School of Law and his MSW from the School of Social Work. After graduating in 2012 he plans on traveling and doing philanthropic activities before entering the workforce full time. He is interested in being an advocate for children and elderly rights and he plans on pursuing a career that will allow him to do both of these things. In his spare time Stokes enjoys exercising indoors, going to concerts, and watching romantic comedies. 


Erin Parks: Intern for Children First

Parks is a senior Telecommunication Arts and Sociology double-major, graduating in May 2010. She obtained her New Media Certificate in December 2009 from the UGA New Media Institute, and will be working on special media projects for the non-profit organization Children First, Inc. Parks is very passionate about exposing the truth through film and plans to make documentary films in the future.