Today, the East Lake Foundation is celebrating National Intern Day as it completes its summer program in partnership with Bank of America. For the eighth year, East Lake hosted Bank of America Student Leaders from Atlanta, and this year hosted additional students from Chicago.

The Student Leaders® program recognizes and rewards high school juniors and seniors for their passion and commitment to community service by placing them in paid internships across the U.S. In light of the health concerns in local communities, the program was adapted to a virtual format, through which students had the opportunity to participate in sessions that exposed them to the vital role nonprofits play in advancing community health, the importance of public private partnerships to advance social change, and a focus on building financial acumen.

Since 2013, more than 25 Atlanta Student Leaders have interned with the East Lake Foundation, an organization that works to enable residents in Atlanta’s East Lake neighborhood and families at Charles R. Drew Charter School to build a better future for themselves through its integrated and holistic model for community revitalization that includes mixed-income housing, high-quality education and community wellness.

The East Lake Foundation recognizes that the transformation of community cannot be done successfully without directly addressing race and the continuing negative impacts of systemic racism, public policies and private actions that have trapped Black people and other People of Color in segregated neighborhoods of concentrated poverty for generations. As a result, racial equity is one of the main lenses through which the East Lake Foundation does their work.

The Student Leaders have worked with several East Lake Initiative partners in past years, including Charles R. Drew Charter School, The First Tee® of East Lake, Sheltering Arms East Lake and the East Lake Family YMCA. This summer, the Student Leaders worked with East Lake on a virtual project about the importance of voting, voter registration, campaigning, civil rights and advocacy. The project will be shared with the community on Jul 31, 2020.

The five Class of 2020 Atlanta-based Bank of America Student Leaders are:

• Gloria Ampadu-Darko of Norcross, a 2020 Norcross High School graduate, heading to Boston University
• Alaira Blackwell of Atlanta, a 2020 Booker T. Washington High School graduate, heading to Spelman College
• Joshua Garrison of Lawrenceville, a 2020 Gwinnett School of Mathematics Science & Technology graduate, heading to Georgia State University
• Maria Nino-Suastegui of Atlanta, a 2020 North Atlanta High School graduate, heading to Boston University
• Eduardo Santos of Fayetteville, a 2020 Whitewater High School graduate, heading to Georgia State University

The five Class of 2020 Chicago-based Bank of America Student Leaders are:

• Jackelyn Campos of Des Plaines, a 2020 Elk Grove High School graduate, heading to the University of Chicago
• Tayiba Chowdhury of Rogers Park, a rising senior at Lane Tech College Prep High School
• Magdalena Rivera of South Loop, a 2020 Walter Payton College Prep graduate, heading to the University of Chicago
• Kayla Triplett of Garfield Park, a rising senior at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School
• Matthew Williams of Schaumburg, a 2020 Schaumburg High School graduate, heading to Drake University

Bank of America has been a philanthropic partner of the East Lake Foundation since its inception. In all, Bank of America has provided more than $905,000 in grants to the East Lake Foundation since becoming the first corporate member (formerly NationsBank) of the East Lake Golf Clubto help revitalize the neighborhood 25 years ago.

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About the East Lake Foundation

Founded in 1995 by developer and philanthropist Tom Cousins, the East Lake Foundation collaborates with public and private organizations to provide tools that enable Atlanta’s East Lake residents to build a better future through its holistic model for community revitalization.

The East Lake model includes cradle-to-college education pipeline at Charles R. Drew Charter School and its early learning partners, mixed-income housing at The Villages of East Lake and community wellness through programs including The First Tee® of Metro Atlanta, the Resident and Community Support Program, Start ME: East Lake micro-entrepreneurship program and East Lake Healthy Connections. This approach to building a strong community not only helps break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, but also creates a place where people of all ages and incomes choose to live.

East Lake has become a national model for holistic community redevelopment across the country through Purpose Built Communities. For more information, please visit eastlakefoundation.org.