Elise Herrera-Mishler
Elise was Megan’s (the Center’s) first official intern. Having been interested in sex education, she approached Megan after attending a few of her classes, wondering if she was looking for any interns. As an intern, Elise started off as a general intern, but branched off to work as a designer- to play to her skills. She was able to create a few things for the Center, some of which she was able to use in her portfolio. Two years later- Elise graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, and is living in the Washington D.C. metro area, working as a cookie decorator, while she seeks out employment as a toy designer. What Elise probably got most of out her internship is a greater knowledge of sex toys and implements. She find the collection in the Center to be pretty fun and impressive. She also feels comfortable giving friends toy recommendations to their various tastes and needs. Elise thinks The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health is a wonderful institution, and she supports it whole heartedly. She really hopes it continues to grow and educate the community. ”
Rachel Feldman
Rachel Feldman served as an intern at the CSPH from September of 2010 to May of 2011. Her responsibilities were lecture prep and research and editing for publication. She currently lives and works as a research assistant in the Boston area. She plans to go into medicine and has found that her internship at the CSPH has inspired her to work in both clinical care and policy. She’d eventually like to work with underserved populations, the LGBTQ community in particular, and in sex education policy.
Brittany Hunt
After having interned at The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health for two fruitful summers, this May Brittany graduated from Vassar College with degrees in English and Women’s Studies. As she begins applying for jobs and tiptoeing my way into adulthood, Brittany believes she will take with her the experiences she gained as an intern. Primarily, Brittany worked keeping up on the Center’s website, reviewing scientific articles, products, and books. She learned more than just the ins and outs of wordpress, however. She learned to keep an open mind with regards to the delicate intricacies of sexuality and how to work with people from diverse backgrounds. Though ultimately Brittany plans to not end up pursuing further work in the realm of sexuality education, the CSPH has augmented her already immense respect for sex-positive organizations. She is proud to say she helped such an influential and admirable organization gain footing in a time when sexuality is being trampled upon by certain factions of the population. Brittany values her time spent meeting interesting people, learning fascinating scientific facts, and even the hours spent watching the squirm-worthy videos that still makes her blush to think about.
Elizabeth Watt
Elizabeth Watt is a graduate student at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, Illinois. She is currently working on her Doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology and plans to move to the Pacific Northwest for her doctoral internship. In addition to her degree, Elizabeth is working towards her official sex therapist certification from the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT). She is a member of the Junior Board of Mental Health America of Illinois (MHAI), a student member of AASECT and the Society for Sex Therapy and Research (SSTAR), and an active member of her school’s PRIDE group. Elizabeth joined the Center as a Research Intern in the fall of 2011. Her main duties included drafting film and book reviews and research article critiques for The CSPH website’s “Sexual Studies” column, which she still does on a volunteer basis. She also helped to develop The CSPH’s “Map of Campus Gender & Sexuality Groups,” a comprehensive map of U.S. college and university organizations tackling issues of sexuality and gender and the first inclusive listing of the vast array of student and college involvement in the fields of sex-positivity and education. Elizabeth loved working with The Center and all of its staff and volunteers to help provide information and resources to the public about the latest research in sexual health. She is a supporter of sex-positive clinical treatment and education and intends to be an advocate of these in her future professional practice.
Briana Ransford
Briana is a senior studying Psychology, Marine Biology, Anthropology and Sociology at Roger Williams University. She aspires to be a sex therapist, preferably in or near Australia. Her role at the internship was resources, which included organizing question cards, creating a better library system, video taping vlogs and more. Briana believes that being more outgoing in presenting her opinions, standing up for what she believes is right, and communication skills are just some of the positive aspects to the internship. Upon entering The Center, Briana realized that there are many individuals, including herself, who do not know the facts about sex. She now spends her free time expanding her knowledge about sexuality, and spreading that knowledge to others. After completing this internship, Briana is now certain that her profession will definitely have a sexual health component to it. Briana found this internship to be an amazing experience, unlike anything she had ever done.
Melissa Lopez
A passion for helping others connect to their inherent body wisdom has always been a motivating factor in Melissa’s life experiences. Her genuine interest in people inspires her to use whatever topic about which she is teaching, speaking or writing as a vehicle to facilitate greater body-mind connection. After a decade working within faith-based organizations, she is excited to continue linking spirituality and sexuality in the secular world. Melissa is an OWL trainer and facilitator and has presented sex-ed lectures around the country. She loves to dance and teaches both tribal bellydance and yoga.
Jeffrey Herman
Jeff had the opportunity to work with incredible sex-positive, supportive, amazing people that gave him a sex-positive community over the summer. He will also be published in the American Journal of Sexuality Education as a result of the internship! Most significantly, between the daily conversations and the SAR, he was able to solidify and feel more confident in his beliefs and opinions about various topics relating to sexuality. Jeff loved the people he worked with and the amazing sex-positive community at The CSPH. Just by being in the center around other interns and Megan, he was constantly learning. Although Jeff loved the internship, it became clear that being a full-time sexuality educator was not the right fit for him. However, the internship re-affirmed Jeff’s interest in bringing a sex-positive perspective to academia and solidified his desire to always remain a part of a sex-positive community regardless of where he lives.
Currently, Jeff is back at Brandeis working on his undergrad degree in Sociology with minors in Health Policy and Sexuality & Queer Studies. He continues to work as a sexuality educator and counselor in Brandeis’s sex-positive safer sex and counseling group—Student Sexuality and Information Service. In the spring, he will be studying abroad in Denmark, focusing mostly on the sociological study of human sexuality and initial work on his senior honors thesis.
Gopika Krishna
Gopika, a past Website intern, had one of the most fulfilling, fun, and informative work experiences during her time at the CSPH. As someone who has worked with sexual education on campus, Gopika wanted to use her time at the CSPH to both gain new knowledge and challenge her pre-existing ideas about sexuality and health. For her, the Center provided the perfectly warm and open environment that allowed her to do just that, whether through workshops, research, or her daily conversations with other interns and staff. This environment also helped Gopika advocate for herself and her opinions more, and has even made her more vocal in her classes and activities at Brown. She hopes to use all of her new communication skills as a future medical professional to help make healthcare and the patient experience as sex and body positive as she can! Gopika is also currently volunteering for the Center, and looks forward to continuing her relationship with the CSPH for many semesters to come.
Deirdre O’Donnell
The CSPH internship was helpful to Deirdre’s life in a personal and an academic way. Now, she teaches sex positivity workshops at Rhode Island College and the internship taught her everything she now knows. She is in her senior year at RIC and the internship helped her figure out that she wants a master’s degree in public health, focusing specifically on sex, sexuality and gender once she is done with her undergraduate career. Her dream job is to teach medical providers how to be more LGBTQ inclusive and friendly in their care, since she has both a personal and intellectual connection to that type of career. Her partner is an incredible person who just so happens to also be a transman, and she has knowledge now that she gained both from the internship and anectdotally that shows her daily just how much medical professionals need this kind of training. Interning at The CSPH helped Deirdre grow in so many ways. She knows herself, her feelings and her desires better, is a more efficient communicator, it helped her sex life, and propelled her future career as a sexual health professional forward because it helped her make really important connections to some amazing role models. After she graduates from RIC, she is probably going to go on to get a master’s degree and work with sexual health in some capacity right away- hopefully either for a sexual aid company or as a programming person who does workshops with medical providers like the ones previously mentioned. Deirdre left the internship with more self-confidence and a more focused eye on the future, and feels she owes Megan Andelloux and her incredible center for that 
Diana Buchhalter
Diana is a senior studying Human Development and Sociology at Binghamton University. She intends to pursue a masters in social work after college to go into counseling, specializing in aging sexuality. She hopes to work with the aging and elderly to assist their continuing sexual life. She was inspired by her internship at the Center, where she worked on social media, including writing the words of the day and the TGIF posts. The knowledge she gained from her supervisors and colleagues at the CSPH has been instrumental in her future endeavors, and she could not be more grateful for the experience and wisdom she gleaned. Her passion for sexual health was fed heartily by her work with the CSPH and those who run it, and the internship improved her skills in communicating about healthy, pleasurable sex and sexuality to others. The role the internship played in her professional development is yet to be seen, but it has without a doubt set her in a fabulous, positive, and sexy direction!
Dani Zionts
Dani recently graduated from Brandeis University with degrees in Health: Science, Society, and Policy and Women’s and Gender Studies, and has begun a Masters of Science in Public Health at McGill University. Herinternship with the CSPH, where she was responsible for reviewing sexual studies and creating lab coat cards for medical students of under-taught sexuality and gender topics, was the perfect bridge for her between these two chapters of her life. It allowed her to take the theoretical concepts of her undergraduate studies—as well as years of sex geekery and a magpie-like drive to collect sexuality information—and understand how to apply them in practice, towards directing policies, research, or resources towards better valuing sexuality. But this biggest role this internship probably played in her future life—besides training her to identify a vibrator on sight by its brand, function, and means of operation—is to recharge her, to introduce her to passionate, brilliant individuals doing work around sexual health and pleasure, and to show her some of the avenues in which she can strive to make changes. It inspired in her an intense interest not only in sex education, but in particular the education of the people who make the decisions over our bodies—medical students and policy makers—and she hopes to take her experience with the CSPH into these fields in the future.
Jaclyn Boudreau
Jaclyn’s internship at The CSPH culminated in a series of amazing opportunities, including her first formal publication in the American Journal of Sexuality Education. Now, she works as head counselor at Four Women Health Services. Jaclyn currently lives in Massachusetts but plans to move to Manhattan after she graduates in May with a B.S. in psychology and philosophy. In New York, she will pursue a career in public policy. Jaclyn believes that interning at The CSPH was a pivotal experience both professionally and personally and that the confidence and self-worth she has attained as a result is invaluable. “I think that is what makes the internship program so unique: you go into it not knowing what passions you will have developed by the time you leave.” What she considers to be the most impressive about the CSPH was the effect it had on her personal development. “The CSPH led me by the hand so carefully into adulthood that the process happened before I could think to be nervous about it. By the time it was over, I could only think about who I was before and be grateful for the growth I had undergone. The confidence and self-worth I have attained through my experience with the CSPH is invaluable. I still think about my life before the internship and wonder how I had never looked at the world around me and thought I could change it.”
Amanda Major
While interning at the CSPH, Amanda was able to hone her programming skills while having tons of fun hosting many in-house programs. She was also able to use the time during her internship at the CSPH to do some really excellent self-reflecting. Currently, Amanda is living in Worcester while finishing her Masters degree in International Development and Social Change with a focus on Women’s Health at Clark University. This year, Amanda will be interning at the YWCA for the Girls Promoting Safety program. She will also be working at Clark University’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship program as the graduate assistant. Amanda looks fondly back on her time as a CSPH Programs Intern. She learned so much and made many invaluable friendships while interning for the Center. Her internship experience has allowed her to more effectively vocalize her perspectives and knowledge regarding sex, sexuality, and health.
Devin Hoover
Devin Hoover lives in Portland Oregon and goes to school full time at Lewis & Clark College studying psychology and neuroscience. He works fixing computers at the IT Helpdesk, but that doesn’t really count. .Interning at the CSPH has made Devin more aware of how much of a role sex plays in everyday life. Now, instead of just smiling and nodding when awkward topics come up, he now knows how to ease into those conversations and supply helpful information. Entering the internship there were topics that Devin would unconsciously avoid because he didn’t know any better or thought it was awkward. Now there are very few things that Devin finds awkward. The only topic that is awkward is the number of times the word awkward appears in this paragraph. After the internship, Devin now feels much more comfortable interacting with others when sex comes up in conversation. Instead of awkwardly supplying anecdotes from personal experience, he now has further resources to draw information from and direct others to.
Yenling Yang
Yenling was a programming and outreach intern at the CSPH during the fall of 2012. During her time there, she explored the intersectionality of sex and sexuality, particularly issues concerning power dynamics and gender roles. She actively participated in creating an American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) database, promoting professional development events, and preparing lab coat cards for medical residents. Currently a junior at Brown University, majoring in Health and Human Biology with a focus in global health, she is interested in reproductive/sexual health attitudes among youth, especially in minority populations, as well as the methods currently used by health centers/clinics/non-profits/etc. to engage with these adolescents in order to create open and safe spaces for free dialogue. Yenling is also interested in the models that organizations geared towards youth empowerment use and how they try to encourage their definition of a healthy, capable, and brilliant young adult in the teens that they are serving. The Center provided a miraculous forum for engaging with all these issues all at once and because of it, Yenling will be a lifelong supporter and advocate for sex-positivity in future studies and practice.
