This summer, with the support of our 2024 Beth Garrett Memorial Internship Scholarship, rising fourth-year Jackie Bond will intern at the European Institute of Women's Health, CLG in Dublin, Ireland. She will be working in the policy division of the nonprofit organization to create models and strategies that help promote women's health issues through public policy. Jackie is passionate about women's health and equity. This opportunity will enable her to learn more about how these topics are approached at an international level, as she shared in her Garrett Scholarship application: 

"To be an effective public servant, I need to understand both domestic and global politics. An internship abroad with an international institute will help me to better understand how public policy and political activism operates outside the US so that I can one day effect change on an international scale. Patriarchal oppression and gender inequality do not stop at the American border and that is why I want to continue learning about social justice issues beyond the US."

Jackie is also a Women's Center intern, having served on the Body Positive team this past year and writing for Iris Magazine this upcoming year. After graduating, Jackie hopes to attend law school with a focus on public interest law.

With initial support from the Law School, we established the Beth Garrett Memorial Internship Grant to honor UVA’s 2016 Distinguished Alumna, Beth Garrett, who went on from her early work in public policy to accomplish many great things in her 52 years. Beth was a 1988 alumna of the School of Law and was serving as the president of Cornell University at the time that she was selected to be the Distinguished Alumna for 2016. Sadly, Beth passed away before the award could be formally bestowed upon her and the larger UVA community could honor her. 

We are proud to extend Beth’s legacy at UVA to the next generation so that they, in turn, can gain the public policy experience they need to make a difference. Each year, we provide $2,000 to support a student who has the opportunity to serve as an unpaid intern in the field of public policy. Prior recipients of this grant have been supported in pursuing unpaid internships with organizations such as Charlottesville's Public Housing Association of Residents, the Richmond Public Defender's Office, Equality Virginia, and Habitat for Humanity.