The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund announces the summer 2010 intern class. More than 30 students have participated in the SALDEF internship program since 2002. The interns work at SALDEF’s national office in Washington, DC or remotely to gain first-hand experience and knowledge about SALDEF’s programs and campaigns to empower the Sikh American community.
The Legislative Intern will be Dilroop Kaur, an aspiring attorney entering her fourth year at George Mason University studying Government and International Politics with a focus in Legal Studies.
A DC Area native, Dilroop is involved in various community projects including Sikh Gurmat camps and Gurdwara activities. Over the summer, she will be engaged in lobbying efforts, letter writing, and community outreach.
During the first few weeks of her internship, she has researched and lobbied for an important piece of legislation affecting Sikh Americans called the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, assisted community members who were denied driver’s license photographs based on headwear restrictions, and created presentation materials regarding racial profiling.
Jasleen Kaur will be the Communications Intern. She is described as an energetic second year student at the University of California, Berkeley majoring in Anthropology and English.
Jasleen has a passion for creating awareness about Sikhs has led her to Washington, DC and SALDEF. She has been busy monitoring misrepresentations of Sikhs in the new forms of social media, blogging about various experiences in D.C., assisting with the drafting of Press Releases, creating and updating SALDEF resources, and participating in a series of meetings for the organization.
Harmanas Singh will serve as the Technology and Media Intern. He is a second year student at the University of Washington, and will help develop SALDEF’s online presence this summer. He enjoys getting knee-deep in code if it means building something lasting and useful for the community.
Harmanas said his summer duties will involve maintaining the Web site, refining the online Resource Center, and developing tools which will fuel SALDEF efforts to: monitor online perceptions of Sikhs, reach out at a grass roots level to local communities and leverage new forms of social media.
Harmanas is 18 years-old and refers to himself as a “beta” referring to both the Punjabi and English meaning, the former meaning a “young-one” and a the latter meaning “a work-in-progress.” In his free time he enjoys running and working out at the gym.
Geetika Kaur will serve as the Graduate Researcher intern.
Geetika is a third year law student at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She also has an interest in immigration and refugee law.
Throughout the summer, Geetika will be working on a qualitative research project with recent Sikh American immigrants in the Bay Area of California, focusing on civil rights issues. Some of her work on the project includes: designing interview questions, interviewing members of the community and analyzing collected data. ο
