LEO’s undergraduate interns gain real-world experience working on research to better understand and unleash effective poverty interventions. They work on all aspects of our projects including exploratory research, data analysis, project management, marketing and communications, and administration.
Our Summer 2021 intern class includes 14 of Notre Dame’s best and brightest students. Meet one of them now.
Meet Tess
Class of 2022
After a year of remote work, there’s something especially exciting about being inside Jenkins-Nanovic Hall for LEO’s undergraduate research assistants this summer. For Tess Monahan—an Economics and Global Affairs double major with a concentration in global policy studies—it will be her second year working with LEO but her first year as part of the team on site at Notre Dame. Last year, Tess worked from her home in Holland, Michigan. This summer, she is serving as a Project Design intern.
We asked Tess what drew her to LEO.
“LEO to me is the perfect fusion of the things that I feel passionate about with the skills that I have developed during my time at Notre Dame,” she said. “The mission of LEO really speaks to me and inspires me to work to generate evidence that makes substantive change in the lives of people who face inequality and extreme adversity. I have been consistently impressed with the dedication of the staff and faculty at LEO, as well as those from our partner organizations, who consistently demonstrate selflessness and dedication to fighting injustice.”
We also asked Tess about her favorite spot on campus (outside of the LEO offices at Jenkins-Nanovic, of course): “Hard to say, but probably the stadium, especially on a major game day, filled with people coming together to cheer on ND.”
Beyond her time as an intern with LEO, Tess enjoys being the music director for Harmonia, a student group she proclaims to be “Notre Dame’s BEST (and only) all-female a cappella group on campus.”