Change Agents: DeLaney Center Interns Help Drive Social Progress Eleven W&L students participated in the first full year of programming spread across multiple states.

By Brian Laubscher
October 9, 2025

The DeLaney Center, Washington and Lee University’s hub for the study of Southern race relations, culture and politics, has launched a transformative internship program designed to bridge a long-standing gap in career development for students in the humanities and social sciences. What began as a vision from the center’s leadership is now a structured initiative that provides students with meaningful summer experiences while advancing the center’s mission.

“Internships are a way to continue elevating the profile of the DeLaney Center in the students’ eyes,” said Adrienne Jones, the DeLaney Center’s postdoctoral fellow and internship program coordinator. “We see that there are some students who have not engaged with the DeLaney Center, but the internship program can serve to highlight the center and the work that it does as a learning space for the entire campus community. This offers a unique way to elevate the narrative.”

The idea for the program grew out of recognition that students interested in the humanities and social sciences often struggled to find structured summer opportunities, especially compared to business students.

“These particular students regularly feel disoriented as the seek summer experiences that can advance their career exploration,” said Michael Hill, director of the DeLaney Center and professor of Africana studies. “While peers in other academic concentrations often have clear pathways to internships and career development, liberal arts students frequently struggle to connect their academic interests with professional opportunities.”

To address this need, the DeLaney Center partnered with the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, which provided a grant of $107,650 to establish the Race and Southern Studies Internship Program. Washington and Lee supplemented this with additional funding, ensuring a robust foundation for students and host organizations.

“We are thankful to the duPont Fund for providing this opportunity and to W&L for augmenting the program finances to create an infrastructure that supports the full W&L experience,” Hill said. “For duPont, these internships show how an initiative like this could flourish on college campuses around the country. The DeLaney Center relishes its role in clarifying such possibilities.”

Although originally designed to begin in 2024 and support 10 internships annually, Hill and Jones decided to delay the full launch to secure strong organizational partners. A pilot was soon developed when the Georgia Justice Project, a nonprofit legal organization in Atlanta, aligned with the interests of Darnell Pelzer ’25, one of Hill’s advisees. Pelzer spent eight weeks with the organization assisting clients navigating societal reentry after incarceration, an experience that helped him put his studies into practice.

“The work showed me that I’m not against having a routine and helped me to understand social theory — recognizing other people’s perspectives,” Pelzer said. “One person I helped was an older gentleman who was seeking housing. He wasn’t sure how to navigate the process, and he wasn’t strong with computers, so I was able to connect him with the proper entities that could help him.”

Both Pelzer and the GJP reported positive outcomes from this initial partnership, providing evidence that the DeLaney Center’s model could serve as a significant benefit to both students and their host organizations. The success of this pilot experience validated the program’s approach and set the stage for the dramatic expansion that would follow, placing 11 interns across Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia this past summer.

Jones coordinated the multi-location logistics while providing daily support to students in their placements. Her work in coordinating the program logistics led to praise from Hill.

“There’s a difference between the prophetic mode and the execution mode, and there’s a world of difference between talking about what could potentially be and actually exalting in what has occurred,” he said. “I can’t say enough about Adrienne’s work in overseeing this program.”

The students’ experiences reflected the breadth of the DeLaney Center’s mission to explore Southern race relations, culture and politics through a variety of disciplinary approaches and theoretical perspectives.

Some interns served in the local community, like the experiences of Julie Charles ’27 and Jessie Zhang ’26, who worked with Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington to document and digitize the organization’s racial history.

“I have learned so much through my internship — from scanning and transcribing early church records to doing archival research on the first Japanese member of the church. This opportunity helped me to see a glimpse of history, one that not only concerns the town but also W&L,” Zhang said. “As someone double-majoring in religion and sociology, this was the perfect combination of my academic interests. In addition, the support I received from Grace Episcopal Church and the DeLaney Center was priceless.”

Meanwhile, Myles Carroll ’26 and Simi Adeniyi ’27 assessed research on the challenges faced by individuals with suspended licenses in North Carolina.

“It was impactful to hear the lived experiences of those who are struggling with license suspension and to see commonalities between their problems,” said Carroll, a sociology and anthropology major. “Not only did I have a great work experience during my time at the DeLaney Center, but I also gained valuable skills that will help me in my future.”

Other students discovered unexpected strengths through their work. Ashton Mouton ’28 served as outreach strategist for the DeLaney Center. Initially apprehensive about the prospect of community engagement, he eventually discovered an inner confidence through meaningful interactions with the leadership from local organizations like Lexington’s First Baptist Church.

“With every interaction I had, the initial trepidation began to dissipate and was replaced by confidence,” Mouton said. “While this was a temporary role, it quickly spiraled into a beautiful opportunity to nurture my leadership instincts and to cultivate my communication abilities.”

Global politics major Hewan Teka ’27 worked at the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville, Virginia, conducting legal research and creating classroom resources tied to landmark education cases.

“My work involved thoroughly reading and analyzing the court judgments, including majority, concurring and dissenting opinions,” Teka said. “I then created comprehensive one- to two-page summaries for each case that could serve as classroom resources for educators.”

In Memphis, Tennessee, Jackson Ransom ’28 interned with Families Matter, a nonprofit focused on strengthening families by addressing fatherlessness.

“The internship was a sobering experience,” said Ransom, who intends to major in economics with minors in data science and poverty and human capability studies. “What this experience imparted upon me is a readiness to use the surplus that I’ve been given to help cover deficits in others. ‘To whom much is given, much is required,’ so I have a duty to give back whatever way I can.”

Additional interns contributed to the center’s digital communications plan, supported local historical societies and advanced research initiatives. Their impact was felt not only on campus but in communities across the South.

“For many of our host organizations, DeLaney Center interns increased their capacity to provide high-quality services and experiences to the communities they served,” Jones said. “Our hosts felt privileged to work alongside such talented students for the summer and many have expressed interest in hosting interns again next summer. Our students found their internships equally enriching. These opportunities allowed students to explore and refine their interests, particularly in the humanities and social science, in real-world settings.”

Students interested in participating in a DeLaney Center internship are encouraged to contact Michael Hill or Adrienne Jones for additional information.

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