Hannah Ferster Email & Phone Number

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

As a Senior Program Coordinator, I manage an average caseload of 60 mentor/mentee matches. I support my caseload through regular one-on-one coaching sessions with my mentors, mentees, and their parents and guardians. I have also maintained quality support and relationships, earning a quality assurance average of 4.8 out of 5. Additionally, I recruit new third through twelfth grade students to enroll in the program, bring them through the enrollment process, and then match them with a volunteer mentor. In addition to my regular responsibilities, I have taken an interest in further incorporating youth empowerment into our existing programs. I piloted a project to collect data through interviews with mentors and mentees to better understand how matches conceptualize identity, social power, and youth autonomy.

Putnam Valley, New York, United States

I oversaw meeting the mental and emotional needs of 31 elementary-school-aged campers at an overnight camp. I had regular check-in sessions, one-on-one conversations, and facilitated restorative practices with campers. I also coached bunk counselors and other staff working with children to manage campers' behavioral and emotional challenges.

Putnam Valley, New York, United States

I supervised 15 bunk counselors to ensure the best experience for all staff and campers. I coached counselors around work challenges, and supported their professional development and any personal needs in their roles. In addition to supporting staff, I also planned and led weekly meaningful and fun evening activities for 47 elementary-aged campers. These activities were designed to foster positive and inclusive social dynamics and deepen campers' connection to Jewish spirituality and environmentalism. I also directly supported and supervised campers in their bunks and in their daily activities as needed.

Asheville, North Carolina, United States

I supported three classes of fifth graders, totaling 73 students and three lead teachers, in meeting students' academic, social, and emotional goals. I built strong relationships with a very diverse student population, and supported them through one-on-one coaching, small group academic instruction, and in-class support. I also planned and executed lessons in social-emotional skills, mathematics, and spelling to all fifth grade students.

Remote

The Community Healing, Accountability, and Transformation (CHAT) Team is a group of Sunrise volunteers who are working to create transformative justice trainings and resources to prevent and respond to gendered and sexual violence. Currently, we are researching transformative and restorative justice principles and techniques, and deciding how to synthesize this research in ways that can be distributed to hubs across the country.

Washington, Dc

As a Co-Lead for the Justice, Equity and Anti-Oppression (JEAO) Team with Sunrise DC, I am working to implement systems, group norms, and trainings to ensure that our hub is welcoming and accountable to a multiracial, cross-class base of young people. I have recruited members and established the structure of the JEAO Team itself, and am creating political education events and anti-racist accountability measures. So far, I have coordinated and developed a hub-wide anti-racism training expected to have over 100 attendees, and led a grassroots fundraiser that in its first few weeks has raised over $1,900 for Black Lives Matter DC. Working with our BIPOC Caucus, I am developing a JEAO survey and hub self-assessment to collect feedback, and my JEAO Team co-lead and I are creating trainings and support systems for a new cohort of JEAO liaisons that will be tasked with holding other Sunrise DC teams accountable to their anti-racism goals.

Remote

I am working with a small team from around the country to design a network that can identify the needs of Sunrise members volunteering over 20 hours a week, and provide these volunteers with material and emotional support through a mutual aid model. Right now, I am recruiting members to the network, and establishing our structure and communication systems.

Manchester, Nh

As a Field Organizer with New Hampshire Youth Movement, I worked to harness the political power of young people with issues-based campaigns for the Green New Deal, Free College for All, and Medicare for All. With a particular focus on volunteer leadership development, I ran voter outreach programs at three universities that pledged almost 2,000 students to vote in the 2020 presidential primary. I expanded on our training program to meet the needs of our student volunteers, training dozens of new volunteers in our theory of change, strategy, culture, and organizing tactics. I represented New Hampshire Youth Movement in a coalition that planned the December 2020 Youth Climate Strikes, and managed the overall speaking program and messaging for the event. I created social media content regularly to promote our key issues, and to recruit for campus and community events. In January and February, I managed a team of six full-time volunteer field organizers, launching canvasses and phonebanks, and giving constructive feedback to support their growth as organizers.

Williamsburg, Va

Sunrise is a movement of young people working to stop the climate crisis and create millions of good jobs in the process. Starting a Sunrise Hub in January 2019 was the most fulfilling and challenging experience of my undergraduate career. As a hub coordinator, I recruited other students and fostered other members as leaders within the hub to ensure that it would continue after I graduated. Currently, we have eight skilled and dedicated members who are committed to fighting for the Green New Deal in Virginia. During our first months, I facilitated the creation of the hub’s structure and goals through a collective process. I managed multiple communication platforms, maintained our social media presence, and coordinated with local and national news outlets. I also built the foundation for mutually-supportive, diverse coalitions in support of the Green New Deal in our area. I worked with other student and community groups such as the American Indian Student Association, Peninsula Indivisible, and the Keystone Mountain Lakes Carpenters’ Union. I balanced running hub events on multiple levels, running biweekly meetings to foster the leadership skills of our hub members, representing Sunrise Williamsburg at local events with potential coalition partners, and planning community-wide events such as the Student Climate Strike Rally and the Town Hall for a Green New Deal. Both events were widely attended, with around 30 students present for the Climate Strike Rally, the first event ever held by Sunrise Williamsburg, and around 60 community members from across coastal Virginia present at the Town Hall. In addition to community events, I organized actions using a variety of tactics to engage with politicians on all levels of government. Sunrise Williamsburg got candidates for local office to attend our community events, met with a staffer in Rep. Elaine Luria’s office, and successfully bird-dogged Beto O’Rourke and convinced him to take the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge.

Williamsburg, Va

As the department Peer Writing Advisor, I worked with sociology professors to develop a pilot program to help improve the writing skills of students enrolled in a Sociological Theory course. During my first semester in this role, I gathered writing resources and collaborated with professors to determine the scope of the Peer Writing Advisor role. Then in my second semester, I held group workshops on common writing mistakes and one-on-one consultations with other students to address their personal writing concerns.

Williamsburg, Va

The Haven is William & Mary's student-staffed resource center for those concerned with issues of gender-based and sexual violence. As a member of the Advisory Board, I supported our team of student volunteers, and worked with the Director of the Haven to liaise between volunteers and university administration staff. I also planned community awareness and advocacy events, volunteer self-care events, and volunteer trainings. A large part of this role was also managing and making decisions for our yearly application process for new volunteers.

Williamsburg, Va

MANOS is a sociology and public health research team that analyzes the impact of community organizing on public health outcomes in Chaguite, Nicaragua. Through a long-term partnership with the community lasting over 10 years, student researchers have tracked changes in communication and cohesion, and developed methods to quantify levels of community organization. According to a community-based participatory research model, community members collectively identified water-borne illness as the top priority to address in this research project. During annual trips to Chaguite, I worked with other team members to implement projects increasing access to clean water, collect relevant community- and health-related data, and further our partnership with community members through community-wide and small group meetings. Throughout the year on campus, I coordinated team logistics through writing research protocols, managing weekly team meeting, making plans for our travel in-country, and managing the application process for new team members.

Williamsburg, Va

As a Confidential Advocate, I provided confidential resources, emotional support, and a safe space to students seeking information about gender-based violence for 2-4 hours a week. Outside of my weekly hours, I represented the Haven and provided emotional support for attendees at William & Mary community events.

Williamsburg, Va

Working with a professor in the Sociology department, I proofread over 30 pages of their manuscript and appendix to ready the paper for publishing in an academic journal. I ensured that the manuscript complied with the American Psychological Association format guidelines. On a different project, I retrieved data from an online source and cleaned it so that is was formatted for statistical analysis using Stata.

La Plata, Argentina

During my semester studying abroad in Argentina, I interned with the Comision provincial por la memoria, an organization that focuses on protecting human rights in the present and preserving a historical understanding of human rights in the past. I worked with the Comite contra tortura, where a team of lawyers addresses complaints of human rights violations against incarcerated individuals. My work consisted of comparing annual reports and the statistics collected for them across years to track changes over time.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

During this summer internship, I worked in the Health Regulation and Licensing Administration, under the Executive Director of the Board of Pharmacy. In this position, I assisted with a grant application and related activities for the CDC’s Prescription Drug Overdose: Data-Driven Prevention Initiative. This involved drafting and editing sections for the application, and attending meetings with other partner organizations in DC. I also conducted research to inform policy recommendations for the DC Board of Optometry, and wrote an article for the DC Board of Pharmacy Newsletter that is attached below. I aided in the design of a research project to assess the impact of DC's Medical Marijuana Program on patients' quality of life, focusing on developing a survey method. In addition, I provided administrative support through processing applications and information for the Medical Marijuana Program.

Williamsburg, Va

I served on the VOX executive board for the 2016-2017 academic year at the Social Media Executive Chair. In this position, I created and published content related to reproductive justice on our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter platforms. For our club events and campaigns, I coordinated social media messaging and outreach. As part of my larger executive board responsibilities, I planned and presented for weekly club meetings and larger semester events, including legislative weeks of action and panel discussions. I created our first ever Repeal Hyde Week of Action, where VOX members distributed information to gain support for repealing the federal Hyde Amendment, and collected over 200 signatures on our petition.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

During my summer internship at the Feminist Majority Foundation, I focused on work relating to topics of women's health and gender-based violence. I wrote and edited online blogs and news articles on health topics for Feminist Campus Blog and Feminist Newswire, an example of which is attached below. I also conducted social science research on violence and harassment experienced by abortion providers through phone interviews and written questionnaires for the National Clinic Access Project. In addition, I provided office administrative support and served as a customer service representative for Ms. Magazine when this support was needed.