Americans for the Arts and its partners—New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Metro Arts: Nashville Office of Arts and Culture, Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Arts Connect International, and United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County—are thrilled to announce the interns selected for the 30th year of the Diversity in Arts Leadership (DIAL) program.

With equitable arts leadership at the center, the Diversity in Arts Leadership internship program provides undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds who have a career interest in arts and cultural equity a hands-on introduction to working in the arts sector during a 10-week summer internship. By focusing on a healthy, vibrant, and equitable arts ecosystem, interns are interwoven within the arts and culture community and plugged into a cohort of field leaders, mentors, and other cultural practitioners. Altogether, the DIAL network commits to continuous learning and advancing of a more equitable arts ecosystem. 

The 2022 cohort of interns are offered:

• A work placement at an arts and culture organization in one of six national locations: Nashville, Southern New Jersey, Boston, Sarasota, Raleigh, and New York City
• $4,500 pre-tax summer work stipend
• 30+ hours of professional development workshops, arts activities, facilitated discussions, and more
• Individual mentor pairing
• Access to the national DIAL intern cohort and robust DIAL alumni network

From 360 applications received from candidates throughout the country, 39 were selected to participate for this summer’s program. Read on for the impeccable list of interns and learn more about them (and their mentors) on the DIAL Internship Experience Archive.

New Jersey

• Vanessa Arteaga (she/her), a senior visual arts major with a minor in communications studies at Montclair State University
• Yuri Kim (she/her), a rising junior at Bates College where she is pursuing her double majors of rhetoric, film, and screen studies and studio art
• Shefali Sahay (she/her), a junior at Rutgers University in New Brunswick majoring in visual arts
• Dana Slotterback (she/her), a rising senior at The College of New Jersey, majoring in fine arts
• Judy Xie (she/her), sophomore at Columbia University in New York, NY (Class of 2024) majoring in English/creative writing with a concentration in statistics

Nashville 

• Sai Clayton, a visual artist based in Nashville, Tennessee with a Bachelor of Arts in visual arts with minors in Japanese and dance from Middle Tennessee State University
• Julia Reparip (she/her) a rising senior at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music
• Michayla George, a rising sophomore at the illustrious Tennessee State University where she is pursuing a degree in business administration
• Vinh Quang Huynh, studying a BFA degree at Columbus State University graduating in 2024
• Harlequine Clay, a senior at Fisk University pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music education
• Lalena Young, a sophomore attending Tennessee State University pursuing music education with a concentration in instrumental musical and a business minor
• TC (they/them), designer, artist, and innovator born and raised in Memphis and moved to Nashville for school
• Torrance Buntyn Jr., who received a Bachelor of Science in music education from Tennessee State University and will be furthering his education to get a Master of Music degree in percussion performance at Southern Methodist University

Sarasota

• Yadira Gonzalez (she/her), a music student from the State College of Florida, planning to study music business at Florida Atlantic University
• Jordyn Caldwell (she/her), currently finishing her final year at George Mason University studying film and media
• Lauren David (she/her), a New College of Florida senior who is passionate about community and art, minoring in museum studies and majors in environmental studies with a focus on urban studies and the environment
• Sierra Schumann (they/them), a multimedia artist from Los Angeles County, California, and a current student at the Ringling College of Art and Design majoring in illustration
• Jonathan Lee (any pronouns), a Guatemalan-American performing artist originally from Chicago based in Sarasota, and an incoming junior at New College of Florida studying theatre and dance

Boston

• Celine Voyard (they/she), a Boston-based community organizer of Haitian and Japanese ancestry, a current senior at UMass Boston majoring in labor studies, and minor in human rights, Latin@ studies, and cinema studies
• Kay Brown (she/her), a South Carolinian and part of the Mount Holyoke College class of 2023 majoring in critical social thought
• Ruzhen 'Anna' Zhang (she/they), a first generation college student studying history and museum studies at UMass Amherst
• Ayana Boyd, a rising junior at Brown University, concentrating in modern culture and media on the Practice Track with a certificate in engaged scholarship
• Elliot Charis Haugen (he/they), a theater artist from the Twin Cities, Minnesota

Raleigh and Wake County

• Jahleesa Phelps, a senior studying business entrepreneurship with a minor in sociology at North Carolina A&T State University
• Sabrina Tian, a rising junior at Wesleyan University pursuing majors in art history and East Asian studies with a concentration in political economy
• Alhanna Del Carmen Cancel-Roman, a freshman studying interior architecture at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro 
• Devon Thompson, a junior business management major with a minor in leadership studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville 
• Lauren Dotson, a rising third year at the University of Chicago studying creative writing and critical race & ethnic studies

New York City

• Tyler Anderson (he/him/any in good faith), a third-year student at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania pursuing a double major in dance and modern languages and cultures (concentration: Professional Spanish)
• Antonio De La Vega (he/him), a senior at The New School’s College of Performing Arts where he plans to receive a BFA in drama, alongside a Master’s in arts management in 2024
• Daisy Friedman (she/her), a freshman at the University of California, Los Angeles majoring in film and television with a minor in disability studies
• Sumin Hwang (she/her), a recent graduate from Rice University with degrees in art history and visual art
• Brandon Karagozian (he/they), a sophomore at Pomona College majoring in public policy analysis with a concentration in gender and women’s studies with a minor in dance performance
• Jazzmin Imani Cox-Cáceres (she/her), a rising senior at Brown University studying visual arts and psychology
• Gladys Mbugua (she/her), a recent graduate of Mount Holyoke College where she majored in architectural studies and minored in human geography with a focus in city processes
• Melanie Millo (she/her), a junior at Florida State University studying music therapy with a minor in music entrepreneurship
• Rosa Schembari (she/her), a senior at Fordham University Lincoln Center studying new media digital design, with double minors in visual arts and marketing
• Erin Simmonds (she/they), a sophomore women’s studies major at Spelman College
• Victoria Thomas (she/her), a freshman at Amherst College majoring in film and media studies

The 2022 cycle of the Diversity in Arts Leadership internship program is made possible by the generous support of an anonymous donor, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Kutya Major Foundation, and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.

Interested in learning more about the DIAL program? Visit the program page or contact Keya Crenshaw, Manager of Equitable Workforce Development, for more information.