Research by Student Interns

The Center engages students in a variety of ways: supporting student-run projects (like the Community Empowerment Fund and Poverty Awareness Week); hiring students as research assistants or interns/externs during the school year and over the summer; and overseeing independent study or pro bono projects.

During the summer of 2010, our law student externs and research assistants studied a variety of topics, including the potential benefits of expanding the state and federal Earned Income Tax Credit to new subcategories of workers, issues of teacher and administrator efficacy and retention in high poverty schools, access to justice issues, and a state-by-state look at the effects of corporate electioneering, among others. A sample of their hard work:

• Jared Elosta: Options for Expanding EITC Eligibility in NC
• Catherine Lane: High Poverty Schools
• Joseph Polich: Access to Justice
• Ben Wildfire: State Rules on Corporate Electioneering

Student research from 2009 to spring of 2010:

• Vanesa Hernandez: Legislative Changes to the Food Stamp Program

• Jennifer Lozano: White Paper on the North Carolina State Earned Income Tax Credit: Where It Is and Where it Can Be
• Jabeen Ahmad: Civil Right to Counsel in North Carolina
• Tarik Jallad: A Civil Right to Counsel: International and National Trends
• Kelley Gondring: Access to Civil Justice in North Carolina