Meet our new intern!
Frank Kamara, an Associate from Public Allies Pittsburgh has joined the Consortium as an intern. He began this month and will work until June on the Refugee Youth Employment Project , which we offer in collaboration with Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Pittsburgh, and on Be A Middle School Mentor, which we’re rolling out in three districts this year in collaboration with United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Kamara joined Public Allies Pittsburgh, which Coro Pittsburgh runs as the local affiliate of a national social justice organization, to gain experience in the nonprofit sector with a view toward one day starting a homeless shelter in Georgia, his home state, to offer holistic services to entire families. Public Allies and its local affiliate work in partnership with AmeriCorps and match their associates with nonprofits for field experience.
Born in Sierra Leone when his father worked for UNICEF in West Africa, Kamara grew up in Atlanta, where he emigrated at age 7 and graduated with honors from high school. After landing an athletic scholarship, he began pursuing his degree in electronic engineering and technology at Georgia’s Fort Valley State University. Summer breaks from Fort Valley found him volunteering with an Atlanta homeless shelter run by Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless.
Now on a leave from college, he said it was his experience at the shelter, where he provided case management services and started a rooftop garden, that stimulated his interest in nonprofits and one day starting a shelter himself. New career direction notwithstanding, Kamara said he plans no switch of majors because “I still love science and math.”
