Winter Gift Drive at Troup School, a middle school in New Haven
The Dwight Hall Public School Interns (PSI) program places Yale students in New Haven Public Schools, where they volunteer for two years. Interns provide one-on-one tutoring, create dynamic lessons to supplement the regular curriculum, and assist teachers and administrators based on each school’s needs. Interns also serve as liaisons between Yale and their placement sites, helping to channel broader university resources into the community. According to the program’s mission statement, “in contrast to much volunteering that often begins with volunteers deciding what to provide, PSIs ask what schools need and think creatively about how the Yale community can support them.”
Last academic year, 14 Public School Interns recorded 1,486 hours of service at schools ranging from East Rock Community and Cultural Studies Magnet School to Metropolitan Business Academy. PSIs spend time at their school each week, becoming experts on the school community and offering direct service to teachers, students, and administrators. Interns might serve as individual tutors or deliver one-time programs to enrich current lessons. In many cases, they connect Yale resources, such as Dwight Hall Member Groups or Yale College Dean’s Office Student Organizations with relationships inside the school building.
The program began under Yale’s Office of New Haven Affairs (ONHA), which was established in 1995 to bridge Yale’s resources with the New Haven community through initiatives like PSI, as well as programs supporting economic development, employment, and housing affordability. Claudia Merson serves as Director of Public School Partnerships, overseeing this and many other projects connecting Yale and New Haven Public Schools. She implements the PSI program in collaboration with Dwight Hall Director of Programming and Evaluation Mark Fopeano.
Kaylen Yun ’26 and Gus Renzin ’27 serve as PSI Co-Coordinators, overseeing the program. “I am actually from New Haven, so I attended a New Haven public school myself from K–12… [and] I wanted to find a way to give back to NHPS,” shared Kaylen. She applied to be a PSI as a first-year and was matched with Elm City Montessori School, a public elementary school serving pre-K through 8th grade. “It was an amazing experience. Being able to step into a school and listen first, then recognize what needs I might feasibly be able to address, was such an important lesson,” Kaylen said.
The two-year placement model is a core part of the PSI experience, as interns integrate into the school community and work with more teachers to support their efforts. When PSIs are first placed in a school, they have a point of contact—a teacher or administrator—who assigns them work and helps them navigate the environment. From there, PSIs build on that foundation, getting to know additional teachers and administrators and pursuing more meaningful projects. “Being a PSI is a pretty independent role in that you don’t really work for Yale directly” Kaylen said. “You are really immersing yourself in one school, so it is important to have a coordinator who understands each school and each PSI and can serve as a resource.”
“We don’t want PSIs coming in with preconceptions about what they want to fix or considering impact only from their perspective… we want PSIs to be learners and listeners who are willing to do even the menial tasks,” Kaylen said. She shared that sometimes a day’s work involves rebooting all of the student laptops—a repetitive but necessary task. “Even though it was quite tedious, it was such a joy to know that these computers can now be used by the students,” she added.
Troup School students on a field trip to Yale
Gus is a Co-Coordinator of the PSI program and serves at Augusta Lewis Troup School, a K–8 school located about a fifteen-minute walk from Yale’s campus. Gus had been volunteering at Troup independently and, after discovering the PSI program, proposed creating a placement there. Claudia Merson then reached out to the school’s administration, and together they established a PSI position where Gus now serves.
“I am currently working on an ESL reading buddies program after school, planning field trips to Yale colleges, and helping with a STEM night,” Gus shared. “The biggest area I’ve focused on throughout my time there has been supporting differentiated instruction in classrooms,” he added. “Schools like Troup,” Gus explained, “have been underfunded for decades. They have fantastic teachers and families ensuring students stay on track, but a lack of funding leaves gaps.” One example, he noted, is the wide range of reading levels he observed in a third grade classroom, with many students falling below benchmark.
Over his two-year tenure, Gus developed a volunteer program in which Yale students tutor small groups, providing personalized support tailored to individual reading levels. “It makes a huge difference for teachers because they can focus on the students who would benefit most from their expertise, while knowing that others are still receiving meaningful instruction,” he said.
Looking ahead, Gus and Kaylen hope to provide PSIs with additional support as they work to serve their schools effectively. Gus noted that expanded training could help PSIs integrate more seamlessly into their placements. Relationship-building is key to success in the program, and he hopes to standardize an approach for future interns.
“Just coming in and sitting with a student as they do independent reading can make a huge difference in reading proficiency,” Gus said. “I would love to see a Yale where everyone spends time in a classroom regularly—I truly believe it would strengthen the district and cultivate a student body better equipped to make a positive impact on the world,” he concluded.
As a Dwight Hall institutional program, the PSI program is part of the Grow pillar of Dwight Hall’s program delivery, developing students’ intellectual, moral, civic, and creative capacities through experiential learning, mentorship, and hands-on training.
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