IDEA's interns keep our ship running smoothly in a variety of ways.
Darcy Bedortha
Location: Portland, Oregon
Darcy has always believed that change in public education was necessary; that it must be meaningful, relevant and often different for each individual, and that great things are already happening for students, in a variety of ways and in a variety of places. She holds a Masters in Leadership for Sustainability Education from Portland State University, a TEFL certificate, and is working towards a Masters in teaching secondary English at Goddard College. She believes that all young people have a voice, and that our job as adults is to help them find, develop and use it with wisdom, empathy and respect. Passionate about issues of environmental wisdom, social justice, diversity, dignity and youth, she has worked in public education, children’s mental health, and with homeless kids. She has served in the non-profit arena addressing issues of poverty and education. Darcy has coached, mentored and advised young people in a variety of extra-curricular projects, is an educator for Trackers PDX and volunteers with the Pangaea Project. She has two fantastic, grown sons of her own who get the credit for why she does what she does. Darcy currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
Roveiza Irfan
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Roveiza is a recent graduate of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and is currently a Development Associate at the United Nations Association-National Capital Area (UNA-NCA), where she works on grants to fund global education programs in DC public schools. Through a combination of her work at UNA-NCA, experience researching health disparities in East Baltimore, and her own education at a democratic high school, she has developed an interest in quality education and its role in positive life outcomes. She hopes to expand her knowledge of democratic education by curating resources for IDEA's Eduvation library, as well as helping IDEA develop as an organization through outcome mapping and social media strategy. In addition to her graduate degree in public health, Roveiza has a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.