Full Circle Moment for Notre Dame Student’s Summer Internship at Catholic Charities Boston

When University of Notre Dame student Malaika Poluscar was exploring potential options for a summer internship offered through her school, one site stood out in particular: Catholic Charities Boston. 

It’s a name with which she was somewhat familiar. Many years ago, before interning with the agency this summer, the computer engineering major’s family was a client of Catholic Charities Boston. 

“I feel like this was a big full-circle moment, being able to be in the position to give back when my family was once the ones receiving help from Catholic Charities,” explained Poluscar. “My journey has gone from my family receiving translation services from Catholic Charities to now, as part of my internship, I have helped translate for clients.” 

Poluscar’s family came to Massachusetts from Haiti in 2017 and was referred to Catholic Charities Boston’s Labouré Center. It was there that her mother worked with Immigration Legal Services, and the agency also referred her to English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes closer to where the family was living at the time in Malden. 

“When I told my mom I was doing my internship here, she immediately took out her phone and showed me she still had her contact from Catholic Charities saved,” said Poluscar. “And she was telling me how they helped her get her first job and recommended language services. There were just a lot of resources we used initially. And having a case worker, they really encouraged her.”  

The family recently moved to Indiana, which is how, in part, Poluscar came to enroll at Notre Dame. She and five other students are interning this summer at Catholic Charities through the university’s ND Bridge program, which has students think hard about injustice, work with communities around the world that face it, and consider their responsibility to the common good while at Notre Dame and beyond.  

This is the second consecutive year Catholic Charities Boston has hosted student summer interns from Notre Dame. Among the interns’ responsibilities are working at Catholic Charities’ four food pantries, helping clients and supporting the agency’s efforts to meet the surging demand for food assistance, and at child care centers.  

Poluscar is also using her computer engineering skills to help centralize some of the pantries’ processes, such as new client intake.  

“I like coding because I can see different aspects of how computers communicate,” said Poluscar. “I thought that was really cool, and I feel like there’s a lot of support for it, especially in Massachusetts.” 

Poluscar and her fellow interns will be with Catholic Charities through the end of July, and she says it has been incredible to be so involved in the agency’s mission. 

“One of the things my family valued a lot with Catholic Charities was not just receiving help, but also the emphasis on dignity,” Poluscar said. “Catholic Charities gave my family the tools to adjust to a new life and new environment.”