A Summer Well Spent: Meet Our 2026 Summer Interns
This summer, The Mind Trust had the pleasure of welcoming five summer interns: Leilani Alanis, EmpowerED Families Intern; Benny Auslander, Talent & School Growth Intern; Arlondo Hall, Indy Summer Learning Labs Intern; Chelsea Murdock, Policy Intern; and Khai Vuong, Policy Intern. Though their time with us was short, we appreciated every moment. Before returning to their studies, each intern answered a few questions about their experience; below is what they shared.
Leilani Alanis
Education: Pursuing culinary school
What has been the highlight of your internship so far? The highlight of my internship has been meeting so many people and being out in the community for events our team has held or events hosted by other organizations.
What’s one thing you’ve learned this summer that surprised you? One thing I have learned is that there are so many resources out there that people don’t yet know about. It’s been great to share these with people during my internship.
Benny Auslander
Education and Major: Sophomore attending the University of Florida, majoring in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law
What was the highlight of your internship? I’ve loved getting a chance to build frontier technology for the next iteration of public education, and seeing with my own eyes, through canvassing in Indianapolis neighborhoods, how this work is critical to our community.
What was something you learned during your internship that surprised you? What surprised me was the data gathered by The Mind Trust’s programs, showing that students who receive an education affiliated with a charter or innovation school are leaps and bounds ahead of their counterparts. I had no idea it was that drastic of a difference.
Arlondo Hall
Education and Major: Senior attending Wabash College, majoring in Rhetoric/Communications and minoring in Black Studies.
What was the highlight of your internship? The highlight of the internship for me would be doing site visits along with the Indy Summer Learning Labs team. Being able to see the payoff from the work they’ve done up to that point and adding me on to assist with those things was a really cool and rewarding experience.
What was something you learned during your internship that surprised you? One thing I’ve learned this summer, and something that surprised me, is how well I can adapt to a fast-paced professional work environment while staying organized and on top of my workload. It’s shown me that I can manage multiple responsibilities, adjust to changing priorities, and still complete my work effectively.
Chelsea Murdock
Education and Major: Senior attending Ball State University, majoring in Secondary English Education with a minor in African-American Studies.
What was the highlight of your internship? The highlight of my internship was the opportunity to learn more about how education policy is implemented and how to apply policy-based skills to benefit students and underrepresented communities. It has given me a strong background as I pursue a graduate degree in education policy.
What was something you learned during your internship that surprised you? I was surprised at how kind everyone was at The Mind Trust. Every day was something new, but I was always met with kindness, patience, and respect as I gained new skills firsthand!
Khai Vuong
Current Role: 8th Grade Math teacher
What was the highlight of your internship? Every moment of my internship was my highlight. I learned so much! Coming in with 10 years of grassroots and advocacy experience, I feel secure in my facilitation and organizing skills. However, this summer challenged me to develop my technical skills in research and data analysis by finding data from traditional public and charter schools to help the policy team build an Indianapolis Strategic Regional Analysis. Before this summer, I didn’t know something like a Strategic Regional Analysis existed.
What was something you learned during your internship that surprised you? What was most insightful for me was seeing how closely research, data, strategy, and policy decisions connect to the lived experiences of communities. Throughout the internship, I often found myself connecting what I had seen and experienced on the ground floor of organizing and advocacy to decisions being made at the systemic level. It gave me a deeper understanding of how policy decisions from the top-down can ultimately shape what communities experience every day.