HPRI Summer Fellowship Program

Program at a Glance

Program at a glance
Dates	June 22 – July 30, 2026
Time Commitment	Approximately 10 hours per week, including seminars, mentor meetings, project work, independent assignments, and capstone preparation. Fellows should plan to work at our downtown or USC offices on Wednesdays and attend the lunchtime Fellows Seminar on those days. We are in the office from 10am-3pm. Fellows participating remotely are expected to be engaged during scheduled meetings, seminars, supervisor check-ins, and assigned work times.
Format	Hybrid, with in-person seminars and talks, mentor meetings, remote work, and self-directed/project-based activities
Primary Locations	HPRI/H3E Downtown Office, USC City Center, 1150 S. Olive Street, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA 90015 and USC Social Work Center, 665 W. 34th Street, Room 106, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Learning Model	Project-based placement or self-directed field activity, weekly Fellows Seminars, mentor check-ins, skill-building, reflection, and a final capstone presentation.
Supervision	Each fellow will work with a program mentor. Fellows are expected to meet with their mentor once a week and respond to reasonable program communications.
Final Culmination & Capstone Presentations	Wed, July 29, 12-2pm at USC Social Work Center, 665 W. 34th Street, Room 106, Los Angeles, CA 90089. Families Welcome!

Fellows should plan to participate in weekly seminars, meet with their mentor once per week, complete assignments and reflections, and develop a final capstone presentation connected to their self-directed activity or project placement.

Presentations: Fellows Seminars & Tuesday Talks

All seminar slides, Tuesday Talk materials, recordings, reflection links, and presentation-related details from the program calendar are posted here.

Seminar and Tuesday Talk schedule
Week	Date / Time	Type	Topic / Presenter	Location / Format	Materials
Week 1	Mon June 22, 9:30am–12pm	Orientation	Program Orientation	USC City Center, 1150 S. Olive Street, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA 90015 and Zoom	MaterialsRecordingReflection
Week 1	Wed June 24, 12–1:30pm	Fellows Seminar 1	Sara Ozuna / Gisele Corletto: Research Ethics & CITI Training Workshop	USC City Center, 1150 S. Olive Street, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA 90015 and Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 2	Tues June 30, 12–2pm	Tuesday Talk	Nelly Stastny: Miracle Friends, Phone Buddies, and Universal Basic Income	Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 2	Wed July 1, 12–2pm	Fellows Seminar 2	Sean Pleasants: Lived Experience of Homelessness	USC City Center, 1150 S. Olive Street, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA 90015 and Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 3	Tues July 7, 12–2pm	Tuesday Talk	To be announced	Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 3	Wed July 8, 12–2pm	Fellows Seminar 3	Nick Weinmeister: Policy Research, Stakeholders, and Civic Action	USC City Center, 1150 S. Olive Street, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA 90015 and Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 4	Tues July 14, 12–2pm	Tuesday Talk	To be announced	USC City Center, 1150 S. Olive Street, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA 90015 and Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 4	Wed July 15, 9:30–11:30am	Workshop	Greg Derelian: Get Comfortable with Public Speaking	USC Social Work Center, 665 W. 34th Street, Room 106, Los Angeles, CA 90089 and Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 4	Wed July 15, 12:30–2:30pm	Fellows Seminar 4	Dr. Amanda Landrian Gonzales and Data Team: Data, Homeless Count, and Demographic Survey Methods	USC Social Work Center, 665 W. 34th Street, Room 106, Los Angeles, CA 90089 and Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 5	Tues July 21, time TBD	Tuesday Talk	Dr. Rev. Seth Pickens: Faith and Homelessness	Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 5	Wed July 22, 9:30–11:30am	Fellows Seminar 5	Drs. Ben Henwood & Sam Tsemberis: Housing First, Permanent Supportive Housing, and Program Models	USC Social Work Center, 665 W. 34th Street, Room 106, Los Angeles, CA 90089 and Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 5	Wed July 22, 12:30–2pm	Panel Discussion	Amy Stein & Shantel Cordon: Meet the USC Student Demographic Survey Team — Panel on Campus with Tour at 2:30pm	USC Social Work Center, 665 W. 34th Street, Room 106, Los Angeles, CA 90089 and Zoom	PresentationRecordingReflection
Week 5	Thurs July 23, 5–8pm	All Fellow Service Action	Union Station Homeless Services Family Shelter — Adopt a Meal	Union Station Homeless Services, 825 E. Orange Grove Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91104
Week 6	Wed July 29, 12–2pm	Fellows Seminar 6 / Culmination	Fellows Present their Findings: Capstone Presentations and Culmination (families welcome to attend)	USC Social Work Center, 665 W. 34th Street, Room 106, Los Angeles, CA 90089 and Zoom	Final Materials

Missed seminar reminder: Fellows who miss a seminar must watch the recording and complete the assigned reflection or make-up task.

Rules and Expectations

Fellows are expected to participate fully, communicate professionally, complete work on time, and use respectful, person-centered language when discussing homelessness and people experiencing homelessness. Fellows must protect confidentiality and may not share private, identifiable, or sensitive information without explicit approval.

Key expectations

Attend required sessions, seminars, mentor meetings, project check-ins, and capstone-related activities
Complete all assignments, reflections, project deliverables, and make-up work
Submit assignments by the posted deadline to the Assignment section of this platform
Cite sources when using facts, statistics, quotes, public data, policy documents, news articles, websites, or research
Do not photograph, record, interview, approach, or collect personal information from people experiencing homelessness unless explicitly approved and supervised
Remain in approved program spaces during in-person activities and communicate with staff if leaving or returning during lunch or independent work periods
Use AI tools only if allowed by program staff and only in ways that support learning rather than replace their own thinking. Fellows should not submit AI-generated work as if it were entirely their own.
Social media, video games, streaming, unrelated browsing, or other non-program technology use is not permitted during office time.
Fellows attending by Zoom should join on time, use their full name, keep their camera on when possible, and participate respectfully. If a fellow is unable to keep their camera on, they should still remain engaged through listening, note-taking, chat participation, and completion of any assigned reflection.

Full rules and participation agreement

Mentors

Each fellow will work with a primary and secondary mentor who helps define the project scope, identify credible sources, set weekly milestones, provide feedback, and connect the work to the final capstone presentation. Mentors will meet with fellows once per week, usually for a structured 20–30 minute check-in.

Fellows and mentors
Fellow	Primary Mentor	Secondary Mentor	Project Area
Mia Carretero
Zola Pickens
Steve Andrew Quezada
Jesse Quezada
Drake Gross
Stewart Henwood
Samuel Gordon
Milo Derelian
Zaki Kuhn
Juniper Rhey
Roan Henwood
Bowe Lubin
Michelle Guzman
Lee Monro
Henry Houser

soon

CITI Training

USC is committed to conducting research responsibly and ethically while protecting the rights, privacy, and well-being of research participants. To support this commitment, all students, researchers, and research personnel involved in human subjects research are required to complete Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative, or CITI, training.

CITI training provides essential instruction on research ethics, participant protections, informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, and regulatory compliance. Completion of the required modules is often necessary before research activities can begin and helps ensure that studies are conducted with integrity and respect for participants.

Because CITI training is widely recognized by colleges, universities, hospitals, and research organizations across the United States, the knowledge and certification gained through this training may also be useful beyond USC.

CITI Training Guide

Self-Directed Activity Options

By week two, fellows should select a self-directed activity, narrow their topic, identify starting sources, and choose a feasible deliverable. The list below are options. Fellows may work with their mentor to create their own activity tailored to their interests. Work on these activities will take place over all six weeks of the Fellowship and inform the content of the final Capstone Presentation.

Self-directed activity options
Activity	Summary
Homelessness, Hunger, and Community Meal Service: Union Station Homeless Services Adopt-a-Meal Project	Fellows help plan and participate in a late-July Adopt-a-Meal service activity with Union Station Homeless Services. They coordinate through program staff, clarify partner needs and site rules, plan a menu, create a shopping and supply list, organize team roles, prepare or transport food safely, serve respectfully, and reflect on how hunger connects to homelessness, dignity, service systems, and unmet need.
Community Space Planning and Youth Engagement: Young People to the Front HQ	Fellows partner with Young People to the Front to support early planning for a community space intended to host workshops for youth transitioning out of homelessness and community members. Fellows learn the partner’s goals, research welcoming and trauma-informed community spaces, draft a short needs-and-interests survey, identify possible workshop uses, and attend the Homeless Comms Group meeting on July 16 from 10:00am-2:00pm.
Community Asset Mapping	Fellows choose a Los Angeles neighborhood, SPA, census tract, or service hub and create a digital map of homelessness-related resources. They document emergency services, health services, public infrastructure, informal community supports, hours, eligibility, transit access, and possible barriers.
Los Angeles Policy-in-Action Tracking	Fellows select one homelessness-related policy and follow how it moves from proposal or public discussion into implementation. They examine the policy’s purpose, supporting and opposing arguments, evidence from public meetings or records, and the gap between policy design and field reality.
Homelessness and Health: Access, Barriers, and Systems Response in Los Angeles	Fellows investigate how people experiencing homelessness access health-related services in a specific Los Angeles neighborhood, SPA, census tract, or service hub. They examine resources such as mobile clinics, primary care, behavioral health care, substance use treatment, harm reduction, recuperative care, and specialty care, then analyze practical barriers.
Los Angeles Media and Narrative Audit	Fellows compare how homelessness is represented across two or three local media sources. They analyze language, framing, whose voices are included or excluded, whether coverage is fact-based or opinion-based, and whether the coverage emphasizes public safety, housing, services, individual behavior, neighborhood impact, or structural causes.
Systems Stakeholder Mapping	Fellows map major people, agencies, organizations, and community groups involved in the Los Angeles homelessness response system. They may include LAHSA, City Council, county departments, nonprofit providers, outreach teams, neighborhood councils, housed residents, business groups, advocacy groups, and people experiencing homelessness.
Rapid Mini-Survey Project	Fellows design and test a short survey on a homelessness-related topic, such as awareness of local services, transportation barriers, perceptions of safety, or seminar learning. They write neutral questions, pilot the survey with peers or another approved group, revise for clarity, and summarize basic findings while acknowledging limitations.
Service Learning and Systems Navigation	Fellows examine how people experiencing homelessness navigate services in Los Angeles. They may research or observe an approved service organization, volunteer in an approved setting, review a resource pathway, or map the steps someone would need to take to access help. The focus is on access points, barriers, and practical improvements to navigation.

Full activity listsoonWeek Two planning trackersoon

Submit Assignments

All assignments should be submitted here by the deadline provided.

Assignments and due dates
Assignment	Due Date	Submit
Orientation Reflection/Questions	TBD
Self-Directed Activity Plan	TBD
Seminar Reflections	Weekly
Midpoint Project Update	TBD
Draft Capstone Presentation Materials	TBD
Final Capstone Presentation Materials	TBD
Final Capstone Reflection	TBD
Self Directed Activity Deliverable	TBD
CITI Training Completion Certificate	TBD

Capstone Project

The final capstone presentation is the culminating part of the fellowship. Fellows should explain the issue they studied, why it matters, their guiding question, sources or evidence, key findings, systems-level patterns, recommendations or next questions, and what they learned.

Important Contacts and Addresses

Important contacts
Need	Contact	Use For
General Program Questions	Amy Stein, Program Administrator / Covered Activity Administratorsteinamy@usc.edu646-391-8637	Attendance, schedule, parent questions, documentation, concerns, escalation
Program Oversight	Dr. Ben Henwood, HPRI Directorbhenwood@usc.edu610-731-6872	Program Oversight
Weekly Project Support	Assigned Mentor	Work plan, assignment questions, capstone development, feedback
Youth Protection Concerns	USC Office of Youth Protection and Programmingminors@usc.edu	Concerns related to adult conduct, safety, supervision, or youth protection
Emergency or Immediate Threat	911 or USC Department of Public Safety as directed by program staff	Immediate danger, medical emergency, safety threat

HPRI/H3E Downtown Office - USC City Center

1150 S. Olive Street, Suite 1100

Los Angeles, CA 90015

USC Main Campus - USC Social Work Center

665 W. 34th Street, Room 106

Los Angeles, CA 90089

Send us a message

Questions about the program? Use the form below — we reply by email, and you’ll get a copy of your message.