Mark Johnson got his first real-world lesson on homelessness while riding a bus. The day before starting his Virginia Supportive Housing internship in Richmond, he made a trial run on the public bus to be sure he knew how to get to work. Two fellow passengers — who coincidentally were former VSH clients — helped him figure out the best route. They also gave him a new perspective by sharing their personal stories.

“I learned that not all ‘homeless’ people are without a home,” Johnson said. “Some would rather live on the streets than in a place where they are suffering sexual or physical abuse.”

Last summer, Jepson School of Leadership Studies seniors Johnson, Sofi Conway, and Audrey Fulkerson learned about the many reasons for housing insecurity — and solutions to it — during their internships at the Richmond-based housing nonprofit. In its drive to end homelessness, the organization uses a “housing first” strategy focused on finding individuals stable, permanent housing and then addresses their other needs through wrap-around support services.

As mission advancement interns, the students managed social media, conducted donor research, wrote newsletter op-eds, and created orientation materials for new volunteers and employees. But they said it was the chance to interview placed residents that was most rewarding.

“It's incredibly powerful to hear firsthand about how homelessness has impacted people and how the housing-first model has changed lives,” Conway said. “I'm grateful for the opportunity to study a major social problem and see how other social factors, such as poverty and substance abuse, contribute to homelessness in Virginia.”

A strong alumni network connected the trio to their internships, which were funded through the Richmond Guarantee, a University of Richmond fellowship program for undergraduates. Both the executive director of Virginia Supportive Housing, Allison Bogdanović, and Communications Officer Kate McCarthy are Jepson alums, graduating 2001 and 2020, respectively.

“Jepson interns bring fresh perspectives in helping us tell our story of ending homelessness,” Bogdanović said. “I hope interns will consider careers in the nonprofit industry. There is always the possibility of a Jepson intern joining the Virginia Supportive Housing team permanently.”

McCarthy completed her Jepson internship with the nonprofit in summer 2019 and went to work full-time there after graduating from Richmond in May 2020. For the past three summers, she has managed leadership studies student interns, including Conway, Fulkerson, and Johnson.

“The Jepson School helped me understand how principles of leadership manifest in a role like communications, with decision-making power about whose stories I tell, how those stories are framed, and what motivations and aims I’m centering in telling them,” McCarthy said.

Under her supervision, the Jepson interns came to appreciate the role of storytelling in understanding and addressing a major social issue.

“I now see homelessness as an obstacle that can and must be solved rather than pushed to the side,” Fulkerson said.