Alli Silitsky
Class of 2021
Major: Psychology
Alli Silitsky is a senior from South Florida majoring in psychology and double minoring in international relations and biological sciences. When looking for an internship the summer before her junior year, Silitsky came across a position with the Metro Nashville Office of Family Safety (OFS), whose mission is to provide crisis intervention services to victims of interpersonal violence in order to increase victim safety and offender accountability. This opportunity merged Silitsky’s interests by offering a space where she could utilize her background in psychology while also working in the public sector. Several projects took shape over the course of her 10-week internship.
As part of her daily assignments, Silitsky was responsible for sorting through each of the cases that would be on the following day’s jail and bond dockets in Nashville’s civil and criminal court. Cases were labeled “high-risk” if records showed that the offender had a history of strangulation or firearm possession. Over the course of the summer, Silitsky was able to identify over 900 high-risk cases that were then sent to the Nashville District Attorney, judges, and advocacy offices so that the appropriate measures could be taken to keep victims safe and hold offenders accountable. Silitsky was also able to participate in the OFS’s weekly High-Risk Intervention Panel, a collaborative team that meets to discuss urgent high-risk cases and create plans with tangible action items.
Silitsky spent the final weeks of her internship creating a comprehensive process document that detailed steps in analyzing data from two years’ worth of weekly High-Risk Intervention Panels. Silitsky was able to devise a system that would accurately sort each of the action items into categories based on the supporting organization that fulfilled them. By the end, Silitsky had systematically compiled research data on the impact of the High-Risk Intervention Panel for over 700 cases, and presented the OFS a detailed document outlining her method of sorting so that future interns can continue the research.
This experience has helped inspire Silitsky to continue seeking out opportunities in the intersection of public sector and high-risk psychology. At Vanderbilt, she has worked in the Zald Affective Neuroscience Lab for several years to improve how psychologists use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the main diagnosing tool for psychological and mental health disorders worldwide. Additionally, Silitsky has since focused her coursework on relevant topics such as Abnormal Psychology, Terrorism and Intrastate Conflict, and Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. Inspired by her meaningful experience interning with the OFS, Silitsky plans to follow along this path for her future career to truly make an impact in the world.
For students who may be interested in pursuing a similar internship for their Immersion, Silitsky recommends reaching out mid-academic year to local government organizations and non-profits, as many have well-established internship programs. Additionally, Silitsky highly recommends conveying topics of interest to internship supervisors, who are often willing to find a project that fits a specific area of interest. Furthermore, organizations such as these are typically happy to have intern help year-round, making it easy for projects to continue well after the traditional internship period has ended.