Crisis Assistance Ministry’s student interns are bringing fresh energy, real-world experience, and a deep sense of justice to Charlotte—and their summer here is shaping how they’ll show up as changemakers for years to come. This blog introduces three of them and the Bank of America Student Leaders program that helped connect them to this work.
A Summer Built on Service
Each intern arrived at Crisis Assistance Ministry with a clear desire: to make a real impact, not just pad a resume. Through the Bank of America Student Leaders® program, they’re spending a full-time, paid summer working at a local nonprofit, gaining hands-on experience alongside staff who live the mission every day.
The Student Leaders program pairs community-minded students with nonprofits across the country for a six- to eight-week internship and a national leadership summit, all designed to build career skills and deepen their commitment to service.
As one intern put it, this summer has shown them “the direct impact we could leave on not only this nonprofit, but our community as well.”
Rohan: From TikTok Scroll to Housing Justice
Rohan first found the Student Leaders opportunity the way many teens discover something new—scrolling TikTok. “I was really looking to find a way to make an impact on my community, and I found an amazing opportunity through Bank of America that supports nonprofits,” he shared. “I thought to myself that I should take this opportunity and run with it, honestly.”
His commitment to service started long before this summer. Working at his parents’ gas station, Rohan got to know a homeless veteran who regularly visited for food and help. “We would offer him free items, free goods. We would even offer him work and give him some money for it,” Rohan remembered. “When I found out that he passed away, it was like, wow, he truly deserves so much better. He gave his life for his country… how can I help fix this in the future?”
That experience pushed him toward work that addresses housing instability before it becomes homelessness. At Crisis Assistance Ministry, he’s learning what it means to keep people housed, not just respond after they’ve lost everything.
Coming into the internship, Rohan assumed the focus would be solely on homelessness. Over the summer, he’s come to see housing instability differently: “We’re helping people who may have the ability to live in a home… keeping people in homes is a step before homelessness.”
Looking ahead, he hopes to become a physician and eventually start his own clinic, using what he’s learned about housing and health to care for people who can’t afford traditional healthcare.
His advice for other students is simple: “Jump into any service work you can get. No matter how big or small the opportunity may look, it will still help people.”
And one fun fact: Rohan once had over 240,000 followers on TikTok, posting video game content during the COVID era.
Tristan: Engineering with Empathy
Tristan is a computer science student at the University of South Carolina, and he wants people to know that “people from the University of South Carolina are just as talented as other places and have a lot to offer.”
If you followed Tristan for a day at Crisis Assistance Ministry, you’d mostly see him in a supporting role—relaying information, explaining how tools work, and helping the team understand the technical side of AI projects. “As the person with the computer science experience, I’m more in charge of relaying information, explaining how things work,” he said. “We still come together as a team to contribute and make decisions together.”
His path to Charlotte started in Gastonia, where he volunteered with Crisis Assistance Ministry and Bountiful Blessings, nonprofits focused on housing and shelter. “Learning that there was this option of working in Charlotte, where the need is bigger than just in Gastonia, kind of piqued my interest,” Tristan explained. It offered him a chance to keep following that passion for helping people stay housed.
This summer has shifted how he sees both people and systems. “Whether they’re on this side of the wall or on the other side of the wall facing housing instability, everyone goes through the same issues,” he reflected. “It’s a lot more difficult to balance everything in your life when you’re facing homelessness or possibly losing your house.”
His understanding of housing instability has expanded, too: “I didn’t really understand how many steps there were before people become unhoused. The fact that the system is still failing despite having organizations working at different stages speaks to how dysfunctional the current system is and how some people are left to the wayside.”
As an aspiring engineer, Tristan wants to “create things or solve problems that people face every day, specifically to make their lives easier.”
He believes service work should shape how engineers approach their careers: “It gives you a perspective to have that moral ground and to approach things more holistically versus just seeing your job as a paycheck.”
Outside of work, Tristan has been a swimmer for 12 years, winning two state championships, and he’s currently learning to play the drums—“I’m terrible at it, but we’re getting better.”
Sam: Turning Lived Experience into Nonprofit Impact
Sam is studying business and psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and describes himself as someone who is “quite assertive with what I believe and the work that I do.” If you followed Sam for a day, you’d see him focus less on coding and more on implementation—using his business background to help move AI projects from ideas into tools that staff can actually use.
His journey to Crisis Assistance Ministry began in childhood. Sam grew up in a lower-income community before moving to a higher-income one, and the stark contrast between those two neighborhoods stayed with him.
“That was where I saw the disparity between the two separate communities that I grew up in,” he said. That realization led him to volunteer and eventually start his own nonprofit, the School Supplies Closet, raising over $10,000 for Title I schools in Union County.
He applied to the Bank of America Student Leaders program to keep building on that work.
Sam admits the internship hasn’t looked like what he expected: “Applying for a Bank of America Student Leaders program, I expected it to be a lot more banking focused. Even though I knew it was with a nonprofit, I did not expect the scale of this internship to go this far.”
Working hands-on with AI implementation at Crisis Assistance Ministry, he’s seen how technology can directly support neighbors facing utility shutoffs, eviction, and other emergencies.
One moment that stood out to him was listening to a customer advocate share stories of people seeking help to pay their utilities: “That is when I realized the true mission of this program… supporting individuals that may not have the money or funds to keep themselves afloat made me realize that in the future I want to be able to leave a bigger impact through my expertise in consulting.”
His understanding of housing instability has shifted, too. Before the internship, Sam says he “did not realize the scope of keeping people housed and how important that is to our community.”
“When I realized that each person on the street costs the community tens of thousands of dollars, it really makes you realize: why don’t we put in more work towards keeping people housed rather than keeping people fed on the streets?” he reflected. “By keeping them housed, they can still get jobs, have an address, and be able to keep themselves afloat.”
In the future, Sam hopes to go into consulting and then nonprofit consulting, using this experience to influence housing, philanthropy, and community impact well beyond Mecklenburg County.
And a fun fact: Sam used to powerlift competitively, reaching the national level and placing in the top three—an achievement he calls his “most proud.”
The Bank of America Student Leaders Program: Connecting Passion to Practice
All three interns came to Crisis Assistance Ministry through the Bank of America Student Leaders® program, a longstanding initiative that connects hundreds of students each year to paid internships at local nonprofits.
Student Leaders earn a paid six- to eight-week internship with a nonprofit organization, typically working around 35 hours per week, gaining real experience in mission-driven work.
They also participate in a national leadership summit, where they build career skills, explore how public and private sectors work together to address community needs, and connect with peers and Bank of America leaders.
The program focuses on youth employment and economic mobility, preparing “community-minded students to be successful in the workforce through leadership training and work experience.”
For Rohan, Tristan, and Sam, that has meant not just learning how a nonprofit operates, but seeing firsthand the human impact behind every policy, form, and decision.
Why This Work Matters—Now and Later
This summer is about more than one internship or one project. It’s about how these students will choose to use their skills in the long run.
Rohan wants to practice medicine in a way that meets people where they are, including those who avoid hospitals or can’t afford care.
Tristan wants to be the kind of engineer who solves everyday problems with empathy, keeping real people and real communities at the center of every design.
Sam wants to bring his business and psychology training into nonprofit consulting, helping organizations address housing instability and other community needs more effectively.
They’re studying different disciplines: medicine, engineering, and business, but they share a common thread: a belief that justice and generosity should shape their careers, not just their volunteer hours.
As Sam put it, many classmates chase high-paying roles in fields like investment banking or consulting. His challenge to them is this: “Even if people do decide to go into a high-paying role, they should gear towards that service-driven work by volunteering or by just giving back to the community through one way or another, small or big.”
At Crisis Assistance Ministry, we see what becomes possible when emerging leaders refuse to look away from their neighbors’ struggles and choose to build careers that honor both skill and compassion.
Closing: Emerging Students, Extraordinary Impact
The United States is still wrestling with housing instability, poverty, and inequity. Still, this summer, inside one building just outside uptown Charlotte, three students are quietly helping push the story in a different direction.
They are learning that keeping people housed can be just as powerful as pulling them out of crisis after the fact. They are seeing how technology, healthcare, and business can serve people who are often left out of our systems.
Most importantly, they’re discovering that they don’t have to wait until they’re “established” to make a difference. They can start now by listening, learning, and choosing work that keeps justice and generosity at the center.
The work of building a more just community is still unfinished. But with Student Leaders like Rohan, Tristan, and Sam, there is still room for hope, for creativity, and for ordinary students to do extraordinary things.
