Summer Bridge Spotlight: Daniel Rodriguez
Meet Daniel Rodriguez, one of five participants selected for the 2025 Summer Bridge program. A Ph.D. student in the history department at U of I, he worked with the Greater Community AIDS Project.
How have you applied your humanistic training to advance the mission of the community organization?
My humanistic training has been critical in assisting Greater Community AIDS Project of East Central Illinois (GCAP) with its mission. Much of the need of GCAP as an organization has been in ensuring the preservation of its institutional memory and legacy now that it’s been almost 50 years since the project began. Much of the knowledge of its early history and legacy is preserved through the continued participation of those who have been involved with the project since its inception. I have been working on the creation of an archive that will ensure the preservation of GCAP’s legacy and can also be used by the public to learn more about its history.
How has this experience contributed to your career development? What skills have you gained or developed?
I’ve learned a lot about what the work of a nonprofit can look like through the time that I have spent there. My expectations were largely shaped by my previous experience working in labor unions, but I’ve learned that what it means to work at a nonprofit community organization can look very different depending on the purpose that these organizations serve and their current needs. It’s less about what skills I have learned and more about how I have learned to apply the skills I already had through my humanistic training to contexts that I did not expect could make use of them.
What have you learned from working with this community organization?
I’ve learned about the importance of the work that these kinds of community nonprofits and how much people depend on their services. I’ve learned about the amount of creativity needed to always be adjusting to the needs of the people that they serve. I have also learned how much work goes into maintaining these organizations financially that depend on grants and other contributions which requires a regular effort to ensure everything is running properly.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about your Summer Bridge program experience?
Participating in the Summer Bridge program has done a lot to help me envision myself working in spaces outside of the traditional career paths that most humanities graduate students expect to be working in the future. In the midst of paper writing, qualifying exams, and dissertation proposals, it’s helped to remind me that there are ways for my training to contribute to endeavors that have a direct impact on people’s livelihoods and well-being. In a lot of ways, it has done much to bolster my confidence both within and outside of my graduate program.