Senior psychology major April Harwood has been a major force for harm reduction and recovery both on and off campus. At Temple, she is a leader in multiple student organizations, working as an advocate, educator and community-builder for students in recovery. 

She continued that work in her summer internship, which she secured through CLA’s Pathways to Professions program. Pathways to Professions awards selected students with a stipend that allows them to support themselves while pursuing an unpaid internship opportunity.

April is also a recent recipient of the Resilience and Recovery Academic Scholarship, awarded by the National Association for Collegiate Recovery, recognizing her work in the field.

We chatted with April about all of these experiences, what drew her to harm reduction work and the work she does on campus. She encourages anyone interested in connecting with any of these programs to reach out directly. 

What led you to apply for the Pathways to Professions program, and how did it lead you to your summer internship? 

I applied for Pathways because I switched majors to psychology this year, and it's been hard to find psychology internship opportunities that let me really get hands-on in a facility. This internship let me reach out to one of the nonprofits in my hometown and ask if they'd let me work there if my school funded it.

What drew you to the Brien Center specifically?

Berkshire County is pretty rural, and there's a real lack of resources for a significant substance use and economic problem in the area. The Brien Center is one of the very few organizations doing this work here, and they approach it from a lot of different angles—medical care, housing, mobile outreach. They've been doing it for decades. I wanted to work with them.

What does your day-to-day look like there?

Mostly shadowing. I'm learning a lot about medication-assisted opioid treatment at a male residential facility, I do intake interviews, and I help run group therapy sessions. 

The thing I'm most excited about is that I started a therapeutic art group there — they didn't have one before. I already run something similar as a volunteer at a rural recovery center near home, so I had the supplies in my car and noticed an open slot in the schedule. A lot of the residents at the Brien Center are coming out of incarceration and haven't had much opportunity to engage with art, so it's been really great to provide that.

How is this internship supporting your post-graduation goals?

I'm getting to meet and talk with a lot of professionals in the recovery community, including some medical shadowing opportunities—I'm shadowing an addiction medicine doctor soon. That's what I want to do long-term: addiction medicine. After I graduate in May, I'll do a post-baccalaureate medical prep program, and then apply to medical school. That's my five-year plan.

Tell us about the scholarship you recently won. 

It's called the Resilience and Recovery Academic Scholarship. I got it through the Collegiate Recovery Program Conference, which is hosted by the National Association for Collegiate Recovery Programs. The conference itself is held at Saint Joseph's. I was already planning to attend the conference, so I applied.

The scholarship recognizes students doing service work around recovery or addiction prevention. For my application essays, I wrote about the work I do at Temple. That’s actually how I got a lot of the experience that helped me land the Brien Center internship, too. 

Let's talk about that work. What are you involved in on campus?

I run the Students for Sensible Drug Policy club, which is a harm reduction organization built around three things: volunteering with local nonprofits in Kensington, like the Everywhere Project; on-campus overdose prevention education, which involves outreach tabling and Narcan trainings with student groups, including Greek life, the Wellness Resource Center and pre-med students; and advocacy for better drug policy, lower stigma, and stronger resources for people in recovery.

I'm also vice president of Temple Collegiate Recovery, which is part of Temple's collegiate recovery program but is student peer-led. We host weekly peer support meetings, and starting last semester, we added monthly sober social activities — an art night, a yoga session — supported by the Wellness Resource Center. That's a newer effort I'm really trying to spread the word about.

How can students get involved?

Students for Sensible Drug Policy is always looking for volunteers—you can find us on Instagram at @TU.SSDP.

Temple Collegiate Recovery is for students looking for community and sober connections; I'll confirm the best way to reach that group before this runs. We’re on Instagram at @tu.collegiaterecovery.

Anything else you're working on at Temple this year?

I'm now a student worker in the Wellness Resource Center, assisting with the addiction prevention program. It's the same kind of work, but with a lot more time and capacity behind it. I'm hoping to build awareness among staff and faculty about the resources available, collaborate more with Greek life, and expand our programming to more departments and groups on campus. If anyone's interested in that, they should reach out to me directly.

You mentioned earlier that you switched majors to psychology. What led to that?

I've always known I wanted to be in a helping profession. I started in community development because I thought I'd end up in nonprofit management, but the more I learned about that side of things, the more I realized I wanted to work directly with people. So I switched to psychology last fall, and this past semester I joined the Honors Psychology program, and they've been incredibly supportive in pushing me and helping me see what I'm capable of.

Did you always see yourself pursuing something like this?

Honestly, no. I never thought I'd be able to do a psychology major, and I never would have considered a pre-medical program before. Coming to Temple has given me a lot of confidence in my abilities. Now I feel like I can ask myself where I want to make the most impact and actually follow that, whereas before, I think I felt like I had to pick something safer, simpler.

What brought you to Temple?

I transferred in as a sophomore, after a semester at Brandeis and a semester at community college. I grew up in a small town with a small school and didn't really know what I wanted to do, so I wanted a school that would give me a lot of options and opportunities, and a lot of art, since that's something I do on the side, too. Temple checked all those boxes, and it's worked out really well for me. I live on campus, and I love Philly.