About Us

Dr. Jabbawy’s career in education spans more than 30 years. She began her teaching career as a middle school and high school teacher, earning a Doctorate in Education from Boston University. More recently she has held both administrative and teaching appointments at Tufts, The Museum School and Lesley University, training and supervising classroom teachers, and advising students about career opportunities.

Leading workshops for teachers and parents, she focuses on bringing out the unique strengths and talents of each child. She is an educational consultant to museums with respect to museum/school collaborations and to businesses relating to the development and implementation of on-site internship programs for high school and college students.

Dr. Jabbawy is active in the Boston community. She has served on the boards of The Massachusetts Art Education Association, the Massachusetts Art Directors Association, the Leventhal Sidman Jewish Community Center, and the Parents Fund Committee of Cornell University.

Eileen Mandell, M.Ed. Senior Counselor

Eileen is a professional educator, mother of three grown children and active on many community boards and organizations in the Boston area. With a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in secondary education from Columbia University, Eileen taught both middle school and high school mathematics for over ten years.

Eileen has many interests and professional contacts in a wide variety of fields.

She founded the Brookline Schools’ Creative Arts Council, which promotes arts enrichment education in the Brookline schools and served for five years on the Board of Young Audiences of Massachusetts, a nonprofit arts-in-education organization. She is currently president of the West Suburban Creative Arts Council.

While living in Japan Eileen became certified as an instructor in Japanese flower arranging (Ikenobo school), studied Japanese Tea Ceremony, Sumei painting, Aikido, and taught English conversation at a Japanese girl’s school. She has studied Landscape Design at Radcliff College.

Eileen and her husband, Dr Frederick Mandell and their children have been an integral part of the community for over thirty years.  “Each of us has had the opportunity to be a mentor. The value of a mentoring experience has left me a believer that  ‘mentoring’ can be a defining moment in a young person’s life and can make a difference upon what is to be. I always look forward to connecting students on their road to exploring career interests in the various fields.”   

Sonya Wilder, MS Ed. Senior Counselor

Sonya‘s wide ranging professional expertise includes both college admissions and academic counseling. In her previous role as academic advisor at Northeastern University, she worked closely with staff in Northeastern’s internationally known Coop program.

Sonya holds a BA from Lehigh and a Masters Degree in School Counseling from Fordham University She has worked with high school and college students providing academic support regarding strategies for study skills and time management.

Sonya offers much to our program. While our students enjoy Sonya’s youthful and bubbly personality, parents appreciate her role as a professional and mother to three young children.

“My passion is working with high school students, helping them navigate through the college application process. Having worked in college admissions, I traveled around the country attending college fairs and meeting with high school students and their counselors. I’ve read countless college applications and helped students with their interviewing techniques. An internship that relates to a student’s career or academic interest is an invaluable asset and will be a distinguishing factor during the interview and college application process."

Judi Pava Senior Counselor

Judi is a married mother of three and a professional actor who has performed on television, stage and screen. She has appeared in Grease, The Departed, Happy Days, and numerous commercials. In the last year, her film work included: The Woman, The Box, The Kevin James Movie, The Proposal, This Side of the Truth, Hachico, Surrogates and   the television series Brotherhood. Judi’s love for her profession is infectious to the many students she works with.  

Judi is member of the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Actors Equity Association. A music theory and composition major at the University of New Hampshire, Judi has held teaching and directing appointments in Boston and New York City. She has directed numerous musical theatre productions in both private and public school settings.

Judi has many contacts in television stage and film. We are very fortunate to have her as a resource and counselor in our program.

Internship Connection is fortunate to have Randy as a Senior Counselor. With his outgoing and enthusiastic personality, educational background in guidance and extensive professional experience working with teens, Randy has much to offer for the students in our program. He holds a Masters of Education in School Guidance from Cambridge College and a BA in psychology, graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Tulane’s Honors Program in the top 5% of his class.

As a Guidance Counseling Intern at Brookline High School, Randy advised students in the college selection and application process, provided emotional support and academic advocacy, and assisted students with postsecondary career planning.  Last summer, Randy enjoyed the experience of mentoring student interns as a project leader for the Brookline Teen Center Initiative.  He has also worked as an Academic Support Coordinator at Brookline High, an Admissions Assistant at MIT, private study skills tutor, and MIT/Wellesley Upward Bound teacher.

He is a member of the Massachusetts School Counselor Association, the New England Association for College Admission Counseling and the Tulane University Alumni Admission Committee.

“Having supervised student interns first-hand in the past, I have seen how enriching it is for young men and women to gain hands-on familiarity with career fields that they find attractive and exciting.  I love helping students to focus their interests and passions, and guiding them through the summer internship process helps them to do this while also developing real-world skills and experience that will prove invaluable as they navigate the career exploration process.”

"As a parent, I learned the importance of encouraging each of my children to explore and develop his own strengths and talents. Once in high school, I helped them secure internships relating to their academic and career interests. Through their experiences, they discovered on their own, the path and direction that they most enjoyed, enabling them to be more certain about career choice before committing to a tremendous investment of time and money. Each had very different interests, from computer animation, to medicine to engineering."

"When I saw how important their internships were for college, graduate school and beyond, I established The Internship Connection, in order to help more students learn about themselves through career exploration. It’s extremely rewarding to work with students to provide opportunities that have such an impact on their lives."

Carole Jabbawy, Ed.D.