Alumna’s Curry Internship Leads to Ultimate Book Club Experience with Oprah

It’s not every day that Oprah Winfrey makes an appearance at your book club. For alumna Chloe Corrion ‘13 it was an exciting confluence of her education, work, and interests.

Shortly after starting a position at The Children’s Trust Fund Alliance while working on her master’s in education at the University of Miami, Corrion was reading What Happened To You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey.

“After getting only a few chapters in, I realized how much I resonated with the themes of the book of trauma, resilience, and healing. I knew that I wanted to incorporate this book into my master’s capstone project, but I wasn’t sure how,” says Corrion, who majored in Education at Curry.

Then she found out that the Alliance would be using this book in a book club with a parent advisory council. The Alliance is a national membership organization for state children’s trust funds focused on preventing child abuse by partnering with parents to help them build the lifelong skills and self-confidence they need to ensure children grow up safe and healthy. Corrion interned at the Children’s Trust in Boston when she was a Curry student.

"I feel everything came full circle,” says Corrion. “Had I not been a part of Curry's education program and had so much support from the faculty, I never would have been connected with The Children's Trust in Boston. It was this same support that connected me to the Children's Trust Fund Alliance.”

The book club met virtually every week to discuss the book and Corrion worked on a parent guide to accompany the book as part of her capstone project. At their last book club meeting in December, they were joined by Winfrey and members of her team. This was an opportunity for parents to voice what they took away from the book.

Then the parent guide, which included chapter summaries, discussion questions, and reflection journals, was released during a webinar in February. Dr. Perry attended, and he listened to parents speaking about their book club experiences. When referring to Corrion’s parent guide, he said that he and Winfrey appreciated the work that went into it.

Corrion says, “You never really know where internships and networking will lead. For me, it led to meeting Oprah and Dr. Bruce Perry. I encourage others to not be afraid of setting goals and working in areas you are truly passionate about. I'd also like to give a special thank you to Kate Begin, from the Curry Education Department for her continued support."