Not working was not an option for Edwin “Ed” Baum ’81 as an undergraduate. He made $3.80 an hour as a dishwasher and short-order cook in the Willard Straight dining hall and supplemented it with higher-paying gigs as a lighting technician/operator when the Cornell Concert Commission rented out its spotlights for local events.
During academic year breaks, Baum would take his dishwashing and cooking skills back downstate to the luncheonette where he began working as a 15-year-old, and found additional temp work in local warehouses and offices.
When the National Labor Relations Board, through a program with the ILR School, offered Baum a paid semester-long and summer internship that allowed him to apply his ILR School classroom knowledge in practical ways – while still paying his bills – he was thrilled.
That experience led Baum to his career as a litigator by day and leader of community service-directed not-for-profits by night. In turn, that career – launched through a paid internship – made it possible to support daughter Claire Wallace Baum ’16 through her own Cornell journey and exploration of non-compensated internships, paving the way to her career in the digital marketing field.
Now, Baum and his wife, Holly Wallace, a New York-based wealth adviser, are helping undergraduates experience engaged learning internships by funding stipends, subsidizing housing and providing robust program support for the New York City High Road initiative.
The New York City program, developed and directed by ILR’s Office of Engaged and Experiential Programs in partnership with the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement and modeled after the school’s Buffalo High Road program, was a natural fit for the couple who are committed to helping high school and college students flourish.
