What inspires you to work in public service?
My passion for public service stems from a lifelong commitment to giving back to my communities. My parents ensured that I was working for a more equitable future by encouraging me to pursue Girl Scouting in kindergarten, an initiative I stuck with through to the end of high school. I volunteered at food pantry drives and made aid packages for battered women’s shelters while selling cookies. Later, my passion focused into the field of law through my experience in the Warren County Youth Court program in late high school. I worked directly with a variety of juvenile offenders to provide appropriate sanctions and support growth. Acting as a defense attorney or juror, I was able to see how individual background, especially socioeconomic status, influenced acts relevant to our justice system. I left every session of Youth Court lit up and always enthusiastic to return for the next session. Ever since then, I have worked to explore the justice system and aim to promote a more equitable future for all through a career in law.
What is your major, and do you have any minors or specializations?
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics major (Justice and Moral Reasoning Concentration) and Sociology Minor
What coursework or academic experiences have most shaped your interests in policy, leadership or public service?
My recent enrollment in Philosophy 3420: Philosophical Perspectives on Issues of Gender through the Ohio Prison Education Exchange Program (OPEEP) has shaped my interest in public service and policy and I expect it to continue to do so throughout the rest of this semester. In this course, I attend class with incarcerated students at the London Correctional Institution, and getting to work with these students one-on-one has furthered my passion for reform and work in the criminal justice system. Public consciousness has been permeated with a certain dehumanized perception of incarcerated individuals. We forget that those who commit crimes are just as deserving of respect and care as those who are not convicted of a crime. My experience in Philosophy 3420 has shattered perceptions I previously held regarding those who are incarcerated: many of my classmates are intelligent, hard-working, or concerned with growth and rehabilitation. I know that my experience working with crime victims may seem contradictory to my acceptance of these traits, but it is important to remember that justice goes both ways and that gaps in the system are not concentrated on one side of it. Leadership in policy and public service can significantly shift the common narrative and treatment of the incarcerated to demonstrate a more accurate representation and more just consideration of these people. I hope to be a part of the change: WAIP is helping me get there.
What specific skills or experiences do you bring to your internship?
I have a lifetime of experience with collaborative team work, from running a Girl Scout camp with my peers every summer starting in 7th grade through senior year of high school to weekly event planning with the rest of the Women in Law executive board today. I have participated in 18 musical productions, which rely on extensive preparation and constant support throughout the show run. I understand that interest is not enough to get the job done: self-discipline and application to one’s own tasks is necessary. After all, line memorization is practically impossible when a performer starts practicing them the day before off-book rehearsal. In my internship, I plan to bring all of my experiences in which I have incorporated task delegation, initiative, and strong communication to ensure that the job gets done.
What strengths do you most rely on when collaborating with others?
When collaborating with others, I understand that communication and clarity is key. In one instance, I was a crew head for a high school production and because I wanted to be liked by my crew members, put most of the work onto myself. After the first day, I realized that this made it difficult to build community within my crew and have a strong work ethic as a group. A mentor noticed my frantic demeanor, and she reminded me that I had the authority to assign jobs to other crew members. She explained that task delegation does not make a leader mean, but rather effective and strong. I realized that I was not meant to do everything myself, but communicate my needs to the rest of the team so that we could operate in a meaningful manner. On the next day, I put my mentor’s words to use, and my group’s work ran much more smoothly. This experience has shaped my collaborative work today, allowing me to act as an effective Women in Law Programming Chair, Kaplan Student Brand Ambassador and Campus Lead, and as an Ohio State student in general. I aim to apply this decisive, action-forward mindset that I formed in high school to move forward in service of goals within my WAIP cohort and team members in my internship. This will make my experience, and hopefully the experiences of others, more beneficial, efficient, and memorable in the long run.
What are your career goals and how do you hope this fellowship will support your professional journey?
As a pre-law student, I think of this fellowship as a stepping stone on my path to law school. Washington, DC is a unique space in which legislation, policy, and the execution of law all occur concurrently, which will develop my understanding of the legal field and how it works as a piece in a larger system. Through WAIP, I plan to explore this intersection of policy and justice in order to enhance my academic experiences as a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics student, and also to gain a better understanding of the system I plan to join. As a part of this program, I plan to develop my work ethic in a way that fits into the legal profession while adding to my unique strengths and perspectives. WAIP offers a structured environment in which I can enhance my professionalism and gain a sense of which legal roles align with my values. Exploration of the legal field in the fellowship will help me develop new passions or deepen my learning in the issues I care about regarding the justice system, which I can further dive into with my postgraduate education.
What is your favorite or most impactful project from a previous role?
My favorite project from a previous role was my work on a safety plan for survivors of sexual assault at the Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center. Working on this project taught me more about the multifaceted nature of supporting underserved populations even in a specific niche. I learned that not only do crime victims need legal support, but emotional and safety support from their communities, which can be difficult to gain after a traumatic event such as a sexual assault. Survivors need to be much more conscious of their physical and social environments in ways that others do not: safety is often taken for granted by our wider society. This difference in need creates a barrier between groups that can prevent the maintenance of a supportive environment. In my research, I found that survivors of crime often lose their communities or support systems. This can be due to personal withdrawal or a lack of understanding and acceptance from the people around them: sometimes friends and family side with the perpetrator and reject the survivor. Learning from this project motivates me to help break these barriers and to be more support-oriented. I aim to contribute to the support system and be a catalyst that allows others to build off of my work and leave their own impact.