What have you been doing in your summer fellowship in Washington, D.C.?
As part of the fellowship, I’m interning at CASA DC, which stands for Court-Appointed Special Advocates for Children of DC. CASA DC advocates for foster care and juvenile justice-involved youth. As a policy intern—a position that they actually created for me after I expressed my interest in the work that they do—I’m building a legislative advocacy team for them. This involves a group of volunteers and CASA DC staff going to congressmen and congresswomen to advocate for policies that are relevant and would be supporting the youth that we serve. To do so, I planned the very first CASA DC Capitol Day where we knocked on the doors of senators and representatives on Capitol Hill to educate them and their legislative staffs about the important work CASA DC does.
Being able to share stories with the people that are creating and influencing policies that affect system-involved youth is really important. It helps us bridge that gap between the youth and volunteers experiencing and witnessing the hardships on the one hand, and the people that are creating legislation that reform the system on the other.
As Archer fellows, we are also each working on a paper and presentation where we choose a policy problem that’s important to us, and then we spend the entire summer researching this problem and suggesting potential solutions. My policy paper is on prioritizing the well-being of youth with domestic abuse history, merging my research interests as a neuroscience Ph.D. student and an intern at CASA DC. Research shows correlations between domestic abuse history and mental health concerns, suicidality, substance abuse, and legal system involvement. Through my policy research during Archer, I learned about federally-funded Training and Technical Assistance centers that improve mental health for youth in the child welfare system. They do so by increasing collaboration between child welfare and mental health systems and creating knowledge hubs drawn from research. Having this policy experience taught me the relevance and importance of translating scientific research into practice.
What are your plans after graduate school?
When I complete my Ph.D., I would love to have my own lab that continues researching how negative life experiences affect the brain and behavior, and to intentionally collaborate with labs and organizations in policy to be able to translate the science into meaningful change and reform.
I’m glad I’m able to draw from my personal experiences to fuel my passion for amplifying the voice of vulnerable populations and to be able to advocate for changes on a larger scale. To be able to support youth and improve their positive outcomes is very rewarding. During and after graduate school, I want to keep advocacy at the forefront of the work I do.
What have you learned and enjoyed during your time in D.C.?
I really love the interdisciplinary collaboration that you get with this fellowship. I’m the only neuroscience student in the program, so having conversations with passionate individuals from different fields, universities, and backgrounds that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise, is one of the best parts. I think that’s where policy change happens, where we can all bring our personal and professional experiences and have the same desire for societal reform. We all care about being public servants and leaders. It’s really special.
What have I learned? How important people are. I attended the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights briefing on mental health in juvenile justice facilities, and I was in awe of all the speakers. There were panelists of lawyers, judges, policy experts, researchers, community advocates, and those with lived experience. I felt honored being in a room filled with people willing to share their work, stories, and personal testimonies to work towards a common goal. A story is so much more powerful than I realized.
I really value public service, and I think it’s important to have multiple interests and passions outside of what you’re doing day-to-day. As a researcher, I love scanning brains, conducting clinical interviews, and analyzing the data to answer questions I’ve always wondered. I also love knocking on senators’ and representatives’ doors on Capitol Hill explaining why they should care about child welfare and juvenile justice reform. Although I’m not directly doing science right now, I feel really fulfilled knowing that I have the scientific perspective, and I can do public service alongside that.