Whenever I had the opportunity to pick a topic to focus on for a paper or presentation during my first two years at ¶¶Òõ̽̽, I always chose to focus on policy solutions to large systemic problems.
I took a wide variety of courses both within and outside of the College of Education and Social Services (CESS). In my intro-level education course, I focused on educational funding. Then, in an Honors College seminar on social inequality, I compared two forms of welfare policy. In my political philosophy course, I used the policy proposals of Democratic presidential candidates to explain why equality is essential for democracy.
In addition to focusing on policy, it was important that my work had an explicit focus on social justice. I always want to be thinking about and analyzing various solutions to some of the largest problems we face as a society.
So, I began to search for a major that would allow me to accomplish both goals. My advisor in the Student Services office, MJ Jaird, helped me find courses that allowed me to narrow my interests. I also met with several professors who validated my passions and guided me toward additional resources. As a result of their support, I discovered how I could combine my interests into an focusing on Public Policy and Equity Studies.
One of the societal problems I have thought a lot about during my experience at ¶¶Òõ̽̽ so far is immigration. During my first year, I took a social work class called Working with Refugees. We talked about the factors that cause refugees to flee their homes, discussed what they might experience in refugee camps, and discussed the challenges they face if they can be resettled in another country. That inspired me to explore immigration issues on a deeper experiential level.
Shortly after taking this course, I began a remote internship with a legal firm called Mil Mujeres. Mil Mujeres provides legal services to Spanish speaking immigrants who are undocumented, but most of their clients are women who are survivors of violence. Every week, I was assigned U-Visa cases to review and edit to submit to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). U-Visas are offered to people who are the survivors of a crime that occurred in the US. In exchange for cooperation with the police, the survivor is issued a visa and a potential path to citizenship. This experience brought me face to face with the extreme psychological and physical trauma that goes along with being undocumented in the US.
During my sophomore year, I took another course related to immigration called Language, Policy Issues, Race and Schools. We learned about the systemic oppression of immigrants that are both undocumented and documented. Throughout much of American history, policy has been used to restrict immigration based on race, religion, and class. I began to wonder about how public policy could be used to support the immigrants like the ones I worked with through Mil Mujeres.
This past summer, I worked on the immigration team in Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Boston office. On behalf of constituents from Massachusetts, I inquired with USCIS about the status of their immigration petitions. I attempted to expedite their petitions by submitting requests to USCIS, and wrote letters of support to help people bring their family members to visit them in the U.S. Every day I spoke with people whose health, careers, families, and wellbeing would be deeply affected by our immigration system.
Immigration is more than a part of our American story. Our immigration policies are indicative of who we believe is worthy of dignity and who we want to be a part of our communities.
The education and support from CESS prepared me for this experiential learning. By taking courses in education, social work, human development, political science and more, I was equipped with a variety of different lenses and frameworks to think about the various immigration cases that I worked on in my internship.
Immigration is just one societal problem that I’ve been able to explore during my time at ¶¶Òõ̽̽. I’m also fascinated by social welfare, housing, and healthcare policy. This semester, I will learn more about the latter during my internship with the Vermont Health Department, working on their Health Equity Team.
I hope that my experiences at ¶¶Òõ̽̽ will prepare me to pursue a career related to policy analysis or evaluation. I’m interested in going to graduate school to study Social Law and Public Policy, and eventually would like to work either within or adjacent to the federal government, and maybe even run for office someday.
About the Author: Emma Staff (’21) is a ¶¶Òõ̽̽ student from Brookline, Massachusetts. As a junior in the College of Education and Social Services (CESS) at ¶¶Òõ̽̽, she is pursuing an focusing on Public Policy and Equity Studies.