Work Samples
SPA Leadership Spring 2020 Social Action Project (VIDEO)
For my spring Social Action Project, I used my research from the fall to design informative graphics to post on Instagram under the account @Care4KidsMatters. This account was aimed at college students and young adults without children, who would not be the target audience for child care activism. I recognized that child care access is an issues that intersects with a lot of issues people my age care about: women in the workplace, education, racial justice, and economic inequality. Most of the media around child care policy features parents and children, which is cute but not likely to inspire young voters to care about the cause. From my Instagram account, I reached AU students who would not otherwise have considered the social justice implications of child care accessibility and hosted an advocacy event to help young voters contact elected officials in support of child care policies making care more affordable and accessible for all.
SPA Leadership Fall 2020 Research Presentation (VIDEO)
For the Fall 2020 Semester, I researched the effects of child care on children’s future social and educational success and examined the kinds of barriers to accessing child care that exists for families. I was inspired to pursue this topic by my experience working for Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) over the summer. Especially due to the Coronavirus pandemic, child care providers are struggling to stay open while families still desperately need affordable high-quality care. I interviewed Dr. Taryn Morrissey, an American University professor who has studied public policy solutions to the child care crisis facing our country, and co-author of the book Cradle to Kindergarten: A new plan to combat inequality. Dr. Morrissey explained that the issue of access to child care stems from the concept of supply-and-demand: running high-quality child care centers is expensive and highly demanded, therefore the cost to families is often prohibitively high. In areas where there are not families who can afford to pay the high cost for care, child-care centers close or leave, creating “child care deserts.” My research highlighted how important access to child-care is for working families, children, and our economy, and has pushed me to pursue a social-action project for the Spring 2020 semester to help a local DC organization working to make child care more accessible for families in the District.
For my Political Research class in the fall of 2020 we were asked to design, complete, and present an original research project using STATA statistical analysis software. I studied the effects of GOTV efforts on voter participation in the 2016 election to assess the value of voter mobilization campaigns such as When We All Vote which was launched in 2018 by Michelle Obama, or the Sunrise Movement’s postcard writing efforts in the 2020 election.
Senate Floor Child Care Remarks (2020)
This is a draft of remarks written for a Democratic Senator from a Western State addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic’s effects on the child care industry and the need for policies supporting parents and families as well as child care providers. These remarks would be about 3.5 minutes long at a slow, talking pace.
SPA Leadership Fall 2019 Research Symposium Presentation
As a member of the American University School of Public Affairs Leadership Program, I worked in a group with 5 of my peers to research how the cost of housing and other conditions create a cycle of poverty and homelessness. As a team, we prepared a literature review to understand and synthesize prior research, conducted interviews with key stakeholders, and presented our findings to our peers and faculty in the SPA Leadership program. We used our research to plan a social-action project which we implemented in the Spring 2020 Semester. We hosted 3 different fundraising events over the semester and were able to donate over $200 to Thrive DC, a DC-based non-profit that serves hot meals and provides other important services to people experiencing homelessness.
