[{"id":106,"date":"2021-03-01T00:31:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T00:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/?page_id=106"},"modified":"2021-04-23T03:27:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T03:27:38","slug":"reflections","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflecting on Care4KidsMatters – Spring 2021<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the last three months, I have designed and posted informational graphics on the Instagram page @Care4KidsMatters<\/a> in order to raise awareness for the importance of child care for parents and children, especially among college students who would not otherwise be reached by child care activism. I also hosted an advocacy event over zoom where I helped 13 people email their elected representatives at the state and federal level about the need for policies supporting child care access.<\/p>\n

I was inspired by my work with Senator Patty Muray (D-WA) over the summer of 2020 to research the effects of child care on children’s social and educational development, as well as the benefits to families who can access high-quality care. The more I learned about the value of high-quality care, and the barriers that prevent many families from accessing child care, the more I wanted to talk about it. Child Care access is an intersectional issue: its an education issue because kids who go to high-quality care do better in early math and reading tests and adjust better to formal kindergarten, especially when the child comes from low-income families or from parents without college degrees, it’s a feminist issue because women are more likely than men to stop working or reduce their hours to care for children when high-quality, affordable child care is not available, it’s an economic issue because businesses lose revenue when parents are unable to work due to child care concerns, it’s a racial justice issue because Black families and families of color are most likely to live in child care deserts, and it’s an employment issue because child care workers, 90% of whom are women and 40% of whom are people of color,\u00a0 are among the lowest-paid workers across the country. All of these issues have been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic which has forced many child care providers to close their doors.<\/p>\n

Through my project, I was able to present these issues through understandable, eye-catching, and sharable graphics to an audience of over 70 followers, most of whom are college students. While all the media resource I found during my research into child care focussed on parents, featuring babies and cute kids in loving parents arms, I designed graphics that would appeal to people without kids who still care about social justice issues but would not otherwise think of child care as an area to promote justice and equity. Building off this experience, I am excited to continue educating my peers about the value of child care and advocating for policies at the local, state, and federal levels to ensure all families have access to high-quality child care.<\/p>\n

I am not a parent, and I do not even want to be a parent in the future. Even so, I recognize that child care matters. So should you.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Trial by Zoom – Fall 2020<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Being on the American University Mock Trial team has been the highlight of my college experience, which is why I decided to run for a position on the student executive board at the end of last year. In May, when I officially ran and was elected to be logistics coordinator for my team, I envisioned myself managing rental car assignments and booking hotel rooms – the jobs that I had seen the previous logistics coordinator perform. Being logistics coordinator is already one of the most time consuming and difficult positions on the AU Mock Trial team because they are responsible for communicating with rental car companies, working with the treasurer to meet budgetary goals, booking hotel rooms, and communicating detailed itineraries with students and coaches so that everyone can travel to tournaments safely. After I was elected, I was prepared to take on the budget spreadsheets and endless google form surveys to coordinate schedules, but of course, in a virtual semester, these job requirements totally changed.<\/p>\n

Over the summer, the 2020-2021 Mock trial Executive Board met in response to the University’s decision that the fall semester would be entirely virtual. The first thing I felt was disappointment; the job I had run for and been elected to basically no longer existed and all the plans I had for helping my team were irrelevant, there would be no travel and basically no logistics. But then I realized that this provided an opportunity for me to embrace the new requirements of a virtual season. After all, there were still big logistical questions facing our team. We hadn’t done mock trial virtually yet since our season ended before March of 2020. No one really knew how we could do it, so I jumped in. The first document I wrote as Logistics Coordinator was titled “How do we do this over zoom?” since that was the pressing question. I spent hours watching Zoom’s instructional videos, recordings from law school moot court competitions that had been run over the summer, and typing out detailed instructions which I hoped even the most technologically illiterate person (I was picturing my grandmother) could follow. I wrote a plan for how the executive board could meet, how our team practices could function, and even started to imagine how virtual competitions would run. I learned everything I could so that I could reassure my teammates that this activity we all love was still possible.<\/p>\n

Now, at the end of the fall 2020 season, I can confirm that Mock Trial by Zoom is not just possible, but also full of opportunity. This season we attended six different invitational tournaments, placing in the top five teams at three of them. Additionally, for the first time since 2015 American Mock Trial Hosted the Wonk Invitational Tournament – which I ran and organized. Our Invitational included 16 teams from across the United States and Canada, taking advantage of the virtual format to bring together competitors who would not otherwise get to see each other in competition due to the cost of travel. I recruited volunteer judges from former AU Mock Trial Alumni and current practicing attorneys in the DC area. Our tournament was one of the few fall Invitationals to run on schedule and without large-scale technical issues – an important accomplishment since we are all still learning how to use zoom for competitions. I am extremely proud of how well my team and I have risen to the occasion presented by this virtual competition season.<\/p>\n

While this was not what I envisioned my time as Logistics Coordinator entailing, learning to do trial by zoom has been incredibly rewarding. As a leader I have grown into my new role, seeking out ways for me to help my team even when the typical duties assigned to me no longer existed. I stepped up without being asked and have learned so much in this position not only about zoom, but also about how to communicate, build community, and organize even when you cannot see people face to face. This season has been a challenge, but I am thankful for the opportunities I have taken from it as well. I look forward to taking the team all the way to Nationals and stepping into further leadership positions next year.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reflecting on Care4KidsMatters – Spring 2021 Over the last three months, I have designed and posted informational graphics on the Instagram page @Care4KidsMatters in order to raise awareness for the importance of child care for parents and children, especially among… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2881,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-106","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2881"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":39,"date":"2019-09-26T20:47:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T20:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/?page_id=39"},"modified":"2020-10-07T21:45:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T21:45:13","slug":"contact-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/contact-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Contact Me!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connect With Me on LinkedIn<\/a><\/h4>\n

Email: Rachel.Boose@student.american.edu<\/a><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Connect With Me on LinkedIn Email: Rachel.Boose@student.american.edu  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2881,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-39","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2881"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":19,"date":"2019-08-22T15:02:45","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T15:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2021-04-23T03:25:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T03:25:52","slug":"work-sample","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/work-sample\/","title":{"rendered":"Work Samples"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPA Leadership Spring 2020 Social Action Project (VIDEO)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

SPA Leadership Fall 2020 Research Presentation (VIDEO)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

Assessing the Effects of Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) Contact on Participation in the 2016 Election – GOVT-310 Political Research\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Senate Floor Child Care Remarks (2020)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

SPA Leadership Fall 2019 Research Symposium Presentation<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2881,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2881"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":16,"date":"2019-08-22T15:02:45","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T15:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2022-08-19T19:37:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T19:37:41","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"As a member of American University’s Class of 2023, I am pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies: Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics, and Government (CLEG), and a minor in Literature. I will also earn a Certificate in Community Based Research through the School of Public Affairs, and a Certificate of Advanced Leadership Studies through the School of Public Affairs Leadership Program. This fall I am studying Counterterrorism at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) in Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

I am proud to be a member of the American University Mock Trial (AUMT) team and previously served as President (2021-2022) and Logistics Coordinator (2020-2021) in addition to serving as a team captain. This past season, AUMT placed 10th in the Nation at the American Mock Trial Association’s National Championship – the first time AUMT made it to the championship since 2015. I usually act as an attorney, delivering closing arguments and preparing direct and cross-examinations to further our legal theory. My favorite part of Mock Trial is getting to work with my amazing team and analyzing the fictional case packets until we know them forwards and backward.<\/p>\n

I am passionate about climate justice, economic equity, and gender equality. For two summers I have canvassed for Environment Virginia and The Fund for The Public Interest, fundraising and building support for environmental protections at the State and Federal levels. I strongly believe in the importance of people-power in our democracy. As a canvasser, I enjoy conveying to people that there are solutions to the climate crisis if we hold our elected officials accountable for implementing them.<\/p>\n

In the future, I hope to work in campaign management, focusing on voter outreach and volunteer coordination in order to support candidates who will fight for social justice. Eventually I plan to run for office myself, and to serve people in my community by championing policies that value people over corporate interests.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a member of American University’s Class of 2023, I am pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies: Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics, and Government (CLEG), and a minor in Literature. I will also earn a Certificate in Community Based… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2881,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2881"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":13,"date":"2019-08-22T15:02:45","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T15:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2020-10-01T03:30:36","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T03:30:36","slug":"resume","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/resume\/","title":{"rendered":"My Resume"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click Here<\/a> to view my Resume (PDF)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click Here to view my Resume (PDF)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2881,"featured_media":92,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2881"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rb5766a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]