Throughout my life, I have always seen things in a complex manner, where I see an issue, want to have a deeper understanding and to change it. I started my social justice journey in high school by joining Amnesty International. This group focused on issues of homelessness. We would volunteer at Simpson Shelter in Minneapolis and do various activities to raise awareness about homelessness. I did not realize how many people are affected by homelessness until I attended the Homeless Memorial March. During this walk, we would take the same path that someone who is experiencing homelessness might take to Simpson Shelter. While walking, each person held a sign with the name of someone who lost their life to conditions related to homelessness from that year. I remember one man in particular. He had experienced homelessness and had the urge to tell his story. He needed someone to listen to him and his experience. That was the first time that I learned the support you can give by physically being present and listening.
I got more engaged with the activities of Amnesty International. I had the opportunity to participate in Homeless Day on the Hill. This was a day where you go to the Minnesota State Capitol and meet with legislators to pass certain bills that would benefit people experiencing homelessness. I met with legislatures and the bill that we were advocating for passed. This was one of the first times I experienced a sense of empowerment and felt like I could make institutional change. It was these moments where I knew I wanted to study social justice. Social justice was not only a way for me to utilize skills to help people, but it also helped me to make sense of these larger issues that I was noticing.
Once in college, I learned that one in four women will experience sexual assault and that Hamline specific statistics were the same. I also took a dating violence course that introduced me to dating violence. This pushed me to further my endeavors on topics of sexual and dating violence by joining the student group, Students Preventing Sexual Violence (SPSV). As I participated in SPSV, I started to realize sexual violence has always been part of my life. This realization prompted me to get more involved and look at making my concentration related to sexual and dating violence.
I later took over SPSV and increased my activism, knowledge and effectiveness of prevention work for sexual violence. My position within SPSV also taught me how to work within an institution to make social change. However, I still felt like something was missing. This lead me to do an internship at Sojourner Project, a domestic violence shelter. This gave me the opportunity to explore the crisis work and look immediate assistance instead of just preventative measures. I was given the opportunity to facilitate Domestic Violence support group, run children’s programming, answer the crisis phone and help residents with various needs. This internship taught me a lot about myself, but it also reminded me of the importance of physically being present and listening to someone like I had done in high school with the man on the Homeless Memorial March. This internship also highlighted a unique skill I have with children, which has encouraged me to explore children focused advocacy in the future.
After working at the shelter, I wanted to explore more crisis work. I took the class Living in a Rape Culture where we participated in Sexual Offense Services of Ramsey Counties 40+ hours of advocacy training. This course and the work with SOS, has taught me that I feel more confident in my skills one-on-one versus over the phone. This experience also taught me value in the community of advocates I work with. There is power in the collective and power in the support we give each other. I was able to recognize those who have come before me and those who are working with me. The work I have done at Sojourner and the work that I continue to do at SOS has shed light on resiliency. Resiliency is an act of survival that each of us has and that each of us can foster in each other. This insight into the relationship between crisis work and resiliency has helped me expand my concentration to incorporate resiliency. I will always be grateful for the opportunities and lessons I learned through my Social Justice studies. After graduation,I will look at jobs that explore child and legal advocacy in hopes to pursue more education at a later date. My training within social justice has prepared me to continue down my path growth and learning.