Acknowledgements:

I want to first thank my Laidlaw Advisor, Dr. Kathleen Guidroz in the Sociology Department at Georgetown University who has been a constant support throughout my entire Laidlaw journey and in my academic career. A special thanks also to the amazing Georgetown University Laidlaw Coordinator Colleen Dougherty. Colleen’s kindness, dedication to the mission of Laidlaw, and work ethic are unparalleled. All of us scholars are so grateful to her for the guidance and support she has offered us throughout the program. I would also like to thank the Laidlaw Scholars Foundation for providing myself and the other scholars with the opportunity to do work that we otherwise never would have had the chance to do and to the Georgetown University Laidlaw Scholars Programme for supporting my research and Leadership in Action project.

Overview:

For my Leadership in Action Project I worked at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and volunteered with local organizations that provided support services for the unhoused. Together, these two experiences allowed me to serve others in two very distinct but complementary ways: one by way of legal recourse for employment discrimination based on factors like race, age, gender, or sexual orientation and the other through being part of the community and directly interacting with those most vulnerable. This summer I was able to embrace the Laidlaw Scholars Foundation mission of sustainable service and leadership through experiences that pushed me beyond my comfort zone to achieve a greater good. I learned a lot this summer and have catalogued my work in the form of a blog post for each of the weeks in my Leadership in Action journey.