What went well? 

This week, I took point of the filing of a lawsuit, which involved predatory housing practices. I felt a HUGE relief when it was finally filed. 

What could have been done differently? 

Towards the end of the week, I interacted with a set of clients and in doing so saw how greed fails children. It was a particularly tough week, which forced me to contend with the opulent culture I have been educated in. I should have asked for accompaniment, but I did not. This is a deeply broken world and in this week I saw how acutely that it harms poor people. 

What did I learn about myself while working with others? 

I learned that getting very close to a situation can deeply shift your perspective. It can also understandably be draining, especially when events intersect with our lived experiences. 

What did I learn about leadership? 

I think people who have experienced housing insecurity and relied on the social safety net at times, like me, should be doing this work. It’s a room many of us want to be in because we know the impact it can have. I’m lucky to attend Georgetown and work on issues of poverty, not “despite my own experience,” but “because of” my experiences. Leadership requires a cultural competency that I must always work to expand. We’ve never known enough and that requires a deep humility to engage in this work responsibly. It also places the work of leadership on our clients often and so we must support them in how we ask for their vulnerability. Centering clients does not mean doing so without support. Clients lead the work, but that ought not absolve practitioners of the responsibility.

What do I want to focus on or develop next? 

This is the end of my internship. The whole experience I feel has radicalized me a bit on how important I see the issue of poverty alleviation. Economic justice is intersectional work that will be the task for a generation. As we see the effects of poverty exacerbated by inequality, racial injustice, and climate change (just to name a few), we can readily see the necessity of cultural competency in addressing these issues. Every human being, experiencing every situation is different from the next. We can embody our own Georgetown/Jesuit values of cura personalis by asking about the contours of these intersecting issues often. As we do so, we can observe just how often these identities shift and have varying effects. As a society, we continue to wield systems of oppression against people. The work of dismantling those systems of oppression must be active and constant.