Discuss your general career path since graduating from UT.
Upon graduating from UT in December, I began as a reporting fellow with the Texas Observer and covered human rights and immigration during the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 1, I began as a Report for America corps member, working with the Associated Press in Austin, TX. My areas of focus include Texas politics, the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas, the 2020 election, voting, crime, racial injustice, and minority communities.
How did you find your internship?
I found out about the internship through peers and classmates who were familiar with the Rapoport Center.
Describe the work you have done as an intern.
Human Rights & Social Justice BDP student Adriel Morgan interned with the Governor’s Fellowship Program on the Governor’s Child Sex Trafficking team. As an intern, she worked on increasing public awareness of the team’s efforts, trainings, and other projects to improve anti-trafficking efforts in the state of Texas.
How did you find your internship?
I found the Governor’s Fellowship Program through the Office of the Governor’s website and applied in a cold-call fashion.
Discuss your general career path since graduating from UT.
Since graduating from UT, I have worked in various roles in Texas politics in both the legislative arena and the campaign arena. I have served as political campaign manager for three members of the Texas House as well as assistant committee clerk for two House Committees.
How did your BDP experience influence your career path and interests?
Human Rights & Social Justice BDP student Josue Teniente completed an internship with the Equal Justice Center where he helped share information about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and assisted clients in preparing DACA applications.
Discuss your general career path since graduating from UT.
After graduating from UT, I moved to St. Louis, MO, to serve as a Teach for America corps member. I spent two years teaching pre-K in St. Louis Public Schools. I’ve recently moved to Washington, DC, where I am currently an intern in the Education Policy Program at New America.
How did your BDP experience influence your career path and interests?
How did you find your internship?
I knew I was interested in helping immigrant populations while also putting my language skills to use so I did some online research to find agencies in Austin that would support this endeavor. Refugee Services of Texas stood out to me as an “in” to the behind-the-scenes world of a currently hotly-debated issue.
Please describe your project and how you came up with the idea.
My research involved investigating whether or not the criminal justice system within England upholds the rights given to prisoners through the United Nations Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners. Such rights, as dictated by the U.N., include humane treatment that recognizes inherent dignity, nondiscrimination based on non-legal factors of the prisoner, and the use of cultural and social activities or therapeutic programs that promote the development of human personality.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your Connecting Experience?
My Connecting Experience taught me to pull research from several different disciplines to support a central theme. Through my research I looked at factors that affect prisoner life in the areas of social work, sociology, government, psychology, and law. This process illustrated to me the importance of interdisciplinary analysis when solving a research problem, especially regarding something as multifaceted as a human being.
In what ways has this Connecting Experience shaped your plans for the future?
My goals for the future include becoming a physician; however, I have a strong interest in human rights in an international context. My Connecting Experience furthered my interest in human rights’ violations and has allowed me to include some clinical perspectives in my analysis of healthcare rights of prisoners. My research has inspired me to pursue medicine, with the hope that one day I may have the opportunity to conduct medical evaluations that influence the decision of judges in granting asylum to those who seek it.
Discuss the relationship you had with your faculty mentor and how she helped you during this Connecting Experience.
Professor Vicki Packheiser was one of the faculty members that led the Maymester program I participated in at the beginning of summer. It was such an inspirational experience that brought me closer to issues in criminal and social justice faced by the people of England. Professor Packheiser was there to mentor my work as a part of the course and the Connecting Experience. She saw me through all phases of the process, from being inspired in England to the culmination of my ideas into research.
Please describe your project and how you came up with the idea.
For my thesis, I researched the history and current state of volunteer tourism, a mostly U.S., British, and Australian-based practice in which participants pay program fees to volunteer during short trips abroad in primarily third-world countries. I used historical and discourse analysis to deconstruct the ideologically distorted view of volunteer tourism as essential for western participants.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your Connecting Experience?
The most rewarding aspect of my thesis may have been the conversations I was able to have with others as a result of my research. I have learned to speak about a timely and contentious topic in a way that people can relate to and understand. I have also learned more about how larger political and historical contexts inform popular perceptions and small-scale interpersonal interactions, leading to subtle perpetuations of power and oppression.
In what ways has this Connecting Experience shaped your plans for the future?
The process bolstered my passion for writing and my commitment to researching human rights and social justice-related issues. It prepared me for my summer internship, in which I will conduct research for a local nonprofit on the use of military surplus equipment in Texas police forces and write a report on the findings with suggested protocols. I hope to continue writing and advocating as I carry forward my pursuits as a musician and visual artist. Completing my thesis has shown me this is possible.
Discuss the relationship you had with your faculty mentor and how she helped you during this Connecting Experience.
My faculty mentor, Dr. Diane McDaniel Rhodes, was amazing. I’m an independently-motivated researcher and writer but struggle with confidence in my work. My faculty mentor believed in me and supported me emotionally, which gave me the confidence to fully pursue my research. She was readily available, provided needed assurance, and gave me tips on how to move past writer’s block and procrastination. Because of her support, I wrote a thesis I am proud of. It was selected as a Plan II Model Thesis for the Class of 2015.
How did you find your internship?
My BDP advisor, Christine Anderson, recommended it to me.
Describe the work you have done in your internship.
As an Appleseed intern, I researched various local issues that impact low-income Texans, immigrants, and Texan juveniles. Additionally, I wrote several articles discussing these matters and the work that Appleseed has done to alleviate their effects.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your Connecting Experience?
Throughout my college career, I have studied mostly theory and international politics. During this internship, I was able to use my theoretical knowledge and apply it to very real, local issues. It is one thing to read about a concept or an injustice on paper, and quite another to research in-state cases that affect me and those I care about.
In what ways has this Connecting Experience shaped your plans for the future?
Interning at Appleseed this semester gave me comfort. I am comforted in experiencing, first-hand, the tremendous good that lawyers can do for their communities. I can see the benefits of pursuing a law degree, because the work I want to do is being done by these award-winning lawyers. My faith in my future has been reaffirmed.
Discuss the relationship you had with your faculty mentor and how she helped you during this Connecting Experience.
My mentor, Dr. Paula Newberg, is an absolute force. She pushes me to do better, write better, even think better! Every time I sent her my weekly reports, she would email me back with ten questions I hadn’t even thought about before. She wanted me to come face-to-face with the hard questions, the ones I did not have a ready answer to, and to answer the more simple questions that I may have overlooked in my excitement. Dr. Newberg’s guidance motivated me to be a better student and intern.
