Interns are incredible assets to any organization lucky enough to have them. They provide extra support in accomplishing goals, finishing projects, and researching pressing issues, and also breathe new life into new projects by offering fresh perspectives. By encouraging that passion and allowing interns to challenge old processes, or create new ones, organizations can thrive and expand in significant ways.
LCYC welcomed our first intern, Tommy Statkiewicz, in the 2020 Spring semester. Tommy engaged in much direct client work, shadowing and accompanying various attorneys to intakes, hearings, and meetings. Taking what he learned, Tommy co-presented a know your rights training with an LCYC staff attorney to a residential home for young LGBTQ+ people. Tommy also researched and wrote updates for the Washington Homeless Youth Handbook (HYH), a statewide guide for young people in crisis, consisting of multiple chapters covering various relevant topics. (Coming soon!)
“My personal and professional experiences with immigration, homeless, and LGBTQ+ communities inspired me to extern with LCYC. I am grateful that I was invited to connect with all team members, attend various meetings and trainings, observe juvenile court, attend client meetings, and assist on various projects. The motley crew of passionate LCYC attorneys made me feel part of the community from the start.”
In the Summer of 2020, LCYC welcomed our second intern, Bobbi Fogle. Bobbi expanded on the work on the HYH, including adding additional resources and important legislative changes. From start to finish, Bobbi was instrumental in creating LCYC’s new feedback process for the young people we serve. To ensure that the process was applicable and accessible to the young people we serve, it was entirely developed by their input. Bobbi gathered young people for us to receive this input, led focus groups with them, and helped write the final policy. During her time at LCYC, Bobbi also engaged in client services work, helping attorneys draft Vulnerable Youth Guardianship petitions and a template for them going forward. Bobbi continued to support LCYC through the Fall 2020 semester.
“Working at LCYC allowed me to learn how to do incredibly impactful work for several underserved populations. As a holistic legal practice, LCYC handles all the legal needs of homeless youth giving me the ability to participate in a wide variety of practice areas – both criminal and civil. All the attorneys at LCYC are very knowledgeable and willing to help me with any roadblocks I ran into. LCYC also holds a focus on anti-racist work, both in legal practices and within the organization. I would recommend LCYC to any law student looking to work in the public interest sector.”
This Spring, we had the pleasure of working with Gabriel Neuman. Through our work, a constant issue that came up was the difficultly of and lack of access around the name change process for low-income residents. Gabriel took charge of this issue, meeting with attorneys from the Office of the Attorney General, engaging in advocacy with multiple judges, and authoring a letter to the Presiding Judges, District and Municipal Court Judges' Association, WA Court Commission on Forms, WA Pattern Form Committee, and WA State Gender Justice Commission. Gabriel also wrote a memo for the staff around the issue of familial rejection’s relation to imminent harm that can aid in a wide range of cases such as guardianships, dependencies, and emancipations. Amongst his other projects, Gabriel helped write the job description for LCYC’s first Office and Legal Assistant position and was a member of a small group creating the organizational policy around ethically asking young people to use their stories in outreach. Gabriel compiled a guide of strategic sharing tools for young people to help them stay protected while sharing their experience, as well as helping draft the final policy.
This upcoming Summer, we are excited to welcome Jessica Pouley as the LCYC summer intern! Jessica began law school to seek justice and equity for Native women and youth. Her extensive background in advocacy for Tribal youth and experience working in Tribal communities is extremely impressive and we cannot wait to have her as part of the team! Check out Jessica’s bio here.
Visit our careers page to keep up to date with internship and externship opportunities!