This summer, I had a tremendous opportunity to intern for Georgia Center for Opportunity. Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) is an independent, non-partisan policy research and solution delivery organization. GCO researches and develops solutions that address barriers to social and economic opportunity, advocates solutions to policymakers and the public, helps innovative social enterprises, delivers results on the ground, and manages collective impact initiatives at the community level. Before summer began, I knew I wanted a challenge, and that is exactly what this organization provided me with. This internship gave me the chance to learn from policy experts and political officials on tough issues.

Specifically, my research was focused on criminal justice reform and urban violence. I did not have much expertise on these topics coming into this internship, but I was able to gain a wide variety of knowledge on the importance of public safety and policy solutions afterwards. My research included finding data for crime statistics such as homicide rates, clearance rates, number of employed officers, and rates for recidivism in different areas like Columbus, Georgia or rural Kentucky. Then, we compared these statistics or topics to national trends and worked to make public safety improvements that were unique to different communities.

Most of my research work was completed remotely from home while other times I had to attend outside meetings. These meetings consisted of political officials and community leaders networking and strategizing about important issues facing different communities. For example, I was able to attend a judiciary committee meeting in Frankfort, Kentucky at the state legislature to discuss expungement of criminal records and clean-slate initiatives. During this meeting my supervisor, Josh Crawford stated, “The criminal justice system works best when there is both accountability and redemption.” This was a very important part of my internship because I was able to see firsthand how policy research and grassroots testimonials work best to impact the political decision-making processes of government.

Meanwhile, I was also excited to be able to write an opinion article on a topic that I was deeply passionate about, the current state of politics and the role that churches have to play in our civic society. This article is now currently pending publication from GCO. Overall, the best aspect of my internship was just the belief that my work really mattered to others and that it was being used to alleviate societal challenges.

I would like to thank Lewis McCrary from the college’s Stephenson’s Institute of Classical Liberalism for connecting me with GCO. Also, I would like to thank my supervisor Josh Crawford, the Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives, for helping mentor me as an intern!