KIP Student Feature – Marie Kimball
The third student feature from our 2021 summer Kilachand Internship Program is Marie Kimball (CAS’23). This summer Marie is an intern with Wayside Youth & Family Services: Framingham Family Resource Center, where she gets to work alongside family resource specialists, clinicians, education liaisons, and attorneys in order to assist families in the local community in accessing the proper resources for each of their individual situations.
Q&A with Marie Kimball
Could you give us a brief description of the organization you are interning with and what your primary responsibilities are during this internship?
At the Framingham Family Resource Center, I am working alongside family resource specialists, clinicians, education liaisons, and attorneys in order to assist families in the local community in accessing the proper resources for each of their individual situations. A typical day includes calling and meeting with clients and then collaborating with various staff members to connect families with and then sometimes even provide appropriate resources, from helping to fill out an Emergency Housing Assistance application in Spanish to coordinating with Health Law Advocates, school systems, and clinicians in order to ensure a child is receiving the proper supports in and out of school.
How will your internship fulfill the goals of social justice?
Social justice, to me, is the step in between the greater good and the common good. As of now, in our country, one could say that current economic, medical, social, etc. conditions ensure that the greater good is met. At the FFRC, employees work to secure the common good of all people. It pursues social justice in that no one is left behind – and it is typically the populations that it serves which are getting left behind in today’s climate.
Has the work you have done this summer changed how you think about social justice?
My definition of social justice has certainly developed throughout my time working at the FFRC. In just my first few months, it has become even clearer to me how necessary conversations around implicit biases are. Minority communities are facing many challenges in this country today, and it is critical that in our steps toward achieving social justice that they are at the forefront of our thoughts. Everyone must embrace the sometimes uncomfortable conversations that are critical for building a just and equal society in which all have equal opportunity.
How has the Kilachand coursework helped prepare you for the work you are doing during your internship?
Freshman year, I took the Kilachand seminar KHC LW102: Marriage, Families and Gender with Professor Linda McClain of the BU Law School in which we discussed topics such as marital and adoption law. Throughout this internship, I have witnessed the legal frameworks we discussed and analyzed at play, and having taken this class, I am notably more equipped to handle this position.
Learn more about the Kilachand Internship Program here.