What is your role at the library?
I am the Administrative Coordinator of Biddle Law Library. I provide administrative support for numerous library personnel and programs, which means I get to a variety of cool tasks every day. On any given day, I can be found managing catering orders, shopping for student raffle prizes, or prepping for our ongoing Biddle Speaker series. Many of my larger projects this year have involved data visualization and organizing pertinent information using Excel, such as collating the departmental categories for our strategic planning calendar. I also provide support to our active student journals here at Penn Law, helping ensure that their subscribers are getting their issues on time.
Describe your past work experience.
After my graduation from an English MA program last Fall, I worked in Cape Town as a researcher for the nonprofit Equal Education (EE). In a year-long service placement through the Princeton in Africa fellowship program, I had the opportunity to support some of their amazing work advocating for quality and equality in the South African education system. My biggest projects involved making important contributions to Equal Education’s 2022 submission to the Bela Bill, which was the biggest amendment to the South African Schools act in the past 10 years. I also thoroughly enjoyed breaking down the complex legal document into accessible language and using my creative side to produce compelling infographics, ensuring that our student members could understand and engage with the information that directly impacts their educational experience. My experience as an education researcher with EE has had a large influence on my ambition to pursue a career in international human rights law, and I truly valued the opportunity to cultivate meaningful relationships with my coworkers in Western Cape and with collaborate with prominent civil society and legal organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa.
How do you spend your free time?
I lead a nonfiction book club with my best friends through monthly Instagram video calls, which is always a lot of fun. I love niche films and old movie theatres, so I make frequent trips to the Philadelphia Film Society, where I interned in college. I also enjoy walking through Philly’s nature scenes like Pennypack and Fairmount Park with my family.