Interview with Senior Political Science & History student, Emma Gifford conducted early September 2022
Q: What did you do this past year?
I was at Christel House International this summer, it’s a non-profit based here in Indy. They work to end the cycle of poverty for education, and they have schools here in Indianapolis, Mexico, South Africa, India, Jamaica, and they’re looking to expand further. I was on their Programs and Services team. I did some personal travel this summer to Scotland and Spain to visit a friend and did more personal travel to Costa Rica. I was in DC last semester, Rwanda the previous fall, so I’ve been all over the world in more than 180 days.
In DC, I was working for the U.S. Department of Education in the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs. In that role, I was working on attending congressional hearings, other meetings on the hill, doing work with the budget, writing briefs, reports, those sorts of things for my advisors. People in the office cannot attend every event, so that’s what the interns were there for. It was a really rewarding experience. My favorite part was getting to work on preparing an Education Witness for a hearing on the bomb threats against HBCUs, so that was an incredibly rewarding experience, to be a part of that piece of history. I’ll say history loosely, as it’s not over by any means.
In Rwanda, I was studying the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi for the first eight weeks, and then for the last six weeks of the program I was working for the Rwanda Men’s Resource Centre, a nonprofit that works to eliminate gender-based violence and promote gender equality for men by teaching positive masculinity. I was first connected with them back in high school. They invited me to go out there after I had done some research on them for a high school class, but I was barely 18 and couldn’t really go then. I really enjoyed going to Rwanda, the semester abroad, so I’m hoping my Fulbright application can bring me back out there.
Q: How did you find out about these opportunities?
With Rwanda, I found out about it through the School for International Training, which I found through the study abroad office here on campus. I would highly recommend them to other students for the other programs they offer because they really emphasize field experience in the classroom, so most of the programs are set up so that at least some portion is spent doing research or working in some way in the country you’re studying abroad in. They do programs all over the world and they’re not just social-justice based.
Finding the organization was a total fluke. I found them through a Google search. They were mentioned in a master’s research paper from someone in the Netherlands or something like that. I just reached out to them, a shot in the dark, and they remembered me! It was wonderful.
With the DC semester, I got the internship through Education. I found out about the opportunity through a professor who was sending out tons of internships to students.
This summer, I found out about Christel House International through a program called the Fehribach Center. It’s for students with disabilities to get connected to internships in the Indianapolis area. Students who are interested can go to SDS here on campus, because they originally introduced me to the program. I’ve gotten most of these great experiences with connections through Butler, there are a lot of great opportunities here.
Q: What skills did you already have that you were able to use, and how did this department at Butler help you prepare for these experiences?
I would say that writing and public speaking are two skills that I’m constantly working on, that I’ve gotten from my history classes and have continued honing over the last year. Advocacy is something that I’m very passionate about, which requires good writing and public speaking skills. In all of my roles in the last year, I’ve gotten to play an advocate in some way or another. Having those opportunities to expand upon these skills has been incredible, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. At no other school would I be able to have the number of experiences that I’ve had and still graduate in four years with three majors and potentially another minor.
Q: What skills did you gain from these experiences?
I can attribute most of the skills that I gained to my experiences in Rwanda. I learned so much from them and my experiences about kindness and being empathetic and compassionate towards other people. I think in today’s day and age you have to take the time to understand where people are coming from, regardless of whether or not you agree with them, which is something that’s very difficult to do. I never want to compare the genocide to everyday conflicts or anything like that, but the broad strokes of conflict resolution are still present in both. The matter of just sitting down with someone and having a conversation with them, being respectful, empathetic, and compassionate towards where they might be coming from can be very difficult to do, but it’s so worth it. It takes a while to get to the point where that becomes easy, so all the credit to people who work hard on things like that.
Q: How did your experiences help advance your plans for the future?
My biggest, again, is Rwanda. I’m applying for a Fulbright Grant that will hopefully bring me back to Rwanda to do research on teaching or re-teaching gender norms to youth there in an effort to promote gender equality.
After working for the Department of Education, I don’t think I want to work for the federal government again, nothing against them. However, it’s important to understand how the federal government works. In social justice initiatives, I’m going to have to work with governments in some capacity, so it’s important to understand how they function. That was important, and now I’m leaning more towards doing social justice work more broadly.
This past summer working for Christel House International was really rewarding. It tied together my passion for education and using that as a tool to create a better society. I’m seeing education as a platform to get kids to be their own people, to make their own decisions to work collaboratively with one another.
Q: What was your favorite part about these experiences?
I can say that my least favorite part is that it’s all over! I’d have to say that my favorite part is the people that I’ve met, I’ve met so many different people in the last year, but then also the wade range of experiences that I had. I was living in Rwanda and doing some personal travel in Tanzania and then a week later I was in our nation’s capital. I’ve had such a wide range of experiences, talking to really incredible people, and learning their stories. That’s probably what I love the most about history—hearing people’s stories and seeing how they’re all intertwined and listening to people’s life lessons.
Q: Do you have any advice for students seeking similar opportunities?
I would say, you know, read those emails! Read the emails that people send about opportunities. Talk with upperclassmen or really any student who’s had these opportunities, see if they can connect you. Networking in the social sciences is key to getting anywhere you want, to be honest. I’m on board with the TikTok audio that’s like, “What would happen if you just…called Taylor up?” you know? Just send an email. Worst comes to worst, they don’t respond, but that’s literally how I ended up in Rwanda. I was 17 and sent an email to an organization and they responded to me a week later. If I hadn’t reached out, I never would have gone to Rwanda and never would have been a Fulbright applicant. Just send an email! It takes five minutes of your time, and more often than not people are willing to talk to you for even a little bit.
Emma Gifford encouraged me to include her email, egifford@butler.edu, for any students interested in reaching out.