by Maggie Kieffer

When I walked into the first day of my internship with the Project GRACE Help Desk, I was just kind of thrown into the work. Over the course of the semester I have had the privilege of helping some really patient, kind, wonderful people; and when I had to deal with someone who was less kind or less patient, I took a deep breath and realized how incredibly overwhelming that first day learning about expungement was for me. And I’m a college-educated adult who wants to go into this profession. I always try to think about the process from the perspective of the person on the other side of the desk. These individuals – often African American men and women or poor white individuals – made mistakes within a system that doesn’t always work in their favor. Often times, I have heard stories about men and women who were charged with crimes because of their economic status or race, rather than on the credibility of their character. I have even seen black men come in with the same crimes as white men, but charged with higher level convictions on a first-time offense than a routine white offender. I have been confronted with errors in the system I want to enter professionally for the rest of my life. And, now that my semester is over, I am faced with the fact that I am one step closer into being a part of the system. This mentality of looking at a legal problem from the accused persons’ or convicted persons’ eyes is something that will forever impact my life, and I have this internship with the CFV and Help Desk to thank for that.