Aida Sawadogo ’22

Legal Outreach, Long Island City, NY

In the Legal Outreach pledge there’s a line that says “mountains of obstacles will melt before my inspired soul and resolute mind.” As a student at Legal Outreach, this particular part of the pledge not only gave me the inspiration I needed to face life with courage but also served as a reminder of the fact that I needed to take action to overcome. Similarly, Legal Outreach prides itself on bridging the gap between public schools and higher education for students who are from underserved communities. My time at Legal Outreach revealed the honest work necessary to overcome the obstacles set before myself and my students. Although my official title was “intern,” I existed at Legal Outreach in a dual capacity. At the forefront, my identity was that of an alum of the program—a living testimony of the transformative work at Legal Outreach. However, it was my time as an intern that would ultimately push me to fully understand the impact that Legal Outreach had on my life and the ways my role would do the same unto others.

I worked as an intern under Bethsheba Cooper for the College Preparatory Division of Legal Outreach with three other interns. As such, I spent my time mainly working with rising seniors in high school, all tasked with writing approximately 30 essays of around 650 words each. The core of my work was to engage with a select group of students and get them to become vulnerable enough to share stories about themselves and then hopefully taking them to the next step of crafting that narrative in an engaging and compelling manner. The most important part of my job, however, was serving as a listening ear to students who were doubtful of the impact and validity of their stories. In those moments, I became someone who could guide them to trust the value of their own stories. I was also tasked with planning lessons that would help clarify different college applications, how to access them, apply to college through them, and understand them.

As an intern, I spent hours reading, editing, and just talking to students about their stories. It also required a lot of emotional labor that made me so aware of the obstacles the students I work with had to overcome. The very first lesson I learned while working at Legal Outreach is that when engaging with someone else’s thoughts on paper, you have to remove your own ego to allow that other person’s honesty to show because it is a reflection of the life experiences they have had to endure. It was a form of tolerance that is paramount in acknowledging the validity of the experiences that helped form them. In many ways, this has helped me enter my English major with a better sense of navigating relational theories as I understand the imprint bias can have on writing after having read so many stories from so many different students.

I also learned how deeply invested teachers at schools and mentors at non-profit programs are in their students and my summer at Legal Outreach has particularly influenced my decision to tread along a career path that ultimately has to do with community building. I want to make an impact and connect to other people in ways that positively impacted my community.

A big thank you to the Class of 1974 and the ’68 Center for Career Exploration. Without you, I would not have been able to give back to the community that has uplifted me through my high school career. I am eternally grateful to have been given a chance to pass on the legacy Legal Outreach has established of giving back.