PKG Fellowships: Kathryn Tso (’22)
Meet Kathryn Tso, a Summer ‘21 PKG Fellow who partnered with the Community Dispute Settlement Center (CDSC), Summer of HOPE with the Suffolk County’s District Attorney’s Office, and Northeastern School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice (CRRJ) Project. This summer, Kathryn helped run fantastic initiatives with these three community partners. Learn more about her aspirations and successes here.
Kathryn reflected heavily on what she wanted to do with her life in 2020. She says, “I sort of determined I wanted to explore areas of public interest,” as she navigated and pondered on her academic and research interests. During her sophomore year, Kathryn shared she was beginning to feel unsure about going into STEM-related work because she felt disconnected from the communities she was helping from her research. Therefore, she aspired to talk and learn more about the community needs she sought to serve. The death of George Floyd catalyzed her ambition, leading her to think about making an impact by getting involved in social justice work.
Kathryn increasingly began to question the carceral system, informing her PKG project aspirations and her work with three empowering community partners. Throughout the summer, she participated in three different projects and initiatives, becoming more involved in community healing work, diversity programming, restorative justice, and reform policing. First, Kathryn led a one-week-long Ethics course for system-involved youth, informing young people how Ethics can be applied to reform policing. Second, Kathryn shares that working with CRRJ showed her the power of advocacy, community healing, and centering community descendants in their approach. Additionally, Kathryn also helped with diversity programs and outreach in her work this summer. Finally, she led the effort to create an advisory board within the community to address and create attainable goals for a more representative clientele.
The PKG Fellowship empowered Kathryn to navigate interests outside of STEM, influencing her aspirations to go to law school for immigration and refugee work. One of her previous classes introduced her to the refugee to deportation pipeline, so she is interested in tackling that problem next, following graduation. Kathryn is looking forward to exploring job opportunities in January, aspiring to work in a non-profit or community-led organization before she settles down.
To send us off and share a bit more about her PKG experience, Kathryn shared that: “I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a PKG Fellow this past summer. Interning with CRRJ, CDSC, and Summer of HOPE gave me my first look at what community work and restorative justice look like in the real world. I’m also very appreciative of all of the advice and mentorship I received from my supervisors this summer. I’ve already begun to incorporate the lessons I learned into my life at MIT this semester. As a result, I feel much more prepared to enter the nonprofit world next year when I graduate.”
Interested in a PKG Fellowship? Learn more about upcoming opportunities by clicking here!
Tags: Anti-Racism, Criminal Justice, Fellowships Summer 2021, PKG Fellowships, Racial Justice
