UC law student develops advocacy skills at D.C. Children’s Law Center
Every year, University of Cincinnati College of Law students gain invaluable experience outside of the classroom and even outside of Cincinnati. This past summer, things looked a little different with COVID-19, but that didn’t stop third-year law student Leah Castelaz from working remotely with the Children’s Law Center (CLC) located out in Washington, D.C.
Castelaz worked—and continues to work—as a policy clerk for the CLC, where she researches and develops citywide recommendations that ensure local policies, legislation, and funding meet the needs of children throughout Washington, D.C. “I’ve had a lot of trial experience and have had an in-depth look at the court system,” she recalls, “and so I was really curious about the advocacy side of things; that’s what really drew me to this opportunity.”
Leah Castelaz, Law student
The policy side of CLC focuses on conducting advocacy around policies, practices, and laws that impact D.C. children and their families. Much of it revolves around quality housing, quality education, and the foster care systems. CLC does a lot of advocacy around parts of the budget that impact D.C. children, such as increasing the budget for school-based mental health and ensuring every student has access to a digital device. This past summer, her work focused on the mayor’s proposed city budget, which just happened to be released on her first day of work.
Each summer, the city council holds hearings where different advocates go in and testify for their respective part of the budget. “I got to help work on testimony that we gave,” Castelaz recounts, “and I attended pretty much every hearing that we had, took extensive notes, did summaries for the policy writers, and even created Excel spreadsheets so we could see how the money was moving around.” She also worked on an extensive research project regarding policing in schools and continues to work on research and writing projects for CLC.
She maintains that advocacy is important because there are many different things that impact children and their families that one might not think of. “For example, we need to make sure we advocate for this lead paint removal program because that’s crucial to children’s health. There’s so much to advocate for, and I think it was a very eye-opening experience.”
Becoming a member of the CLC team
CLC has done an excellent job of ensuring Castelaz feels like she’s part of the team. Her coworkers always check in to see how things are going and projects are progressing, but they also ask about each other’s pets during laidback virtual calls. “Unfortunately, with COVID, I didn’t get to move to D.C. So, I came back to Cleveland but still was able to work at CLC, which I really appreciated.” Despite working remotely from Ohio, she is still able to gain valuable experience from a few hundred miles away by collaborating with the mayor, district agencies, and the D.C. City Council.
I came to law school to help create an environment for individuals and communities be able to advocate for themselves.
Leah Castelaz, Law student
Looking to the future
Castelaz hopes to take her knowledge of the law to create tangible and sustainable change, and to create new or better laws, policies, and practices. She says, “I have learned that means finding a way within my future practice to empower those who can speak to these inequalities and disparities to do so.”
Looking toward the future, Castelaz sees herself continuing to do the work she does now, saying “I joke and say that if CLC offered me a job, they could, and I would accept right now!” For her, working behind-the-scenes with policy writing by advocating to change laws falls right in line with the reason she came to law school.
She states, “I came to law school to help create an environment for individuals and communities be able to advocate for themselves. I wanted to know the laws and help create spaces to amplify the voices the vulnerable, underrepresented communities to speak up on the injustices they face.” Click here to find information about the Children’s Law Center and the work they do.
Author: Andy Cheng, graduate student and Cincinnati Law writing assistant
Feature image at top: children playing from istockphoto.com
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