The past two summers, I have volunteered at the Massachusetts Trial Court in Lowell, MA. I worked in the Court Service Center, which meant helping people fill out forms in order to file them with the court. I helped people file forms dealing with contempt, custody and guardianship, divorce, small claims, restraining orders, name changes, evictions/motions to stay, and even financial statements among other things. During my time there, many people spoke different languages and came from all over the state for help and it was my job to overcome the language barriers, both in terms of speaking and in terms of those unfamiliar with the court process. In some cases, people would come in on edge and stressed out, so it was also my job to diffuse the situation in order to get all of the relevant information from them. It was a very rewarding job because each and every person was grateful for my help, despite going through difficult times. I learned a lot about civil cases in Probate and Family, District, and Housing Court, which I was not well-versed in prior to starting there. During my downtime, I got to watch a number of trials in each of the respective courts and even in Superior Court, where a murder trial was making headlines. If possible, I plan to go back to the court over winter break and maybe even next summer as well because I loved it so much and I was genuinely good at helping people with their grievances.

At 16, I began working at Mooyah as a crew-member. During the pandemic, I stepped up and started working 25-30 hours a week. I was promoted to key-holder and eventually to manager after a while. This job helped me overcome much of my social anxiety and taught me how to manage people and conflict. Mooyah also allowed me to see the behind-the-scenes on how to run a business, which was a very valuable lesson.

Every weekday from 7 to 11 am, a group of us would take to the streets of Billerica and inspect recycling bins to ensure that no contaminants were within the bins. If we did find contaminants, we had to tag the bin and it would not be picked up by the recycling trucks. This was not very popular among the residents in our town, so many times we would face confrontations in driveways or on the street. This job helped me deal with confrontation and criticism while also teaching me how to work with a team.