Lily Cohen

This summer, SGA president Lily Cohen, 2021 completed an internship with the Baltimore Child Abuse Center (BCAC) to explore her interests in law and criminology. She was interested in the work the BCAC does in court, as well as their lobbying efforts and she was also curious about the process of building a case with the aid of either or both Child Protective Services and Law Enforcement in abuse-oriented investigations. To delve deeper into the criminology aspect of the work done at BCAC, Lily learned specifically about the inner-workings of both clinical services and forensic interviewers. Along with her original interests, Lily also discovered some new interests in community outreach and advocacy throughout her time with BCAC.
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For her internship, Lily conducted virtual interviews with members of the BCAC community, including clinical services, forensic interviewers, family advocacy, community outreach, homicide prevention, and legal services. She truly loved hearing about each department and how they all work together and was prompted to research the digital divide in Baltimore, which has been driven by COVID-19. Some questions she explored were: how does lack of technology or access to internet/technology affect a student? What are other cities' goals/solutions to bring together the digital equity divide? Is Baltimore a leading city in the country for bringing together digital equity? How can Wi-Fi hotspots help/revolutionize online learning/family empowerment?

“Although my internship experience was much different compared to prior years due to the pandemic, I had a rewarding experience,” Lily said. “I learned so much about BCAC and feel that I have gained some knowledge, as well as resources that I can share with the RPCS community.”