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(The following excerpts from a recorded interview have been edited for clarity and brevity.)

On the work of CASA:  

CASA is a nonprofit organization based in different offices around New Hampshire.   The CASA attorneys and the CASA administrators are not volunteers, but the court-appointed special advocates themselves are all volunteers, which is somewhat unique, because a lot of guardian ad litems are not volunteer-based; they’re actually paid for by the state. So, it's really unique and interesting that this nonprofit supports and provides the service of so many volunteers. 

A court-appointed special advocate is assigned to a case to advocate for a child's best interest, typically involving termination of parental rights cases, abuse and neglect cases. It came about due to the need to have a non-biased, impartial third party that represents only the best interest of the child. DCYF has a lot of competing interests. The state has a lot of competing interests. The parents obviously have competing interests. The primary role of a CASA volunteer is to represent the best interest of that child. It's very interesting to watch them in practice in court.

CASA is always looking for more people.  They have people whose job it is to do outreach and recruitment, but their best recruitment is through the CASA volunteers themselves. When they go and talk to the guys on their rugby team or the people in their knitting club or their book club, they're also spreading the word about CASA and its mission. And that's what brings in a lot of CASA volunteers. 

On her work there: 

I'm working in the legal department so a lot of what I do is provide materials for the attorneys to use in various situations. I recently wrote a motion to oppose reunification; the DCYF was saying that they wanted to reunify the child with his or her parent. And we were taking the position that it would not be in that child's best interest. This involves diving into the case and doing a lot of legal research — research on that child's case history, as well as the case law and statutory background pertaining to the legal issues that are being brought forward.

I went through the core training that every CASA volunteer goes through. It’s extremely interesting. I don't have a background in social work, but what jumps out to me the most is the social science behind a lot of the legal processes that I got to learn about through my core training. 

On her goals this summer: 

My summer project is going to be a memo that will help the office determine when it’s appropriate to file certain motions. I'll be doing a lot of research on statutes, case law, anything that gives CASA guidance on when to advocate for early Termination of Parental Rights; in certain circumstances, for example, we would need to expedite the process because a child could potentially be in extreme danger. It’s just so interesting.  I definitely did not know how much there was out there to look into and research on this. So, I take a crack at it every time I’m in between projects, and it’s been a really good goal for me.   It will probably be the one thing that I get to leave behind that I know will be beneficial to them. 

The Rudman Center fellowships support students who work during the summer for government agencies or 501(c)3 non-profit organizations that perform public interest legal work.   For more on the Rudman Summer Fellowship program, visit .