Meet one of VFA's New Policy Interns, Erin Elms

Hello, my name is Erin Elms and I am one of the new Policy Interns at Voice For Adoption. I am in my first weeks of working for this incredible non-profit and thoroughly look forward to the experiences and knowledge that I will gain over the course of the summer semester.

I had a pretty unusual upbringing. As a family we moved across the country and world several times throughout my childhood and adolescent years, but one thing that stayed consistent was the tightknit family that raised me. Being in my family of six is what shaped me into the confident, passionate and driven individual that I am today. 

Although, I changed homes almost every two years, I have always had a passion for helping others in the community.  I attended high school in Thailand and became heavily involved in volunteering at a local orphanage, which eventually led me to create and establish the Mercy Center Projects, a self-founded charity that provided the financial needs in order for the orphanage to become self-sustainable. Additionally, I volunteered weekly at the orphanage to play with the children and teach them English. This experience became the foundation of my passion for issues within the adoption and foster care system, however I always felt that I could do more. Through higher education, I gained knowledge surrounding public policy and learned that various interest groups advocated for different types of reform, which began my search for a way to become an advocate for adoption and foster care reform.

Currently, I am a rising senior at Michigan State University, planning on graduating in the spring of 2019 with a bachelor of science in psychology. Upon graduation, I plan to attend law school and focus on public policy as an human rights lawyer, child advocacy lawyer, or a corporate lawyer for a non-profit agency. The most substantial element that has drawn me to pursue this career is the fact that I will have the opportunity to fix various problems, albeit adoption and foster care policy, from its origin and remedy the law/policy before it continues to negatively impact our children. 

During this summer semester, some of the main issues that we are focusing on are issues with the opioid epidemic and how that is affecting the foster care/adoption system, reforming the adoption/foster care system to meet the needs of the 100 thousands plus children in the system in need of a permanent home and navigating through current social issues that are being heavily discussed and potentially amended in legislature.

Overall, the Policy and Project Coordinator Internship with Voice for Adoption was the perfect fit; the internship encompasses my passion for children and public policy and will allow me to dive more deeply into the details of policy reform in order to protect the rights of those who don’t yet have a voice.