Frida Caro UG '16

Police Reform

Anthropology gave me a mindset and a framework to approach issues, to approach society with this very advanced level of critical thinking.

Frida’s focus was cultural anthropology with an interest in power structures and systems of power. As a student and recent grad, Frida worried that she would have difficulty finding a job with their anthropology degree or need to go immediately into another degree program, like law school. However, after volunteering with lawyers Frida realized there were plenty of opportunities for those with anthropology degrees. Currently, Frida works for their city’s police commission that oversees the police department and investigates complaints community members file against the police. They balance their work in police reform and search for graduate programs by staying involved with community organizing endeavors and their artistic passions. 

“Anthropology gave me a mindset and a framework to approach issues to approach society with this very advanced level of critical thinking.And I use that a lot. In my job I encounter issues from the public that I have to navigate with this system. And I've kind of done that before-- at the border, I was helping people that wanted to get asylum in the US while trying to explain to them the systematic issues of doing so. And anthropology was training my brain to be able to do these things, and exposing myself to these difficult theories and ideas. It's all just practice for what you guys are training yourself to do in the future”.

[Interview edited on 2021]