Charting New Paths: Molly Roth's Post-Grad Summer with the ACLU

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Molly Roth graduated Class of '24 and majored in legal studies and anthropology, minored in history and completed a reproductive health rights and justice certificate. She is currently field volunteer coordinator with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts, and sat down to discuss her summer adventures after graduation!

Congrats on graduating, what are you doing on your first post-grad summer?

While I was in school at UMass Amherst, I did an internship for the ACLU. I was an intern for their field department for around 10 months. I started at the end of April of last year. It was supposed to be a summer internship, but the internship didn't end. It was supposed to end in August, but it didn't. I ended up continuing my work with the ACLU of Massachusetts for a couple more months after August – about 10 months.

Then in the second semester of my senior year, they had a full-time position open up, and because I was already familiar with the team and the people there, I decided to apply. So I applied and I got the job! I found out the week of graduation – that was probably the most awesome week of my life.

I started full-time work in June. I've been there for over a month now as the volunteer coordinator for the field team. Basically, I connect with all of our volunteers, I build one on one relationships, I coordinate what they do, what we have going on, and I am the liaison between our volunteers and our events. We've done a lot of stuff to celebrate the Work and Family Mobility Act, which was a law that passed last year. We celebrated this in July – it’s officially hit the one year mark!

What is the field department?

Our field department is out in communities, connecting with people, planning events – we’re the team that is talking to people and getting to know community members.  For my position specifically, I get to talk with people of all ages from all across the state. I have volunteers who are in high school, are retirees, and then everyone else in between. And then we have volunteers that are in Pittsfield and volunteers that are in the Cape – they’re all over the state. My job specifically is I get to be really well-connected with our volunteer network, and I get to go to events and help coordinate volunteers when it comes to the events. I'm also involved in the volunteer engagement work we do.

How has the job prepared you for your future plans?

For my future plans, I am planning on going to law school. Given my background, I’ve been really focused on social justice. I have always been interested in reproductive justice, mass incarceration reform — immigration became very interesting to me throughout my internship and it's something that I’m considering a career in possibly.

I’ve always been interested in social justice organizing. While at UMass, I was part of UACT, which is the Alliance for Community Transformation. It’s within the anthropology department and they do a specialized one-semester program called GCO (Grassroots Community Organizing). When I was doing that program, I got really well connected with a lot of organizations in Massachusetts. It was very eye-opening for me, because I was able to see career paths for those who are interested in the legal field – but don't want to go into corporate law because that's not really what I want to do. I got to see practical ways in which people can still be a part of the organizing world, have their degrees, and that opened my eyes to a lot of organizations that focus on that.

Another thing that was really impactful for my journey was a study abroad program I did in London with the Innocence Project. The person who led the program was the founder of the California Innocence Project. Our whole class was based on different innocence cases, both nationally and globally. That was really interesting to me to see criminal law, how lawyers are forming organizations like the Innocence Project, fighting for people's rights, and fighting for people to get out of prison who are wrongfully incarcerated. That was really transformative for me, having that experience, seeing the amount of work that the Innocence Project does and how impactful their work is.

Those two experiences were really eye opening for me, and that's what kind of pointed me eventually to the ACLU. But long-term, law school is the goal. I am really loving my position right now and I probably want to stay here for quite a bit. I really want to learn and grow in this position, I  love my team, and I’m also saving money for law school. Do I know exactly when? No,  but for sure it is going to be down the road. I plan on taking the LSAT soon and I would love to work for an organization like the ACLU or Pregnancy Justice or the Equal Justice Initiative or even the Innocence Project.

How did your Honors Thesis prepare you for your current role?

I did an Individually Contracted Honors Thesis on reproductive justice for incarcerated people. I looked at the ways in which prison systems in the United States violate people's reproductive rights and their reproductive health care. My Honors Thesis was the biggest project I've ever taken on – it was a year and a half of work. I worked on it for three semesters and it was eighty pages long. I've never compiled so much research in my life. 

I think my last semester of school my Honors Thesis became my entire life. But it proved to me that I am capable of compiling a massive amount of research and turning it into a cohesive piece of work.

In terms of my current job, it gave me a lot of confidence. I think sometimes we all doubt ourselves and get a little bit of impostor syndrome, not feeling like we always belong or seeing ourselves in certain spaces. After doing a thesis I realized that I'm capable of anything. Plus, the work was so important. Eventually one day if I do want to work for an organization like Pregnancy Justice, a lot of the research I did would be really applicable.

What advice do you have for current or prospective students?

I would love to share this especially with prospective students, but there is so much to do at UMass – so do it all! I did everything I wanted to do. I think there's so much opportunity, there's so many people who want to help you and want to see you succeed. 

Ask questions, be involved, talk to professors, go to their one on ones, go to office hours – all of that is at your fingertips. If you take advantage of it, you can truly make your future whatever you want it to be. 

Be proactive, get involved. I think many people who I'm currently connected with professionally have been people that I made connections with initially in college, and now we are able to help one another. It's so helpful while you're in school and so helpful for when you're out of school.

What do you do to relax on your days off?

On my days off, I'm a big reader, I love to read. I've been reading a lot of thriller books. I love going to spin classes – spin is very fun! I was talking to my friend the other day because we both used to go to spin all the time at UMass. Now we have to pay for it in Boston. We were so lucky! But I do love going to spin classes,  I love hanging out with my friends, a lot of which are UMass Amherst grads. Some of my best friends were people I met through Res Life, because I was an RA. They’re still my friends and we've all moved to Boston and we see each other quite often!