Our Bodies, Our Stories: Reproductive Justice with VAYLA New Orleans

Our Bodies, Our Stories: Reproductive Justice with VAYLA New Orleans

By Syna Pal

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to continue interning with VAYLA New Orleans. Having more work hours allotted to me during the summer allowed me to expand upon the work I was doing for them, which included a podcast and the reproductive justice social media handle, as well as take on new projects that interested me.

I anticipated that season 3 of the podcast would be completed over the summer; however, juggling time zones was more complicated than Aimee (my co-host) and I expected. I worked virtually from India over the summer, so it involved staying up late and waking up early to meet with Aimee. While this was challenging, it enhanced my communication and coordination skills, and eventually, it became easier to handle the different time zones.

I had the opportunity to take up two new projects over the summer- one involved research on AAPI voting outcomes to create programming for the upcoming local elections. The main findings of the research were that racial discrimination led to higher levels of civic dissatisfaction but not higher levels of civic engagement. The second was a book/media club, which is still in its preliminary stages, but I’m excited to get it started this Fall!

Overall, it was a great experience to continue my work with VAYLA and get more involved with the organization and its different departments. I cannot wait to work with them again. This is the link to the Podcast; I hope you enjoy listening to it 🙂