Since the last update, I have graduated from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy & Practice in which I earned a Master’s degree in Social Work. I am excited to share I am now employed at Resilience, a rape-crisis center in Chicago, where I work full-time as a prevention educator. As a prevention educator I teach sexual violence prevention education to K-12 Chicago Public School students, as well as facilitate sexual violence prevention trainings for medical advocacy rape crisis volunteers, and professionals working throughout the Chicagoland area. I began working in rape-crisis response and prevention as a 17 year-old Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School student when I chose to volunteer at CONNECT To End Violence. It has been a thoughtful, challenging road these last eight years, and I continue to learn and grow both professionally and interpersonally through doing this work. Thank you to MVYouth for supporting my access to education in both New York City and Chicago to get me to this place in my career.
Kaela Vecchia-Zeitz - New York University
Over the past year, I moved to Chicago to earn my Master’s in Social Work from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Part of the program is completing a field placement at an agency of my choosing to receive hands-on experience working in the social work field. I chose to intern at the non-profit, Resilience, dedicated to the healing and empowerment of sexual assault survivors through counseling, individual and group trauma therapy, and medical and legal advocacy in the greater Chicago metropolitan area. Resilience also provides public education and institutional advocacy in order to improve the treatment of sexual assault survivors and to effect positive change in policies and public attitudes toward sexual assault. I intern with Resilience’s Education & Training Team where we provide prevention education to students starting in Kindergarten but ranging up to 12th grade and beyond. The lessons vary depending on age, but we generally talk to students about consent, healthy boundaries, safe & unsafe touches, the importance of reporting assault/harassment to safe adults, and how prevalent and preventable sexual assault is in our society. I have found the work to be incredibly fulfilling as I have tended to work one-on-one with survivors in therapeutic settings, so to be able to teach prevention education to students is deeply personal, meaningful, and important to me. When I am not in school or at my field placement, I enjoy bike rides along the lakefront, going to live music shows, meeting new people, and exploring the incredible city of Chicago!
Kaela Vecchia-Zeitz - New York University
As our world has continued to change in the last year, so have I. 2021 was a year of immense personal growth for me, as I decided to take the year off from school and social work. I spent the winter, spring, and summer bopping from one Martha’s Vineyard rental to another, all while working at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services Chicken Alley Thrift Shop. It was while working at Chicken Alley that I connected with a new community of islanders, as most of my close friends from high school were not home for the pandemic. Not only did I score some incredible vintage clothes, but I also learned so much about our electic, loving, complex island community. I became quite close with my coworkers, volunteers, and regular shoppers during a time where closeness was fraught. This deepened my gratitude for the special place we all call home. Since September of 2021 though, I have been off the island. My first stop was Brooklyn to visit college friends, and give New York the proper goodbye I was never able to give when I graduated from NYU back home in May of 2020. I loved being back in Brooklyn so much I decided to spend an additional month there. During that time I began volunteering at a community garden which distributes food and supplies to houseless people in Bushwick. I also spent a lot of time biking around the different boroughs, exploring new neighborhoods, and reminiscing in old ones. As 2022 rolls around, I am excited for the year to come. I just accepted my offer of enrollment to University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice where I will be getting my Master’s in Social Work. I plan to move to Chicago in June of 2022.
Kaela Vecchia-Zeitz - New York University
Since we last checked in, a lot has changed in my life, and I am sure in yours, as well. I thought I would be in Thailand, or Columbia or Europe right now, hiking mountains and wandering cities, meeting locals, but instead I am home, in the town of Vineyard Haven I grew up in, biking along the Lagoon and seeing the island in a new way. Since we last checked in, countless horrific events have transpired in our world, but there have been some silver-linings for me, and hopefully for you, too. My silver-lining happened in March. As the world was shutting down, so did my campus, and the agency where I had interned at for the prior year. As most of my NYU classmates terminated their field placements, my supervisor offered me a paid temporary remote position within another program of the same larger agency - The EMPOWER Center, a health center servicing survivors of sex trafficking. I worked at The EMPOWER Center from March until the job’s end date in late June. Throughout those first 3.5 months of quarantine, I worked out of my parent’s Vineyard Haven basement in the same room I slept in each night, calling, emailing and texting clients living in New York City. It was the hardest experience of my life, and also gave me great insight into what it truly takes to be a social worker supporting survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and/or sex trafficking. By July, I realized I needed a break from social work, and decided to take this year living at home to learn how to best take care of myself, so in the future I can better take care of others. Among this silver lining, I graduated from NYU, and plan to start my MSW at the University of Chicago in Summer 2022.
Kaela Vecchia-Zeitz - New York University
I study at NYU Silver School of Social Work which places students within the social work field to gain hands-on experience before graduating. I was placed in January 2019 at Sanctuary for Families, within the agency’s program Justice and Empowerment for Teens (JET) Initiative, which services young adult survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and/or sex trafficking. Before being placed at Sanctuary for Families, I was unaware about the prevalence and complexity of the commercial sex trade within the United States. Over the course of one year, I gained extensive knowledge about it through working directly with survivors, reading the related literature, and attending panel events. I am now a member of New Yorkers for the Equality Model (NY4EM) - a New York-based alliance of cross-sector organizations, sex trade survivors, and community members who advocate for the Equality Model. The Equality Model calls for the decriminalization of people bought/sold in the sex trade, while continuing to hold sex buyers and third-party profiteers accountable for the lifelong harm their actions cause. Within NY4EM I lead the Student Statewide Coalition which educates college campuses about the harms of the commercial sex trade, the Equality Model, and how to get involved in the movement. I never could have imagined how transformative my field placement would be. I am eager to continue doing clinical and policy work with survivors of the commercial sex trade, and I am currently applying to graduate school to get my Masters in Social Work. Thank you MVYouth, without your support I would not have attended NYU and would not have been exposed to this trying, fulfilling work.
Kaela Vecchia-Zeitz - New York University
In the past year at NYU, I have gone to school both in Buenos Aires, Argentina and New York City. Living in Buenos Aires for the Spring semester of my sophomore year was an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life. Along with working on my Spanish fluency, I learned the rich and complex history of Argentina through my NYU courses, befriending locals, and traveling to surrounding provinces. I was especially enthralled by a class taught by an Argentine local, called Queer Cultures and Democracy. It was in that class where I learned about the 1980s and 1990s AIDS/HIV crises that happened simultaneously in Argentina and the United States, and the incredible activism that took place to fight for the rights and lives of LGBTQ people.
Once back in New York City for the Fall semester of my junior year, I was immersed in my social work curriculum, taking classes such as “Human Behavior in the Social Environment,” “Homelessness in Perspective,” and “Diversity, Racism, Oppression, and Privilege.” In these past few months, I have learned an immense amount about the social work profession and my place and responsibility within it. I feel humbled and empowered to continue on this path to help as many people as I can. All of this would not be possible without the generosity of MVYouth. Thank you so very much.
Kaela Vecchia-Zeitz - New York University
The past year at NYU has been one of reckoning and growth. I’ve not only gained knowledge in the classroom, but also an immense amount of intellectual thought and discussion in the bustling environment of New York City. In the early spring of 2017, I began an internship at The Bronx Defenders, a holistic public defense office which provides services to lower-income people living in the South Bronx. This experience has taught me a great deal about the integrity, determination, and patience I will need to have as a social worker moving forward, especially if I choose to work in criminal justice reform. In accordance to working at The Bronx Defenders, I am engrossed in my studies. This fall I’ve been taking a journalism course - investigating the complexities of news, media, and journalism in the past and present. I’ve enjoyed this class so much that I’ve decided to concentrate in journalism, alongside majoring in social work. Next semester, I’m planning to study abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina where I hope to cultivate fluency in the Spanish language and Argentine culture. This incredible opportunity would not be a reality for me if it wasn’t for the generosity of MVYouth. Thank you.
Kaela Vecchia-Zeitz - New York University
I always knew I loved visiting New York City as a kid, and living here for the past five months has solidified that love within me. During the week I spend many hours in NYU’s gorgeous Bobst Library where I travel up to the 8th floor study room and look out onto the sprawling city scape - the Washington Square Arch, Chrysler building, and Empire State building all within view. I also volunteer at the Hebrew Union College soup kitchen, just a couple blocks from campus and help with the publishing of the Minetta Review, one of NYU’s literary magazines. NYU’s Silver School of Social Work has been a warm and welcoming community that I’m so honored to be a part of. Along with the amazing resources NYU offers, I’ve also explored the amazing resources of the city - some of my favorites being trips to the MET, a Claudia Rankine reading, and seeing the play Party People at the Public Theatre. I never imagined that NYU would be such a perfect fit for my education. And there is no way I would’ve found that out without the immense generosity of MVYouth. Thank you.