BC students and faculty pose for a photo in front of the U.S. Capitol Building. From left to right: Angelina Latin, Valentina Diaz, Kirsten Davison, Summer Hawkins, Sophie Smyke, and Erin Vadala. Courtesy photo.
Half a dozen students and faculty at the Boston College School of Social Work recently got a close look at how early childhood policy is made as part of a four-day training program in Washington, D.C.
From July 27 to July 31, the delegation met lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, engaged with current and former Congressional staffers from the Democratic and Republican parties, and observed proceedings in the Senate gallery on Capitol Hill.
The cohort also attended hearings, including the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, where the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 was passed with bipartisan support. The bill—offically called the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act of 2025—has been described as the most impactful and comprehensive piece of housing legislation since the Great Recession.
“It wasn’t just sitting in a classroom with PowerPoints—it felt like being part of it,” said Summer Hawkins, a professor who led the delegation in partnership with Kirsten Davison, associate dean for research. “That was exciting for me, but also for the students, to really see how things are actually done on the ground.”
The BCSSW students who took part in the program, run by the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University, are all pursuing a certificate in Child Policy and Leadership through BC’s Center for Child and Family Policy.
The center, led by Hawkins and Rebekah Levine Coley, a professor in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, works with a broad set of stakeholders to develop and apply new scientific knowledge to evaluate and inform policies and practices that improve the health and well-being of children and families around the world.
Its certificate program trains master’s and doctoral students to develop a deep understanding of the needs of children and families; the policies that support or impede their wellbeing; and the research, advocacy, and leadership skills necessary to improve the policies and systems serving these populations.
Erin Vadala, who participated in the training program in Washington, D.C., said that enrolling in the certificate was about more than academics—it was a way to deepen her understanding of policy and advocacy so she could use them as tools to advance social justice.
“I believe that I have a responsibility to fight for a better world beyond just my work with individual families,” said Vadala, MSW’26, a final-year clinical student studying in the Children, Youth, and Families field of practice at BCSSW. “Each of us has different skills and specialties, and so it is important that we come together and consider how these skills can create collective change on a structural and systemic level.”
“I believe that I have a responsibility to fight for a better world beyond just my work with individual families. Each of us has different skills and specialties, and so it is important that we come together and consider how these skills can create collective change on a structural and systemic level.”
Her experience in D.C. taught her two things: that personalized advocacy is more effective than blanket campaigns and that political polarization is growing, underscoring the need for strategies to bridge disenfranchised communities.
She plans to harness the power of these insights at her current internship at March of Dimes Boston, where she’s already testified at the State House, joined advocacy coalitions, and supported maternal and infant health initiatives.
“My experience in D.C. gave me more information to inform my work and allow my efforts to be more effective,” said Vadala. “I think it is very important to know how to triage and prioritize various aspects of your work. While it can feel great to just do something, it feels even greater when you know that what you are doing can have a tangible impact on people.”
Beyond the Heights, she is developing an online directory for maternal, infant, and reproductive health resources in Massachusetts, aiming to make existing support more accessible. And she aspires to lead an integrated community health center in Boston that unites mental and physical health, structural advocacy, community engagement, and the arts. But she credits the Child Policy and Leadership certificate program at BC for giving her the skills to carry out this work, to connect clinical insights with systemic change.
“Gaining experience with policy and legislative advocacy will allow me to weave larger-scale interventions with clinical work,” she said. “I want to be able to clinically support families as they navigate structural barriers and also say, ‘We are fighting to change the structural issues that brought us here.’”
As part of the training program in D.C., students like Vadala gained exposure to potential career paths in government. Hawkins said that speakers emphasized that their first role doesn’t need to be a “perfect fit,” but rather that each experience builds transferable skills for future positions in policy and advocacy.
“There were so many people talking about fellowships you could do or jobs you could do straight out of our program,” she recalled. “If child policy is something that’s interesting to you, everyone said, just go for it even if it’s not the perfect fit, because you’re going to develop skills to work in another area of government, whether it’s at the state or federal level.”