Intern-Views: Miciah Foster

WGF: How did you get involved with the Women and Girls Foundation?
MF: It’s a love story really. In high school, my civics teacher pulled me aside, handed me an application, looked me straight in my eyes, and said ‘I think this is something that could be good for you.’ It was an application to GirlGov. That was four years ago.
WGF: Tell us about your educational/social activism/personal background.
MF: I like to say that it’s at CAPA 6-12 where my activist bug was planted and incubated, and GirlGov is where it was catalyzed. I started at a high school that’s student body included a black kid who had been brutalized by the police on his way to his grandma’s house in the same year Trayvon Martin was murdered and I graduated that same high school in the same year that Freddie Gray was reported dead in the back of police van. Black lives have always been at the center of my dialogues and they will continue to be, but GirlGov gave me the tools to organize, protest, and liberate myself and others using the affirmation of my own identity, my own voice.
WGF: What are you working on for WGF?
MF: My overarching mission for this summer is to get Madame Presidenta: Why not the U.S.? on a streaming platform and coordinate efforts around that. I am (wo)manning the Facebook page and updating the Wikipedia pages.
WGF: What is your favorite part of the job?
MF: I love being surrounded by such strong and powerful women. Here, I am able to consume news and stay updated on current events and it’s part of my job description. I am constantly pushing myself to do things that I would have never thought I could be capable of, and at the same time, when I get that seemingly insurmountable task I eat it up, digest it, maybe it went well, maybe it didn’t, but you better believe I am prepared to pick apart whatever came out of it. I feel like I am affecting the world as I am being affected by it. There’s always something beautiful about that.
WGF: What is the most rewarding thing you have worked on in your career so far?
MF: I recently did a radio piece on the effect of the gender binary on genderqueer people within educational institutions. The piece reflected an issue that others in my school had brought up and as someone who was going into a historically women’s college, it was an issue that needed expanding on. Transgender and nonbinary people are largely absent in the media and I am proud to have shed a little light on them, however small that light was.
WGF: If you could resolve one world issue, what would it be?
MF: Systemic Inequality. There is so much that stems from it and so many facets of it that disgust me.
WGF: Do you have any advice for young people who want to make change but don’t know where to start?
MF: Talk about it. No matter what it is that you’re interested in changing. Keep having conversations with as many people as you can find: your friends, your family, your classmates, your senator, WGF, etc. You’ll have practice dealing with all sides of the issue. You may even experience opposition or setbacks, but rest assured someone will hear you.
WGF: What is your favorite food?
MF: Ice Cream. I’m an addict.