People of Housing Security:
Lizzie Wright

Q. What are you studying at IU?

I am a journalism major with a concentration in public relations. I also have a minor in German.

Q. What influenced you to minor in German?

I took German in high school. The summer before my senior year of high school I was able to participate in an exchange program where I lived with a German family for about a week and a half. I really loved learning about the language itself, but also the culture. Getting to live with a German family really reemphasized how much I really love both of those aspects and it gave me a further appreciation for what I was learning. Then coming to IU, I knew I’d want to continue learning German, so I have over the past four years. I’ve been taking German for eight years now, and I just really love it.

Q. Where in Germany did you stay?

It’s a small village in southern Germany called Villingen-Schwenningen. It’s about an hour from Switzerland, and it’s actually the sister city to Terre Haute, Indiana. That’s how I ended up doing the exchange program in that city. The cool thing about this exchange is that you stay with the German family for about two weeks, and then that same student will stay with your family in the United States.

Q. How did you, as a journalism major, end up in your position here as an intern for Heading Home?

At the end of my sophomore year, I was in a class called “Writing, Reporting, and Editing.” My professor, Steve Hinnefeld, was involved with the Bloomington Press Club. After class one day, he pulled me aside and told me about a scholarship that the Bloomington Press Club had just released applications for. There were two placements, one at Heading Home and also one at Habitat for Humanity. He had encouraged me to apply, and I did. After interviewing, I ended up getting the position and started at Heading Home at the end of August, my junior year (August 2022).At this point, I knew I would be really interested in more community oriented or nonprofit work. It felt like a really good way to combine my interest in writing, but also community outreach, and specifically in this case, housing security advocacy and the prevention and reduction of homelessness in our community.

Q. What were your initial thoughts after your first few days working here and seeing what kind of work you’d be doing?

I definitely was excited to have this opportunity to spread awareness about housing insecurity in our community, so I felt really grateful for such an awesome opportunity. I also felt overwhelmed because I realized how complex the issue of homelessness is. Initially, I also felt uneducated on a lot of those complexities. I was trying to learn quickly what all these different terminologies and organizations meant, did, and provided. Once I embraced the fact that it would be more of a learning process, I really started to see a lot of growth in my understanding of housing security and understanding of what the organizations and nonprofits in our area provide people experiencing homelessness.

Q. What is one of your favorite tasks that you got assigned during your internship so far?

I really love anything that deals with a lot of detail. I have enjoyed getting to work on different spreadsheet forms or resource guides. I helped Tatiana with the Veteran Resources Guide. This is a resource for case workers that work with veterans specifically. I helped her organize that and write some different things there, and I really enjoyed that. I was also able to foster a collaboration with Heading Home and Kappa Alpha Theta, a sorority on campus that I’m a part of, to create over 250 hygiene packs for people in Monroe and surrounding counties that are experiencing homelessness. This was really cool to not only see another organization learning more about what Heading Home does, but really making an impact in the lives of those around us. It was really impactful to see that when you get a lot of people together, how tangible of a difference you can make. 

Q. What are you involved in on the IU campus?

Other than being an intern here at Heading Home, I have been an investigative reporter at the Michael I. Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism since September 2021. The Arnolt Center produces nonpartisan multimedia investigative reporting. In this role, I have been placed on various teams where we work with national or state news organizations to research and report on different topics. For example, one project that I did dealt with environmental legislation in the State of Indiana and conflicts of interest with different leaders in the state. This included analyzing these leaders and seeing trends in campaign funding and the bills that were being authored. 

As mentioned earlier, I’m also a member of Kappa Alpha Theta and I had the opportunity to serve on their executive board in the 2021-2022 term. From freshman through junior year, I was involved with the Indiana University Student Foundation (IUSF). While I am not currently involved, it’s a wonderful organization that provides a lot of monetary support through scholarships to students on IU’s campus, which is so important.

Q. What do you see yourself doing after you graduate this Spring?

I am currently applying to law schools and just waiting to hear back, so hopefully in the Fall I will be a first-year law student at a school somewhere. I’m not sure where I’ll be yet, but I’m looking forward to starting a new adventure somewhere. I hope to continue to do the things that I love. While in law school. I’d really like to get my yoga certification so I can start teaching classes. I think that might be my summer project. I currently attend Vibe Yoga here in Bloomington.

Q. What is your dream job?

It’s hard because I see myself doing many things in my career. However, I hope because of my experiences at Heading Home, to do something regarding law and housing insecurity. The more that I’ve learned about housing insecurity, it’s also opened my eyes to the wrongful eviction that takes place. I hope to not only advocate for people that are wrongfully evicted, but also eventually develop policy to prevent wrongful eviction from happening regularly. My internship redirected me to this mind frame. I genuinely didn’t realize how prevalent of an issue wrongful eviction was before. Working at Heading Home has really opened my eyes to that. It has empowered me to really make a difference within my own future career. 

Q. What’s something that this internship has opened your eyes to or that you wish more people realized?

I really didn’t realize how complex homelessness and housing security were. Oftentimes, I think people are quick to fall back on biases and generalizations about people experiencing homelessness, whether they be blaming it on drug or alcohol usage. Commonly people will say that, you know, “you can just get a job,” and I think once you really have a more open perspective, you quickly realize how far from the truth those generalizations and biases are. I wish more people understood that.

On a more positive note, another thing I learned is how many people and organizations are helping and providing resources to those experiencing homelessness. That’s really encouraging as Heading Home continues to embark on this journey to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-repeating.