Kacey Dickey ’19
Editor’s Note: The Happy Beginnings series features recent College of Arts & Sciences graduates who are getting started in careers, graduate school and service.
By Alex Paoletti ’20
Ohio University graduate Kacey Dickey ’19 worked as an intern at the Office of the Ohio Public Defender in Athens County this past spring.
She took SOC 4910, which provides credit-based internships for sociology and sociology-criminology students. There she expressed an interest in working in the courts system.
“I’ve always been intrigued by the criminal justice side of sociology,” she said, “and I want to be an attorney, so it was a great experience to see that type of law first-hand!”
Dickey’s daily duties at the office included: data entry, filing and indexing cases, conducting research for attorneys, working on specialized projects, assisting clients, and answering phone calls. She was also able to shadow the attorneys in court, in the judge’s chambers, on jail visits, client meetings and psychiatric evaluations.
Dickey considers the internship to be an invaluable experience from which she gained much insight into the workings of the court. She witnessed the devotion and preparation the attorneys put into defending their clients, resulting in trials won and getting people the help they need. Other times, however, she saw the devastating effects addiction, crime, and poverty can have on a person’s life.
The internship affirmed her choice in a career, as well as set her apart from prospective hires at the prosecutor’s office in Mahoning County, where she started working as a law clerk and victim advocate soon after graduating with her B.A. in Political Science and Sociology-Criminology from the College of Arts & Sciences at OHIO.
Her responsibilities depend on the day, but she works to assist victims of crime with counseling, compensation, transportation, notifications of all court proceeding, etc.
“I am so thankful to have had this opportunity through the College of Arts & Sciences!”
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