Meet Shay Friedman, the Dis La Verite intern. Shay is a graduate of Elon University (’19) with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Minors in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Criminal Justice Studies. During her undergraduate career, Shay served as a wellness Peer Leader and Educator. Though the student-led organization, SPARKS, taught on all facets of healthy living, Shay quickly developed a passion for inclusive sex education and survivor support – becoming affectionately known as the “sex ed guru of Elon.” Shay created campus-wide events, including “Consent Week,” “Take Back the Night,” and an STI education and testing event (did you know we say Sexually Transmitted Infection now to eliminate the stigma associated with the word “disease?”). Shay also spent a semester interning at a local sexual assault, child advocacy, and human trafficking response and resource center, where she was able to shadow survivor advocates and law enforcement officers.
Shay is now working towards her Master’s degree in Forensic and Legal Psychology from Marymount University (’21). During her time in grad school, Shay served as an intern for Ashleigh Diserio Consulting; further developing her knowledge and skills related to behavioral analysis and behavioral criminology while also directly interacting with the community. Currently, in addition to her work with Dis La Verite, Shay is also an intern with the Arlington County Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division. Upon graduation, Shay hopes to have a career working around the topics of sexually violent crimes and offenders. She would love to work as a team member of a local or federal law enforcement division investigating sexually violent offenses or work with colleges and universities on sexual violence prevention and Title IX investigations. Shay thinks psychology is incredibly vital towards informing best practices and would love to incorporate the social sciences in her future career.
Outside of school, Shay is a volunteer advisor for a local chapter of BBYO, a pluralistic Jewish teen movement for high school students (she is an alumna). She loves her teens and seeing them become awesome humans and strong leaders! In her free time, Shay enjoys embroidery, taking care of her eight house plants, and binge-watching Brooklyn 99 or Law and Order. Shay’s been to seven countries and hopes to go back to Ireland one day – maybe even living there. She also has two emotional support cats to snuggle with, Genevieve and Finnegan (Finn even has a mustache)!
