Reflection by Gabriel Cahill, UCARE Student and Intern

My name is Gabriel Cahill, and I’m a Philosophy and Political Science major here at UNL. I was first introduced to the Nebraska Stories of Humanity project during my junior year through one of my professors, Dr. Kohen. At the start of class one day, he mentioned a student opportunity that was available to us that we could email him about. Now, during this time in college I already was planning on going to law school (which I still plan on), but to be honest, I emailed him about this opportunity solely because I thought it would look good for a law school application. I’m extremely happy to say that I have gained so much more than a simple line on a resume. Not only have I learned so much about such an important time in our history, but it has been a phenomenally unique experience that I don’t believe many people or students have had. That is also what makes this project so special and fulfilling, I can engage with these individuals' historical lives while at the same time helping to build a platform for others to learn from. 

After I started working on the first few testimonies, I really started to understand and feel the impact of the work that I was doing, both on a personal level and more generally. In a very serious way, working on these testimonies has transformed not only my viewpoint and outlook on life, but also my emotional intelligence. That may seem like a silly or strange thing to say but I genuinely believe working on these stories has made me far more empathetic as well as a better all-around person. 

I’ve also had the opportunity to understand my own family like I never have before. My great-grandmother, who unfortunately is not with us anymore, has been my family's pillar for all my life. I’ve always had a special connection with her as well because we have the same birthday, when I turned 20, she turned 100! However, because of the obvious generational divide, there has always been some difficulty in understanding her life. But, through working on stories and testimonies, I have been able to learn more about my great-grandmother. Norman Smith is one such individual that I have had the pleasure of getting to know. I worked on encoding several of his letters while he was serving in WWII. Before working on those letters, I remember Beth telling me how much of a ‘character’ Norman was, and he certainly lived up to it! His unique perspective and personality are very endearing and provide such a unique point of view. While reading through his letters, there would be certain phrases or word choices that were so strikingly similar to how my great-grandmother used to talk. It’s hard to put into words how impactful that is, and I’ll never forget that experience. 

Lastly, as I mentioned above, I plan on going to law school, and at the time of writing this I am in the application process. I used to want to go into corporate law, or Intellectual Property law. I do not mean to disparage either of these areas of the law, but the main reason I wanted to go into those areas is because of the financial incentive. However, I have completely changed how I view going into law or becoming a lawyer. In large part – mostly, really – the personal development and growth that I have gained from my time here has been the cause of my change in view. Now, I want to do something more impactful, or something that I view as important. I really want to help people, or do my best trying, and the Nebraska Stories of Humanity project has helped me to understand that. Either as a labor & workers' rights attorney, or a civil rights attorney (have not decided what path I want to pursue quite yet), I hope to live up to the work that I am doing here and now. 

I want to give huge thanks to Dr. Beth Dotan as well as Laura Weakly. Both have been great mentors and helped me to really thrive while working on all the various testimonials and letters. Two of the best UNL has to offer, I cannot thank them enough!