“I felt like she spoke to me,” said Alaura Rich ’22 upon meeting Vermont Lt. Governor Molly Gray in the fall of 2020. Gray had come to present to her undergraduate political science class centered around the 2020 presidential election.
“She talked about her background in international human rights law and I realized we shared a lot of common interests. Everything about that class made me think ‘I want to work for her.’”
The encounter led to an internship with Gray in the Lt. Governor’s Office last spring. Now, less three months after earning her Bachelor’s in Community and International Development from UVM, Rich’s resume is chock-full with internships and professional work experience from the State House to the campaign trail. One common theme woven throughout: lifting up the voices of women in public service.
Now a graduate student in UVM’s Accelerated Master of Public Administration program, Rich spent the summer as communications assistant on the campaign trail with Kitty Toll, a member of the UVM Board of Trustees and former Vermont State Legislator who was running for Molly Gray’s Lt. Governor seat. Although Toll narrowly lost in the recent Vermont primary elections, the experience reaffirmed Rich’s commitment to helping more women get elected to public office.
A first-generation student from St. Johnsbury, Vt., Rich was drawn to a career in public service after seeing the disproportionate hardships that women in her family have had to endure without adequate support systems. Raised by a single mother, Rich says she feels fortunate to have strong women role models in her life.
“My mom is so resilient and amazing. Seeing her face obstacle after obstacle made me wonder why they are there in the first place,” said Rich. “Generational issues, generational poverty has always been in the back of my mind and is something that I really hope to help figure out how to solve.”
Rich’s passion for social change began in high school. She made her first visit to the Vermont State House in 2018 after receiving second place in Senator Bernie Sanders’ Annual State of the Union essay contest for her essay on the prohibitive cost of college to first-generation and low-income students.
Since then, she has spent considerable time in Vermont’s state capitol through her internship in the Lieutenant Governor’s Office and as a legislative intern for the Vermont Commission on Women, a nonpartisan state agency, where she tracked proposed legislation of importance to Vermont women and families.
Most recently, she has been advocating for reproductive liberty and supporting women in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade through an internship with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.
As an undergraduate, Rich earned a total of 13 credit hours through internships, gaining a taste of a career in public service and building networks for the future. Her experiences taught her that although she is not interested in holding a public office herself, she thrives behind the scenes and is passionate about addressing the underrepresentation of women in government.
That passion led her to co-found a chapter of Leading Women of Tomorrow at UVM, a student run, bipartisan initiative that seeks to encourage more young women to consider careers in public service. As the club’s vice president and then president, Rich established the chapter as an official campus club and cultivated a community of students across majors to learn about potential career pathways. One of their first events was a meet and greet with Gray.
“We had a bunch of great speakers and professors come and talk with us. I’m proud to see it continue to be a space where women can go and learn about the opportunities that are out there,” says Rich. “It’s about trying to make a difference in any capacity that you want, really.”
As for her own career, Rich is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. After graduating with her MPA next spring (having earned both her bachelor’s and master’s in five years), she hopes to spend time in Washington, D.C. or Boston.
“This is a big election year. I’m excited about the potential of our first female Congresswoman from Vermont,” said Rich. “I’ve gotten involved in all the ways that I’ve wanted and I feel like I have so many options ahead of me with my degree, experience and soon, MPA.”