Recognizing Conflict, Shaping Roles, Seeing Ourselves: Field Observations from Three Social-Work Interns in 2020

The first social-work intern I supervised was Yi-Wen, a graduate student in social work at National Taiwan University. She worked mornings during the internship and, to complete the program's 240 required hours, often stayed late with me into the evening. She accompanied us through an exceptionally busy and tense summer. Yi-Wen is highly perceptive and has a distinctive way of seeing things. In individual supervision, she consistently raised critical observations while retaining the openness to revisit and question her own thinking. Together we produced an issue of our newsletter, "Through the Eyes of Social Work, Reflections on Judicial Reform," which helped more people see the dialogue between social work and judicial reform. Her academic understanding of "self-healing" also helped us notice conditions within ourselves that we had overlooked. Because she also had professional legal experience in the public sector, she helped JRF put several concrete accessibility measures in place.

Yi-Wen was my first graduate-level social-work intern. The experience of supervising her was so positive that, in the second half of 2020, I overestimated my own capacity and took on three social-work interns at once: Peng Li-Chiao from Soochow University's graduate program in social work, and Chang Che-Chih and Chen I-Hung from National Taiwan University's Department of Social Work.

Unlike Yi-Wen, who arrived with a relatively clear research question, all three of these interns were still exploring themselves and the relationship between social work and law. I think many students who cross between law and social work pass through this stage; I spent years in the same uncertainty and confusion. I believe it is an extremely valuable stage.

Most of the time, they worked alongside me on matters handled by the Case Advocacy Department, with some additional advocacy connected to individual cases. But because this was a social-work internship, they had the same hidden assignment Yi-Wen had: on the surface, complete the same tasks as law-student interns or divide the work with them; underneath, use a concept they genuinely cared about as the core of a field-observation report.

During their first hundred hours, the three were confused by how flexible, fluid, and sometimes guerrilla-like the work at JRF could be. But they gradually found the questions they genuinely wanted to explore. Che-Chih noticed that this was a place where value conflicts occurred frequently and became curious about how people respond to those conflicts. I-Hung saw how varied the work of NGO staff can be; while exploring his own career direction, he became interested in how organizational roles are shaped and how professional capacity develops inside an organization. Li-Chiao has never been an especially structural thinker. In a sincere and intuitive way, closer to action research, she let the work of the internship enter into dialogue with her own experience.

Many people hear "JRF" and still think first of prominent attorneys. They may forget that an organization can continue operating only because of the Secretariat staff who work with everyone else to feel out a path forward.

I am sharing these three field reports not only to recognize the effort of the social-work interns, but also because, through their eyes, I hope readers can glimpse a JRF Secretariat that is both resilient and alive:

Cross-Disciplinary Learning While Preserving the Self (Peng Li-Chiao)

"For a long time I have been highly sensitive-and resistant-to power and structural oppression. That is naturally connected to my own background and experience growing up. At a personal level, I see the actions I take as a way of defending my inner boundaries. I am extremely sensitive to the pain caused when the state, social structures, or power structures press down on an individual. That is why, during my internship at JRF, participating in wrongful-conviction advocacy, court observation, and other advocacy work, I felt deeply that something in me was being held and supported."

Shaping a Role: How Legal Advocacy Organizations Develop Professional Staff (Chen I-Hung)

"Looking at how JRF staff develop legal expertise, most had already encountered legal knowledge before joining the organization, during their education. Other professional abilities, however, are largely developed on the job through actually doing the work. Volunteering can also help future staff understand JRF's work more quickly."

Recognizing "Conflict": Field Observations from a Social-Work Internship at JRF (Chang Che-Chih)

"Looking back at the relationship between advocacy and social work, one thing they may share is that daily labor does not always give an immediate sense of reward. But if you know that every small unit of work can eventually contribute to a larger transformation, that knowledge can give something back to people who spend their days exhausted and overwhelmed by an issue. Reality, however, often does not cooperate. Before the result becomes visible, many workers have already run out of strength and stop; no amount of fuel can push them forward. When people feel exhausted, one thing worth noticing may be how their values are shaping the choices they make. Listening sincerely to one's own inner voice is difficult. So is having the courage to accept being disliked by oneself."

When people discuss the role of social work inside a legal organization, they often think first of "service": supporting people who may have been wrongfully convicted, making suicide-risk reports, or interviewing people who bring complaints to JRF. But social work is not only a form of service; it is also a set of values-a lens. What can we see through that lens? I have some provisional answers, but as I keep talking with the interns about their questions, those answers continue to change, and new questions keep appearing.

I am deeply grateful to the social-work interns who have joined us. I hope more will be willing to work with JRF in the future and offer us perspectives we would not otherwise see.