INTERVIEW BY MADELINE ELKES
Photographed by Madeline Elkes
LILY COADY, NOMINEE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE SENATOR MELANIE LEVESQUE, DISTRICT 12
Place of Special Meaning:
My place of special meaning is the turtle garden at Hollis Primary school because I feel like it’s a good place to come back to when trying to go back to that raw creativity that comes with being a child or the imagination that I used to have. I’m a very creative person, and I think when I was 5 or 6, young, that particular characteristic was saturated. All I did was fun and creative stuff, and it’s helped me do real meaningful projects now like my creativity with designing graphics for Senator Levesque - it plays out well. But it’s nice to come back to see when, you know, the efforts were carefree. I had a great time here too, childhood was awesome.
Why are you majoring in Political Science at University of Pennsylvania?
I ended up pursuing a senior project last year where I toured a detention center, talked to people who had been affected by the northeast immigration system, people who have had members of their family deported. It was sort of an investigation to remind myself why I want to do the work that I want to do. I’m majoring in political science as a start to eventually become an immigration attorney, which is my long term goal. But it all ties back to the work that I’ve been doing here that keeps myself motivated and inspires me just to talk to these people too.
“Of course, [with] advocacy, I’ll still volunteer and do stuff probably forever. I can’t wait to be one of those old lady hippies at whatever protest is going on in 50 years.”