Elizabeth Kim
Social Work Intern
Pronouns: she/her
Education:
- Binghamton University; MSW (in progress)
- University of Southern California; MFA
- Cornell University; MFA
Professional interests:
There is a quote by Rainer Maria Rilke that I first saw on a refrigerator magnet twenty years ago. I gave it to a friend who was going through a divorce: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
Now that I am studying clinical social work, my education might seem diametrically opposed to Rilke’s advice (though it is not). I want to help students seek the answers now, in this moment. To do this—in addition to drawing on my current training at Cornell Health—I turn to my life-long fascination with the stories we tell about ourselves and how we make sense of them. Previously I have done this through the practice and teaching of creative writing and filmmaking. I now wish to do this by listening to your stories and helping you find hope and strength in them. Although my background is in the arts and humanities, I have many friends and loved ones in business, the sciences, and myriad other fields. I welcome conversation with all.
Personal interests:
An aspiring vegetarian, Elizabeth lives in Ithaca with her family, the star of which is her grumpy cat, Nigel. She enjoys watching K-dramas (they are so emotional) and yearns to be the kind of person who is always in excellent cardiovascular shape.