While at Emory, she was a member of the Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic for two semesters, interned in the Fulton County Juvenile Court, and in the DeKalb County Juvenile Court. She was an Assistant Public Defender in the juvenile division of the DeKalb County Public Defender’s Office for several years, and followed this path because of the number of grieving children involved in the juvenile justice system.

Sydney’s article on trauma-informed pretrial diversion programs for our grieving youth in the juvenile justice system was selected for publication by the Northwestern Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Online. She has also recently testified for the South Carolina Joint Committee on Children about getting grief resources for children into South Carolina schools.

Sydney wrote and published her own children’s book, “Grief Came to Visit Today,” and created a nonprofit, “Hope After Grief Inc.,” that provides scholarships to high school seniors who have had a parent or sibling die.

Sydney lost her dad when she was 10 years and became an advocate for grieving children at age 16 when she began going into elementary schools and talking to classes about the emotions associated with grief.

Since that time, she has found ways to support grieving children by working as a board member of the National Alliance for Children’s Grief and meeting with Senators and the South Carolina Superintendent of Education to advocate for grieving youth.