Birky graduated from Goshen College with a bachelor's degree in Spanish and Journalism in 2017. During college, she spent a summer studying and serving in Nicaragua, as well as a semester at the University of Seville in Spain. Thanks to her Spanish fluency, Birky worked as a Spanish medical interpreter.

After graduating, Birky worked for the National Immigrant Justice Center as a paralegal on their Asylum and Immigrant Legal Defense teams for two and a half years, before relocating to Washington, D.C. Since then, Birky continued her immigration paralegal work at offices in Arlington, Va., and Washington, D.C., before starting at CLINIC.