Janet Mendoza Partida

Janet Mendoza Partida (she/her/ella) is a second-year student intending to double major in Chicano and Legal Studies. She was raised by immigrant agricultural workers in Watsonville, California. Through her experience in the educational system, as a Chicana English-language learner, she has understood the importance of both representation in the classroom and bilingual education for students of color. Her high school years were spent volunteering at multiple elementary and middle schools around her community, teaching the arts in underfunded schools. Here she realized the educational disparities predominantly impacting students of color, prompting her to develop a passion for educational equity. She continues to work with students in high schools around her community during the summer to prepare and educate students about their post-secondary options to increase the number of college enrollment for underrepresented students. As the first in her family to graduate high school and attend college, Janet strives to support other first-generation students. At UC Berkeley she is currently interning at the Chicanx Latinx Student Development Office (CLSD), creating workshops and events to help foster community and close the educational/knowledge gap. Janet hopes to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to create large-scale solutions that will help create positive systemic changes in communities like her own.