Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Aaron Harvey

Class of 2020
2020 Democracy Camp

Angelica Aban

Class of 2023
2023 Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Angelica Aban is the oldest of three daughters from an immigrant family in Temecula, California. While at Berkeley, she became particularly interested in the role that the law, access to healthcare, and a high-quality education can play in expanding access and opportunities for disadvantaged populations from an upstream perspective. Angelica will graduate in the Spring of 2023 with a major in Legal Studies and minors in both Public Policy and Education.

Outside of the classroom, Angelica is an active member...

Christian Jared Aleman

Class of 2024
2023 Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Christian Jared Aleman is a Bay Area native who grew up in San Francisco and the East Bay. With his various academic experiences, he is interested in the advancement of educational rights for historically marginalized students within California and beyond.

As a student, Christian has worked on projects within the Democracy Lab at the Latinx Research Center. His project focused on the democratic representation of Latin Americans in the United States. He recorded a period where undocumented families under Oakland Unified School District voiced their political...

Jocelyn Alexander

Class of 2025
2022 Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Hi, I’m Jocelyn Alexander. I am a freshman, I will be majoring in Public Health at UC Berkeley. I’m a first-generation and low-income woman of color part of EOP, and NavCal. I am an intern for Health Career Pathways where I devised a project on helping the unemployed find jobs. I’m also an intern for Richmond HOPS where I participated in community outreach and advocated for my community’s access to healthy foods. I decided to become an advocate because there are many low-income communities living in food deserts, where there are no fresh food options nearby. Due to food deserts,...

Cristal Amezcua

Class of 2025
2024 Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Cristal Amezcua (she/her)

Cristal Amezcua is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and is a first-generation, junior transfer student at UC Berkeley. She is majoring in political science with a minor in public policy. She was raised in the California Central Valley where she became passionate about immigrant rights, especially those unique to her community such as fieldworker rights. She began her interest in civic work when she initiated a farm laborer campaign Standing with Farm Workers in high school, in collaboration with the Visalia Unified School...

Juan Pablo Blanco

Class of 2024
2024 Cal-in-Sacramento
2024 Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Raised in a modest family of five, Juan Pablo Blanco is passionate about some of the most pressing issues confronting working-class Californians. As a senior studying political science at UC Berkeley, Juan Pablo is mental health advocate who recognizes the importance of empowering communities for students in college. At UC Berkeley, Juan Pablo founded Unbox’d, a mental health awareness organization that offers students mindfulness resources.

Juan Pablo plans to attend law school, work in-house counsel, and start an immigration law firm. Coming from an immigrant...

Marisa Buenrostro

Class of 2025
2023 Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Marisa comes from a Mexican-American background- grounded in the intersections of gratitude, pride, and community. She is motivated by those around her to pursue her passion of working for the betterment of public service by giving back to the people that gave so much to her including the immigrant and refugee communities. This is reflected in her work with the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services where she was able to provide basic needs support to refugees such as delivering healthy groceries and furnishing their housing accommodations.

Before transferring to UC Berkeley
...

Randy Cantz

Class of 2021
2020 Democracy Camp

Angelica Castellon

Class of 2025
2024 Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Angelica Castellon (she/her)

As an undocumented individual, growing up I faced a lot of struggles. I came to this country as a child, not knowing the obstacles that being undocumented would create for my future. After high school, there were not many options for me as I faced a new life as a single, undocumented mom at the age of 17 years old. Since then, I worked various jobs in which I often saw people of my community get taken advantage of due to their undocumented status by the employers, as well as by our criminal and immigration systems. I often felt frustration...

Alma Castillo

Class of 2025
2024 Democracy Camp in DC
2023 Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Alma Castillo is a first-generation, low-income, second-year student at UC Berkeley from South Central Los Angeles. At Cal, she is a part of the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), Disabled Students Program (DSP), and Biology Scholars Program (BSP). She also participates in the College Corps Fellowship and is the Public Relations co-chair of UC Berkeley’s Comunidad for Health Equity (CHE). She is majoring in Public Health because she wants to help people from low-income communities live healthier lives by connecting them to health resources. She also wants to...