Haazim Amirali— born and raised in the San Fernando Valley—cultivated a deep interest in his community and public policy starting in high school with the California YMCA’s Youth and Government program. Three years later, he worked on Katie Hill’s congressional campaign and then in her office during the summer of 2019. One of the issues he helped address was the closing of the Aliso 1Canyon Gas Well, which had devastated his family/community in 2016. At UC Berkeley, Haazim double majored in History and Political Science, writing honor theses in both majors. On the UC Berkeley campus, Haazim...
Tatiana Butte, a Geography Major with a Minor in Public Policy, is dedicated to empowering individuals and amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities in environmental justice. A first-generation Afro-Latina, Tatiana grew up in Southeast San Diego in a single-parent, Caribbean-immigrant household under challenging circumstances. Throughout her life, Tatiana has shown her exemplary leadership talents: from heading her high school JROTC battalion to advocating for outdoor equity and environmental education programs for Black and Brown youth to being a student leader...
Antonio Cáceres, a senior at UC Berkeley, is dedicated to tackling economic inequality through housing and education policy reform. Driven by a passion for meaningful and lasting change, he seeks to apply his academic and leadership experience to build more equitable systems that uplift marginalized communities.
Currently studying History with a minor in Public Policy, Antonio specializes in Latin American history and antiquity, with a particular interest in the intersections between historical events and contemporary policy challenges. His...
In May 2023, Maya graduated from UC Berkeley withan Urban Studies major and a minor in Sustainable Design. Taking undergraduate and graduate courses in urban design, sustainability, landscape architecture, city planning, and U.S. housing policy, Maya explored how cultural, political, and economic processes structure the urban landscape through an interdisciplinary lens. She focused on issues of gentrification, geographies of urban justice, and struggles over public (and private) space.
In addition to her coursework, Maya served as an...
Jonathan (Jon) Dena would like to help disadvantaged individuals learn the financial skills to secure stable housing. Jon’s devotion to affordable housing comes from personal experience. As a child, he often lived in crowded conditions, often with multiple families in a single house. The other experience that shaped Jon’s public service was becoming homeless as a teenager, which led ultimately to a nine-year prison sentence starting at the age of 16. Since then, Jon has tried to rebuild his life. As soon as he was released from prison, he enrolled at Cosumnes River College...
Having grown up in California, Karishma Goswami observed from a young age how climatic events like wildfires were having increasingly devastating impacts on her home state, the health of her community and the wellbeing of young and future generations. She was raised by strong, trailblazing women—including her mother, a female entrepreneur; her aunt, the first South Asian female judge in Southern California; and her grandmother, who defied norms to advocate for her daughter to immigrate alone to the U.S. in pursuit of higher education. Their strength inspired her to become...
Placement: Oakland Museum of California Placement Location: Oakland, California
Rebecca Jacobson (she/her) was born in Minot, North Dakota, but spent most of her childhood in Southwestern Germany because of her parents’ military service. Before coming to UC Berkeley, Rebecca worked at the local Boys and Girls Club of America and taught at the local elementary school through her school’s Career Practicum program. At UC Berkeley, Rebecca majored in Sociology with a focus on welfare and education. Outside of her academic studies, Rebecca worked as a...
As a queer and disabled woman, Ariana Kretz hopes that by pursuing a placement in environmental justice, she can create systems that better uplift those of marginalized identities while protecting the planet. Her particular policy interests include public transit and the intersection between Indigenous sovereignty and environmental issues.
At UC Berkeley, she majored in History with double minors in Public Policy and Conservation and Resource Studies. Her honor’s thesis focused on how Native American parents advocated for their children who...
2021 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient
2021 John Gardner Fellowship
Madhumitha (Madhu) Krishnan, a native of the East Bay, studied Political Science and History at UC Berkeley with a focus on comparative politics and the history of law and government. Madhu wrote her History senior honors thesis on the Madras Torture Commissioner’s Report and the origins of colonial policing in South Asia.
Madhu has extensive research experience, working with professors in the Political Science Department, the Center for Politics and Development, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the UC Hastings School of Law, and most recently with the Indian Police...
Chan Venh (John) Lam, a first-generation Chinese-America from Sacramento, California, has embarked on a remarkable journey of resilience and advocacy. After spending 16 years incarcerated, Chan's path took a transformative turn when his sentence was commuted by Governor Brown in 2018, igniting a passion for social justice that continues to drive his advocacy efforts today.
Throughout his time behind bars, he played a pivotal role in shaping legislative change, collaborating with Human Rights Watch and the Anti-Recidivism Coalition to advocate...
