Schaeffer Fellowship

Leonard D. Schaeffer Fellows in Government Service

Matthew Aini

Class of 2025
2024 Schaeffer Fellowship
2023 Cal-in-Sacramento

Matt Aini is a campus junior pursuing a BA in Political Science and a BS in Business Administration. A lifelong resident of the East Bay city of Dublin, CA, Matt was curious at a young age about how fast-growing cities like Dublin managed their growth and used community development to improve the quality of life for community members. Borne out of this curiosity has been a mission to advance responsible land use to make communities more sustainable, affordable, and connected. Matt has been proudly serving his community as a member of the Dublin Planning Commission since 2022, where...

Daniel Bui

Class of 2023
2023 Schaeffer Fellowship
2022 Cal-in-Sacramento

Daniel Bui is currently a fourth year majoring in Political Science with a minor in Global Poverty and Practice. Born in Oakland to two Vietnamese refugees, he has experienced hardships faced by working-class households, communities of color and refugees in the area. With so many aspects of his life being shaped by government programs and initiatives, he holds a deep passion for exploring public policy and governance—particularly in areas regarding affordable housing, education equity, and socioeconomic mobility. Daniel hopes to one day serve and connect marginalized communities with...

Antonio Caceres

Class of 2025
2024 Schaeffer Fellowship

Antonio Cáceres is a third-year student studying history with a minor in public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Born and raised in Southern California, he has engaged in public service since high school. Most recently, he was a two-time Getty Marrow Undergraduate Intern at El Pueblo Historical Monument and the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.

Antonio is currently serving as External Chief-of-Staff for the ASUC Student Advocate’s Office (SAO). SAO is an executive, nonpartisan office that provides free and confidential casework services for...

Ruby Chan-Frey

2023 Schaeffer Fellowship

Ruby Chan-Frey was born and raised in Oakland, California in a third-generation Chinese-American household. She studied with the Race, Policy and Law Academy at Oakland Technical High School, where she became acutely aware of the gaps in education access for low-income BIPOC communities through experience, and of the intricately devastating American incarceration policies through her studies. These experiences prompted her to pursue legal and policy issues of social inequity with a focus on racialized incarceration policy and education access barriers. Beginning her studies at American...

Hanan Coronado

Class of 2025
2024 Schaeffer Fellowship

Hanan Coronado, a first-generation college student from East Los Angeles, is currently a junior transfer at UC Berkeley, majoring in cultural anthropology with a minor in human rights. Her academic journey centers around unraveling the complex relationships between power, culture, and global human rights issues. Hanan is particularly passionate about addressing pressing challenges such as refugee crises, sexual violence, and human trafficking, with a focus on Latin America and conflict-affected regions.

During her internship at the United States Agency for...

Mairin Culwell

Class of 2023
2022 Schaeffer Fellowship
Placement: Coastal Commission Placement Location:

Mairin Culwell is a rising senior pursuing a simultaneous degree in Political Science and Society and Environment. Growing up in the Bay Area, exposure to Northern California’s fragile ecosystems sparked her interest in the connection between conservation, education, and politics and continues to guide her career goals of advancing environmental protections through governance.

On campus, Mairin enjoys writing for the world section of Berkeley Political Review and...

Anna Maria Diaz

Class of 2023
2024 Percy Undergraduate Grant
2023 Schaeffer Fellowship
2023 Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Anna is passionate about serving underserved communities through the lens of the law and legal system. As a Berkeley Peter E. Haas Public Service Leader, she worked for Bay Area JusticeCorps, where she helps self-represented litigants navigate the legal system by providing legal information under the supervision of attorneys. Now, with the Public Service Center’s support she works an as Undergraduate Intern at Marin County Public Defender’s Office. She also is a Student Researcher at the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab at Berkeley Law. Currently, Anna also works as a Law Clerk at a...

Mckenzie Diep

2023 Schaeffer Fellowship

Mckenzie Diep is a second-year student at UC Berkeley pursuing simultaneous degrees in economics and urban studies. Her interests include broadband equity, science technology policy, anti-displacement studies, and human-centered design. As a Bay Area native, she is passionate about understanding housing and displacement issues. She actively studies how urban design perpetuates racial inequities and informs policy. Mckenzie is a Researcher at the UC Berkeley and the University of Toronto's Urban Displacement Project and a Research Fellow at the UC Berkeley Center on the Politics of...

Rosie Echeverria

Class of 2023
2023 Democracy Camp in Berkeley
2023 Cal-in-Sacramento
2022 Schaeffer Fellowship
2022 Washington Fellowship
Placement: Rep. Adam Schiff - Burbank District Office Mentor: Colleen Oinuma

Rosie Echeverria was born and raised in East Hollywood, Los Angeles in a Central American immigrant household and she is a first-generation, low-income, EOP, DSP, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ student at UC Berkeley. She went to Santa Monica College (SMC) for about two and a half years then transferred and moved to UC Berkeley in Fall 2020, toward the beginning of the covid pandemic. She is a Political Science major with a minor in Public Policy and Education.

Her...

Gélser Zavala Garcia

Class of 2022
2022 Democracy Camp in DC
2022 Schaeffer Fellowship
Placement: Special Assistant to Mayor Libby Schaaf Placement Location:

Gélser Zavala is a rising senior majoring in Legal Studies after transferring from Laney College with a AA in Paralegal Studies and Social Sciences. He is an East Oakland born and raised native, the son of war refugees from El Salvador who migrated to California in the late 1980s. Growing up in a working class family, Gélser endured challenges in his public education with insidious systems of underfunded policies for school, gang-violence, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of...