Lesly Avendaño is a proud Oaxaqueña and community-college transfer student. She is a senior now studying Legal Studies. Throughout her life, she has advocated for minorities and even led a movement to support undocumented students. She is passionate about socioeconomic issues that affect her community. She has previously worked in research centered around the impacts of climate justice on womxn of color and Indigenous communities. She currently mentors community-college students, teaches law to youth, works for East Bay Community Law Center, and is passionate about working on her research...
Andrew Chen is a fourth-year student majoring in Political Science and Psychology and minoring in Data Science. He is passionate about studying the intersections between politics, psychology, data, and education. In particular, he is interested in researching the psychosocial factors that influence public opinion through laboratory and field experiments. He serves as the Lead Research Apprentice at UC Berkeley’s Social and Moral Judgment Lab, where he seeks to understand the forms and functions of everyday dehumanization and misperceptions. Among his many other roles on...
Tomi is an ethnic studies scholar and sociologist who is curious about her cultural and built environment. In her interdisciplinary honors thesis project, she is studying the politics of youth identity formation, the ethnic suburb, and spatial racial formation. Her broader intellectual passions include: cooperative business administration, sustainable economic development, system-impacted trans youth of color leadership development, and the nationalist and anti- imperialist politics of the Global South. In her free time, she likes reading critical theory, laying in bed with her elderly cat...
Joselen Contreras is an ambitious and determined individual who has recently started her freshman year at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been awarded the highly coveted Regents' and Chancellor Scholarship, which reflects her commitment to academic excellence. Majoring in public health, she is eager to make a significant impact on healthcare and community well-being.
Despite coming from humble beginnings, Joselen's upbringing instilled in her a sense of purpose and a strong drive to improve the lives of those who are often overlooked and...
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...
Monica is a fourth-year student majoring in sociology, with a concentration in research methodology. Her research interests include immigration, race and ethnicity, and social movement. Her honors senior thesis focuses on the naming preferences of Asian Americans to understand assimilation. She has been awarded the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and Institute of International Studies Undergraduate Fellowship. After graduating from Cal, Monica plans on pursuing a Ph.D. degree in sociology.
