Schaeffer Fellowship

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...

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...

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...

As the daughter of an immigrant mother and growing up 15 minutes away from the Southern border, Sofia’s upbringing included two very different languages and cultures. It is because of those unique experiences and interactions that she has always had a deep interest and understanding in the uplifting of her Latine community through policy and the field of law. Her personal experiences with challenges accessing professional opportunities and facing workplace discrimination, due to her background, further inform and inspire her undergraduate efforts. She works to increase access to...