Schaeffer Fellowship

Leonard D. Schaeffer Fellows in Government Service

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...

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...

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
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 works for Bay Area JusticeCorps, where she helps self-represented litigants navigate the legal system by providing legal information under the supervision of attorneys. Currently, Anna also works as a Law Clerk at a local law firm, eager to gain additional legal experience before applying for law school. In the future, she hopes to contribute to creating more paths for justice under the law and equitable access to legal services...

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...

Cyn Gomez

Class of 2023
2022 Schaeffer Fellowship
Placement: San Francisco District Attorney's Office Placement Location: San Francisco, California

Cyn Gomez is a nineteen-year-old, first-generation, second year at UC Berkeley, studying Social Welfare with minors in Race and the Law & Spanish. Cyn’s pronouns are he/him and they/them and identify as nonbinary and transmasculine. Cyn is an election poll worker, Berkeley Student Cooperative House President, a student worker at UC Berkeley, ASUC Cheif Advisor on QT+ Wellness, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Director for the...

Sofia Marie Greenwald

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

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...

Kulsoom Hasan

2023 Democracy Camp in DC
2023 Schaeffer Fellowship

Kulsoom Hasan is a fourth-year undergraduate student pursuing studies within the Travers Department of Political Science and the Goldman School of Public Policy. Her passion for public service was initially forged through community engagement at the local governmental level as a voter drive organizer and grassroots campaign canvasser. From there, her foray into legislative research and policy advocacy expanded as she further explored the interdisciplinary nature of politics and government through hands-on experience.


Her passion for comparative
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