Matsui Center Cal-in-Sacramento Fellows

Kristel’s interest in medicine began as a child when her father's rare genetic disease caused blindness. His diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) ignited her passion for understanding the unseen world, how small life forms impact our daily lives. At UC Berkeley’s Herbert Wertheim’s School of Optometry and Vision Science Kristel is able to work at the Puthussery & Taylor Lab where she is a research assistant on leading therapeutics for RP.

As a senior she helps run the Outreach Taskforce, an umbrella under UC Berkeley’s Suitcase Clinic that provides resources for...

Fatima Martinez Jara is a senior studying Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She immigrated to the United States at five and grew up in a low-income immigrant community. As a result, she experienced firsthand the injustices immigrants of color encountered, making her interested in legal and policy-making. She became her community’s translator at a young age, enabling her to find her passion for public service.

This past summer, she was selected as a Leonard D. Schaeffer Local Government Fellow, where she interned for the California Research Bureau and...

Marisol Medina, a child of Mexican immigrants, is a first-generation college student. She is a second-year majoring in Political Science with a minor in Public Policy. She grew up in Inglewood, California, neighboring the city of Los Angeles, which inspired her to advocate for more equitable education opportunities in low-income areas as she saw how educational disparities impacted youth in her city. Inspired to bring change to her community, she spent her high school years heavily involved in civic engagement and social justice activism as an intern for the Invest In Youth Coalition...

Megan is a third-year student studying Comparative Literature, Sociology and Japanese at UC Berkeley. She is passionate about public services and advocacy work, specifically that related to education equity, education policies and gender topics in the education system. Prior to Cal-in-Sac, she interned at a variety of non-profit organizations, such as US-China Education Trust (USCET), Sanctuary for Families (SFF), Shanghai Young Bakers, etc. On Berkeley campus, Megan was a Research Assistant at the School of Social Welfare with Prof. Valerie Shapiro, on Social Emotional...