Transforming Futures 2024 Interns – Institute for Social Transformation

Sheyna Burns

Agroecology major

Camp Phoenix, NextGen Innovator Intern

Camp Phoenix is a youth program dedicated to empowering low-income youth through transformative experiences in nature. Burns’s role involves a multifaceted approach to developing and implementing educational programming for the camp’s participants, including learning the ins and outs of educational programming, enhancing her communication and collaboration skills, and cultivating leadership abilities through project management and workshop execution. This internship presents an exciting opportunity for Burns to combine her academic background and personal interests in outdoor adventure and social justice, and prepare her for future leadership roles.

Victor Carmona

Legal studies major

CASA of Monterey County, Administration and Communication Intern Specialist

CASA is dedicated to training and supporting community volunteers who advocate for abused or neglected children placed in foster care or the juvenile system, upholding the children’s rights while pursuing a safe and permanent home. Carmona’s role will help with recruiting volunteers and training them to be assigned to a youth case by a court judge, and performing outreach to the community and elected officials. Through this internship, he hopes to uphold the principles of dignity and individual rights while working towards the shared goal of enhancing the lives of vulnerable youth.

Diana Castaneda

Sociology + Latin American and Latino studies double major

Prison Radio, Administrative Intern

Prison Radio works to create social change by destigmatizing incarcerated people in the United States, uplifting incarcerated voices through media production, including recorded commentaries. Castaneda will be responsible for the transcription of commentaries, station outreach, finding funding opportunities, managing social media , and promoting a forthcoming book. Her goal is to gain experience with social research and provide the necessary foundation to pursue a career in law through mentorship by a licensed attorney and investigator.

Megan Deevy

Environmental studies major

Reef Renewal Curaçao, Coral Reef Restoration Intern

Reef Renewal Foundation Curaçao aims to protect and restore coral reefs through training, engaging, and inspiring the local and international community via volunteering, educational events, and outreach. Deevy’s role will include the creation of a personal research project, maintenance of nurseries at the house reef, working with dive shop and hotel partners, outplanting of corals, assisting and leading weekly snorkel tours, engaging with science partners, coral spawning monitoring, and monitoring of running projects. She hopes to develop coral propagation techniques that will provide a stepping stone towards future work in coral restoration.

Marianas Fernandez

Sociology major

San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, Public Defender Misdemeanor/Felony Intern

The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office provides individuals who are charged with a crime access to defense attorney representation. In this role, Fernandez will have the opportunity to interview people recently detained, sit in on court proceedings, assist the office in advocating for different policies, and learn from and gain exposure to the immigration, criminal litigation, and social worker units. She seeks to learn more about the legal system and how marginalized communities are negatively affected, but also how they can navigate and utilize the law to their advantage.

Vince Galarza

Business management economics major

Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, Research and Advocacy Intern

The Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce provides insights into the realm of local commerce, ordinance, and economic development in the county. Galarza will be responsible for reaching out to local members of the chamber, attending chamber events, conducting data analysis, constructing surveys, and providing social media support. This internship provides a unique vantage point to learn and engage directly with businesses and policymakers, and aligns Galarza’s enthusiasm for applying data analysis to real-world problems.

Nicolas Kirkaldy

Cognitive science major

Roberts Family Development Center, Servant Leader Intern

Roberts Family Development Center provides services to families in the Greater Sacramento area that meet the individual needs of each family member, including K-12 education support, parent assistance, and community advocacy. Kirkaldy’s role will be dedicated to teaching a class of 10 students over the summer, maintaining a positive, supportive, and structured environment for the scholars, and serving as a role model. He hopes this internship will prepare him to enter both the education and public health fields after graduation.

Maria Larenas

Politics major

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Legal Intern

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant provides legal services, community organizing, and transformative education to support low-income immigrants and people fleeing violence and persecution. Larenas will be gaining experience in paralegal work, from assisting clients with immigration forms to writing cover letters for clients’ immigration and providing follow-up communications with clients. This experience will aid her in taking the first step in getting her paralegal certification after graduation.

Maria Lopez

Technology information management, business management economics double major

Los Angeles Wellness Station, Scholar in Residence

The Los Angeles Wellness Station is a service hub that aids healthcare patients in understanding their healthcare plan better through medical appointments and meetings with physicians. Lopez will be assisting in reaching fundraising goals and providing presentations to the local school board, neighborhood council, and donors, attending training, and delivering instruction to a class of ten or more scholars. She aims to establish stronger connections within her community and guide others to the resources available to them, while gaining tangible skills and soft skills needed in the workforce

Harmonie Malengo

Politics major

Decentered Arts, Communications and Marketing Intern

Decentered Arts is a nonprofit organization and vibrant creative community committed to nurturing creativity and fostering collaboration while addressing pressing social issues like homelessness, sustainability, and job insecurity in the Bay Area. She will help the organization better understand its current marketing strategy, improve its communications and outreach, and provide event support. She seeks to further develop her leadership skills, organizational management skills, and cultivate partnerships locally.

Shyel Meisels

Politics and business management economics double major

San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, Felony, Misdemeanor Intern/Pre-trial Release Unit Member

The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office program, the Pretrial Release Unit, interviews people right after they are booked into jail, creating a preliminary write-up for their public defender and advocating for their needs like bail, medical needs, early release, and family correspondence. Meisels will talk with and advocate for arrestees, primarily creating reports for public defenders following interviews with clients. This internship will serve as a foundation for Meisels to attend law school after graduation.

Maya Mendoza

Environmental studies major

Barrios Unidos, Event Coordinator/Grant Writer

Barrios Unidos is focused on community building, social justice, cultural equity, practicing non-violence, and standing for liberation for all. They host political, educational, and cultural events for the community. Mendoza’s role will include working with the organization’s Prison Project, while also providing support on grant writing, data management, and event coordination. She hopes to gain practical skills necessary for non-profit work and hone in on diverse approaches for healing, abolition work, and giving aid and space to vulnerable community members.

Sahana Nayak

Psychology major

Eating Disorders Resource Center, Outreach and Engagement Intern

The Eating Disorders Resource Center is a non-profit organization that links resources, information, and support for eating disorders in Silicon Valley. Nayak’s role is dedicated to implementing an outreach program to provide education to mental health professionals across the Bay Area on eating disorders, helping with the implementation of an eating disorder prevention program, and onboarding and training volunteers to carry out prevention programs. This allows Nayak to continue her passion for advocating for awareness and treatment of eating disorders on a larger scale while also allowing her to further her career goals of working in the mental health field.

Audrey Nelson

Community studies major

Palapas Ventana, General Intern

Palapas Ventanas is a small ocean-focused adventure resort located in Baja, Mexico, offering water sport activities and environmental education opportunities. Nelson will be exposed to all three sides of ecotourism on site, including leading expeditions, making reservations, and food service. Her goals are to advance her Spanish skills, learn and participate in ecotourism, and understand what it takes to run a business in order to fuel her passion for becoming an entrepreneur and creating meaningful change.

Camilla Pereira

Legal studies and politics double major

Santa Cruz County Public Defender’s Office, Paralegal Intern

Santa Cruz County Public Defender’s Office represents clients who may not be able to afford an attorney. Pereira will be rafting orders for record relief, contacting clients for information on applications, conducting legal research, filing paperwork, and attending court sessions. She is eager to pursue a career in law after graduation, and this intership will enable her to begin working toward her paralegal certificate to continue working with underrepresented communities.

Teresa Sanchez de Tagle

Latin American and Latino studies and literature double major

Pat Parker Vito Russo Center Library, Library Assistant and Programming Intern

Housed within the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Manhattan (The Center), the Pat Parker Vito Russo Library is the only LGBTQIA2S+ dedicated, free, circulating library in New York. In their role, Sanchez de Tagle will complete inventory, learn how to catalog and update the online catalog properly, help with acquisitions, and develop and host programming events. They are seeking to use this experience as a launching pad to work in education, where they will apply exploration, curiosity, community, and care in the classroom.

Alex Santiago

Politics and Latin American and Latino studies major

Sukuamis, Summer Programming and Research Intern

Sukuamis is a group of activists across causes, movements, and processes that specialize in strengthening and supporting the sustainability of organizations, social movements, and political actors. Santiago will assist in event coordination, social media management, Spanish to English translation, and virtual community engagement across Latin America. She aims to deconstruct stereotypes about Mexico’s political landscape through my work and research, displaying the nuanced reality of queer people and women in Mexico by y exploring the role of safe public transit in facilitating women’s economic mobility.

Elina Singh

Economics and math major

Project Khel, Data Analyst Intern

Project Khel is an organization based in Lucknow, India, that aims to incorporate education with play to combat the problems of gender inequality, lack of hygiene habits, and lack of safe play areas, while simultaneously instilling values of mutual respect, community building, and collaboration in students. Singh will be helping to facilitate the ‘Made in Maidaan’ play-based educational sessions, assist in building and implementing a theme-based curriculum, and conduct evaluation efforts to identify patterns and trends in program outcomes. She hopes to use this experience to bolster her interest in leveraging technology and quantitative analysis to address social justice issues.

Lea Toledo

Cognitive science major

Boston Children’s Hospital – Loddenkemper Research Lab, Epilepsy Research Intern

The Boston Children’s Hospital – Loddenkemper Research Lab researches different methods to prevent, predict, detect, and treat seizures and status epilepticus in children to improve neurocognitive and developmental outcomes by achieving seizure freedom, reducing brain damage from epileptic surgeries, and improving quality of life. Toledo will conduct data collection for about 200 patients with 20 different variables to understand EEG data and its relation to absence epilepsy and gain exposure to machine learning analysis, while also supervising data collection and overseeing the hiring process for new interns. This internship allows her to advance her research experience by contributing to groundbreaking neurological research and preparing her to pursue medical school after graduation.

Xittlali Trejo

Psychology and education, justice, and democracy major

Breakthrough Silicon Valley, Teaching Fellow

Breakthrough Silicon Valley is a non-profit organization that helps prepare students from low-income, marginalized backgrounds, for post-secondary education while fostering a sense of empowerment and community. Trejo’s role will allow her to continue to develop her cultural competence and understanding of the existing challenges and inequities in the educational system and practice skills like active listening, conflict resolution, emotional regulation, and behavioral guidance by teaching an teach 8th-grade science class and an elective class. This early exposure to working with diverse populations is valuable in shaping her to be responsive to students’ needs for a future career in education.