Placement: Department of Emergency Management, with a focus with UASI, Urban Areas Security Initiative.

My Hometown: Boonville, CA

My Education: BA from Mills College. Major in Anthropology and Sociology, with a minor in Urban Education.

Selected Activities and Community Involvement: Class Council – Student Body President, Anth/Soc Club – founding member and Public Affairs chair, FaceAIDS Mills Branch – Treasurer and Social Media outreach, Institute of Civic Leadership (ICL) cohort 2013-14, Student Athlete Advisory Committee – member, volunteer tutor at Carmen Flores Parks and Rec. Center, intern with College advisor and Parent Coordinator at ARISE High School.

Why is SF important to me: Boonville, with its rolling hills and redwood forests, raised me vastly unaware of the complexities of urban living.  When I moved to the Bay to study, I feared that its hustle and bustle would be overwhelming and distracting; I couldn’t have been more wrong.   Although my passion for community building brought me to Oakland, the love I developed for the Bay area’s energy and excitement made me stay.  The city may be loud, but it has encouraged me to be louder.  The city, and those I have met in it, has been my teacher for the last four years.  In this short time I have learned so much more than I ever have and I will always feel connected to the Bay.  My classrooms may have been isolated to a corner on MacArthur Blvd. and Seminary Ave. in Oakland but the entire Bay, including San Francisco, has given me invaluable lessons. These are lessons that I will carry with me as I begin my journey as a resident and civic leader.  I yearn to go beyond recognizing the complexities, inequalities, and struggles of urban living, and establishing my role within them.  My connection with San Francisco lies within a need to give back to the communities that have provided for me more than I ever dreamed they could.  My role as a student won’t change because I earn my bachelors; I will continue to learn about Bay area public needs and work to make them happy, flourishing, proud San Franciscans.

Something unique about me: Back home in Boonvile, I have a pet goat named Celeste. Celeste was bought as a slaughter goat but while raising her from a kid (baby goat), I convinced my mom not to kill her and eventually trained her to walk on a dog leash. Celeste is now 10 years old and happily obese.