My interest in being an intern for New York Union Semester program lies in my eagerness to learn about the inner workings of labor unions, as a means to understanding how organized labor works. Ultimately, my goal is to use what I learn about the methodologies, tactics, and practices of organized labor to influence successful, efficient and effective community based initiatives, workshops, and organizations that I intend to commence in effort to provide educational, health, political, financial, and cultural services for communities of color in New York City.

I am confident that I am the right person for this internship program because I have years of community outreach and mobilization experience in addition to a keen, passionate desire to engage in social justice issues to ensure and protect the rights of all people. My extensive experience and well rounded educational background makes me a fully prepared individual for the complex, multifaceted, sometimes fast paced, tenuous and tedious nature of non- profit community organizing work. Having virtually culminated my major requirements for both Political Science and African American Studies, I am educated and knowledgeable in two academic areas that directly intersect with the labor movement, in particular in New York City.

Taking time off from school has reinforced and made my dedication essential to continuing and completing my undergraduate career. I understand everything I’ve been exposed to, good and bad, which has given me more reason to find new and improved ways to provide services to people in need of support. Like first generation college students in need of sustainable resources and tools to successfully graduate college. My experiences drive my motivation to help people through engaging in collective organizing, strengthening education access and fortifying grassroots efforts. When I speak with the youth in my neighborhood and they tell me "people in the hood don't go to college", I see the need for widespread access to effective educational resources like tutoring, college/ guidance counseling and early intervention programs. As such, my future goals include developing and expanding comprehensive social services for underrepresented, marginalized communities of color first in New York City, then nationwide.

In all, I am a political and social visionary with aims to provide tools and resources for people to gain adequate and equitable access to all things considered human rights, including but not limited to a fair and adequate education, health care, civil, political, social, and economic opportunities for all people. I want to be the marching band for the senior citizens that no one hears crying, screaming, and shouting about their inability to afford to eat, pay their rent and buy medication. I want to be the loud speaker for the underpaid, unacknowledged, and misrepresented workers that aren’t appropriated fairly for the services they provide to this nation and all of its industries. I want to ring the bells for all the young men of color in prison instead of college as a result of being from hyper- monitored, over- criminalized, and highly discriminated and prejudiced communities.  I want to be an advocate for the people that don’t have an advocate. I want to be the aid to the leaders pondering on how to confront the dominating power of capital influence on politics and policy. I want to make change in for the working class.

The labor movement, one the longest standing movements in the history of the United States, exemplifies the distinct, keen, and refined skill, dedication, commitment, patience, and focus needed to spearhead the rights of workers in the one largest capitalist nations in the world. As such, much of my deep interest to be an intern for the New York Union Semester lies in its ability to help me gain full understanding of and experience from one of the most fundamental representations of organizing, coalition building, grassroots and direct action techniques.

On the whole, this program will provide with me a well- defined opportunity to finish the requirements needed to successfully culminate my undergraduate education, while propelling me forward in my career path to become a City Councilmember for the Lower East Side and Mayor of New York City and equipping me with pertinent hands on experience to ultimately make effective change.