Fatima Martinez Jara

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 researched California's transportation issues. She is a part of the Public Service Internship (PSI) Program, where she currently interns in the McKinney-Vento Program of the Oakland Unified School District. Such an opportunity has exposed her to working with issues surrounding homeless youth, specifically in the Hispanic demographic. And she is a part of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at Berkeley, where she learns how to file taxes and volunteers during the Spring to file taxes for low-income families.

This summer, Fatima hopes to intern in an agency where she can advocate for immigrant communities' needs through policy, particularly legal barriers and community engagement.