Jonathan (Jon) Dena would like to help disadvantaged individuals learn the financial skills to secure stable housing. Jon’s devotion to affordable housing comes from personal experience. As a child, he often lived in crowded conditions, often with multiple families in a single house. The other experience that shaped Jon’s public service was becoming homeless as a teenager, which led ultimately to a nine-year prison sentence starting at the age of 16. Since then, Jon has tried to rebuild his life. As soon as he was released from prison, he enrolled at Cosumnes River College...
2023 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award
Sammy Raucher, a Los Angeles native, is passionate about LGBTQ+ rights law and policy, as well as the intersections between social issues and data technologies. At UC Berkeley, she majored in political science and minored in data science. She hopes to devote her leadership and sociotechnical skills to a career defending and expanding civil rights for marginalized communities, especially the LGBTQ+ community, in her home state of California and the greater United States. She is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa ...
Haazim Amirali— born and raised in the San Fernando Valley—cultivated a deep interest in his community and public policy starting in high school with the California YMCA’s Youth and Government program. Three years later, he worked on Katie Hill’s congressional campaign and then in her office during the summer of 2019. One of the issues he helped address was the closing of the Aliso 1Canyon Gas Well, which had devastated his family/community in 2016. At UC Berkeley, Haazim double majored in History and Political Science, writing honor theses in both majors. On the UC Berkeley campus, Haazim...
Madhumitha (Madhu) Krishnan, a native of the East Bay, studied Political Science and History at UC Berkeley with a focus on comparative politics and the history of law and government. Madhu wrote her History senior honors thesis on the Madras Torture Commissioner’s Report and the origins of colonial policing in South Asia. Madhu has extensive research experience, working with professors in the Political Science Department, the Center for Politics and Development, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the UC Hastings School of Law, and most recently with the Indian Police Foundation...
Aurora Lopez has always seen education as a way for her and others in her community to get ahead in life. As a transfer student from community college to UC Berkeley, Aurora worked hard to overcome many challenges that she faced growing up as a child of a 15-yearold single mother from an immigrant family. Living in a house with 14 other people, Aurora often had to take responsibility for the education of her brother and cousins, at the same time she carved out enough space and time to excel at community college and then UC Berkeley. At UC Berkeley, Aurora majored in Political Science with...
Placement: Oakland Museum of California Placement Location: Oakland, California
Rebecca Jacobson (she/her) was born in Minot, North Dakota, but spent most of her childhood in Southwestern Germany because of her parents’ military service. Before coming to UC Berkeley, Rebecca worked at the local Boys and Girls Club of America and taught at the local elementary school through her school’s Career Practicum program. At UC Berkeley, Rebecca majored in Sociology with a focus on welfare and education. Outside of her academic studies, Rebecca worked as a...
Placement: Council on Criminal Justice Placement Location: Remote
Elliott Lee Masouredis was born and raised in Oakland, CA, and transferred to UC Berkeley having completed associates degrees in the Administration of Justice at Merritt College and Political Science at Berkeley City College. Raised by a single mother, Elliott learned at an early age how to build and rely on support from his broader community. Through this support, Elliott developed a deep commitment to his community in Oakland which has guided his scholarship and public service...
