Matsui Center Washington Fellows

Tamara Segura

Class of 2025
2024 Washington Fellowship - Fall
Placement: Pending Placement Location: Washington, DC

Growing up as an immigrant in Northern California, Tamara has firsthand experience with the profound challenges that come with lacking immigration status. These include limited job opportunities, the constant threat of deportation, and financial insecurity. Despite these difficulties, her passion for immigration reform has only grown, fueled by her personal experiences and her academic journey at Berkeley, where she studies Political Science. She has been exposed to the difficulties that keep...

Michele Talley

Class of 2024
2024 Washington Fellowship - Fall
Placement: U.S. House Committee on Oversight & Accountability (Clerk Internship) Placement Location: Washington, DC Raised in South Central Los Angeles, Talley is dedicated to addressing disproportionate rates of incarceration and criminalization, housing insecurities and lack of adequate healthcare services faced by marginalized communities. Growing up, Talley witnessed friends, neighbors and family experience criminalization and harsh sentencing. More recently, while supporting her mother through her battle with Stage III breast cancer, Talley...

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UCDC Spring 2024: In the Face of Uncertainty, Embrace Curiosity

April 29, 2024
Sarah Marin

My three months in Washington D.C. have been undeniably transformative both personally and professionally. Throughout my four years of college, I struggled with the uncertainty of what awaited me after graduation, but from the moment I set foot in the city, I fell in love with its energy. I wish I could explain it. It didn't take long for me to realize that my future lay within the halls of Capitol Hill. I had pledged to myself that I would never leave California, yet aside from the cold winters and terrible Mexican food, Washington D.C. quickly felt like home. ...

Jennifer Ramirez

Class of 2024
2024 Percy Undergraduate Grant
2023 Ken Burt Fellow
2023 Cal-in-Sacramento
2022 Washington Fellowship
2022 Democracy Camp in DC Student Co-Director
2022 Democracy Camp in DC
2022 Democracy Camp in Berkeley

Jennifer Ramirez is a first-generation Latina studying Economics and Public Policy at UC Berkeley from the Bay Area. Growing up in a mixed-status household, she experienced first-hand the hardships Latinx immigrant families faced, such as the struggle to assimilate, obtain basic needs, and become financially stable. The systematic barriers that limit the upward mobility of historically marginalized communities propelled her to become an advocate in her local community, and pursue a career in public service. After being selected to attend Harvard Kennedy...

UCDC Spring 2024: From Campus to Capitol: An Intern's Odyssey Across the Nation

March 7, 2024
Sarah Marin

Interning for Senator Padilla’s office has been incredibly surreal and undoubtedly the highlight of my college journey. This marks my second visit to the East Coast, where I’ve not only adapted to the chilly weather, but also gained newfound confidence in making professional decisions. I have quickly fallen in love with the vibrant and driven culture of Capitol Hill, and I have come to appreciate the importance of networking and relationship building. Just last week, I had the privilege of engaging in four consecutive 30-minute coffee chats, reinforcing the importance of...

UCDC Spring 2024: How I Turned Into a Morning Person

March 11, 2024
Arianna Laolagi

I never thought I’d ever be a morning person. Being awake at 5 AM was only a product of late-night study sessions, cramming for a midterm or yapping on the phone with my long-distance friends back at home. But now, being awake at 5 AM is a product of a newfound discipline, only made possible by the distance UCDC gifted me. Distance from distraction, stress, and more has been healing.

Why 5 AM? As a Digital Communications Intern for Congressman Dan Goldman, the representative for New York’s 10th District, I am responsible for ensuring that he is...

UCDC Spring 2024: Dear First-Generation Girl: Get Out of Your Head

April 10, 2024
Ali Marvin

The Work

My time in Washington, D.C. has been interesting thus far. I've had a varied range of experiences and emotions working as an intern with the House of Representatives Committee on Rules in the Capitol Building. The Committee controls which proposals advance to the House Floor, the guidelines that will govern how bills are presented, and the conditions under which the debate will proceed.

For our ranking member, U.S. Representative Jim McGovern, the House Rules Committee office acts as a communication...

Ali Marvin

Class of 2024
2024 Washington Fellowship - Spring
Placement: Committee on Rules, U.S. House of Representatives Placement Location: Washington, D.C.

Ali has been a lifelong advocate of social justice. Having experienced years of childhood homelessness, she intimately grasps the influence of money on human life. By elementary school, Ali was able to recognize the evilness of capitalism and aspired to dismantle it. Now, as a young adult, she has completed her requirements for a major in Legal Studies and a minor in Race and Law,...

Sarah Marin

Class of 2024
2024 Washington Fellowship - Spring
Placement: Office of Senator Alex Padilla, U.S. Senate Placement Location: Washington, D.C.

Motivated by a desire to educate herself to help those who do not have the resources to better themselves and their communities, Sarah has always been interested in helping marginalized areas like the her own: East Los Angeles. The severe juxtaposition between her hometown and the upbringing of a large percentage of UC Berkeley students was evidence that reforms were mandatory to compensate for the welfare of systemically...