Research

Party Planning Businesses You Absolutely Need to Know About

Allyson Velez
2021
Allyson Velez, Public Health, Class of 2022

Internship Office: California Department of Public Health

As COVID-19 cases surged all throughout 2020, birthday parties, weddings, and celebrations of all sorts were cancelled. This is a study of how small businesses, owned and operated by Latinx women, within the event planning industry managed mental health challenges amidst the COVID-19 closures.

Cannabis Social Equity: The Battle to Compete in a Competitive Marketplace

Victor Vasquez
2021
Victor Vasquez, Sociology, Class of 2021

Internship Office: CDFA CalCannabis, Department of Cannabis Control

Senate Bill No. 1294 creates funding for a state and local cannabis social equity programs. By examining local policy, speaking to and listening to stakeholders I was able to to determine what makes running a cannabis business as qualifying social equity candidate. I was able to examine three localities Oakland, Humboldt County, and Coachella. With these examples we are about to begin to understand the bigger picture of being BIPOC in the CA Cannabis industry.

How Diversity Affects California Nonprofit Organizations

Leslie Vasquez
2021
Leslie Vasquez, Political Science, Class of 2021

Internship Office: League of Women Voters of California

California is one of the most diverse states in the nation. According to the Public Policy Institute of California no race or ethnic group constitutes a majority of California’s population and almost 30% of the population are considered immigrants. With an increasingly diverse state, there is pressure to diversify the workplace particularly in the non-profit sector. Many advocates of educational equity believe non-profit organizations are stronger when directors closely reflect...

Asian American Small Business Owners: Inequitable Access to Government COVID-19 Relief(link is external)

Minh Anh Van
2021
Minh Anh Van, Interdisciplinary Studies Field, Class of 2023

Internship Office: Federal Defender's Office

Over the past year with the COVID-19 pandemic, many studies have raised the concern that minority-owned businesses have had a hard time accessing the relief offered from the government due to systemic barriers. However, what is not widely addressed is the comparison among small business owners within each minority group itself. Looking at the experiences of Asian American small business owners as a case study, this op-ed highlights the inequitable and flawed evaluation,...

BIPOC Small Businesses: Surviving and Sacrifice

Tanvi Saran
2021
Tanvi Saran, Political Science, Media Studies, Class of 2022

Internship Office: Governor's Office of Planning and Research and the Strategic Growth Council

The Covid-19 Pandemic revealed a subset of the American population that was particularly vulnerable to not only the health affects of the virus but also economic, social, and access. With an understanding of what these vulnerable populations look like, this op-ed explores how BIPOC small businesses are able to withstand the pandemic, and what factors they exhibit that allowed for their survival or what factors led to their...

Black Businesses Face the Brunt of the Coronavirus, but Where Is the Aid?

Nyanga Nyandemoh
2021
Nyanga Nyandemoh, Social Welfare, Class of 2021

Internship Office: Federal Public Defenders

Black Owned businesses through the pandemic faced hands on the foreclosures, the cut hours and as well the disproportionate distribution of aid . By reviewing Black population census data and PPP loan distribution in Los Angeles county/national this op-ed highlights the barriers Black businesses faced pre-pandemic and how they became exacerbated during this time because of structural inequities.

COVID-19 Relief & Recovery: Vietnamese American Businesses in San Jose's Little Saigon

Jimmy Nguyen
2021
Jimmy Nguyen, Political Science, Class of 2023

Internship Office: California Department of Education

Limited business operations and low consumer activity have either forced Vietnamese American small businesses to close or leaving them hanging by a thread. A recent February 2021 article about San Jose’s largest Vietnamese mall and the surrounding Vietnamese business district shows the additional disadvantages and barriers these small businesses have encountered in the face of COVID-19, including but not limited to: language barriers, lack of monetary relief, and technological gaps....

Contract Local! An examination of San Francisco's Local Business Enterprise Program

Joshua Kay
2021
Joshua Kay, Society & the Environment; Rhetoric, Class of 2023

Internship Office: Congresswoman Doris Matsui

In 1996, Proposition 209 officially banned all consideration of race or gender in public college admission, employment and contracting. While a large amount of research and resources have been devoted to studying the impacts of university affirmative action, and its outcomes on underrepresented populations, little research has been done on the impact of the removal of race- and gender-conscious programs on these populations. Through a review of local business contract...

Were they Enough? Cal Relief Grants Battling Gendered Unemployment in the Pandemic

Erin Hamill
2021
Erin Hamill, Political Science, Class of 2023

Internship Office: Senator Mike McGuireResearch

The Covid-19 pandemic, unlike past economic downturns, has had a disproportionate effect on women in both the employment and ownership sector. California has poured billions into the economic recovery of its businesses, but that still hasn't been enough to help all businesses, as many continued to suffer and face closures. This blogpost will highlight the ways the Cal relief grants continued to allow many businesses to slip through the cracks and the trickle down effect that had on female...

Paycheck Protection Program: Unequal Loan Distribution and Increasing Racial Disparities

Michael Diaz
2021
Michael Diaz, Sociology and Chicano Studies, Class of 2023

Internship Office: Office of Senator Monique Limon

In 2020, Latinx-owned businesses had their PPP loans approved nearly half the rate of white-owned businesses, 10% compared to 17%. The food service industry remains one of the hardest hit sectors of the pandemic which has resulted in large decreases in revenue, reduced employee hours, and increased employee lay-offs.Through an analysis of PPP loan distribution by the Small Business Administration in California and interviews with Latinx restaurant owners, this op-ed...