2022-2023 Fellow
Second Harvest of Silicon Valley - Strategy & Advocacy Intern
Marketing Major and Business Analytics Minor
Home Town: Larkspur, California
Summary of your responsibilities in your fellowship role:
Overall, my role at Second Harvest revolves around creating 2-pagers on CalFresh from research, tabling and conducting student interviews at local colleges, and conducting analysis into Summer Meals (now Universal Meals) to create the 2021 Summer Meals Report. Outside of these main responsibilities, I help in any way that I can: taking notes for legislative events, updating Salesforce contacts, and helping to identify Summer Meals locations in the area.
In what ways are you making a positive contribution to your organization/department?
The work I do helps to support the strategy and advocacy efforts of Second Harvest for key issues, like CalFresh and Universal Meals. The team is always balancing so many different projects and meetings with legislators, especially during key legislative cycles. I think my positive contribution is that my work helps the Strategy & Advocacy team to focus on the most important and pressing issues, issues with deadlines and time constraints, while easing the burden of so many different responsibilities. I’m able to carefully research facets of those core issues and complete parts of projects that the team might not be able to complete otherwise.
What are 1-2 aspects of your Fellowship that have been most rewarding or helpful to you so far?
The aspects of my fellowship that have been the most rewarding have been volunteering for food service events and visiting college campuses to speak with students. It was incredibly impactful to see how many people are struggling with food insecurity but, also, how each person was so full of hope and always showed me kindness and gratitude.
What would you recommend to LSB students who want to make a difference in the community?
I would recommend getting out into the community and participating in events where you can have conversations. The most rewarding part of service, to me, is learning about other peoples’ stories and connecting with them. When you go to an event and offer your support but also your attention and conversation, you can learn so much about the experiences of others, your own experience, and the issues the community faces. One of the most important parts of making a difference is listening to others and seeing their perspective.