Student Cohort

Deborah Alves
Site: NYC Public Engagement Unit (PEU)

My goal is to establish a nonprofit woman-owned community empowerment center. Using my platform as an urban leader, and someone who has lived experience with social disparities, I intend to create a space to help my local community foster a sense of pride and dignity through education. I joined Community Semester to fulfill my mission to inform the change I desire and seek by allowing the successes of my neighborhood to encourage and influence others by fostering an ecosystem of excellence.

Kelsey Head
Site: NYC Office of Minority & Women Owned Business (OMWOB)

During my participation in Community Semester, I completed the experience alongside NYC Mayor’s Office of Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (OMWOB). In the past, I have held positions of leadership throughout my career including my role as artistic director of Head and Company, co-artistic director of Second Thought Theatre, and company manager of the Dallas Theater Center. I am resolute in my desire to work with organizations that directly impact social change, public policy and community empowerment through public programming.

Ian Ezinga
Site: NYC Center for Youth Employment (CYE)

I moved to NYC to finish my undergraduate degree at Brooklyn College.  Becoming involved in the history department there has led to numerous opportunities to further my interest in the built urban environment and the ways in which cities develop over time. One such opportunity was obtaining a nomination to apply and join the Community Semester program at SLU, which I gladly pursued. At my placement with the Center for Youth Employment within the Mayor’s office, I worked to further advance partnerships between city agencies and employers around the five boroughs to help bridge the gap between the many young people who are either out-of-work or out-of-school and link them to the countless career-advancing opportunities this city has to offer.

Andrea Hidalgo
Site: NYC Office of Workforce Development (OWD)

As a recent BMCC graduate, when COVID-19 hit NYC, I shifted my efforts to investigative journalism and media reporting on the impacts of the pandemic through both City Limits and WBAI 99.5 FM. I am a proud graduate of AF3RM’s 2019 Summer School of Women’s Activism and the 2020 Janine Soleil Abolitionist Institute. Each of my past experiences led me to enroll in the Community Semester Program as I continue my journey on personal growth and training as a community organizer.

Renjia Huang
Site: Democracy NYC

My name is Renjia Huang.  New York City has been my home since I moved here from China at the age of 16. I received my bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Rochester. During the few years before the pandemic, I joined several service programs to gain field experiences in community, public services and development. As an AmeriCorps NCCC member, I completed projects in various fields, such as disaster relief and infrastructure building in the south. Most recently, I was a Peace Corps volunteer working in education development in the Ukraine. Being part of community semester allows me to continue exploring ways to generate sustainable change at the civic level.

Ivey Lowe
Site: Hunt’s Point Alliance for Children (HPAC)

During my semester at SLU, I worked with Hunts Point Alliance for Children (HPAC) to support the implementation of a new communications strategy. I am pursuing both the Advanced Certificate in Community Leadership in collaboration with the Community Semester program to integrate my MFA in Directing at Brooklyn College with my passion for social justice advocacy to center community relationships, labor movements, and social justice issues in my artistic leadership career. My goal in pursuing the hands-on experience of Community Semester is to propel myself to create connections between my values as an artist, educator, and leader in my own field with my core values as a citizen to redefine the roles that community and leadership play in my life’s work. My vision as a storyteller has always been one of humanism.

Eva McGill
Site: NYC Office of Deputy Mayor Phil Thompson

Through my internship, I have learned about the countless cutting-edge programs the Deputy Mayor’s Office for Strategic Policy Initiatives has implemented to promote equity in New York City. Helping make NYC a more inclusive and progressive place has been an incredibly rewarding experience.  I applied to Community Semester because it seemed like the perfect program for me: an ideal graduate school education plus real-world work experience. Having recently graduated from college, I thought it would be important to, at least partially, leave the classroom and try a more experiential form of learning and I was not disappointed.

Jaleel Parchment
Site: NYC Young Men’s Initiative (YMI)

Based on the premise that the private sector influences economic stimulation while the public sector supports social mobility, I joined Community Semester to understand how I can maximize the best of both pillars in the workforce.  As a graduate of SUNY Albany, my background is framed from a collective experience in private sector work, public service and understanding how partnerships in both industries support economic mobility.  In my experience interning with YMI, I learned about the collaborative and partnership efforts of the initiative to support students of color through ongoing peer mentorships, college guidance, scholarships and career options. Interning at YMI gave me the confidence to believe I belonged in any space! YMI introduced me to further understanding Budgets, non-profit management, & how to use our colleagues as resources. I am forever filled with gratitude to have experienced this.

Adam Ramirez
Site: NYC Office of Inclusive Economic Development and Business Innovation (IEDBI)

I applied to the Community Semester experience to learn more about community organizing and how a person can create positive change on the local level through collective action.  In particular, last summer changed my life; I was challenged by my underlying personal belief systems on what I assumed to be the qualifications in order to effect change, namely, having enough money, influence, or power to spark a movement. However, after witnessing everything that unfolded this past year, especially taking part in this program, I realized that true change and leadership comes from within – one does not need to be rich and famous to create something powerful and uplifting.

Andrew Riggio
Site: Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES)

Since completing my undergraduate degrees in Economics and Political Science at Binghamton University, I have been working as a contact tracer with the NYS Department of Health. Prior to joining SLU, I have had significant volunteer experience, served a poll worker for the 2020 Presidential Election, was an intern at the Field Office of NYS Senate District Nine (9), and as a Government Relations and Public Policy Intern with the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce. I joined Community Semester because I liked the program’s approach which is grounded on community activism, in the real world, which appeals to my desire to look beyond the community theoretically, while still helping the community tangibly.

Camila Salvador
Site: NYC Office of Workforce Development (OWD)​

I have a B.A. in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from McGill University and since graduating in 2017, have worked predominantly within civic engagement, political education and immigrant justice circles in my hometown of Washington, D.C.  As a Salvadoran-Palestinian American woman and a proud D.C. local, I have always navigated the world and its systems with an acute awareness of disenfranchisement, inequality and injustice. Community Semester has given me the opportunity to act on these motivations by providing a unique space that is both theoretical and academic in nature and centered in hands-on experience and practice. In this space, I can academically and professionally explore my interests among peers, professors, and professional mentors who contribute an incredible amount of lived experience as well as invaluable academic and professional expertise.

Rowida Abdelhafez
Site: Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden (SNUG)

Being born and raised in a low-income, Egyptian household in Staten Island, NY my upbringing has inspired the sense of community I embody today. Through my participation in Community Semester, I have truly enhanced my learning and I know that the skills I have developed through this program will allow me to continue to work effectively within my neighborhood, as I strive to protect the environment and serve underrepresented demographics who also call Staten Island home.

Aimee Burnett
Site: Bronx Connect 

Through my placement at Bronx Connect, an alternative-justice and cure-violence organization, I have found a passion for social advocacy through juvenile justice reform. This program has given me the accessibility I need to start a meaningful career in youth justice advocacy and nonprofit management, by giving me the opportunity to develop stronger leadership skills and build on my professional networking abilities.

Damaris Calderon
Site: NYC Department of Education (NYCDOE)

As a Community Semester participant, I have learned that the daily fight is to build innovative ideas and not to always lean towards on our own narrowed understanding of others from our worldviews, but instead to lead with collective ideas as we assist the less fortunate.  I have learned that overall, we became more self-motivated, dependable and obtain a deeper commitment for change when we listen to one another for advice.

Emily Dubin
Site: Community Voices Heard (CVH)

I completed my undergrad degree in Film and Media Arts while in Philadelphia at Temple University but had always felt pulled towards social justice and towards New York. Being placed at Community Voices Heard (CVH) has allowed me to get connected with local leadership while giving me an opportunity to assist with outreach, community needs and data organization. The courses I have taken at SLU have directly informed and impacted the way I navigate through NYC as an out-of-state white person; I feel so thankful for the opportunity to learn from my classmates who have all been involved in their own activism journey.

Matthew Lyons
Site: The Restorative Center (TRC)

Indigenous Americans, as a characteristic of their culture and law, believe in the guiding ideal of “right-relations”, where the weave and weft of the social fabric is a robust, resilient, and radiant human experience.  When applied within the court system, the Restorative Center has taught me that “right-relations” can shape the end goals of court procedure and allow for more personal accountability while reducing recidivism without the recourse to penalize individuals. This is often called “peacemaking”. As a Licensed Social Worker, my ambition is to work as a peacemaker, my participation in this program has allowed me to further understand my calling in life.

Luke Slomba
Site: Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES)

I took a break from pursuing my undergraduate degree in Urban & Regional Studies at Cornell University and applied to the Community Semester program after reading about it online. My main interests are community-led planning and housing justice, so the program seemed like a perfect fit for me. In my classes at SLU and through my work experience, I have learned about NYC from a working-class perspective that was largely missing from my studies at other schools.

Sabrina Wallington
Site: New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)

My combined passions and past work experiences has led me to participate in Community Semester. As the founder of a faith-based mentorship program for disadvantaged youth in Brownsville Brooklyn, an active Director of a free prom dress program and the founder of the Chef for a Day program (bringing healthy food choices to food deserts to combat hunger & various diseases that impact marginalized communities).  Leadership is something that I try to embody; I have also been a Girl Scout Troop Leader for seven years. As a passionate community servant, I understand the continued need to motivate and inspire individuals in identifying their potential and sharing their passion with others through sustained service.

Amber Wilds
Site: New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE)

I currently work for the NYC Department of Education and the Community Semester program has allowed me to use my work site as a placement where I can develop the skill set I need to start my own non-profit organization in youth and community development. I have enjoyed my experience in the field and through my course work at SLU. My professors were great, knowledgeable and they pushed SLU students, like myself, to always give our best efforts!