In my free time, I enjoy exploring the cheesier sides of Soviet cinema, trying to teach myself new languages, and probably spending a little too much time playing video games. I love nature and, never having had the chance to explore the west coast, I’m excited to start exploring some new landscapes with hiking, bike rides, etc.
This year, I’ll be serving as Community Organizing Fellow for the Washington Housing Alliance Action Fund (WHAAF). I look forward to gaining a deeper understanding of homelessness and housing rights, as well as to learning community organizing and policy advocacy from a wonderful team of activists. I’m also looking forward to learning from my fellow cohort, whose unique experiences will inform my own and open up new perspectives. I feel lucky to have this opportunity to form meaningful new friendships and push myself outside of my comfort zone.
Pronouns: she/her
As I began to improve my Spanish fluency in Ecuador and study books like Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of South America that explained the colonial roots of modern migration crises, my interest in using my educational privilege to become an immigration lawyer crystallized. I am honored to be working with the Northwest Imigration Rights Project to learn more about how to combat the structural injustices of the immigration law system. I am excited to explore Seattle on my roller blades, be engaged in a meaningful community, and learn more about myself this year.
Pronouns: they/them
I feel immense gratitude for the compassion, diversity, and activism of the communities I’ve been a part of, especially throughout the trying times of the past year. I’m excited to join the similarly vibrant communities of QuEST and Facing Homelessness this fall. Living, learning, and exploring spirituality within an intentional community will nourish me as I plant roots in an unfamiliar place. I hope to share my love for cooking, gardening, and adventuring outdoors with the other fellows. I’m also looking forward to building on my experiences teaching, listening, speaking Spanish, and writing as part of the Facing Homelessness team.
Pronouns: she/her
As a dual US-UK citizen, I grew up primarily on Lenni Lenape land in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, but returned to the UK to study politics and sociology at the University of Cambridge. Throughout college, I’ve loved getting to explore and think about community, not just academically within my majors but also in the context of my own communities. In Cambridge, those ranged from music groups to my Covid “household” to climate activism groups and beyond. In Pennsylvania, I worked with a Philadelphia group that has countered decades of disinvestment by building solar resources and jobs training for its community members; this taught me firsthand the transformative power of community. I learned other hard truths in listening to the stories of incarcerated people and their families when I interned with a movement to deprivatize a local prison. I’ve loved working with groups both within and outside the university context to build strong and resilient communities, and now I’m excited to be joining the community of QuEST!
I’ll be working as the Development and Communications Associate for the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation this year, and I’m thrilled to have the chance to support their amazing work. I’m also very excited to make my move (and first ever trip) to the Pacific Northwest and can’t wait to see the mountains, which will be a significant change from Cambridge’s aggressive flatness! I’m looking forward to lots of walks, plenty of music-making, getting to use a real kitchen, and most of all getting to know the UIATF community and all the QuEST Fellows.
Pronouns: she/her
In my free time, I enjoy perfecting my spam and kimchi-fried rice recipe, watching movies that give me existential crises, listening to music with my friends, and downloading more articles from JSTOR than I can afford to read at any given moment. Some of my academic interests lie in Asian/American studies, trauma and memory studies, Internet culture and sociology, and modern American literature and history; my thesis in American Studies was on hauntings of Korean/American womanhood in contemporary Korean/American literature and modern Asian/American history. In my American Studies classes, I learned about some of the frameworks necessary to conceive of and manifest better futures for peoples around the globe, and I believe that through service with QuEST, I can apply these frameworks to real-world situations and make a positive, tangible difference within people’s lives.
Having volunteered for various music and children’s organizations before college, I’m excited to work for Seattle JazzED this year as their Program Coordinator, assisting their mission to provide every student with access to quality music education through a commitment to social justice. I’m looking forward to practicing simple and mindful living in a social justice-oriented, intentional community with this cohort, and I can’t wait to explore everything Seattle has to offer (especially its parks, museums, and music scene) and to learn from and grow with the other Fellows, pushing my comfort zone and developing new interests and practices in the process!
Pronouns: she/her
I am looking forward to embracing the QuEST tenets of simplicity and intentional community through my love of photography, music, and exploring the outdoors, and through learning about the passions, interests, and hobbies of the other Fellows. I can’t wait to explore all that Seattle has to offer! I am excited to serve as the Radical Hospitality Coordinator for Recovery Café this coming year. I am looking forward to working with a group so dedicated to serving the people of Seattle and becoming part of that caring and compassionate community.
Pronouns: she/her
Click here to read about the 2020-2021 Fellows