TYWLS Astoria Class of 2016 ● Lafayette College Class of 2020
Community Organizer and Assemblymember Liaison
My director of college counseling (DCC) brought excitement and joy into my college application process. She pushed me to apply far and wide and reminded me that we apply to reach schools with the hope and belief that we may actually be able to reach them. I would stop by her office every single day before leaving the building to say a quick hello, talk through an application, strategize about how to convince my parents to let me go away for college, or just check in about our days.
My DCC was instrumental not only in my college application process but throughout my entire high school experience. Even after I graduated, she continued to check in and visited me at college to show that she was excited and proud of the work I was doing after TYWLS.
It is important to remember to be a student first in college but also to know that learning does not only happen in the classroom.
After TYWLS I attended Lafayette College and earned a Bachelors of Arts in International Affairs and Anthropology/Sociology. Higher education institutions are often places of immense wealth (and inequality). Especially for QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and those who do not come from class privilege, it is incredibly important to ensure that you are learning and taking as much as possible from your college experience. It is important to remember to be a student first in college but also to know that learning does not only happen in the classroom!
While at Lafayette College, I ran one of the country’s more comprehensive university-level refugee resettlement programs, Lafayette College’s Refugee Action. This work included resettling refugees in the Lehigh Valley and leveraging resources from Lafayette to do so. This experience equipped me with many of the tools I now use in my job while also allowing me to do meaningful work that made me feel fulfilled. College campuses are uniquely positioned to allow you to pursue these kinds of opportunities to learn while doing.
I am currently the Community Liaison for Assemblymember Zohran K. Mamdani. Assemblymember Mamdani represents Astoria, the neighborhood I have called home since I came to the United States. In this role, I co-lead our Constituent Services Team and am the lead Community Organizer for our office. Through the Constituent Services work that I do, I have learned to navigate city, state, federal, and community services to ensure that constituents’ individual issues are resolved. This is everything from issues with unemployment benefits to difficulty paying rent to potholes on the street. As the office’s lead Organizer, I have led food distribution events during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, organized tenants to take collective action to ensure that their homes are habitable, and hosted a protest in Astoria calling to Defund State Violence in all of its forms.
Through this role, I often connect with my alma mater TYWLS Astoria to host tabling events and get the word out to our families about important social support programs that are especially critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most incredible part of being able to effect positive change in Astoria is that I know so many of the people who are directly impacted by the work I get to do. They were not only my neighbors but my classmates, my teachers, and the people who helped me become the person I am today.