"At 19, while my emotions continued to swing, I found my first life buoy: community organizing. Mentored by two pioneering community leaders named Keisha and Peter Evans, I worked with two other students to launch a youth of color environmental justice organization in East Palo Alto, California. The organization brought together middle and high school students for a founding campaign targeting a toxic waste facility in the high-poverty, majority Black and Brown town."
"It was my first experience connecting my individual sense of power to growing collective power. Guided by our mentors, we focused on popular education to expand the consciousness of youth of color around systems of oppression, and through that work, I began to make critical connections for my own life. Though I had no idea at the time, this experience was a critical step toward moving me to a life committed to organizing."
At 15, a gynecologist's warning about high cancer risk prompted years of protective medical decisions, including prolonged birth control use and multiple biopsies. This health crisis shaped early life choices and career aspirations toward genetic engineering. At 19, while struggling with emotional side effects, the author discovered community organizing through mentorship with Keisha and Peter Evans. Working with youth of color in East Palo Alto on environmental justice campaigns targeting toxic waste facilities, the author connected individual power to collective action. Through popular education and consciousness-raising about systemic oppression, organizing became a life commitment. Over 30 years, this foundation led to building relationships with Asian youth, organizing hospital and Head Start workers into unions, mobilizing young workers, and leading community-labor coalitions that achieved policy victories including minimum wage increases.
Read at Truthout
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