| Summer School 2009 |
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Class of 2009 I applied for SOUL Summer School because I had heard about it from previous participants who had a great experience. I wanted to be entrenched in Bay Area community political organizing while having the framework for learning skills and ideas that SOUL provides. Kinneret comes to organizing through her extensive involvement in Middle East solidarity work, as an active member of Break the Siege. This summer Kinneret worked with Just Cause Oakland to build the power of working-class residents to fight foreclosures and displacement in their neighborhoods. Jonathan Magat SOUL Summer Program has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. Through this program, I’ve already learned so much, from ‘hard skills’ to the histories of movements, and what it means to put visionary ideas into practice. For the past year Jonathan has helped to build the membership of the new Liwanag Kultural Center in Daly City, especially among other young queer men of color. This summer Jonathan worked with the Filipino Community Center in San Francisco, expanding their campaign for fair wages and working conditions for Filipino caregivers and other workers and their families. Yeshimabeit Milner Being from the East Coast where community organizing internships programs for youth don’t exist, SOUL has been a rare and amazing opportunity to give youth like myself the space for learning how to fight for change in our communities. Yeshi is a proud member of Power U in Miami, Florida where she has participated in movements against the criminalization of young people and for housing justice. She spent her summer with Just Cause Oakland, engaging more Oakland residents in the fight against the forces of displacement and gentrification, and for decent affordable housing. Tenzin Namdol SOUL is helping me slowly break any self-doubts I have as an organizer. The program fosters stronger mind, body, and spirit for youth/people of color/queer organizers. Namdol is Tibetan, born in a resettlement camp, raised in India, and arrived to the Bay by way of the East Coast. Her recent organizing there focused on environmental justice issues, in particular the fight against mountaintop removal strip mining. This summer she worked at Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, and supported their organizing with Asian/Pacific Islander young women and women who work in low-wage toxic industries. |
