Introducing our 2013 Summer Organizing Interns

Posted in Organizing Internship Student Leaders

The Kalmanovitz Initiative is excited to welcome the following six students to our Organizing Internship for summer 2013! Citlalli Alvarez and Erin Riordan will work with DC Jobs with Justice, Nick Dirago and Johanny Lopéz Domínguez will work with the Restaurant Opportunities Center DC, and Megan Griffin and Kim Portes will work with Tenants and Workers United.

Citlalli Alvarez
Citlalli Alvarez (COL ’15) is studying Government and Anthropology. Her passion for issues of economic justice was first sparked by her diversity work with Georgetown LEAD (Leaders in Education About Diversity) and Hoyas for Immigrant Rights. In the last year she lead efforts to spread awareness of immigrant issues, and immigration reform in the Georgetown community and around Washington, DC. She is currently serving as the President of Hoyas For Immigrant Rights and continues her work with Georgetown LEAD.
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Nick Dirago

Nick Dirago (COL ’14) is majoring in Philosophy and Government with a minor in Justice and Peace Studies. He has engaged with issues of labor as a Migrant Outreach Specialist at Southern Jersey Family Medical Centers in Hammonton, NJ, in summer 2011; as a participant in KI’s Day Labor Exchange in fall 2011; and as co-leader of the redesigned Fair Food Alternative Spring Break trip, which partnered with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, in 2012-2013. Nick spent fall 2012 abroad in Havana, Cuba, and May 2013 in Peru, where he researched Jesuit approaches to education in Lima as a fellow of the Berkley Center’s Education and Social Justice Project. Through KI’s Organizing Internship, he will be working with the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Washington, DC, a great organization to whose work he is excited to contribute as he deepens his understanding of labor organizing.
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	Megan Griffin Megan Griffin (COL ’14) used to picture herself in combat boot and cargo pants saving the world one person at a time. Now she takes a less combative approach, studying Comparative Literature, voting with her purchases, and striving for interpersonal peace with everyone she comes across. A former leader of Georgetown’s EcoAction, Megan will embark this year on the creation of a new sustainable Living-Learning Community, the Greenhouse. She will also embark on the dreaded thesis, taking on Ecofeminism as her subject. This summer with the Kalmanovitz Initiative, she hopes to incorporate her interests in the environment and women’s rights into her work with labor rights. She cannot wait to learn how to be a better citizen, organizer, and activist! .
	Johanny Lopéz Domínguez Johanny Lopéz Domínguez (SFS ’15) is studying International Economics with a concentration on Economic Growth, Transition and Development. In spring 2013, Johanny was part of the KI’s Day Laborer Exchange Program. While teaching day laborers basic skills at a site where they seek work, Johanny has learned about the structural issues affecting them. The exposure that the program has facilitated for her has triggered a desire to understand labor rights issues in the United States. During the summer of 2013, Johanny will be a community organizing intern at Restaurant Opportunities Center of Washington, DC. There she will outreach to restaurant workers and assist in developing ROC’s paid sick days campaign. .
	Kimberly Portes Kimberly (COL ’16) graduated from Cristo Rey New York High School, which is part of a national network of schools that work to serve low-income students by providing them with an affordable college preparatory education. She is leaning towards a major in Linguistics and a minor in Justice and Peace Studies. During her first year in Georgetown, she tutored in DC Reads and was an editor of The Fire This Time, a publication that promotes creativity and diversity. Kimberly, as a current resident of the Bronx, hopes to return to her neighborhood as a teacher and future principal of a school. Her dream is to better education in her neighborhood through her drive and passion for justice. .
	Erin Riordan Erin Riordan (COL ’15) is studying government, women’s and gender studies, and education. She is a member of the Georgetown Solidarity Committee, and last summer served as a student organizer with UNITE HERE’s Local 23 in Washington, DC. Through these experiences she has become engaged with organizing with the labor movement and worker justice in DC. She is also a tutor with Prison Outreach’s GED tutoring program. She is co-founder and co-coordinator of a feminist blog, Feminists-at-Large, with her friend Kat Kelley. Her involvement with the Kalmanovitz Initiative through Worker Justice DC sparked her interest in organizing social justice movements. .