Peter E. Haas Public Service Leaders Program

Haas Leaders The Peter E. Haas Public Service Leaders Program provides need-based scholarships and supports a community of undergraduate student leaders who have demonstrated a significant commitment to off-campus service activities.

In 2012-13, we selected 18 undergraduates to participate in the program and to receive need-based scholarships in the range of $2,500 to $5,000. Named in honor of a legendary Cal alumnus who was known for his deep compassion for helping others, the Peter E. Haas Public Service Leaders Program seeks to grow a new generation of leaders committed to helping society. See a more in-depth bio of Peter E. Haas.

Criteria for selection includes:

Student must be eligible for financial aid or Dream Act
A compelling case for why a scholarship would facilitate student's ability to be a public service leader
Proposal must be a significant service project that will have meaningful community impact
Project engages other UC Berkeley students
Ability to commit 12-15 hours a week to the project during the 2013-14 academic year
Ability to participate in the entire 2013-2014 program, including attending all required trainings and events

Through a generous gift from the Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, the Peter E. Haas Public Service Leaders Program will support up to 20 financial aid eligible undergraduates in its inaugural year with scholarships and training. This innovative program will provide need-based scholarships ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, making it possible for students to serve 12 to 15 hours per week in off-campus social action activities. Students who are selected will participate in a yearlong leadership development program, through the Cal Corps Public Service Center.

Benefits

Build leadership skills while participating in a community of student leaders serving the public good
Advising from faculty and staff, including Cal Corps Assistant Director Mike Bishop
Recognition at Chancellor’s Awards for Public Service
Scholarships in the range of $2,500 to $5,000 that will complement student financial aid by decreasing the self-help expectation.
Students selected as sophomores or juniors are eligible to receive this award for up to two more years (through their 4th year of study).

Commitments

Students selected to participate in this year-long leadership development program will participate in two days of orientation, monthly leadership trainings conducted by community members, staff, faculty and peer students, and other events. Each program participant will need to demonstrate a significant commitment to public service as well as need for financial support to for the academic year.

Attend:
- Reception hosted by Haas family (May 9, 2013 11am-3pm)
- Peter E. Haas Program Orientation (August 27, 2013, 9am-6pm)
- Tuesday 6-8pm leadership development trainings/reflections (twice/month)
- Student Leaders in Service Retreat (January 25, 2014)
- Chancellor’s Awards for Public Service (Late April 2014)
Complete and submit mid-year and final report
If invited, assist with selection of the next cohort of scholarship recipients

The application has opened for the 2013-14 cohort, and us due April 3, 2013.

Please spread the word and let potential candidates with a strong public service commitment and significant need know about this new program to apply next year.

Application Process and Timeline

-- Early March Application available

-- April 3, 2013 Deadline for applications

-- April 17 Finalists notified of interview offer

-- April 23, 3-5pm Finalist small group interviews (must be able to attend)

-- April 26 Recipients notified

-- May 3 Applicants must accepot offers

-- May 9, 3:30-5pm Awardees attend Chancellor's Awards for Public Service (must be able to attend)

*Note that recipients will not be official until their academic-year Financial Aid packages are finalized.

Financial Aid

How to know if you are currently eligible for need-based financial aid:

US Citizens and permanent residents: to see if you are eligible for need-based financial aid, look at the "My Net Cost" screen on your profile on myfinaid.berkeley.edu. If your "Expected Family Contribution" (see lower left of page, in smaller font) is less than your "Total UC Berkeley costs", you are eligible.

AB540 students who can demonstrate the appropriate level of need are eligible. Please consult the program coordinator regarding evaluation of need. You are also strongly urged to apply for the Dream Act Scholarship via financial aid (Nov. 30 priority deadline).

Peter E. Haas Public Service Leaders, 2012-13

	TERRY ALLEN (Class of 2013) Terry Allen is a senior pursuing a B.A. in rhetoric and a minor in theater, dance, and performance studies. He believes in the importance of helping young people to navigate the multitude of existing resources in order to reach their highest potential in education and future careers, and he wants to pass along knowledge of the range of resources from which he has already benefited. Terry plans to create a Web-based resource guide on scholarships, internships, and career-related opportunities for high school and college students. He is also president of the Black Sociological Alliance, campus community coordinator for Teach for America, and a tutor at Willard Middle School in Berkeley.
	NADINE ARGUEZA (Class of 2013) Nadine Argueza is a senior majoring in anthropology. Her mission is to cultivate sustainable partnerships between the Oakland Native American Health Center (NAHC) and the greater community, including Native American Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations, local colleges and universities, and nonprofit and corporate entities. She plans to achieve this goal through shared event planning and volunteer coordination. NAHC currently serves 7,235 clients annually and provides services fostering individual and communal well-being, from general health care to traditional arts classes, elderly support groups, and youth summer camps. Nadine’s passion for service is fueled by experiences as recipient and purveyor of social service programs, from childhood reliance on subsidized housing to volunteer coordination at Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), a Berkeley-based program helping 1,500+ homeless families and individuals to achieve greater socioeconomic self-sufficiency.
	OMRI AVRAHAM (Class of 2013) Omri Avraham, a senior majoring in sociology, is a transfer student from Los Angeles. Before coming to Berkeley, she trained as a ballet dancer. Today, Omri is passionate about food issues. She spent the past summer at camp teaching kids how to cook and bake. Via UC Berkeley’s Alternative Breaks program, a student-run program that engages students in service projects during spring break, Omri will lead the “Food Justice and Sustainability” trip. This program serves family farms in the greater Bay Area, with students providing hands for large projects that are labor-intensive and therefore costly for farms trying to stay afloat. By the end of spring 2013, through discussions, readings, and community engagement, participants will evaluate their eating habits and gain understanding of how decisions about what to eat have widespread repercussions.
	GARDENIA CASILLAS (Class of 2013) Gardenia Casillas is a graduating senior studying public health and global poverty. She grew up in Salinas, California, amid strawberry and lettuce fields. Her passion for public service and social change have been fueled by the values of hard work that she learned from an agricultural community whose members toil in the fields. Her service project is to continue facilitating the CHAMACOS Youth Community Council, an environmental health youth group in Salinas, in which young people lead projects intended to improve the health of their community. Gardenia has found that mentoring youth to take action is inspiring to her, as well as essential to helping youth growing up in Salinas find positive directions in their lives. She has also volunteered to teach oral health and nutrition to children in Ecuador and with DULCE, a student group dedicated to teaching children diabetes prevention strategies. In the future, she would like to address health disparities faced by communities like her own, working at the intersections among health care, public health, and justice, both globally and domestically—and possibly pursuing an M.D./Ph.D. in public health.
	JESUS GALINDO (Class of 2013) Jesus Galindo is a senior majoring in political science and statistics, with a minor in education. He is chief financial officer of the Archer Foundation, a micro-financing institution, and founder of the Advertising Business (TAB). He is also a first-generation college student and has been responsible for taking care of his little brother for the past year. He aspires, one day, to reform public education in the U.S. This year, he will focus on registering students to vote for the 2012 presidential election and educating them on the importance of civic engagement. He will also conduct workshops focusing on current political issues and educating students on effective ways to take political action.
	WENDY HERNANDEZ (Class of 2014) Wendy, an American studies and legal studies major originally from West Los Angeles, is the oldest of three in a single-parent home. Her passion for social justice is evident through the adversities she has overcome in her own life, the work she has contributed to the community, and her aspirations to become a public interest lawyer. Wendy is an active member of the RAZA community at Cal and vice president of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority Inc. (LTA). Her project as a Haas Leader will focus on helping 7th and 8th graders in Berkeley forge a path to college by partnering with the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) staff at Willard Middle School, designing a year-long program for AVID and LTA to continue strengthening the pipeline from Willard to college.
	KAREM HERRERA (Class of 2014) Karem is a junior studying public health. She was born in Nayarit, Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. with her parents at the age of three. Mexico’s drug war and its resulting 70,000 murders in the past six years have moved her to take action to make a change. She is currently vice president of Meet Each Need with Dignity (MEND), an organization that focuses on raising awareness in the U.S. about the Mexican drug war and finding alternative ways to combat organized crime there. Her Haas project is to organize a trip to Mexico in summer 2013 to provide disadvantaged people with opportunities for health education, political empowerment, and financial sustenance. Through this program’s training, she will be leading the health branch of the trip, with a focus on educating people on how to lead healthier lives. Karem is also a participant in the Biology Scholars Program and a volunteer college recruiter, and she coordinates fundraisers to help AB540 students pay rent so they can focus on school.
	KATHARINE HINMAN (Class of 2014) Kati, a junior majoring in peace and conflict studies and minoring in global poverty and practice, grew up in a small town in Connecticut, and she believes that this close community was a significant factor in shaping who she is today. She is passionate about health because she believes that good health and well-being are the building blocks of all other successes. As Community Partnerships director for the service-learning program Alternative Breaks, she will be guiding ten student break leaders in creating projects that have a deeper impact and better connect them to the communities in which they serve. She is also part of the Suitcase Clinic, through which she and her co-coordinator plan enjoyable and educational activities for children in a women’s shelter each week, while their mothers are receiving medical services. Receiving a scholarship as a Haas Leader will allow her to apply more of her time and energy to these unpaid positions.
	RAHKII HOLMAN (Class of 2013) Rahkii, a senior majoring in psychology and minoring in peace and conflict studies, is from Boston and has been living in the Bay Area for 16 years. He is a member of the ACLU and works to raise awareness about the SAFE California Act, the first statewide vote on replacing the death penalty with life in prison without parole. The Haas scholarship will help Rahkii support himself as he transitions into a leadership role as a facilitator. This year, he will facilitate a for-credit course at Berkeley in collaboration with Get on the Bus, an organization that holds an annual event throughout California, providing free transportation for children and their caregivers to visit their parents in prison on Mother’s and Father’s Day. With this year’s event, the program will unite about 40 families and educate 25 to 30 students about how incarceration affects children, families and communities.
	ADENA ISHII (Class of 2013) Adena Ishii is a senior at the Haas School of Business. She is currently program coordinator for the Berkeley City College Service Community, which aims to assist community college students in transferring to four-year institutions, developing their leadership skills, and engaging their peers in service. This program will reach at least 60 students this year. As a Berkeley City College alumna, she is passionate about increasing the transfer rate and getting students involved in their communities. She attributes her success in transferring to UC Berkeley largely to the public service work that she has undertaken throughout her three years living in Berkeley. In the future, Adena is planning to use her business degree to open a community grocery store in Berkeley that will provide organic, local produce, along with other grocery items, to lower- and middle-income families. Her plans for the store include a kitchen where cooking classes would be held for children, teens, and adults.
	CHIKA KONDO (Class of 2013) Chika Kondo is a senior studying society and environment and political science. She is from Canyon Country, California and is a Nisei (second-generation) Japanese American who is passionate and curious about the intersections of social inequities. In the past, she has worked on environmental justice and energy-use reduction projects, and the American Cultures curriculum at Berkeley, as well as with the UC Berkeley Career Center and the Alameda Courthouse Self Help Center. This year, Chika is excited to serve as the Alternative Breaks training and sustainability director. She aims to create a dynamic curriculum to enable student break leaders to dive deeply into social justice thinking and create meaningful change through co-education and coalition building.
	LILLIANE LABORDE-EDOZIEN (Class of 2015) Liliane Laborde-Edozien is a sophomore and Shinnyo-en Fellow from Wilmington, North Carolina. (The Shinnyo-en program at Berkeley focuses on undergraduate and graduate students engaged in peace-building projects.) She is majoring in molecular and cellular biology, with an emphasis on neurobiology, and minoring in French. Liliane balances her time between work, school, and her service to MISSSEY (Motivating, Inspiring, Serving, and Supporting Sexually Exploited Youth), a nonprofit in Oakland providing services to commercially sexually exploited children in the surrounding area. It is her involvement with MISSSEY that has allowed Liliane to learn more about this cause, and the women at MISSSEY who inspired her to create Project HONEY (Helping to Empower Oakland and Neighbor’s Exploited Youth). Project HONEY intends to enrich the lives of MISSSEY’s clients and those of UC Berkeley students by creating a bridge between the two communities. Liliane also hopes to inspire the girls in the program to become leaders in their community and educators of their peers in regard to disease prevention and public health.
	KLEIN LIEU (Class of 2013) Klein, a senior studying cognitive science, has two main passions in life: social justice and computer programming. He believes that the nexus of these two will lead to ground-breaking solutions that address structural issues in his hometown of East Oakland. As a leader in CalSERVE: Cal Students for Equal Rights and a Valid Education, Klein has advocated for equity and rights in higher education. As a “Young People For” Fellow (a leadership development program of People for the American Way), he created an online game called IMAGINE: Integrating Math And Gaming In a New Environment, aimed at tackling unequal access to education for students at his high school; he hopes to turn this project into a start-up this year. Klein also serves as a senator in UC Berkeley’s student government this year, and he works in the campus’s Social Apps Lab and the Gender Equity Resource Center.
	JONATHAN LUNA (Class of 2013) Jonathan Luna is a fourth-year student in legal studies who aims to work with vulnerable youth in his own community. Originally from the Los Angeles area, he took part in various youth programs growing up, and considers these experiences essential in shaping him into the budding scholar he is today. He wishes to give back to his community by serving as a role model and mentor for youth who may have none. As a Cal student, he has actively participated in various campus organizations that place mentors in under-resourced elementary schools. Jonathan currently is the director of the Youth Empowerment Program, which serves detained immigrant children by connecting them with college-student role models. The children are engaged in lesson plans designed to create a sense of community among them and encourage them to pursue higher education. The program works with hundreds of detained youth every year.
	ISABETH MENDOZA (Class of 2013) Isabeth Mendoza, majoring in American studies, is a Los Angeles native with roots in Mexico. Her experience as a first-generation immigrant woman has shaped her involvement on campus, her career goals and her perspective on social justice. She has been an active leader with a focus on gender equality and empowerment, access for students of color to higher education, and women’s health rights, access to care and education in the U.S. and abroad. Isabeth provides financial assistance to her family, which has been separated by immigration; for this reason, her academic obligations, desire to serve and familial responsibilities have required sacrifice. The Peter E. Haas Public Service Scholarship will allow Isabeth to lead a service-learning trip and teach a course on immigration to Berkeley students. Through recruiting, fundraising, and organizing the course and trip, she hopes to create a chain of amelioration that will reach the rest of the world.
	GABRIELA MONICO (Class of 2013) Gabriela, a senior majoring in ethnic studies, immigrated to the U.S. in 2005. Her passion for social justice led Gabriela to take on a number of leadership positions in the undocumented-immigrant community, such as serving as co-chair for Rising Immigrant Scholars through Education, an undocumented support group at Cal. Currently, she is a member of the legal team at Educators for Fair Consideration (E4FC) and is collaborating on a creative writing anthology with other undocumented students. Her Haas Leaders project consists of developing a survival guide for undocumented youth interested in attending Cal and other colleges and universities. Through a “life after high school” component, the guide will also address the estimated 67 percent of undocumented youth unable to benefit from the DREAM Act. Gabriela is also an intern in the Multicultural Community Center and a fellow with the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship Program.
	NGAN PHAM (Class of 2012) Ngan Pham is a Vietnamese-American student with an interdisciplinary studies field major with an emphasis in business, technology, and science. Pham is also minoring in global poverty and practice. After visiting Vietnam and witnessing the poverty that exists in her home country, Ngan was inspired to be an advocate for positive social change. In 2011, she and her partner founded Sanoda, an initiative that supports students in pursuing their passion for public service by directly connecting them to corporate sponsors. A month after the launch of Sanoda, Ngan was invited to attend the prestigious Clinton Global Initiative University. Through the mentorship and guidance of the Peter E. Haas Leadership Program, Ngan hopes to bring Sanoda to its full potential as a new corporate social responsibility organization. Ngan is also an academic tutor for student athletes, and she has volunteered with Global Water Brigades in Honduras.
	JENNIFER PILECKI (Class of 2014) Jennifer is a third-year student in public health with a passion for public service, international travel, and the outdoors. On campus, she is vice president of special events for Berkeley Model United Nations and vice president of risk management for the Panhellenic Executive Council. Her Haas scholarship will enable her to serve as the Cal Greeks service liaison. This year, she is planning Trick or Greek, a Halloween-themed event involving more than 400 local elementary and middle-school children and 150 UC Berkeley fraternity and sorority members. The children will have the chance to play games, make crafts, and visit haunted houses. In the spring, she will be planning Pre-Cal Day Cleanup, an event co-planned with the city of Berkeley that involves more than 300 fraternity and sorority members painting, picking up trash, cleaning planters, and weeding flower beds. In addition, she provides regular training and advising to all sororities and fraternities who are interested in developing more community service projects.