Trip Bio

One of our trip’s focus is to strengthen and sustain a long-term relationship with the community on the Campo reservation by fostering communication between DeCal participants and the reservation community throughout the spring semester prior to Spring Break. We hope to recognize the roots of the Alternative Breaks trip to the Campo Kumeyaay Indian Reservation as it was started by a Cal student who was a member of the Campo Kumeyaay community. We also want to critically engage the students who participate in our trip to explore issues affecting Native American and Indigenous communities in California by going into the colonial history of the United States. We will engage participants through the histories of the Kumeyaay and also bring the engagement back home by exploring issues affecting the Ohlone people of the area. Our last focus is to challenge participants before the trip to think about their own privileges and understand what dynamics they may bring into other communities. We want to make sure that we do not impose ourselves over the Campo Kumeyaay community while on our trip.

Break Leader Bios

My full name is Sharon Michelle Marcos Mateo. I am a sophomore and my intended majors are Ethnic Studies & Social Welfare. I was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. I am Mayan; my family is indigenous to Guatemala. Growing up, I was heavily influenced by my Native American culture. Even though I am indigenous, I also identify as Latina because growing up the Latinx culture also became a big part of my life. Since my freshmen year, I have been involved with the Native American Recruitment and Retention Center and this coming Spring, I will be leading the Native American Rights Alternative Break. The reason I chose to lead this Alternative Break because Native Americans in the United States are still facing injustices that range from horrible healthcare to physical violence to environmental discrimination. I am to bring awareness to these issues and I want to try to help my native community as much as I can.

My name is Joel Sedano and I am a first-generation Chicanx/Latinx student here at the University of California, Berkeley. I am from a strong single-mother household that raised three magnificent young men, one in the university, the other in the Army, and the youngest is working and exploring schooling options. I am a fourth-year transfer student from San Bernardino, CA. I am an English major with minors in Creative Writing and Gender and Women's Studies. I am the current Co-Executive Director for the student-led organisation on campus the Native American Recruitment and Retention Center (NARRC), which is under the umbrella organisation Bridges. I was last year's Transfer Coordinator. I am also the social media intern for the Native American Student Development office (NASD), which is under the umbrella of the Center for Educational Justice and Community Engagement. As an ally of the community, I have worked fastidiously and assiduously alongside the staff on campus, faculty, and my fellow students to ensure the success of the students in the Native and Indigenous communities here at Cal. I am currently the Co-Break Leader with Sharon Marcos for the spring 2018 Native American Rights Trip. As a member of the community, I have observed the injustices still affecting the Native and Indigenous communities. I am close friends with a lot of the members in the community on our campus and around the area and I support them by working alongside them to ensure the betterment of the issues that afflict the community. I am working on this trip to continue to show my support for issues affecting the community.