Influential 2017

NYU’s

2017

Cam Mesinger, Brittany Claybrooks, Juan Manuel Calero Canaval, RJ Khalaf, Rose Asaf, Victor Leonard, Grace Moon, Cadence Daniels, Jackson Tisi, Ananditha Raghunath, Amanda Lawson

This year, we’re turning Influential up to 11.

But this isn’t “Spinal Tap,” and the 10 undergraduates and one graduate student featured in the following pages aren’t rock stars. They harbor none of a rock star’s typical unwillingness to speak to the press, nor do they cultivate their images through sex and drug use. No, instead of focusing on how they’re perceived, they work tirelessly to strengthen the diverse communities that surround them, and for that, they have garnered the nominations and admiration of their peers.

I would like to thank the writers, who penned the following profiles, for their willingness to engage with individuals they had never met before. They chose to embrace additional responsibility out of an earnest desire to showcase the most distinguished leaders NYU has to offer.

The production of this issue has been a breeze thanks to our talented Managing Editor Jemima McEvoy, Assistant Managing Editor Natasha Roy and Deputy Managing Editor Abbey Wilson. Our copy editors, Tarra Chen, Victoria Lubas, Viral Shanker and Alejandro Villa Vasquez; and our copy chiefs, Pamela Jew and Fernanda Nunes, have saved me from many an error and represent an ever-intriguing fountain of conversation that spills out from behind the office support beam.

With this issue, our creative directors, Rachel Buigas-Lopez and Laura Shkouratoff, celebrate a full year of making our newspapers, so happy anniversary of sorts. In addition, our Multimedia Editor, Anna Letson, has been working at this newspaper for five semesters, which is long enough to carry two babies to term, so happy birthday, of sorts.

And to all of the students featured in this edition of the newspaper, thank you for your patience and flexibility in bringing this all together.

04 06 08 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Cam Mesinger

Brittany Claybrooks

Juan Manuel Calero Canaval

RJ Khalaf

Rose Asaf

Victor Leonard

Grace Moon

Cadence Daniels

Jackson Tisi

Ananditha Raghunath

Amanda Lawson

Studio photography by Anna Letson

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CAM MESINGER Breaking Boundaries on Campus and in Comedy

Andrew Heying, Opinion Editor “There are so many people at NYU saving refugees and changing the world,” Cam Mesinger said. “I don’t do anything.”

While Mesinger — an LS sophomore who uses they/them pronouns — quickly becomes uncomfortable at the thought of being labeled influential, their time at NYU has been far from ordinary. At a very young age, Mesinger, who is average height and wears thick black glasses, learned that in order to live authentically, they could not be defined by any traditional societal roles.

Mesinger explained this just hours into a busy Saturday afternoon in which they were balancing everything from leading club meetings to performing at comedy gigs. Mesinger is a member of NYU’s Queer Union, a campus-wide club for queer people, and T-Party, a campus-wide club for non-cisgender people. They also co-run inQUEERY, an LS club for LGBTQ students. For Mesinger, their seemingly never-ending list of commitments is not a part of some vast resume-building scheme — they are just doing what they love.

“Unlike high school, I don’t think any graduate school is going to care that I was the leader of some queer club,” Mesinger said. “I just do this because honestly I do not know what else I would be doing with my time.”

When Mesinger is not in class, they are often busy organizing events such as NYU’s Pride Month.

This year, Mesinger oversaw the funding for the month, which celebrates queer students and encourages activism. After endless emails and meetings with the NYU administration, Mesinger was able to secure the $70,000 needed to carry out their

vision for the month.

Mesinger’s activism does not stop there; they became a member of inQUEERY early last year, and now Mesinger has somehow found time to lead it. Chris Packard, the club’s faculty sponsor, is constantly impressed by Mesinger’s leadership and authenticity.

Being gay and transgender, Mesinger never found a place among traditional Americans, forcing them to pave their own path. This is evident throughout every aspect of Mesinger’s life. For example, some may think one can only be an activist or a comedian, not both. Mesinger refutes this.

On the weekends, Mesinger can

“Cam is the kind of person you want on your team because with Cam comes humor — the kind that unifies with warmth and belonging. Cam pulls people together and makes them optimistic.

Chris Packard

“Cam is the kind of person you want on your team because with Cam comes humor — the kind that unifies with warmth and belonging,” Packard said. “Cam pulls people together and makes them optimistic.”

often be found performing at local comedy clubs. At many of these gigs, they are at least 10 years younger than all of the other performing comedians.

Mesinger tries to interweave social justice throughout their comedy, refusing

to accept the notion that political correctness and humor cannot coexist. Mesinger even plans to transfer to Gallatin to study how comedy can be used as a way to progress society, not attack it.

“I want to start bushwhacking a path in which you do not have to be problematic to do comedy,” they said.

To do this, Mesinger often sets themselves up as the butt of the joke.

“I know what I look like,” they joked at a recent comedy show. “I know that I don’t look like a woman.

But I am enough of a woman that every time I get in an Uber and they lock the door, I sh-t my pants.”

When asked if there is a particular comedian that Mesinger looks up to, they hesitate. Mesinger then goes on to explain that no one currently in comedy seems to understand how to write jokes that are not at the expense of other people.

Mesinger, on the other hand, is determined to change this, truly following no one but themself.

Despite not adhering to any of society’s expectations, Mesinger seems entirely self-aware, and their friends agree.

“Cam’s wit and sense of humor make them a delight to be around, but their kindness and compassion set them apart as a friend and leader,” Audrey McCabe, a member of inQUEERY said. “Cam is always working to ensure that inQUEERY is a welcoming, inclusive environment and that our discussions are well-rounded and open-minded.”

Email Andrew Heying at aheying@nyunews.com.

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“I know what I look like, I know that I don’t look like a woman. But I am enough of a woman that every time I get in an Uber and they lock the door, I sh-t my pants.”

Cam Mesinger

Staff photo by Viola Mai

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“When I was coming up, you could either go to college or you could work at the plant. Where I come from, people didn’t do either one of those things.

They were in the streets — it was crimeridden.”

Brittany Claybrooks

BRITTANY CLAYBROOKS 7

Building the Foundations of Success

Daniella Nichinson, Film Editor “Education was always like my sport,” Brittany Claybrooks said during a First Generation College Students panel hosted by NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.

Claybrooks, a second-year Master of Urban Planning and Development student at Wagner, grew up in Detroit and a small suburb outside of the Motor City called Inkster. From a young age, she was forced to face harsh realities in a place where receiving a great education was a privilege and a rarity, not commonplace.

“Michigan is a blue-collar state,” she said. “When I was coming up, you could either go to college or you could work at the plant. Where I come from, people didn’t do either one of those things. They were in the streets — it was crime-ridden.”

Claybrooks was fortunate enough to transfer to private school in high school. She excelled in academics and chose to attend Florida A&M University, where she received a degree in Healthcare Management. Upon graduating, Claybrooks jumped into a rich slew of jobs and internships. After interning at the U.S. Department of Health, she applied to work at her local congressman’s office, but was instead offered a position on Nancy Pelosi’s house floor staff. While in D.C., Claybrooks also had the opportunity to work on Obamacare, during which time the pursuit of a master’s degree became real for her.

Now in her second year at Wagner, Claybrooks serves as the president of the Black Student Association.

Last year, she was an integral part in the development of the First Annual

NYU Wagner Black Alumni Conference, which was an outstanding success. Claybrooks has already begun planning for the Second Annual Conference, which she hopes will continue to stimulate even greater conversations about diversity and provide a place where black students and alumni can cultivate lasting connections.

“My goal is to start having this conversation not in a silo space, but with other folks who are allies or who want to know what it’s like to be a black public servant,” Claybrooks said. “How can we work together as public servants who look different and how can we foster and activate allyship?”

In addition to her role as president of the Black Student Association, Claybrooks is an NYU Social Sector Leadership Diversity fellow.

The fellowship — a highly selective program comprised of approximately 40 graduate students — allows students of color to exercise and nurture their leadership skills and build relationships within the NYU community. It’s clear why Claybrooks was chosen to be part of this program, as her presence is kind yet unwavering, recognizing the importance of taking a stand.

Claybrooks’ desire and drive to study Urban Planning can be traced back to her roots in Detroit.

Whether it be education or crime, Claybrooks believes that the journey toward a better society starts in changing the cities. She has recognized a distinct pattern among many burdened by poverty.

“The issues that they have aren’t

because of who they are as people or how they live as people, but where they are from and where they live,” she said. “I believe that every issue that exists here in the United States for people who are in poverty or people of color is heavily wrapped in where they live because they’re all concentrated, nine times out of 10, in the same type of environment.”

Claybrooks exudes the qualities

of Detroit and work to improve the city’s urban structure.

“For me, heaven would be if I could go back to Detroit and help shape the future of the city after industrialization, help diversify the economy,” Claybrooks said.

For Claybrooks, the choice to involve and immerse herself in activities and organizations around campus is simple: only by being a leader can she use that power to

“For me, heaven would be if I could go back to Detroit and help shape the future of the city after industrialization, help diversify the economy.”

Brittany Claybrooks

of an intuitive leader — one who possesses the selflessness needed to be the voice for those who don’t have one. She is passionate and steadfast in her beliefs, determined to share her growing knowledge with others and use it to promote a positive evolution of society. In the future, Claybrooks hopes to return to her hometown

guide fellow students and motivate the change that our country needs.

“If you could have an influence on how a city is zoned,” Claybrooks said, “you can help people live out the part of the American dream that they deserve.”

Email Daniella Nichinson at dnichinson@nyunews.com.

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JUAN CALERO The Students’ Warrior Kaitlyn Wang, Features Editor Juan Manuel Calero Canaval will not take your bullshit.

“If I feel like something is unjust or that someone is being unethical or that something is just not right in any capacity, I’ll just tell you to your face in the moment,” Calero said.

The fifth year CAS student, currently the chair of Student Government, has spent his undergraduate career standing up for marginalized groups — whether that be against the university, other students or professors — to build a more inclusive community at NYU. Since his freshman year, Calero, who majors in Social and Cultural Analysis and Religious Studies with a minor in Latin American Studies, has been involved in bridging cross-cultural unity between black and brown communities at NYU. The Calí, Colombia native served for two years as president of Latinos Unidos Con Honor y Amistad and was involved in NYU PorColombia and NYU’s chapter of Phi Iota Alpha.

Calero said that when he arrived at NYU, the atmosphere for students of color, and especially black or brown students, was dire. He noticed that the life of cultural organizations on campus was diminishing, people weren’t participating and students were miserable.

“I genuinely believed my first year, the general sentiment of the student body toward the university was a complete sense of hopelessness and lack of faith,” Calero said.

Students felt that the university wasn’t listening to their desire to increase diversity and inclusivity. In the fall of 2015, diversity discussions spread throughout campuses across the country and inevitably reached NYU. Students could not hold in their frustrations with the unwelcoming and uncomfortable atmosphere on campus any longer, and the tension manifested itself in a threehour listening session on Nov. 19, 2015.

“Countless students of countless identities just kind of cathartically [expressed] their misery at NYU,” Calero said. “No one was expecting that. I wasn’t expecting that. Dozens of students came out, different identities, and really expressed how miserable they were at the university.”

It was that semester that Calero dropped his two science classes — at the time, he

was a third-year pre-med student majoring in Biology and Chemical Engineering — and focused on chairing the Demands List Committee of the Black and Brown Coalition.

“My parents were of course furious — I genuinely believe a rift of hell opened,” Calero said. “I could almost hear my mother’s screams whenever I told her.”

The committee worked all semester to voice students’ concerns with diversity and inclusion at NYU, and ultimately delivered 31 demands to the university to take a step in the right direction. The

pus climate already, from his freshman year to the fraught fall 2015 semester to this year.

Seeing social justice and cultural organizations claim power and a shift in the makeup of student governance, impacted Calero.

“For me personally, it means that we did something right,” Calero said.

Last year — after the dramatic shift in his academic focus — Calero worked on an honors thesis. Under the guidance of former Social and Cultural Analysis Professor Josie Saldaña and Associate Chaplain Shekih Faiyaz Jaffer, he researched “brownness under the brown

“He’s a big thought kind of guy. He’s like the blue sky kind of researcher. He wants to understand the totality of the problem, not just its current manifestation. He wants to get a really full sense of it.”

Josie Almadeña

demands included the creation of the Executive Vice President of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion post, which was filled by Lisa Coleman in May 2017. The University Senate approved the creation of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force in December 2015, and Calero served as one of the student members. NYU has manifested the recommendation of the task force in the form of the Being @ NYU survey, which Calero also helped produce.

Calero has seen marked change in the cam-

gaze” at NYU, a look at what being “brown” meant to diverse communities categorized as such, like Latin Americans and Muslims.

According to Saldaña, Calero’s original project was ambitious. But it was characteristic of him to tackle such a big idea, Saldaña said, even though she had to help him narrow it down.

“He’s a big thought kind of guy,” Saldaña said. “He’s like the blue sky kind of researcher. He wants to understand the totality of the problem, not just its current

manifestation. He wants to get a really full sense of it.”

Saldaña sees this wish for deep understanding informing Calero’s work on campus.

“That’s the kind of scholarship that you want, one where one’s research bleeds into one’s activism and vice versa,” Saldaña said.

“I think that’s why he was interested in how coalitions happen and how to make coalitions happen more frequently and so that was a lot of what motivated the project.”

Now, Calero focuses his energy into his position as chair of the Student Government.

As chair, Calero presides over the Student Government Assembly, Student Senators Council and President’s Council. Calero’s days are so filled with meetings, he says he feels like he spends more time in them than in classes or doing schoolwork. On Calero’s public Google Calendar, even the time slots marked busy have time slots marked busy nested within them.

Calero views his role as one in which he represents the will of the students to faculty, administration and the University Senate. He says he wants to and does challenge the university to do and be better regarding diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging on campus. And he isn’t afraid to be the opposition.

“One of the titles of the Pope is servant of servants of Christ,” Calero, a Catholic, said. “So I think about my position in that context, like I’m a servant of the students of the university. I try my hardest to fight for the student body on various issues.”

Despite continuously fighting the administration for the student body, Calero loves NYU. After all, he chose to come to the school for a reason. He just wants to make it better.

“I realized when I was applying to universities that there was something fundamentally wrong with NYU, that there was something there that could be good and wholesome,” Calero said.

“Something about NYU inspired me, but something about NYU had me shook. And I came to NYU understanding that things needed to change and I would try my hardest to change them.”

Email Kaitlyn Wang at kwang@nyunews.com.

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Staff photo by Tony Wu

“If I feel like something is unjust or that someone is being unethical or that something is just not right in any capacity, I’ll just tell you to your face in the moment.”

Juan Calero

“I have to stand up for these communities because it’s an integral part of my faith that my religion’s not just a religion of peace, it’s not just a religion of coexistence but it’s a religion of justice. It’s a religion where when I see injustice, I feel morally and religiously obligated to stand up against that injustice.”

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RJ Khalaf Natasha Roy, Assistant Managing Editor

Staff photo by Echo Chen

Leadership. Faith. Football. RJ Khalaf’s passions are varied, but they all center around his desire to weave positivity into his surroundings.

Though his passions don’t always mesh well together, being at NYU has helped the Global Liberal Studies senior get as close as possible to connecting them. Whether he is heading the Muslim Student Association as president or acting as director for LEAD Palestine, Khalaf is always able to lead with grace.

“I have a pretty fundamental view of leadership that we all can be leaders, and we all should be leaders,” Khalaf said. “If you ask me, leadership is kindness, leadership is love, leadership is bringing together people toward a common goal. I think if you’re able to do that, if the core of your leadership, the core of your organizing, is built off of kindness and love, then I think you’re a good leader. And then suddenly, anyone can be a leader.”

Not only is Khalaf a leader, but he also fosters leadership qualities in others. Though he presides over the MSA meetings, he encourages a sense of leadership among his peers by providing a forum in which they can voice their opinions on how the club should run to best serve NYU’s Muslim community — and his leadership makes a noticeable difference.

CAS senior and MSA secretary Rose Khan has been friends with Khalaf for nearly a year, and she said that though she struggled with her faith when she first joined the MSA, Khalaf gave her the confidence to act as a leader even before she took on her role as secretary.

“To have someone believe in me when I didn’t believe in myself — that was really kind of the push I needed,” Khan said. “He has confidence in me, and it’s helped transform me from

someone who didn’t want to be in this space at all to someone who’s in this space all the time.”

Khalaf himself first came to the MSA his sophomore year, after having completed his freshman year of the GLS program at NYU London. His first year in London was challenging, as he did not have a definite sense of self yet.

But the MSA made him feel welcome.

He said that it takes a lot of fortitude to come into a new space as an outsider, and people within the community made him feel welcomed and included.

“I just fell in love — I fell in love with the community, I fell in love with the work that we got to do, and while it was a lot of work, it was just a dream come true to be able to serve that community because for me it was never about the title,” Khalaf said.

Khalaf has been able to combine his passions for leadership and service through LEAD Palestine.

The organization aims to inspire, motivate and empower 10 to 15-yearold kids in refugee camps in Palestine’s West Bank through a weeklong summer camp comprised of leadership-based activities and year-round mentorship by local university students in Palestine.

“They live in this place that’s just governed by occupation,” Khalaf said.

“When someone sees themselves as a leader, it’s proven to instill an internal locus of control, and what that internal locus of control does [is] help you look at your situation and what can I do about it, and you actually see your value in that situation.”

The MSA has also allowed yet another of Khalaf’s passions to come to fruition — community service. Working for other people in any capacity fills him up.

“No matter how tired I am, no matter how exhausted we are, I just feel like I

have a little bit of extra gas in the ta per se, to just collaborate with peopl kind of help figure out how we can better for them,” Khalaf said.

Khalaf can also explore his f

“I have a lo — yeah, I’m Muslim ma where there Islamophob within that, a lot of priv comes my w have to leve RJ Khalaf

through the Multifaith Advisory Co cil, a group of undergraduate stude from different faith backgrounds w get together to discuss their experien “That’s just been an incred group,” Khalaf said. “My identity a Muslim and my understanding of space of the MSA and students’ ne and what people care about, what p

ank, le to n do

faith

RJ KHALAF Leading With Love

ple are passionate about — I’m able to bring that to the space of the Multifaith Advisory Council.”

Khalaf’s position as a Dalai Lama fellow has helped him with LEAD Pales-

ot of privileges m an Arab an in a country e’s a lot of bia, but even , there’s still vilege that way, and I erage that.”

ounents who nces. dible as a the eeds peo-

tine. Each year, 20 to 30 students earn this distinction, and they build leadership skills, network and work on a project as fellows.

“It has been one of the most impactful, amazing blessings in my life — just to develop a deeper sense of self and bring my fullness to my leadership and my work,” Khalaf said.

Khalaf enjoys being involved in so many organizations. He loves being busy, especially because he is so passionate about a myriad of different causes. He believes he needs to stand up and fight when he sees a community that needs help.

“I have a lot of privileges — yeah, I’m an Arab Muslim man in a country where there’s a lot of Islamophobia, but even within that, there’s still a lot of privilege that comes my way, and I have to leverage that,” Khalaf said. “I have to stand up for these communities because it’s an integral part of my faith that my religion’s not just a religion of peace, it’s not just a religion of coexistence but it’s a religion of justice. It’s a religion where when I see injustice, I feel morally and religiously obligated to stand up against that injustice.”

And though he is so incredibly busy, he makes sure to take care of himself.

Whether he sits down and plays Madden football video games or reaches out to a friend, he believes that if he can’t take care of himself, he can’t take care of others.

“I lean on other people,” Khalaf said.

“I think it’s really important to be vulnerable in that and just to be like, ‘Hey man, I’m really stressed. Can we just talk?’”

Khalaf’s leadership style made Khan, herself, a better leader. But even outside of the MSA, Khalaf’s friendship — and hugs — have made Khan feel supported and loved.

“Whenever I have a crisis, the first person who pops into my head is RJ,” Khan said. “He’s just really fun to be around. He’s really dorky and weird and a good person to be with.”

Email Natasha Roy at nroy@nyunews.com.

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ROSE ASAF

The Activist Next Door

Jordan Reynolds, Arts Editor Rose Asaf shows up.

Whether it’s NYU Against Fascism’s protest against an “alt-right” speaker hosted by the NYU College Republicans, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s surprise visit to Weinstein Residence Hall or the Incarceration to Education Coalition’s occupation of Elmer Holmes Bobst Library last year, Asaf, a CAS junior, makes it her priority to support other students doing activist work on campus.

“When students are putting in these unpaid hours to try to make NYU a better place, [the most important thing is] to show up, you know?” Asaf said.

“Show up for them if you can.”

And she does just that. Her weekly schedule includes a full set of classes, an on-campus job and seven to nine club meetings; she’s a student senator-at-large, a member of the NYU Democratic Socialists of America, the co-founder of Jewish Voice for Peace, a member of the Student Labor Action Movement and of Students for Justice in Palestine, editorial co-director for the NYU Politics Society and an occasional reporter for WNYU — not to mention an attendee of the various protests that come together sporadically during the semester. ”It’s great to keep busy,” she said.

“I’m glad I’m putting the energy I have to things I care about. But there’s a flipside to that which isn’t immediately visible. I’ve struggled with mental health issues for a large part of my life, and I think that’s important to include because self-care needs to come first.”

She also admitted that she needs to work on her habit of apologizing for taking up space — something that happens all too often.

“I’m full of self-doubt,” Asaf said. “It’s totally a Jewish thing.”

That doubt disappears when she’s doing the work she’s passionate about.

At Palestinian Culture Night, an event organized by several student organizations to, as Asaf put it, “communally resist the erasure of Palestinian identity,”

she bounced around the room, talking at length with attendees and introducing herself to anyone she didn’t already know — which was very few people.

Asaf is clearly most comfortable in talking about the work being done on campus, making sure to mention NYU Dream Team, the Governing Committee on Minority and Marginalized Students, the Black Student Union, NYU Sanctuary and the Asian Pacific American Coalition (“and I’m of course leaving people out”) as examples of the groups that in-

that can snap an event or organization into shape.”

In creating Jewish Voice for Peace, an NYU club that she co-founded this year, she has turned from national politics (having led the NYU for Bernie efforts during the democratic primary and registering over 5,000 new voters) to, as she puts it, hyperlocal activism. She prioritizes this specific form of activism over anything else.

“It should be based on where you have access, and what you should and

“I like to target my own communities, and I like to use my voice where it matters and not use my voice in spaces where it doesn’t matter.”

Rose Asaf

spire and amaze her.

The way she situates herself is simple: “I like to target my own communities, and I like to use my voice where it matters and not use my voice in spaces where it doesn’t matter.”

She knows where her voice matters, and she is impactful. A close friend of Asaf’s since their first year at NYU, Benjamin Zinevich-Rodríguez is familiar with her journey.

“Rose is fantastic at organizing,” he said. “She may love to say how much of a mess she can be, but I’ve never gotten to know anyone else so closely

shouldn’t be speaking on,” Asaf said.

“It’s my job to give support to my friends who are advocating for other issues to which they can speak directly ...

These are issues that personally impact them. And it’s the job of people who have access to these spaces, who harbor these negative sentiments about people, it’s my job to address that and to try to work with my own community, to take a more justice-oriented stance.”

Although the Bronfman Center — NYU’s primary Jewish institution — did not allow JVP a place to exist due to differing political beliefs, Asaf was

not discouraged from activism in this field. She cites religion as one of the most important reasons why she does what she does, exemplified by the Star of David that she wears around her neck every day.

“Judaism has such a beautiful history of being radical and justice-oriented,” she said.

Asaf said it’s that very notion that motivates her to stand against the dominating ideology within the Jewish community of being pro-Israel.

“I realize that I have access to a lot of spaces that, let’s say, a Palestinian person wouldn’t have access to,” she said. “So it’s my duty to go to these spaces where other people don’t have access and say hey, listen, you need to start listening to people who have grievances with the way that people in our community have been behaving because we are part of an interconnected network of groups of people all over, and my community — my Jewish community — knows oppression way too well.”

While Asaf entered NYU with an interest in American politics — her two majors are, fittingly, American Studies and Politics — after spending a summer in Washington, D.C. and interning first at the Senate and then at the House of Representatives, she realized that federal politics was not the space she wanted to exist in. After all, as she puts it “D.C., especially Capitol Hill, is not the place for an activist.”

Still, she’s considering jumping back on the campaign trail after graduating in 2019.

“If there’s another figure who is calling for what I believe is genuine justice, I might consider [doing] that type of work.”

Disclaimer: Benjamin Zinevich-Rodríguez has written an editorial piece for WSN before.

Email Jordan Reynolds at jreynolds@nyunews.com

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Staff photo by Alana Beyer

“It’s my job to give support to my friends who are advocating for other issues to which they can speak directly ... These are issues that personally impact them.

And it’s the job of people who have access to these spaces, who harbor these negative sentiments about people, it’s my job to address that and to try to work with my own community, to take a more justiceoriented stance.”

Rose Asaf

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“To make it in this industry, you just have to know someone and then continue to keep up those connections.�

Victor Leonard

Staff photos by Anna Letson

VICTOR LEONARD

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Styling Connections Pamela Jew, Copy Chief With tiger-like eyes, in appearance and nature, Victor Leonard has a keen sense for two things: fashion and making connections. He does everything from designing and styling to giving a voice to underrepresented groups.

Leonard might be humble when talking about his talents, but he doesn’t discount the value of the work he’s done because Leonard isn’t on sale for anyone but himself.

After spending his first year dipping his Dr. Martens into numerous clubs around NYU, Leonard, a Gallatin senior, solidified his place in the NYU community through fashion and residential life. His concentration is Perception and Presentation: Fashion Design as it Shapes Our Relation to Clothing and Self, which influences and informs all of his involvement in and out of NYU. “I’ve known I’ve wanted to do fashion — with purpose — since I came to Gallatin,” Leonard said. “But to make it in this industry, you just have to know someone and then continue to keep up those connections. I’ve made connections outside Gallatin but also within Gallatin, especially the fashion show.”

Currently, he acts as the student chair of the Gallatin Fashion Show, but he wasn’t always so influential in its production.

Starting his freshman year, Leonard taught himself to sew and premiered his first collection — “The Odyssey in Fashion” — at the Gallatin Fashion Show. The following year, Leonard found himself studying abroad in Gallatin’s London fashion program, making it impossible to show at that year’s show. But his junior year brought another opportunity for Leonard to design for the show.

Leonard’s collection, “Umoja,” which detailed blackness and the power within blackness, used pseudo-tribal prints and Pan African prints as a way to connect with blackness and the existing black community.

“When I was drawing up inspiration for my collection, the theme that year was ‘Power,’” Leonard said. “I thought to myself, ‘what’s the most powerful thing you know?’ And then I thought there’s nothing stronger and more powerful than a black woman. This collection [was] a love letter to all those women.”

For the runway show, Leonard let his models, who were also his friends, be the inspiration for the pieces and the entirety of the looks themselves — they did their own makeup and hair and walked the runway barefoot to nix any sign of discomfort.

At the same time, Leonard was the mind behind the Stern International Volunteers

group going to Ghana during the spring semester of his junior year. As the fashion intern for the group, he outlined the lessons and the marketing plan for the designs that he was set to create with his mentoring group. In Ghana, Leonard taught a group of women how to sew. Together, they worked on designs to sell in the NYU Bookstore.

“I was in there for a total of 10 days, and then anything we made was sold,” Leonard said. “All of the profits went back to that village in Ghana.”

Green Art Park.

Upon arriving at the mural, Leonard, with paint on his hands, sweatshirt and Docs, gave me a welcoming hug and kiss on the cheek and brought me around to meet the main players of the project — Engel and ButLikeMaybe. Other attendees included Laura McQuade, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood New York City, and Olivia Perez, founder and editor-in-chief of Friend of a Friend, who all stopped by in support and to help take part in the mural. He talked

“I’m just amazed by all the connections he has.

Any time we’re doing anything — whatever the context may be — he knows someone.”

Malasia Apparicio

With all of his fashion experience, Leonard has several fashion-oriented tasks on his hands for this upcoming spring. In addition to all of his work for the Gallatin Fashion Show, Leonard is the stylist for Survivors magazine, a publication focussing on people’s stories of sexual assault, run by fellow Gallatin student Maria Polzin.

“When Maria asked me, I jumped at the chance,” Leonard said. “She has such a clear vision and rich history with the project itself. Being a part of this project, I get to help realize the message these survivors want to convey through the clothing worn in the [photo] shoots.”

Leonard is constantly busy and always with a project on his hands. For the past two months, he has been working with Savannah Engel, his boss and public relations freelancer, on a project with artist Arianna Margulis, known as ButLikeMaybe, and Planned Parenthood New York City to commission a 100-foot mural at the First Street

about how this eye-catching pink mural came to fruition.

“At first, we were going to do a campaign [with Planned Parenthood] during October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness month,” Leonard said. “It was going to be all about breast cancer and screening. Partnering with a bakery, we would have had an accompanying mural that said, ‘Treat your cupcakes right.’ But instead we went with [the mural].”

After connecting with Voices for Planned Parenthood at NYU, Leonard then reached out to PPNYC, on behalf of ButLikeMaybe, to make the massive “Don’t F With Us. Don’t F Without Us” mural come to life. The mural, looking out onto East Houston Street, is situated a few blocks from Second Street Residence Hall, where Leonard has been a resident assistant for the past year and a half.

Acting as a mediary between roommates and working at the hall’s Resource Center, Leonard uses his skill of making connections

to help his residents and foster a community within Second Street.

“I’m good at bringing people together,” Leonard said. “I was able to connect one of my residents who was transferring into Gallatin [and] wanted to know more about writing, wanted to know more of the way that Gallatin functions — I connected them with the [Gallatin] writing coordinator June Foley because I had worked with her last year on the dean’s ‘baby,’ Great World Texts, with six other hand-picked Gallatin students.”

Leonard’s efforts to make connections haven’t just benefited students, but affect his co-workers as well. CAS junior Jessica Rahmoune worked with Leonard as a summer assistant at Second Street and found him to be one of the warmest and most inviting people she knows. Leonard would always be there to reassure her whenever she had doubts in her life.

“He’s one of the most proactive people I know,” Rahmoune said. “But even while he’s pushing himself to greater heights, he consistently pushes the people around him to be the better versions of themselves.”

Recently, Leonard started a YouTube channel, Tied, with his best friend, designated stylist and recent NYU Graduate, Malasia Apparicio, to give a voice to black culture and share their day-to-day lives. Apparicio said Leonard has a special approach and proactivity.

“I’m just amazed by all the connections he has,” Apparicio said. “Any time we’re doing anything — whatever the context may be — he knows someone. Victor can immediately connect us to the culture the project calls for, whether that be the black community or just anyone who would be useful and key.”

In the future, Leonard hopes to continue working in the fashion industry, specifically in public relations. Through fashion, he seeks to give a voice to the voiceless and make the industry a more inclusive platform overall.

During his time at NYU, he has worked as either a designer, stylist or medium between those in the fashion world. His current boss, Engel, commented on the qualities that make Victor so successful in what he does.

“He understands the fashion world almost innately,” Engel said. “He is competitive.

That is why he is so good at what he does — he doesn’t like to not be the best. He is a star. A true star.”

Email Pamela Jew at pjew@nyunews.com.

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GRACE MOON

Writing the World into Words Abigail Weinberg, Editor-in-Chief Grace Moon has the kind of adventurous spirit that leads someone to ride the subway to random stops and pop out to take photographs of whatever she finds. Her curiosity makes her a great reporter, and her passion for Asian-American rights inspires her to bring stories to fruition.

Moon was born in California and raised in Texas, but her home is 7,000 miles away in Seoul, South Korea, where she spent many summers growing up. Her family escaped to South Korea from North Korea during the Korean War, but she still has family members in the North. She warmly remembers her grandmother’s tales of ice skating there in the winter as a little girl.

“When we think of North Korea, we have this image of red flags, guns and Kim Jong-un,” Moon said. “There’s so much more to it, and people don’t see it because mainstream media outlets won’t report on anything but missiles, missiles, missiles. North Korea is a country with real people who smile, who cry, who have friends. They’re people like us.”

With her grandparents in mind, Moon has channeled her passion for issues in North Korea into her campus engagement at NYU. In her role as president of Freedom for North Korea, she leads weekly meetings to make North Korea a subject of campus dialogue. Last week, she organized an event, along with the Feminist Society at NYU and Advocate Coalition – Against Trafficking, to shed light on sexual trafficking among women who have fled North Korea. She also serves as media director of the Asian Pacific American Coalition, a newly-minted campus organization for Asian-Amer-

ican rights, where she manages social media accounts, takes event photos and maintains the group’s online presence.

Audrey Gregg, a CAS junior and vice president of FFNK, spoke of Moon’s wealth of knowledge on Korean issues.

“Grace is one of the most driven

Campus, an online media platform for women’s empowerment.

Moon believes in standing in solidarity with other communities on campus, and she uses her writing as activism. When she writes profiles, she types quickly and without looking at the keyboard, her eyes locked on her

“North Korea is a country with real people who smile, who cry, who have friends.

They’re people like us.”

Grace Moon

people I’ve ever met, and working with her in FFNK has been great,” Gregg said. “She’s a tireless worker and clearly very educated on a variety of different socio-political issues that affect the Korean peninsula and East Asia in general.”

Moon is certainly well-informed — she starts each day off with a coffee and The New York Times — but she also has the media chops to spread awareness and tell stories that need to be told. That’s why she’s double-majoring in Media, Culture and Communication in Steinhardt and Journalism in CAS; interning at the CNN News Bureau from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Sundays; and serving as editor-in-chief of NYU’s chapter of Her-

subject and her cool, calm demeanor leaving the interviewee at ease. On a Tuesday night, she spoke eagerly to the organizers of Contra Cuentos, a night of performances from artists in the undocumented and immigrant community, and she had the corresponding article up on HerCampus in a matter of hours.

While Moon uses her writing to lift up other marginalized communities, she also hopes to defy Asian-American stereotypes through her reporting. She derives particular inspiration from the Asian American Journalists Association, where she’s met other writers who have similar cultural backgrounds and who have faced the same struggles she has. Her

Asian-American identity, Moon explained, poses particular challenges that she wants to combat.

“I think it’s very often that Asian-American female journalists are just seen as that Asian girl, not for who they are,” she said. “I get called the wrong name a lot, even in the classroom setting … Just the idea of being seen as passive, submissive, quiet, shy.”

Yet Moon is anything but that. She loves talking to people, and it shows in the enthusiasm with which she engages in conversation with just about anybody. She puts her amiability to good use — last year, she connected with the New York City Housing Authority through the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence. When NYCHA checked Korean tenants’ apartments for mold, she used her bilingual abilities to mediate between the Korean-speaking tenants and their English-speaking landlords.

“Landlords tend to take advantage of tenants, and we’d fight that,” Moon said. “That was one of the most crucial starting points to my introduction to and real passion for Asian-American rights. It was really eye-opening to see what these tenants went through every day.”

All of Moon’s work, from her activism within NYU to her journalistic pursuits, is in the interest of advancing opportunities for Asian-Americans.

“Every day I’m defined as a stereotype,” she said. “Journalism helps me defy that stereotype by speaking out on issues and reporting issues that are important.”

Email Abigail Weinberg at aweinberg@nyunews.com.

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Moon believes in standing in solidarity with other communities on campus, and she uses her writing as activism. When she writes profiles, she types quickly and without looking at the keyboard, her eyes locked on her subject and her cool, calm demeanor leaving the interviewee at ease.

CADENCE DANIELS

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Engineering Inclusivity Through STEM

“Cadence is very proactive in basically everything she does. She takes it upon herself to partake in the development of NSBE members and ensures that everyone is always included. On top of that, she’s also a very loyal and supportive friend.

She’s always optimistic, inclusive and looking to mentor others.”

Rosa Batres

Maddie Howard, Sports Editor Cadence Daniels is iridescent. She is the definition of poise. When the students at the National Society of Black Engineers Executive Board meeting address their leadership, it is clear they’re looking directly at Daniels for approval.

As their president, she listens attentively to their ideas and then talks them in a logical way to make those ideas a reality. She likes to ensure everyone’s voice is heard, and she’s transparent about the fact that she does not like when people are dismissive of or belittle another member’s ideas. When one board member interrupts another, she steps in to make sure that they can finish expressing their thoughts.

“Those are my babies — that’s my family,” Daniels said of the NSBE members. “How I like to put it is this: we try to get people to graduate, pass their classes and get a job at the same time, keeping you woke as possible in the process.”

At the end of each meeting, the group stands and recites its mission statement, which members must memorize. This mission statement stresses tenets such as increasing “the number of culturally responsible black engineers” who “positively impact the community.” It is apparent that Daniels is dedicated to following through with those standards, as she is passionate about elevating her peers, especially because black students are vastly underrepresented across all majors in in the Tandon School of Engineering.

“We do a lot of professional workshops, we take people to our conferences and we do academic workshops,” she said. “We work with high school and middle school chapters. And then we have more culturally aware events. We’ll talk about what does it mean to be black in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics industry, or where issues are in the STEM industry right now.”

Rosa Batres, president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engi-

neers and close friend, emphasized Daniels’ commitment to NSBE and to the development of each individual society member.

“Cadence is very proactive in basically everything she does,” Batres said. “She takes it upon herself to

19 fields, while also educating others on the importance of understanding diversity — or the term she likes to use, “difference.”

Frank Rimalovski, executive director at the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute, can attest to Daniels’ cal-

“So many of us have childhoods to recover from, and patience in your recovery is a big part, and I think the biggest one is patience with yourself.”

Cadence Daniels

partake in the development of NSBE members and ensures that everyone is always included. On top of that, she’s also a very loyal and supportive friend. She’s always optimistic, inclusive and looking to mentor others.”

A Tandon senior, Daniels studies Integrated Digital Media with a concentration in Interaction Design and Ethics in Engineering, while also minoring in Computer Science.

Upon graduation in 2018, she will be joining the Digital Technology Leadership Program at General Electric Digital. She plans to utilize this new position as a way to increase diversity for minorities in STEM fields.

Daniels works to improve female representation as well. As the Women of Entrepreneurship cofounder, NYU’s first campus-wide student group for female entrepreneurs partnered with the Leslie eLab, she wants to transform women’s experience in technology-based

culated work ethic and her ability to immerse herself in communities of innovation at NYU. “She’s a star,” Rimalovski said.

“When she was a freshman she was just like how she is today. Her freshman year she volunteered for a Hackathon that was bitcoin-themed.

I met her that night and I was really surprised to find out she was a freshman because she was so helpful and engaging. After that night, I suggested she get more involved in the Leslie eLab, which was new at that time. We were particularly interested in getting students from Tandon to form a bridge between the two campuses.”

Since then, Rimalovski and Daniels have formed a close relationship, as Daniels went on to intern at the eLab that same year. Rimalovski said that Daniels is present at the institute so often that people would think she lives around the block.

Daniels explained that her dedication toward making life easier for minorities stems from her upbringing as an African-American and Kenyan child.

“I come from an immigrant family,” Daniels said. “They moved here from Kenya very shortly before I was born. My mom was the oldest child, and they moved to Minnesota, which has a very high refugee population.”

She described her family as nomadic, moving around the United States to support each other throughout her childhood. She never attended the same school for more than two years, until coming to NYU. Because she considers herself not to be bi-racial, but rather to be multi-ethnic, Daniels noted that coming to terms with the two identities has been a lifelong process.

“It’s an immigrant thing,” she said.

“What happens when you’re in a family that moves from a country and you start to raise your children, many things can decrease their level of authenticity to their culture. So whether or not you pass down the language, whether or not they are multicultural, whether or not they are born in that country, how often do they go back if at all. But if you don’t have any of those things, the old school people in the culture don’t necessarily accept you as one of them. They see you as the Americanized version.”

Ultimately, what is special about Daniels is her ability to merge her multiple creative and technological talents into bettering the world for people like herself. Daniels said that others looking to find their identity in society or trying to achieve similar accomplishments as a minority student must be patient.

“So many of us have childhoods to recover from, and patience in your recovery is a big part,” Daniels said.

“And I think the biggest one is patience with yourself.”

Email Maddie Howard at mhoward@nyunews.com.

Staff photo by Corey Rome

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“I would use the word student leader with Jackson, but I don’t know that Jackson is someone who really identifies as a student leader. But that’s what makes Jackson so special.”

Zach Harrell

Staff photo by Anna Letson

JACKSON TISI

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Visionary Leader Miranda Levingston, News Editor As 450 people gathered in front of his camera, Jackson Tisi, in his signature way, focused his lens on others. Like he’d done many times before — as the media captain of the Welcome Week Student Leadership Team, as a freelance filmmaker and as a creative collaborator — he gave people the space to let their own stories shine.

“I try to do my best to represent these complex stories that usually are about someone’s entire life in what is typically an eight-minute film,” Tisi said. “It is a challenge I try to embrace.”

Having grown up in Wyoming, Tisi was 12 years old when he made his first video of his brother skiing because the price of ski gear was expensive — if Tisi and his brother wanted to keep skiing during the winter months, they would need to a brand to sponsor them. Tisi’s short films, highlighting his brother’s cinematic jumps and slaloms, landed him a sponsorship from a ski gear brand that allowed both of them to ski throughout winter.

“By virtue of growing up in a small town and wanting to make videos, I was one of the only people my age who wanted to do that, so I had to do everything myself,” Tisi said. “From conceptualizing something to shooting it and editing it, it was all on me just learning how to do all of that.”

Tisi, who wanted to stay in New York during the summer after his sophomore year, took a position as the media captain of the Welcome Week Student Leadership Team in order to obtain free housing. Tisi has done this job two years in a row now, and each year he oversees a team of 30 students.

“I got to work in an office with really great people and it was a way for me to be able to stay in New York City,” Tisi said. “I guess I did a good enough job the first year, and so they asked me to come back and do it again.”

Zach Harrell, associate director for

NYU Student Life and director of Welcome Week programs in the office, said that Tisi might not embody the archetype of a student leader, but he exerts his influence in equally meaningful ways.

“Jackson is very down to earth and relaxed in regards to the way that he approaches life in general,” Harrell said. “When you think ‘Welcome Week leader,’ you often think ra-ra student, so I think having Jackson as a strong member of our leadership team really solidifies what we always say — that there is

“The moment when I watched him film and then the moment we sat down in my office with all of the footage of the day were just amazing, and I’ll remember it for years to come,” Harrell said.

“I was like, ‘Jackson, this is amazing, this is way more than we envisioned,’ and he was like, ‘Oh, it’s OK.’ He’s very humble about the work that he does.”

That video got over 100,000 views on YouTube.

“What I found the most rewarding for Welcome Week wasn’t the hype videos

“I try to do my best to represent these complex stories that usually are about someone’s entire life in what is typically an eight-minute film. It is a challenge I try to embrace.”

Jackson Tisi

no single kind of successful leader.”

Harrell said Tisi was in his element when he directed a 450-person dance video shoot in Washington Square Park as part of the “hype video” that Tisi created to welcome the class of 2021 to campus this fall.

but working with a team of my peers and learning how to take a leadership role,” Tisi said.

Harrell said Tisi is a comfortable leader and epitomizes the idea that there really is no one type of person who can get involved.

“Jackson would spend time early in the morning till late hours in the night sitting down with each student leader in his team to get a better understanding of what they hope to get out of the role,” Harrell said. “Jackson offered advice on tangible media skills like how to edit, how to film and how to shoot.”

Since his first snowboarding video, he’s worked on human interest documentaries, experimental music videos and branded content for various employers. He uses his video skills to shed light on inspirational stories.

One of the documentaries that Tisi filmed recently is titled “Mr. Impossible” and tells the story of Richard Murray, a Stern School of Business alumnus who lost his mother to pancreatic cancer and was orphaned when he was 12 years old. Murray, who now works on Wall Street, started Haymakers for Hope, a boxing match which fundraises for cancer research.

He made this video for the Breakout foundation — a startup organization that empowers non-profit leaders and entrepreneurs.

“I’m very politically-minded, and so documentary work is kind of a way — at least in today’s climate where people can’t even seem to argue the same facts anymore — to tell a story,” Tisi said.

“It’s hard for people to dispute or interrupt a documentary — they kind of just have to watch the whole thing and [they] kind of can’t really dispute someone’s life experience.”

Tisi may not be a traditional leader, but his uniqueness is what makes him effective.

“I would use the word student leader with Jackson, but I don’t know that Jackson is someone who really identifies as a student leader,” Harrell said. “But that’s what makes Jackson so special.”

Email Miranda Levingston at mlevingston@nyunews.com.

22

Sayer Devlin, News Editor Ananditha Raghunath obsesses over learning. She often takes classes with professors who are known to be exceptionally difficult and wants to someday earn a doctorate. She talks a mile a minute and is constantly in awe of the world around her.

“Recently, I’ve been reckoning with the fact that we’re given so much opportunity to pick up books and read and learn and do all this insane stuff,” Raghunath said.

“I think that education is like the craziest thing. It means so much to me, and the people who don’t have the opportunity to be educated never realize how much the human mind is capable of.”

Raghunath started attending Kumon — a popular math tutoring network — at 3 years old, and though she initially didn’t like it (as it turns out, not many 3-yearolds enjoy math), she eventually learned to love math and problem solving.

“I just love sitting down and solving problems,” Raghunath said. “Though it can be excruciating at times, there’s a beauty in precision.”

Raghunath is a Computer Science and Math double major, and she plans on minoring in Molecular Biology as well.

Her friends and mentors laud her work ethic. She works 30 hours a week to support herself as an NYU College Leader, a grader for an NYU computer science class and a teaching assistant for a graph theory class taught to minority and low-income high school students through the Courant Institute’s Center for Mathematical Talent. Yet she still manages to get a good night’s sleep.

“Ana is an unusual student,” Raghunath’s mentor and former Professor of Computer Science Joanna Klukowska said. “She does more things than I can imagine any person

doing in a course of a week. She’s generally not afraid of a challenge — she has taken very hard courses with very hard professors.”

On top of striving for excellence in her studies, Raghunath is the co-president

to know how to code already. You feel like you’re ages behind all these people who had AP [Computer Science] in high school and you feel imposter syndrome-y being a woman in technology, and you

“I care a lot about other people having these opportunities because I very easily could have been someone without opportunity.”

Ananditha Raghunath

and founder of BUGS. Explicitly, BUGS is an open source software development club that aims to bring learning opportunities to NYU students who are just beginning to code. Open source software is at the heart of BUGS’ mission. All the code for its projects is published on the web, available to anyone who wants to use it, study it or suggest an edit. BUGS is a step toward the utopian world technologists aspire to create, by modeling how diverse groups of people should work and collaborate together.

“I never coded before college,” Raghunath said. “I wasn’t good at it, but I really liked it and I was so intimidated by the fact that everyone around me seemed

wonder how you’re going to catch up to all these people.”

She has had first-hand experience with the difficulties that women face in the tech industry. Last summer, Raghunath worked on a cybersecurity team for a bank where her fellow interns would constantly ‘mansplain’ to her. Co-workers would refer to their wives as their ball and chain, Raghunath said.

“It’s become the norm,” Raghunath.

“And to change that, it will take forever.

But it’s the fight we all have to fight.”

Steinhardt junior MacKenna Alvarez, one of Raghunath’s best friends, extolled Raghunath’s altruism.

“She’s getting a computer science de-

gree and she can’t imagine using it for something that didn’t better the lives of other people,” Alvarez said.

Although thinking about the dynamics of inclusion in science, technology, engineering and math was never her goal in creating BUGS, it has quietly become an important part of the club. At the last meeting of the semester, two-thirds of the attendees were women and most were people of color.

“Modeling that [positive culture] is really important because that’s how people will know to recognize when something is wrong,” Raghunath said “The environment is poisoned but if you’ve never experienced anything else you just assume it’s normal.”

BUGS serves as a remedy to the exclusive culture of tech. The club is not only a place where anyone can learn to code but also an informal network where people can get insider information about the industry. The last meeting of the semester, for example, featured someone who works at Microsoft presenting on how to get a job in the tech industry.

Having grown up with a mother who was unable to attend medical school and instead got married and had a family, Raghunath knows the importance of taking advantage of any and all opportunities. She wants to repay all she has been given by unlocking others’ potentials.

“I have a lot of role models and a lot of them are my teachers and my educators,” Raghunath said. “I care a lot about other people having these opportunities because I very easily could have been someone without opportunity.”

Email Sayer Devlin

at sdevlin@nyunews.com.

ANANDITHA RAGHUNATH Coding a Better Future

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“She’s getting a computer science degree and she can’t imagine using it for something that didn’t better the lives of other people.”

MacKenna Alvarez

AMANDA LAWSON 24

Shaping the Law Jemima McEvoy, Managing Editor There is something to be said about the kind of person who can manage to drag 19 college students from their beds to Queens at 4 a.m. on a hazy, frosty Saturday morning.

CAS junior Amanda Lawson stood at the center of the Broome Street Residential College study lounge, wearing a “Close Rikers” T-shirt, which was on brand for the Public Policy major. Everyone stopped and listened as she began mapping out the logistics for the day. We were to volunteer at the annual Queens Half Marathon to help raise money for the Bronx Bail Fund — an organization that Lawson interns for and a cause she feels passionately about.

After receiving a grant through Broome Residential College during her sophomore year to get more NYU students involved with the BBF and the criminal justice system at large, Lawson co-founded the Dollar Bail Brigade. This organization coordinates volunteers to go to New York City jails and post $1 bail for people who are only incarcerated because of a system glitch. Her interest in bail reform specifically was circumstantial, but she said that aspects of the justice system that unfairly target low-income people resonate with her because of her own low-income background and her father’s extensive history with the justice system.

“A tie to it is being a low-income person — bail uniquely targets people who don’t have money,” Lawson said.

“Bail is something that I sort of stumbled on as far as an issue. But when I analyze it, it’s something that’s important to me and it’s something that is affecting people of color and people without means; people who already

don’t have the resources they need are then being sent to jail.”

She was exposed to the biases of the criminal justice system at a painfully young age. When she was 6 years old, her mother, who was in the hospital getting treatment and was going to be released in a few weeks, was given a fatal overdose of medicine by a doctor. She died in her sleep. Lawson’s family filed lawsuits against the hos-

great success with. The DBB has freed 65 people, mostly from Rikers Island, and the organization also helped pass a law through New York City Council addressing the issue of correction officers not checking their fax machines regularly enough — an oversight which can keep people incarcerated for longer than they should be.

But her advocacy extends well beyond the bounds of the DBB. On

“She’s somebody who is not only empathetic, but she is somebody who takes the empathy and does something with it.”

Tom Ellett

pital, the drug manufacturer and the doctor, but her family couldn’t afford a good lawyer. The autopsy report was lost, a messy legal battle ensued and the hospital won.

“Obviously I didn’t right then and there know that I wanted to be a lawyer, but it shaped who I was,” Lawson said.

Human error massively impacted her life, but now she works to prevent similar injustices from happening to others — ­ something she’s had

campus, she is an organizer for NYU Dream and the Incarceration to Education Coalition, a Policy and Activism chair for the Governance Council of Minority and Marginalized Students, a CAS college leader and an alumni relations coordinator for the AnBryce Scholarship for low-income, first generation college students — a scholarship which she also receives.

All of her time is dedicated to others.

“She’s somebody who is not only empathetic, but she is somebody who

takes the empathy and does something with it,” Senior Vice President of Student Affairs Tom Ellett said.

Ellett has watched Lawson grow and change over her time at NYU — from when she was a candidate for the AnBryce Scholarship visiting the school during Weekend at the Square to a confident and incredibly talented woman. Noticing Lawson’s academic and extracurricular capabilities, Ellett recommended that she apply for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship.

She is a now an NYU finalist for the Truman process, which is one of the most competitive scholarships in the United States for students who want to work in public service.

Lawson is a private person who works quietly and effectively, often behind the scenes. She doesn’t tell her story or talk about the challenges that rock her to the core. She doesn’t complain or brag. She simply does.

Ellett said that although he has seen her come more and more into the limelight, her fundamental nature has not changed.

“It’s a tough place,” Ellett said of NYU. “It can be easy to be invisible here, and I think some people choose to be visible by being loud, and others choose to be visible by doing things that bring visibility. She has been able to do that. She hasn’t changed that piece of her. I don’t find her to be an influential loud leader; she’s one of those people who does it because it’s the right thing to do, not because there is praise to be given back after it.”

Email Jemima McEvoy at jmcevoy@nyunews.com.

“Bail is something that I sort of stumbled on as far as an issue. But when I analyze it, it’s something that’s important to me and it’s something that is affecting people of color and people without means; people who already don’t have the resources they need are then being sent to jail.”

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Amanda Lawson

Photos by Jemima McEvoy

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violet vision MICHAELA HOFFMAN the highlighter ANUBHUTI KUMAR under the arch GEORGE HAJJAR

ADVERTISING Business Manager RHEA NAYAK Sales Manager ALISON RAO Circulations Manager DEVIN PADILLA Creative Director, W Media Group BRIAN CHRISTENSEN-ZAPIECKI Content Specialist, W Media Group ALEX HANSON University Sales Manager MAKENA MUELLER Senior Graphic Designer VIKAS NAIR Sales Representative ELISE BIRKETT, ALLISON LAMBDIN Sales Associates APOORVA NORI

ADVISING Director of Operations NANCI HEALY Editorial Adviser RACHEL HOLLIDAY SMITH Editors-at-Large HAILEY NUTHALS, KATHERINE PLATZ, RACHEL RUECKER, HANNAH SHULMAN, GRACE HALIO, GABRIELLA BOWER

About WSN: Washington Square News (ISSN 15499389) is the student newspaper of New York University. WSN is published in print on Mondays and throughout the week online during NYU’s academic year, except for university holidays, vacations and exam periods.

Corrections: WSN is committed to accurate reporting. When we make errors, we do our best to correct them as quickly as possible.

If you believe we have erred, contact the managing editors at managing@nyunews.com or at 212.998.4302

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