Amanda Diaz

Managing a budget of more than $600,000 and overseeing a staff of more than 25 would be a daunting task for anyone, but for Amanda Díaz ‘18, it was simply a part of her Puget Sound experience and one that helped shape and inform her future career as an immigration lawyer. In fact, the experiences that she shaped for herself at Puget Sound uniquely prepared her to meet that goal.

In addition to serving as president of Associated Students of University of Puget Sound (ASUPS), Amanda founded Advocates for Detained Voices, a student-run club that visited the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma on Saturdays, and she had an integral role in contributing to Tacoma’s Immigrant and Refugee Task Force, which created a legal fund that supports immigrant detainees. Born and raised in San Mateo, Calif., she describes herself as an approachable person, driven by her passion for social justice. During her time at Puget Sound, she built up an impressive résumé of skills and experiences, as well as a reputation as a popular and effective change maker and leader.

Amanda was a trailblazer in the academic realm, too. Seeking an alternative field of study that would fit her career goals, she created a Special Interdisciplinary Major— a distinctive feature of the Puget Sound curriculum—that she called American Border Studies. It combined American Studies, Political Science, Latino/a Studies, and Sociology and Anthropology to explore the broad and complex topic of immigration.

Amanda’s cross-cultural and interdisciplinary academic interests led to an opportunity to do summer research with history professor Andrew Gomez. Speaking about his research partner, Andrew says, “One of the real strengths of Amanda’s work was her ability to provide a multifaceted snapshot of immigration detention in the United States. Using the Northwest Detention Center as the focus of her work, she was able to create an oral history series that underscored how this issue affects the lives of detainees, families, and grassroots activists who are looking to enact lasting change in the nation’s immigration system.

“I thought this was a good position to take on those issues on a larger and more institutional level.”

“Amanda focused on the issue of immigrant rights for nearly all of her education at University of Puget Sound, and her knowledge and connections to this issue allowed for a rich series that captured the complexity and nuances of immigrant detention.” Amanda’s culminating paper from that work, “The American Creed: Immigration and Detention in Tacoma,” earned a 2017 Summer Research Award.

Beyond the classroom and summer research, her work with Tacoma’s Task Force on immigration became a defining experience of Amanda’s college career. On campus, she served as president for Latinx Unidos, a student organization dedicated to advancing Latinx culture on campus. Her experience with Latinx Unidos influenced Amanda to run for ASUPS president.

As ASUPS president, Amanda served on a committee that guided the creation of Puget Sound’s strategic plan, the blueprint that outlines the major goals of the university over the coming decade.

When she started at Puget Sound, Amanda hadn’t envisioned herself in such an influential position. But when her friend and former ASUPS president Noah Lumbantobing ‘17, a politics and government major from Lake Oswego, Ore., approached her about running, she was persuaded to step up. “I always tried to find ways to make the campus safer and more inclusive for everyone,” she says, “so I thought it was a good position to take on those issues on a larger and more institutional level.” Her platform focused on the core values of student government at Puget Sound through the lens of equity and justice.

Andrew links Amanda’s academic research to her leadership role: “Amanda always looked to effect change, and her role as ASUPS President allowed her to pursue ideas and pathways that would lead to a more equitable, empathetic university. She was able to take the theoretical work she studied regarding social movements and political theory and put it into practice as ASUPS president.”

In this position, Amanda’s goal was to encourage students to think deeply about issues of social justice and to invite people who she says wouldn’t otherwise be having those conversations to participate in dialogues. Amanda says her deepest passion is “helping people, not only with finding their voices, their identities, and their passions, but also with being confident and proud of the persons they are.”

EQUITY, JUSTICE, COMMUNITY, TRANSPARENCY, VOICE:

ASSOCIATED STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND

Apart from being the college’s student council, ASUPS is Puget Sound’s hub of extracurricular activities on campus. Its executive board not only manages a large budget and staff, but it is also responsible for appointing student representatives to universitywide committees. These students work alongside faculty, staff, and administrators to make key decisions about campus operations.