Let me tell you a few things about myself

who am i? quién soy?

I’m a first-generation Latina who was born and raised in Salinas, California. I’m finishing up my last year at UC Berkeley where I’m pursuing degrees in Cognitive and Computer Science with an Entrepreneurship certificate. I consider myself a tech eclectic, racial equity advocate, designer, engineer, actress, and storyteller among other things.

I have a deep sense of purpose in redesigning systems (i.e. systems of oppression) through a compassion-based design thinking approach. While I continue to grow in terms of what I know about systemic action, personal lived experiences and my involvement in organizations like CODE2040 and H.E.S. have given me foundational understandings of tackling racial equity issues in academia and the tech industry.

I hope to create further systemic change centered around racial equity to transform spaces so that Black/Latinx people feel empowered and can live fulfilled lives.

My 3 values are community, compassion, and courage.

Throughout my life journey, and specifically during college, I’ve learned about the power of vulnerability, and how bringing this characteristic into spaces transforms the relationships we can have. I believe that having the courage to be open-hearted, curious, and reflective can have positive impacts in creating community.

Community-oriented frameworks have transformed the way I view the world and believe that compassion and empathy-forward thinking when trying to understand existing societal, product, and feature issues are all related because they seek to expose differences between us - based on privilege, access, and resources - and remedy them through a systemic level approach.