Service

I maintain a longstanding commitment to creating more equitable realities for people of color and other marginalized identities in and out of the academy. Below are a few highlights of service activities I have been engaged in recently.

Volunteer Teaching Assistant, "Web Design I", Brave Behind Bars (June - Sept 2023) [More info]

Brave Behind Bars, based out of The Educational Justice Institute at MIT, is an online 12-week college-accredited introductory computer science and career-readiness program for incarcerated people. The curriculum teaches participants the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Topics include Bootstrap, flexbox, CSS grid, responsive design, branching statements, loops, and functions.

I was one of ~16 volunteer TAs for a course of approximately 70 students that are currently incarcerated in Massachusetts and D.C. My responsibilities included tasks such as:

  • Managing breakout rooms of 3-6 students to teach html, css and javascript concepts, debugging code, and project development
  • Attending lectures 1:00-3:00pm Tues and Thurs
  • Rubric development and student grading

Volunteer, Texas Prison Community Advocates (May 2023 - Present)

The Texas Prison Community Advocates (TPCA) works towards the advancement of humane conditions within the Texas Prisons by systematically addressing atrocities as informed by the those who have been directly impacted by the Texas Prison system.

As a volunteer with TPCA, my responsibilities have included:

  • Reading and synthesizing literature for the TPCA website
  • Analyzing data obtained via information requests from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
  • Developing figures and graphics for social media and advocacy

Grad Student Representative, Working Group on Reimagining Public Safety, MIT (2021 - 2022)

A working group of faculty, staff, and students was established to review how the MIT Police are used on campus and to determine whether there are alternative public safety models that could better address the needs and improve the experience and safety of the MIT community.

As a representative on the working group, my responsibilities have included participating in focus groups to gather student experiences about policing and analyzing data from focus groups, and making recommendations for the working group report.

Related to the working group, albeit not an official responsibility, I co-organized an educational community event about alternative public safety models that promote holisitc safety.