Melody Her

Melody Gao Shua Her is a driven and inspired 3rd year student interning at St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce this Spring 2023. She’s pursuing her degree at St. Catherine University double majoring in Political Science and Economics with a minor in Criminal Justice Studies. Between 2020-2023, Melody has served as her freshman + junior class representative and External Affairs chair for St. Kate’s student senate, volunteered as a special-education paraprofessional at Community of Peace Academy, and worked as the community-engaged learning student coordinator at St. Kate’s Office of Community Work and Learning. Passionate in social justice, art, education, environment, and criminal justice reform, Melody is extremely excited to be a part of the 2023 Capital Pathways cohort this semester as it is an incredible opportunity for her to share her passions with other young, local change-makers, and challenge her knowledge and skills in social justice and government.

Karla Alarcon

Rashaunea Ambers Winston

Rashaunea is a first-generation college student and has received her Associate of Liberal Arts Degree from Dougherty Family College, and was rewarded a full-ride scholarship to continue her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of St. Thomas. Rashaunea is currently a senior majoring in Sociology with a Business Administration minor. She became an Orientation Leader during her second year of college to help mentor and welcome the incoming Freshman. She is passionate about fighting for social justice, racial equality, and the quality of education. And she is using her voice to make a difference in her community through poetry. Rashaunea has created a website called rawlifepoetey.com to express how it feels to be Black in America and to talk about the many forms of issues and injustices, such as police brutality, gun violence, and the education system which impacts her community. She is the poet for a social justice book called Lake Street Speaks which highlights the art that was created during the George Floyd Uprising. Rashaunea has also read her poetry in multiple schools and community events to inspire change. She applied for the Capital Pathways internship because of recent interests in policymaking and wants to make a difference by changing the built-in institutional racism. Rashaunea is a curious and passionate individual who strives to innovate the world.

Olaitan Olanrewaju

Olaitan Olanrewaju is a third-year student at University of Minnesota Twin-Cities. She is currently studying Strategic Communications (with an emphasis on Advertising and Public Relations) and English. Previously, she has interned at Saint Paul City Council and the Minnesota Department of Revenue. On campus, she serves as the treasurer for student organization Black Motivated Women and the outreach officer for the Fellowship of Undergraduate Students in English. She applied for Capitol Pathways after learning of the program from her sister, who was a member of a previous cohort. Through Capitol Pathways, she was paired with YWCA. She hopes to gain experience in public policy and strengthen her knowledge of the legislative process through this experience.

Moses Yazachew

Layssa Pena

Padra Lor

Jesus Gonzalez Ruiz

Jesus is a second-year student studying finance and accounting in Concordia College at Moorhead. He is thankful for receiving the Act Six Scholarship and other Concordia scholarships to become a first-generation debt free college student.

At Concordia College, Jesus serves as the President of the Latinx Organization for Achievement and the Chair of the Career Readiness Board. Each organization aims at creating a community of thoughtful and informed students, one through the lens of cultural bonding and other through career preparation. Outside of Concordia College, Jesus enjoys visiting his old high school to discuss the college process and offer some guidance in scholarship searching. Jesus finds interest in creating pieces of artwork, listening to videos of history, and visiting different locations.

When it comes to Capital Pathways, Jesus received an email asking to forward this program to other members of his clubs but after receiving questions from those members he found himself intrigued by the program. After overcoming some fear of rejection because of his lack of professional experience, he set sometime early in the morning, and applied. He wrote the best resume he could and responded with the most honest answers. A few weeks later here he is.

Salma Ibrahim

Salma Ibrahim is a senior at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She is majoring in Developmental Psychology with minors in Neuroscience and Public Health. For the past three years, Salma has been involved in academic research in psychology and related fields, with the most relevant work on a global health intervention for black immigrant youth to address unhealthy messages in food advertising.

Outside her schoolwork, Salma has volunteered with under-resourced primary school students at after-school homework programs in the Twin Cities metro area. Moreso, Salma receives the most fulfillment in mentoring high school students, underclassmen, and peers through research-intensive programs and peer mentoring to empower them to consider and even pursue research opportunities and graduate careers in their futures. Through interning at the Capitol Pathways Program, she hopes to learn how child and adolescent psychology research can assist policy work and vice versa.

Idil Dirie

Idil is studying public health and pursuing a career in medicine. Public health and medicine are important and rewarding fields that play a vital role in improving the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Studying public health has provided Idil, a strong foundation in the principles and practices of population-based health, including how to identify and address public health issues, prevent and control diseases, and promote health equity. Idil is passionate about having a career in medicine that can involve conducting research, or working in policy change, and advocacy.

Safiya Mohamed

Safiya Mohamed is a junior at the University of St. Thomas. She is studying Strategic Communications and double minoring in Justice & Peace Studies and Theology. Safiya has previously served as a reporter for her St. Thomas’s digital news website and is currently a member of her school’s Public Relations Student Society of America chapter. In her spare time, she volunteers with ThreeSixty Journalism, a local youth-media group. She is interested in diversity & inclusion work and fostering spaces of belonging. Safiya was placed at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for Capitol Pathways. 

Abby Adegeye

Abby Adegeye is a 4th year student at Augsburg University and is studying Sociology with a minor in Urban Studies. Abby decided to apply to Capital Pathways because she never saw this opportunity to be a part of something and someone who helps make important decisions in places she lives and is a part of. So Abby thought why wouldn’t she apply and learn something new and gain lifelong skills. Abby is proud to say her host organization is the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. Abby enjoys everything about equity, youth focus, and advocacy for minority groups, so much that she hopes to start her own non profit for African American boys one day!

Alexis Prathammanon

Alexis is originally from Schaumburg, IL and now attends Macalester College in St. Paul Minnesota. She is a second-year at Macalester College majoring in Economics and Political Science. On campus, she helps lead BIPOC organizations to not only create a welcoming space but also to promote different cultural aspects to other students on campus. She is excited to begin her work with Fredrikson & Bryon as a Capitol Pathways intern. Currently, she works as an Attorney Program Assistant at Southern Minnesota Legal Services. Her long-term goal is to attend law school to uplift BIPOC voices and make her community a better place.

Micah Coatie

Micah is a second-year student at Saint Paul College. Micah is a semester away from finishing his AA and is planning on majoring in accounting/finance. Growing up as an African American male, Micah realized the power of understanding financial literacy and the barriers that people create for themselves by not understanding the options they have at their disposal. Micah hopes that by learning more about financial literacy and teaching it; he can help end the cycle of wealth disparity. Micah has been a vital part of the fight against homelessness as a program supervisor at the non-for-profit Homeless shelter Avivo village. Avivo Village is one of the first in the country to practice harm reduction on such a large scale. Their motto is “meeting them where they’re at,” which is this new shelter’s primary focus and goal. Micah hopes that the Capitol Pathway’s internship will help him understand legislative processes to get the curriculum he believes should be taught in all schools at every educational level. With this education spreading to students across all demographics, Micah hopes this can help bridge the gap between the wealth disparity in our country.

Sharon Izuora

Joana Acosta-Palmeros

Joana is a highly motivated and engaged student at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where she is completing a double major in Political Science and Communications with a focus on Public Relations. She is deeply committed to creating a more inclusive and equitable community and has demonstrated this through her leadership as co-founder and Vice President of Club Access–a student organization dedicated to supporting BIPOC students and driving positive change at Concordia. In addition to her academic pursuits, Joana is an Act Six Scholar and actively volunteers her time and expertise to causes that align with her passion for policy and justice.

Joana is excited to join the internship program at the Office of the Legislative Auditor through Capitol Pathways and is looking forward to meeting and collaborating with other interns. She is eager to develop professional skills such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving, and is confident that this experience will provide her with valuable opportunities to learn and grow. As an intern at Minnesota’s Office of The Legislative Auditor, Joana is particularly excited to have the opportunity to work on important and impactful projects, contribute to the organization’s mission of promoting transparency and accountability in government, and gain insight into the inner workings of the legislative process.

Amanda Nogueira Moreira de Souza

Amanda is a second-year student at Macalester College, where she is pursuing a double major in Political Science and Environmental Studies. She is an international student from Brazil and a United World College (UWC) ISAK Japan alumna. Both in Brazil and Japan, she actively participated in movements for social change, being a member of Black Movements in Brazil, and founding a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee at UWC. At Macalester, Amanda is the DEI coordinator at Adelante, a student organization dedicated to increasing awareness and appreciation of U.S. Latina/o, Chicana/o and Latin American culture, politics, and society. She is also currently the Access and Equity Fellow at Macalester’s Career Exploration department and has volunteered at Rondo Library and Hallie Q. Brown Community Center.

During the summer of 2022, Amanda was awarded a full scholarship to research marine plastics and learn about policymaking, on a one-month-long sailing trip from Hawaii to California. She also interned at Instituto Marielle Franco, in Brazil, working to empower Black women in politics. These opportunities sparked Amanda’s interest in environmental, racial, and social policies, being the reason why she decided to apply to Capitol Pathways, where she will have the opportunity to gain further knowledge on policymaking while sharing experiences with and learning from other BIPOC students.

Shelley Pacheco

Jack Peng

Jack is currently a senior at Macalester College majoring in Political Science and International Studies with a minor in Japanese. Born in Taipei, Taiwan and spending most of his schooling years in the Los Angeles area, Jack came to Minnesota for college, having the pleasure to experience one of Minnesota’s coldest winters in decades his first year here. Jack’s career interests lie in public policy and foreign service.

Having lived and experienced life in many different and diverse communities, Jack is interested in learning about new cultures and ideas from people of different backgrounds. He is also eager to expand Asian representation in US politics. These reasons motivated him to apply for the Capitol Pathways program. Outside of academics, Jack loves traveling and playing music. He is an ensemble manager for the Macalester College Wind Symphony and a former performer with MBI Indoor Percussion.

Mena Feleke

Mena is currently a sophomore at Macalester College majoring in Political Science and minoring in Economics. She plans on attending law school with the hopes of being an immigration lawyer or doing work in public policy and service.

Mena is passionate about community engagement and empowerment as reflected by the various programs and organizations that she works with. She is currently completing an internship as a Teaching Fellow and College Bound Coordinator with Breakthrough Minneapolis at Blake–a college access and postsecondary success program. She is also participating in Lives of Commitment, a pre-orientation program for freshmen at Macalester that focuses on civic engagement. Mena completed the program as a freshman and now serves as a Sophomore Leader. Through Lives of Commitment, she volunteers at CommonBond, an affordable housing unit that offers various services for their residents. At CommonBond, she serves as a Teen Tutor for their Study Buddies program. Mena is also a Co-Leader of Women and Non-Binary Students in Economics, fulfilling Mena’s commitment to making the field of Economics a more accepting and inclusive environment. Mena is also a Student Advocate for the Minnesota Private College Council, where she has advocated in front of Minnesota Legislators about increasing funding for the Minnesota State Grant. As a Government Affairs Intern for Target, she hopes to expand her knowledge on the legislative process from the standpoint of a business and private entity.

Mena is excited to work with Capitol Pathways because she shares the program’s commitment and belief that our governments should be reflective of our population and issues are best solved by those experiencing them. As a woman of color, she is driven and focused on serving her community and applying the knowledge she learns in this internship to her future career endeavors.

Genesis Fernandez

Genesis is a junior at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. She is majoring in Global Studies with a concentration in Human Rights and minoring in Sociology & Chicano Latino Studies. Genesis plans to pursue a graduate degree in public policy or human rights where she can eventually pursue a career in which she can address and advocate for marginalized communities.  

Genesis is passionate about social justice and working with marginalized communities that are often ignored. Genesis works as a peer advisor in the MLK program, an academic advising and social justice education community. She helps support BIPOC undergraduate students with navigating academics and resources. Genesis is also a member of Sigma Lambda Gamma a multicultural sorority with historically based latina roots, Genesis strives to live by their deeply rooted principles of, cultural awareness, morals & ethics, community service, social interaction, and academics. Genesis believes that living by these principles she can help empower other women and positively influence the global community. Genesis applied for the Capitol Pathways program because she is eager to engage with capitol leaders, community members and cohort peers as this will be her first internship experience. Genesis hopes to learn more about the political processes, public policy and help advance her professional development. 

Anjali Muppidi

Anjali Muppidi (she/her and they/them) is a second year at UMN Twin Cities majoring in Environmental Science: Policy and Management. They will be interning with Fresh Energy in the spring semester. Anjali is interested in environmental justice and equity as well as learning languages; she is currently learning Korean and Japanese. Over the summer, Anjali was an intern in the IDEC program through Conservation Corps, and this upcoming summer they will be interning with the MPCA. They are super excited for the spring!

Zahra Jumani

Zahra is currently a senior at Macalester College planning to graduate Spring of 2023 with a major in Economics, a Statistics minor, and a concentration in Community and Global Health. She was born in Karachi, Pakistan, raised in the Chicago suburbs, and has a passion for working in economic development and equity.

Wiwin Suryani

Wiwin is a sophomore at St. Olaf College majoring in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations. She is highly passionate about diplomacy and international affairs, seeking every opportunity to expand her insights further about the world. She seeks to understand more about the US legislative system through the Capitol Pathways program, given its current hegemon status in which its political decisions could affect other countries to a large extent. She is a trilingual who continues to study Japanese following her experience going to Japan for high school and is keen to learn more languages in the future. She sees language as a door to myriad opportunities, particularly in diplomacy-related careers.

Aside from having three on-campus jobs: Japanese tutor, admission fellow, and library’s front desk–Wiwin has taken on a lot of leadership roles during her time in college. She is the current treasurer of the Muslim Student Association and has worked vigorously to push the agenda to give Muslim students more flexibility to embrace their identity and religious practices. She is also currently working with several other students to revive the Asian Studies in Action Club for students interested in discussing East Asia’s political, social, or cultural issues. In her freshman year, she volunteered for Northfield’s Community Action Center to help teach ESL to immigrants. Through her advocacy role in Capitol Pathways, she hopes to make a positive impact in the future.

Princess Gataud

When Princess was a junior in high school, she participated in a 6-week summer global exchange program to Germany. She is currently learning Chinese and will be participating in a fall semester exchange program to China in 2023. She loves traveling and believes language is a powerful tool. As a manager at CVS, Princess has learned the importance of communication and teamwork. As a team leader, Princess’ coworkers often come to her for help. During this leadership role she has found that an essential quality all leaders should have is the ability to listen. One of her greatest strengths is being able to listen. We learn more when we observe and just listen. By listening we can grasp situations’ quickly and come up with more efficient solutions.

Princess has a strong interest in social justice work. Believing in the importance of equal rights and diversity have led Princess to join various protests and movements such as the BLM movement and the MeToo movement. Attending protest after protest becomes hard, always fighting for the same things can become devastating, but Princess has learned to remain optimistic. There is always work to be done and while it may be hard sometimes it is really important to remain hopeful. Princess’ plan is to use the skills she has been inquiring over the past 3 years to one day become an international lawyer. As someone who has had to move due to oppressive governments, she wants to help other individuals around the world that are oppressed by the governments meant to protect them.

Princess applied to the Capitol Pathways because she believes this program can equip her with the necessary tools that will enhance her understanding of the legislative process and allow her to make meaningful connections with clients and policymakers.

Yusra Hassan

Priscilla Mayowa

Mariam Mikayelyan

Abshir Mohamed

Abshir Mohamed is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in accounting with a minor in finance at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He previously worked as an interim at the City of Minneapolis Department of Finance and Property Services and is now working at the Legislative Budget Office as part of the Capital Pathway program. He volunteered to serve as an election judge during the last primary election. Also, he volunteered for the Minnesota Music Educators Association through the NHCC honor program. These opportunities gave him a new appreciation for all that he has accomplished and will continue to accomplish. Being an interim with the Capital Pathways program allows him to continue working with his community while also improving his work skills. The Capital Pathway internship with the Legislative Budget Office is significant to him because it will allow him to broaden his work experience and education in leadership while also improving his business skills. The Capital Pathways Internship helps him achieve his leadership goals by educating him on different leadership styles as well as policy and policy-making processes. This spring, Abshir plans to broaden his knowledge by joining a Capital Pathways internship cohort.