Today’s show looks at a coalition to expand voting rights to immigrant residents in Boulder County, a project developed through the Puksta Scholars program at CU Boulder. The coalition is leading the movement to generate dialogues surrounding our country’s history of voting rights. Through their outreach, they will built the coalition even further to recruit volunteers for a ballot initiative in 2020, sustain our relationship with city council, and run focus groups within communities most impacted by this issue. The coalition strongly believes that every person deserves representation and the ability to make decisions on where they live. the show is hosted by Soraya Latiff who works for the Center for Community Based Research and Learning at CU Boulder. In her role at CU she works in storytelling for the Center and also worked as Project Manager for Puksta Scholars and had the pleasure of working closely with one of this episode’s guest, Emma Piller.
Emma Piller who grew up in Lafayette, Colorado and just graduated from CU Boulder this May with a degree in English and a minor in Spanish and Leadership. Immigrant rights has always been a passion of hers and she aspires to become an immigration attorney. In her time at CU she was a part of the Puksta Foundation Scholarship that promoted civic engagement through scholarships. Her Puksta project explored the immigrant experience in Boulder County and in her third year at CU, Emma and seven of her peers joined together to expand voting rights to residents without full citizenship. In 2017, Emma and the team created a coalition to work in the Boulder community with the intention of generating dialogue on what it means to practice citizenship. Gabo Ortiz-Peña graduated from CU Boulder with his masters in Astrophysics and has been involved with the coalition since December 2017. He was at the INVST kick-off event where they had some great conversations around voting rights, and from there he ended up joining the coalition. He has been mostly involved in organizational and planning work, but also did a bit of outreach last summer.
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AMPLIFY: Stories of University-Community Collaborations is a production of CU Engage, the Center for Community-Based Learning and Research at CU Boulder, in partnership with independent community radio KGNU. The show aims to amplify the voices of students and community partners who are working together to generate new knowledge and actions to address wicked public challenges.
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