Community organizing was a value instilled in me at a young age. When I was a teenager, I was a participant in almost all of Queens Community House's afterschool programs, including the first Access for Young Women cohort, a girls' leadership program.
I’ve lived in Kew Gardens all my life. My parents were German immigrants who moved to New York during the war. They spoke German and English with us children at home and French when they didn’t want us to understand. That’s what sparked my great love for languages.
I started attending St. Lukes in Forest Hills after my sister passed in 2002 . I joined in order to take my niece, who’d grown up going to church with her mom. I slowly got involved, first by joining the choir, then by joining the church’s outreach program.
Last Summer my friend asked me to go to a job fair with him. I already had a summer job lined up, so I tagged along for fun. I consider it kind of miraculous what happened next.
