608 W.

45th Street
Chicago, IL 60609
(312) 522-1256
ballesterosjourno@gmail.com

February 28, 2017

Student Action Communications Fellow

Peoples Action Institute
810 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60642

Dear Aija Nemer-Aanerud,

As a high school student, I was very politically minded and social justice
oriented. I imagined college as a welcoming hub of like-minded individuals
ready to tackle the worlds injustices through class discussions and the
occasional protest. What I found was much different. My small,
predominantly white and extremely affluent liberal arts college waswell,
rich and white. As a first-generation college student from the south west side
of Chicago, the luxuries afforded to my fellow students were absurd and
discomforting. Every day was a constant battle of reminding myself that my
manicured campus was not the real world, and that injustices were still
taking place both in and out of the campus confines.

The activist circles I gravitated towardsIDEAS, an immigrant group,

Empowered Latinxs in Action, and otherswere small but lifesaving. My
peers and I would organize meetings and discuss how to best improve
campus life for other working class and minority students like us. It was
nothing earth shattering, but, at that moment, stuck in a world so foreign
from ours, the work meant the world to all of us.

It is with that understanding that I would approach my duties as a

communications intern for Student Action. Growing and connecting student
organizing circles from across the countryparticularly those divorced from
big-city movementsis vital in our fight against President Donald Trump and
the threat to democracy itself he represents. My writing, editing, and
organizing experience is extensive, as my resume will show, and my social
media feeds are filled with semi-viral posts of my creation as well as an
assortment of the best political memes around.

Thank you for your consideration and I hope to hear back from you soon,

Carlos Ballesteros