Welcome our spring 2016 NY Union Semester class!

Andrew Brockwell

Born and raised on Long Island, Andrew is a recently graduate of SUNY Old Westbury with a degree in Labor Relations. Ambitious and intelligent, he is joining the Union Semester program to gain insight and experience in working for a union and learn how, as institutions, unions can change public policy.

Claire Edwards

Claire Edwards is a fourth generation settler on Treaty 6 (Cree) territory in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She’s taking a year away from her studies at the University of Alberta in Political Science and Women and Gender Studies to intern in the US. This fall, she spent the semester at NARAL Pro-Choice America in Washington, DC where she interned in the development department. There, she saw the connection between the fight for reproductive rights and the fight for workers rights, and decided to apply for Union Semester to become a more effective organizer. Claire is excited to learn about the current state of the labor movement in the US and apply that knowledge to her work in Canada. 

Alexia Filpo

An undergraduate at CUNY Hunter College majoring in Political Science, minoring in Environmental Studies, Alexia’s goals include getting the Certificate in Labor Studies offered at the Murphy Institute, finishing her BA and obtaining a union job within the public sector, preferably as a sanitation worker, or working anywhere and creating a union! She is a member of the CUNY Internationalist Clubs at Hunter College and wants to work with a union that is aware of its own history and that knows its power, one that wants youth and all sectors of the working class to join in its struggle; a union that wants to tear-up FRIEDRICHS V. CALIFORNIA, among other laws that repress workers; a union that knows the plight of its black and immigrant brothers and sisters, and one that connect the struggles internationally.

Jonah Furman

Jonah was born in Chicago and raised in Evanston, IL. He went to college in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins, and studied philosophy and literature. He then moved to Boston and was in a touring band for four years, which traveled the US and Europe. He then moved to New York and interned at the Street Vendor Project, a workers center for NYC street vendors. He’s interested in radical approaches to work and wages (basic income, work refusal) and the histories of those approaches.

Isaac High

Raised in Maine, Isaac High is interested primarily in labor history and political economy, which he studies at Sarah Lawrence College (along with a few other things). Labor, union history, and challenges facing working people have been long standing interests of his. Through Union Semester, he hopes to expand his focus on this history and apply a general understanding to more specific and pressing issues. He would love to always be working with organized labor in some capacity.

Drew Picklyk

Drew graduated from Concordia University in Montréal with a B.F.A in Film and History. A Toronto native, he has spent the last 5 years studying/working and then living/working in Québec. He’s greatly interested in analyzing the current state of labor as it functions in one of the the world’s economic capitals. Through this, he hopes to raise his awareness of of wage / wealth inequality and apply any learned remedies to his future pursuits in life. He is excited to be living in a new country and hopes his outside perspective will expose him to variety of issues he hadn’t previously been aware of.

Valeria Pinzon-Mendez

Originally from the big and beautiful city of Bogota, Colombia, Valeria moved to Glastonbury, CT when she was 14 years old. She is now a sophomore at the University of Vermont majoring in Community and International Development. She was motivated to join CUNY Union Semester to have an opportunity to learn more about worker’s rights and struggles. She hopes to be an effective advocate for workers and most of all immigrant workers.

Afsana Rahman

Afsana is a junior at Hunter College majoring in Sociology. She was born and raised in New York City. Her parents are from Bangladesh and she has two siblings. Her interests are social inequality, race, intersectionality, and gender studies. At New York Union Semester she would like to learn more about the history of the Labor Movement in the United States and would also like to learn different ways to support worker’s rights. She hopes to gain a better understanding of how labor organizations function and how they support millions of workers throughout the world and especially in New York City.

Amanda Trainor

After completing her B.A. in International Relations and Spanish, Amanda Trainor has spent the last few years in Brooklyn advocating for adults diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. She recently trained as a birth doula to support families and she is passionate about crafting as a form of activism. New to labor organizing, Amanda feels motivated to learn first-hand how the labor movement can promote leadership for women and minorities and ultimately strengthen communities. She is excited to roll up her sleeves and become a more well-rounded activist by getting involved in the new experiences that Union Semester will offer.