Jadeline is the newest addition to the PeopleFund team. As the Development and Communications Intern, she will assist the development staff with everything from grant research to fundraising logistics. In her four years at the University of Texas, she cultivated a deep interest in cultural studies and displaced communities in the urban context; these interests culminated into an Anthropology and Urban Studies degree, which she will be receiving this May. Her passion for social justice and equal opportunity did not arise from the pages of her textbooks, though. Growing up with a single, Vietnamese American mother in Houston, TX, she experienced the economic/political disadvantages and prejudices first-hand. It made sense to go to school for something she was already so personally invested in.
But enough about the serious stuff. When she’s not on-campus or studying at a coffee shop, she’s at 21st Street Co-op, where has lived for the past three years. Currently, she holds the Food Buyer position, feeding a house of 100 hungry and boisterous college students while managing a tight budget. Jadeline touts the cooperative housing model not only as a means for a healthy support system, but as a viable model for progressive sustainable living in a city. “It’s like living at summer camp.”
Jadeline is proud to live in a city like Austin and to work for an organization like PeopleFund.