Daniela Romo

I am a first generation college student, the first in my family to go to college, and come from a mixed status family of migrant farmworkers. I am from the Central Valley of California and have lived the majority of my life in Acampo, a rural agricultural area an hour south of Sacramento. The town primarily grows cherries and winegrapes. I was once a dental assistant straight out of high school and quit my job due to severe depression and an eating disorder. I then enrolled at San Joaquin Delta College for two years with the initial intent to take the FAFSA and leave. Instead, I became President of the Associated Students of Delta College and a founder of the college’s Speech and Debate Club. I got a job and continue to work as a teacher's assistant for an Intro to Chicano Studies course, grading online papers and discussions. I was a member of Delta’s speech and debate team for both years that I attended, and am the most decorated competitor in the history of its program. I am currently a captain of UC Berkeley’s competitive speech team, where I coach limited preparation events and platform speeches. I received four associate degrees from Delta College in English Literature, Political Science, Social Justice Studies, and a degree called “Law, Public Policy, and Society.” I have also received a pre-law certificate and am currently working part-time to receive my paralegal certificate. Here at Berkeley, I am a Political Science and Chicano/a Studies double major. I am going to go to law school and become an immigration lawyer. I am going to create reforms to allow undocumented migrants a faster path to citizenship and expand qualifications for residential visas to allow more diverse groups of people to be put on track towards U.S. citizenship. I believe that who we admit into the richest country in the world reflects on the global inequalities we see around the globe. A way to combat this power imbalance is to empower peoples of color and racialized groups with the resources and power a U.S. citizenship provides, so that people may return to their respective communities and help improve them. In my free time I am a freelance digital artist, mainly focusing on comics and character design. I love sci-fi novels and am planning to write a series of my own. I occasionally volunteer with local nonprofits in the Central Valley to provide resources and political education to the community. I am also a cat owner, and had to leave my cat back home. I miss him very much.