LA Upstander: Alina R.

Alina is this year's president of SAMEAN (South Asian Middle Eastern Arab North African) Voices. An active member of the group for the last four years, as president this year she acted on the demands of the uprisings for racial and social justice from this summer in order to build community, raise awareness, and take action. She wanted every meeting to be workshop style with curriculum, activities, and dialogue in order to bring greater awareness of AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, South Asian) communities and to build with other racial and ethnic groups and have an intersectional approach that addresses gender, sexual orientation, ability, nationality, immigration status, religion, and socio economic status.

Alina pours her heart into SAMEAN Voices. Each week, she puts in over 30 hours a week into the club, from the smallest tasks to the more challenging: putting together curriculum, doing research on topics such as militarization of East Asian countries to intersectional feminism, to abolition; making flyers, outreach, teaching the other officers, facilitating meetings, holding vigils, holding space and affirming the multiracial students who attend and have a variety of perspectives, life experiences, and needs. Alina is such a loving, compassionate, genuinely kind, warm person who wants everyone to feel like they belong.