We are excited to announced our 2018 cohort of Hope Fund fellows – five excellent college students following in Hope’s footsteps.

Aliza Khan is a student in Political Science and Economics at CUNY Brooklyn College.

Although she’s spent almost her entire 21 years as a New York City native, Aliza was born in Bangladesh. In 1995 her parents won a green card through a lottery sponsored by the U.S. Department of State aiming to diversify the immigrant population of the United States. Before her first birthday, she emigrated to the United States with her parents and settled in Queens, New York. After attending high school in Brooklyn, Aliza decided to move to the borough for college and now studies Economics and Political Science at CUNY Brooklyn College.

She plans to use what she’s learned and the incredible opportunities she’s been given to advocate for social change; whether it be through pushing for better public policy, working to promote greater sustainability in our cities, or engaging in public interest law to make sure those who have been unjustly accused have a legal voice.

Jerrell Gray is a freshman at the University of Rochester, majoring in political science and urban development.

Being born and raised in Brooklyn, NY has been a driving factor in his commitment to social justice. In a society where there must be people at the bottom in order for others to stay afloat, he has found myself in a conglomerate of people that advocate for the needs of the lower-income community and ensures that they do not remain invisible. While there are many ways to impact the world we live in, creating unity will enable us to make the strides on all fronts. Social justice allows him to make change on a personal level and have everlasting influence on people.

Jeanette Castillo is a student at Muhlenberg College majoring in Environmental Science with a double minor in Computer Science and Latin American & Caribbean Studies.

Jeanette was born and raised in the Bronx by a single mother who is the first in her family to emigrate here to the United States. Her mom has taught her and her siblings to dream and think big; that nothing is hard to reach. She stands by that philosophy and seeks to change the world in many ways, specifically in environmental justice and educational attainment for children of low-income backgrounds such as herself. Her upbringing and the community that surrounds her is what led to her passion in social justice issues that deserve more light and recognition by the public and make people actually understand the true nature of their actions.

Rasna Ekra is a sophomore at Lafayette College double majoring in International Affairs and Women and Gender Studies with a minor in Anthropology.

She was born in Bangladesh but grew up in the Bronx. Being a woman of color on a predominantly white institution, social justice advocacy is an integral part of her life. Rasna is a peer educator for Lafayette’s social justice group, Kaleidoscope, where she has learned valuable skills that empower her to promote cultural and religious awareness on campus through her leadership in clubs such as Asian Cultural Association and Muslim Students Association. Her former work at CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities with Bangladeshi, Chinese, and Korean immigrant communities for language and housing justice ignited her true love and passion for community organizing in marginalized communities of color in New York City.

Nashany Rodriguez, a rising senior at the University at Albany, is a psychology major and communications minor.

She and her family are originally from Panama. Growing up in East New York, Brooklyn really expanded her love for it. She constantly moved around Brooklyn with her mom, so had to live in many different parts of the borough. She graduated from Brooklyn High School for Law and Technology. After working at a homeless shelter for a couple of months, she got to personally see and experience a lot of issues. Watching her mother, as a single parent, struggle to provide for her is her daily motivation. This made her incredibly interested in wanting to help and find solutions for low-income families and neighborhoods. She is hoping that her talents and hard work will help her spread awareness of dilemmas like mental health that are not letting families advance.