Center For Progressive Leadership

2008 New Leaders Fellows

Sasha Parker

Hometown: Kent, OH

Age: 21

School: Kent State University

Interests:

Placement: East Side Organizing Project

Sasha Parker graduated from Kent State University on May 11, 2008 with her bachelor's in Magazine Journalism. Born and raised in Warren, Ohio, Sasha developed a love for politics and civil rights at a very early age. As a child, her dad used to make her read two books focusing on social uprisings or civil rights each summer, and write a book report on them. By the age of 8, she had already finished Mao Tse Tung's Little Red Book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X and The Miseducation of the Negro. In college, she got involved with an advocacy group called Black United Students and helped make major legislation changes on campus for minority students. Sasha is very passionate about civil rights, higher education amongst minorities, public policy and gentrification in major cities.

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- Sasha Parker,
2008 New Leaders Fellow

More about Sasha

What particular experience has contributed to your desire to intern with a progressive organization and participate in the NLP? What do you hope to gain this summer from participating?
I've spent the last four years being president of an organization that fights for the rights of minority students. Black United Students is a progressive, political organization that gives a voice to black students at Kent State University. Often times, other minority groups have aligned themselves with our organization because we have gained a major foothold at the university over the past few years. Seeing so many people from different economic, political and ethnic backgrounds come together to ensure that their voices are heard made me want to get involved with organizations that have a progressive agenda. I'm a big proponent of change and believe strongly that we must evolve or die. Truly, we have to evolve, we have to move on or things just become stagnant. I view the New Leaders Program as a way to orchestrate change. By becoming a participant in the Fellowship, I want to develop the skills that will help me help others.

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