Nicole Olmedo

Majors: Political Studies and Chicanx Studies

Hometown: Woodland, California

805 Undocufund has taught me so much and given me an opportunity to grow as both a Spanish speaker and as a human being. It also taught me about how to perfect my time management. I have always been interested in helping people out through situations after seeing my mom work for Migrant Education for the past 10 years. 805 Undocufund is relatively similar to what my mom does, which is to provide resources and help with financial, educational, and social services to undocumented migrant families. She was able to give me some background as to how to talk to these undocumented folk in a manner that would not offend them. In doing these calls and interviews, I got to see how privileged I was to be in a secure environment with a job and a sense of security. Throughout this pandemic, I felt so helpless sitting at home during the total shelter in place order and seeing number of cases and deaths rise. Doing this made me feel like I was doing something positive and helpful. I used it as an outlet to distract me from the news and the overmounting stress of school. I heard various different emotional and heartbreaking stories in which I empathized greatly and made sure they knew the process of what they were applying for, as well as providing them with other resources that would be able to help them. I feel really appreciative to have been given the opportunity to do this 'internship' through the Chicanx Studies Department. I realized this was a passion of mine and I want to continue to do more work like this and plan on continuing to volunteer through the summer.