The gentrification of the Mission District brought a "gang list" that affected young people in a 60-block radius, limiting their freedom of movement and association. Vicente Garcia used his 2007 Young People For fellowship to organize the community to stop the gang list.
Nicole Iaquinto
(niaquinto)
Michigan State University
2008 Fellow
Nicole is a Senior at Michigan State University majoring in Social Relations and Policy and specializing in Black American and Diasporic Studies as well as African Studies. Nicole is the co-founder of the MSU chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists (YDS), and a participant in many groups at MSU such as YDS, the W.E.B. Du Bois Society, Associated Progress, the Multi Racial Unity Living Experience (MRULE), and My Brother's Keeper. Nicole believes that both the economy and society should be run democratically to meet the needs of the whole community, not to make profits for the rich few. Nicole also takes an active role in promoting racial justice issues at the national and local level. She is especially interested in developing education for children of color across the world. She puts this interest into practice by serving as a mentor for My Brother's Keeper-- a mentoring program for young black males at the Malcolm X Academy in Detroit, Michigan and as an intern at Vumundzuku-Bya Vana Our Children's Future (VVOCF) in Zonkizizwe, South Africa. In her free time, Nicole enjoys playing soccer, painting, taking walks, learning to speak Zulu, and going out to dinner and watching movies with her best friends.