Nayeli Pena Arias (She/her/ella) is a first generation, low income, Chicana from Richmond, CA. She is currently a senior, majoring in Psychology and English, at the University of California, Berkeley. In her time at Berkeley, she has worked with organizations such as the Basic Needs Center (BNC), as an outreach and branding intern, primarily working to promote basic necessity focused resources for students such as CalFresh, the Food Pantry, Emergency Housing and Financial Aid, etc. She was an active member on an Inclusivity project within the BNC to make online content accessible to visually impaired users. Additionally, she worked with UC Berkeley’s Calm Program as a Research assistant working closely with data sorting and eligibility screening for prospective participants. She is part of communities such as EOP, DSP, and NAVCAL. In NAVCAL, she was a student, and then became the Alumni Relations Manager. As the Alumni Relations Manager, she maintains lines of communication with current and past members of the community as well as regularly managing the NAVCAL website in order to promote the programs' mission, brand, and fellows. At the moment, she is working with Cal Student Central, the central unit in charge of UC Berkeley's administrative operations as a student peer advisor. She assists students virtually and in person with general financial aid, billing and payments, enrollment/record, residential related inquiries, and campus directions.In the future, she is interested in pursuing a career in counseling/social work with the goal of supporting people in times of crisis and need–as well as publishing .
Accolades
- Richmond Promise Recipient Scholarship x5 (2019-2023)
- 2020-2021 Basic Needs Internship
- NAVCAL Summer 2021 Fellowship
- 2021-2022 Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship (URAP)
- 2022-2023 NAVCAL Internship (Alumni Relations Manager)
- 2021-2023 Cal Student Central Peer Advisor Position
Mental Health, Education, Marginalized Communities, Children Development
