Juanita was in her 30’s. On top of striving to learn English, she worked at a hospital full-time, was a single mother and took care of her elderly grandmother. Sometimes she would be frustrated. Together stand up and chant “Yes we can!” until we were both laughing, and she was ready to re-channel her energies.

After earning my Associate’s degree, I was accepted into Cornell University where I studied Economics and Industrial and Labor Relations. Still it was the experiences off campus that strengthened my desire to help shape labor law and policy to restore the American dream by benefiting working families.

A rally I attended in Elmira, New York sticks out. Weyerhaeuser, the town’s major employer, was moving jobs overseas. A guy named Gus broke down while talking the impact him losing his job could have on his young, sickly daughter.

Stemming from my background, and solidifying through my interactions, I have grown a strong desire to develop a deck of cards that gives everyone a fair hand to play. John Sweeney, President of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), said “we should measure the success of our economy by the breadth of our middle class and the scope of opportunity offered to the poorest child to climb into that middle class.”

I know it to be true because my individual life is a piece of this collective whole.