Erandi Garcia was born in Hidalgo, Mexico and migrated to the United States at the age of 6. Since then, the San Fernando Valley has become her home, and the opportunities she found through academic programs like Project Grad and Puente paved the way for her to become a first-generation student at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she obtained her degree with a double major in Sociology and Spanish Linguistics.
As an undergrad, she participated in a research project with Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI) investigating the erasure of language and culture that can occur when migrating to a different country. In addition, she served as an UndocuPeer Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Latinx Student Resource Center, where she created workshops addressing aspects of the undocumented experience, such as traveling, obtaining a credit card, and mental health awareness.
After graduating, Erandi spent two years as the Undocumented Student Success Coordinator at Laney College, where she worked closely with newly admitted students whose varying legal statuses complicated their pursuit of a higher education. In this role, Erandi created a student center, the first of its kind at Laney, where she provided resources to increase student retention rates, by offering a safe space to build community and support with enrollment, scholarships, and other opportunities.
As a DreamSF fellow, Erandi is placed at La Raza Centro Legal. There she will work with the Worker Rights department and gain hands-on experience learning workers’ rights law, conduct intake consultations, prepare documents for clients and participate in outreach presentations to teach community members about their workers rights.
In Erandi’s free time, she loves shopping, looking for sweet treats, side quests and trying different food spots. She is always looking forward to hanging out with loved ones and overall making community anywhere she goes!
