Every year, the John Gardner Fellowship Program selects six seniors from the graduating classes of Cal and Stanford to receive the opportunity of a lifetime: a $27,500 stipend and a 10-month placement in a government or non-profit agency. Past Fellows have worked with such organizations as the Prison Moratorium Project, Grameen Foundation USA, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Children’s Defense Fund and National Public Radio.

Stanford’s three Gardner Fellows for 2008-2009 are seniors Olga Medina, Elizabeth Kersten and Debbie Warshawsky.

Olga Medina

Medina, who hails from Pasadena, Texas, will be graduating this spring with a double major in Political Science and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.

“I wanted to enter a network of public servants that would support my passion for the advancement of social justice,” said Medina.

The child of undocumented immigrants, Medina said she witnessed the struggles of those in her community as she grew up. At Stanford, Medina has served as an executive board member of the Latino pre-law society, Derechos. In her senior honors thesis, Medina researched The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which gave her parents and many other undocumented individuals in the U.S. legalized status.

A few years ago, Medina spent her summer interning as a municipal court interpreter near Houston. Medina believes that the experience helped her realize how inaccessible the law and systems of justice are to immigrants in her community. Spending the fall quarter of her junior year at the Stanford in Washington program, Medina interned at the Mexican Embassy, which gave her more insight into how NAFTA policies have spurred immigration from rural communities in Mexico to the U.S.

“I became aware of how the immigration problem is more systemic than we may think,” Medina said.

Last summer, Medina interned at the Department of Justice Voting Section in Washington, D.C. There, she said she learned that the struggle to combat discrimination in the political process continues, despite the mechanisms in place to safeguard racial, ethnic and language minorities.

“With my John Gardner Fellowship placement, I hope to work with an immigrants’ rights advocacy group,” she said. “I think it is important to change the discourse of immigration policy away from a politics that negatively stigmatizes immigrants.”

Elizabeth Kersten

Kersten, of Wyoming, Ohio, will graduate this spring with a degree in Human Biology with an emphasis on global health. Kersten is unlike the other two rising Gardner Fellows in that she did not begin her undergraduate career at Stanford. A sophomore transfer from the University of Virginia, she immediately became involved in various advocacy activities, including FACE AIDS, when she set foot on the Farm.

“I remember seeing the first recruiting flyers, applying for a position and walking out of the interview being so excited,” recalled Kersten. “I transferred to Stanford so that I could get involved in amazing organizations like FACE AIDS.”

She also spoke of her own core beliefs regarding global health.

“I’m interested in our obligation as privileged people to ensure that an individual’s access to health is not determined by his or her location on a map,” said Kersten.

She referenced her own experiences working in Zambia as a project facilitator for the FORGE organization, a U.S. based non-profit that specializes in providing aid to displaced communities in Africa. After a quarter at Oxford and a summer in Zambia, Kersten applied to become a Director for thinkBIG — a conference on international women’s health and human rights that took place earlier this year. Her work with thinkBIG has proven helpful as she moves toward the final stages of her honors thesis, entitled “Determinants of U.S. Global Health Funding: A Case Study of Maternal Health.” Kersten hopes to spend her fellowship at an organization that works toward sustainable global health solutions. After that, she is considering going back to school to study global health equity.

Debbie Warshawsky

Warshawsky, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, will graduate with a degree in Urban Studies. She is also a recipient of the Truman Scholarship.

“I want to dedicate my life to fighting against racial, economic and political injustices,” Warshawsky said. “Specifically, I am really passionate about working in low-income communities to alleviate urban poverty and inequality.”

As an underclassman, Warshawsky founded the student group Students Taking on Poverty (STOP) to address what she felt was a need for increased advocacy and student engagement. Warshawsky worked with Upward Bound and Habla El Dia, as well as working as a tour guide for two years on the Farm.

In her time off campus, Warshawsky became involved in a variety of policy and advocacy initiatives. During her post-freshman year summer, she volunteered for the National Coalition on the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, both in Washington, D.C.

Taking advantage of a Chappell-Lougee fellowship, she spent her post-sophomore summer studying community organizing in Harlem’s public housing — the topic of her current honor’s thesis. This fieldwork has coincided with her two years of more traditional academic work at the Center for the Study of Poverty and Equality under Professor David Grusky. Although she is currently undecided as to where her Gardner placement will be, Warshawsky optimistically assessed the status of her policy interests, noting the “really effective work being done in low-income communities all over the U.S. in all different sectors of society.”

“There’s a lot to learn — it’s an exciting time,” Warshawsky said.