Carina Thomas (she/her) is a high school sophomore at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California. Her passion for advocacy and political involvement began when she was in middle school, after being inspired by the Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate movements which began her devotion to racial justice and equity. Since then, she has empowered her value for diversity in academic settings as a writer for her School’s Newspaper, the Berkeley High Jacket, where she interviews and gives a platform to individuals and groups of diverse backgrounds through journalistic means. Carina is extremely excited to take her passion for advocacy further as a Director of Partnerships for GENup, where she will lead the efforts of collaborating with other nonprofits to support each other in achieving like goals. By being part of GENup, she is able to empower her value of education equity so that students and youth of diverse backgrounds are able to thrive in fair and supportive learning environments. During her free time, she loves to play soccer, guitar, binge Kitchen Nightmares, and hang out with her guinea pigs.