VILLAMOR ASUNCION
B.A., Creative Writing and Political Science with a minor in History, University of Miami
After graduating, Villamor followed his passion for service by joining AmeriCorps as the Timberland Civic Engagement Team Service Leader for City Year New York. From this experience Villamor developed a greater appreciation for pluralism and solidified his faith in the power of ordinary people and the possibilities of this nation. At Miami he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was the winner of the Edward T. Foote, II Award—for all this he credits the support of his family. Villamor is also a Fellow of the Merage Foundation for the American Dream: his dream is to pursue the ideal of the citizen lawyer and devote his life to serving others.

SARAH CHANG
Moody's Investors Service Fellow
B.A., Literature and Ethnicity, Race, & Migration, Yale University
Born and raised in Queens, New York, Sarah graduated Magna cum laude from Yale University in May of 2005 with distinction in both her majors (Literature and Ethnicity, Race, & Migration) and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She has served as an Undergraduate Arthur Liman Public Interest Law Fellow at Sanctuary for Families and The Immigration Law Project. Her prize-winning senior thesis, titled, “Bearing Witness: ‘comfort women’ narrative and the explosion of legal and national frameworks,” owes much to her experience living and working with former “comfort women,” sex slaves of the Japanese military during World War II, in Kwangju City, Korea. It is a continuing work that she hopes to publish in the future. In the past she has worked as a speechwriting intern at the U.S. Department of Labor and as an editor and advisor to the 2020 CityWide Plan for the Cleveland City Planning Commission. She is active in Asian American artist circles as a performance poet in The 101 Project and JookSongs.

SPENCER CRONK
B.S., Rural Sociology and Community Leadership Development: University of Wisconsin, Madison
Spencer’s interest in community-building brought him to the National Community Development Institute (NCDI) in Oakland, California, where he helped provide non-profit organizations an array of technical support services including program evaluation, community assessment, and peer-to-peer consultation. Prior to his work at NCDI, Spencer taught a youth leadership institute in San Jose, California, and served on the board of a youth organizing nonprofit in Oakland. In 2000, he worked for Outward Bound in Kenya, where he also studied non-profit management on a year-long research fellowship. Previously, Spencer acted as a diversity consultant for LBGT student organizations and as a writing tutor for university students.

MARGO HOPPIN
B.A., Social Studies, Harvard University
Margo graduated from Harvard College in 2005 with a degree in Social Studies. In 2004, she co-founded the College Diabetes Network (CDN), a service, advocacy and social organization. Within a year, CDN had members from Harvard, Tufts, MIT and BU, and had launched a popular diabetes mentoring program called Beta Buddies. Margo wrote her senior thesis on the influence of racial prejudice upon domestic security policy in the United States. She conducted a seminar on the connections between health and poverty for Boston's Project HEALTH summer volunteers, and worked as a peer counselor for two years. She is proud and excited to be a member of the Coro Fellows Program in Pubic Affairs class of 2006 in New York City.

GRAHAM LAKE
B.A., English and Economics, Amherst College
Double majoring in English and Economics, Graham graduated with distinction from Amherst College where he sat on the English Department Steering Committee, played varsity soccer and lacrosse, served as a peer tutor in economics, and started a local chapter of Democracy on the Quad to organize voter mobilization drives for the 2004 presidential election. Growing up in Washington, DC, Graham is an ardent advocate of expanding representation to the disenfranchised, and enjoys swing dancing and contract bridge.

B.A., Mathematics, Smith College
Katya is committed to equity and innovation in education. A graduate of Smith College in 2002, she has served as a high school mathematics teacher and Department Chair at the Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school in Oakland, California. During her tenure there, Katya implemented a new problem-solving math curriculum and helped her department raise California High School Exit Exam scores by over 30%. In college, Katya was a STEMTEC Distinguished Teaching Scholar and worked as a life skills facilitator with inmates at the Hampshire County Correctional Facility. Katya loves to play sports and was a member of the 2003 women's rugby national championship team.

BRADLEY W. MOORE
B.A., Biological Basis of Behavior, M.S., Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania
Bradley aspires to develop and apply a variety of tools to address the inequities of opportunity that persist in our nation and our world. While working to obtain his Master of Bioethics degree at Penn, Bradley began to explore different theoretical methods for framing and solving problems of fairness and justice. Teaching biology at an urban high school in Philadelphia represented an opportunity to impact directly issues of educational inequity. Now, Bradley is eager to add to this toolkit by studying the workings of urban city government and civil society, with an eye on his primary fields of interest, law and education. After completing the Fellows Program in Public Affairs, he will enroll at the University of Michigan Law School.

KATHLEEN A. QUIRK
B.A., English, The College of Holy Cross
Kathleen was involved in campus leadership as a Resident Advisor, a member of Student Programming for Urban Development, and a four-year athlete on the women’s Varsity Crew team. Drawing on Ignation values from her alma mater, she was a Jesuit Volunteer serving a low-income school in West Oakland, California. Here she provided leadership development, physical / nutritional education, conflict resolution training, and directed the After School Program. Kathleen was involved with the National Brain Tumor Foundation, as a development volunteer and a member of the Bay Area Event Planning Committee. Recently, as a Student Affairs Officer with the University of California, Berkeley, Kathleen pursued her interests in public service through classes in policy, human rights, and business administration. As a Coro Fellow, Kathleen hopes to gain experience in policy advocacy and research.

   
EDWARD S. SMITH JR.
B.A., Africana Studies, University of Pittsburgh
Edward’s interests lie in improving communities. At the University of Pittsburgh, his employment at both Upward Bound and Residence Life earned him the reputation of an effective and consistent leader. As an Institutional Advancement Intern, Edward learned the importance of fundraising in non-profit organizations. Aware of media’s impact on communities, Edward later began work at Sheridan Broadcasting. Starting in promotions for WAMO 106 Jamz, he advanced to productions assistant for SBN Sports. Edward’s goal is to explore the dimensions of public service, fundraising, and media in national and international affairs.

KARINA TOTAH
B.A., International Relations, University of Pennsylvania
Karina discovered her interest in international development as a volunteer in Ayroum, Armenia during the summer after her sophomore year at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon her return, she presented a senior thesis on microfinance in Armenia as an exploration of one of her long-term goals: innovating, construing and promoting effective practices in international development. Karina, who graduated with Honors, also founded the University of Pennsylvania Society for International Development and received awards for leadership and public service. She has interned at the United Nations and a think-tank in Armenia, and currently serves on the Board of Land and Culture, the NGO that first sent her to Armenia on a grassroots development project. Karina plans to pursue a graduate degree in international affairs. She enjoys everything about food--except cooking it!

   
LYNDA J. TURET
B.A., Peace and Justice and American Studies, Tufts University
Lynda seeks to pursue sustainable social change through racial justice. As a Citizenship and Public Service Scholar at Tufts University, she initiated numerous community projects, including a documentary film on Boston's Chinatown and a Mayor-led effort to create a volunteer time-exchange network in the city of Somerville, Massachusetts. Lynda also served as one of the founding members of the Multiracial Organization of Students at Tufts (MOST) which has been regarded as a national model for other organizations who aim to transform the racial dialogue in colleges and universities. While president, she led MOST in earning the "Best New Organization of 2003" award at Tufts. Lynda is also passionate about international social justice and has studied abroad in both Chile and Cuba. When she has free time, she loves to express herself through dance.

ELIZABETH WILKINS
B.A., Ethics, Politics and Economics, Yale University
In her academic career, Elizabeth infused the disciplines of economics and politics with ethical philosophy to develop a set of progressive principles. Her academic and extracurricular work, including service as a community organizer for Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), culminated in a senior essay on the philosophical commitment to human need that should underpin American low-income housing policy. A summer taking oral histories of elderly black women in the Mississippi Delta further informed Elizabeth's respectful, person-to-person approach to service. Elizabeth hopes to pursue her concerns about institutional mechanisms limiting the life chances of the American poor through non-profit community work and community organizing in the future.