Meet the Team!
Meet the Team!
Founder and Executive Director
Gracia Perez is a Junior at New York University double majoring in Political Science and Journalism. She graduated as Valedictorian from Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in 2021.
Gracia is a co-leader of the NYU organization FLIP (First Generation Low Income Partnership) which creates personal, financial, and academic workshops for students while organizing community-oriented events to foster a resilient and supporting first-gen community at NYU. Additionally, she is interning for New York State Senator Julia Salazar as one of her Constituent Services Interns.
Gracia is a part of the HACE University Leaders Program and a student leader for NYU’s Dean of Students Advisory Group.
As a first-generation immigrant from El Salvador studying in a city with diverse cultures and perspectives, she acknowledges the importance of understanding and speaking for marginalized groups affected by policy, violence, and poverty. Gracia expresses her affinity for uplifting individual and community stories through creative outlets like writing. From using audio storytelling to address doxxing risks at pro-Palestinian protests to documenting a woman’s dedication to radical theater after her time in an ICE detention center, she believes documenting experiences through writing, video, and photography is the most impactful way to circulate information–– from small stories to world-pressing issues.
Following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Affirmative Action, Gracia founded Latinos for Grad to mitigate the effects the decision would have on Latino students from systemically disadvantaged backgrounds. She plans to pursue a J.D./MBA to obtain a repertoire of legal and economic knowledge that would institutionally empower her goals for creating organizations and completing work that will move marginalized communities forward in the United States.
Gracia Perez
Co-Founder
Britney Lizbeth Quiroz (she/her) is a first generation Mexican-American artist (actress, playwright, director, singer, de todo) and organizer who creates art to empower low-income, Black and Brown communities to combat social injustice. Raised in the South Side of Chicago, she began making radical community theater when she discovered “Free Street Theater.” At the moment, Britney is most known for writing “Mariposa,” an original, full-length healing play that sheds light on the impact that alcoholism has had on a Mexican family in the South Side of Chicago.
Britney is currently in her third year at New York University studying Drama and Social Cultural Analysis; She completed her primary studio training at Playwrights Horizons, where she is also continuing her advanced training. Britney has previously worked as an intern for Coalición Mexicana in The Bronx where she taught English and facilitated Citizenship courses to help immigrants obtain their U.S. citizenship. Recently, Britney curated “Latina Scholars,” a 4-week fellowship program in the South Side of Chicago where she empowered First-Generation, Mexican-American female writers to document their community’s history and reimagine their own identities through writing.
Britney is so proud of building spaces for First-Generation, young, Latine artists and having the opportunity to document the stories of communities whose stories are not usually told. It is time to remind the world qué estamos aquí! Follow her on @mariposafluyente and @artisticrepresentacion to see more of her work!
Britney Quiroz
Mentor
Cecilia Aneli Alcala (she/her) is a Mexican-American immigrant, her experience leaving Mexico at a young age has propelled her interest in identity and reconnection, in terms of what it means to be ‘from’ somewhere no matter how many generations removed through a literary and legal lense.
A second-year student at New York University, Cecilia is currently on the Pre-Law Track working towards her undergraduate degree in Politics with a minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She fills her time split between Texas and New York, volunteering at local animal shelters, pursuing Quechua competency, and trying sweet treats around the city.
Cecilia takes pride in being Mexican-American and she hopes to continue to have opportunities to learn and grow in her culture and community with others.
Fun Fact: I have a terrible sense of direction and will regularly get lost, street signs only make it worse.
Ceci Alcala
Alex Romero
Advocacy and Mobilization Coordinator
Salma Abrego is a Junior at New York University’s Tisch School of Arts, where she is studying Dramatic Writing, with a triple minor in Sociology, Music, and Producing.
Salma was born and raised in El Salvador until she left at five years old, due to threatening gang activity, and moved to Northern Virginia, where she discovered her love of writing. Salma entered NYU planning to pursue a degree in humanities but soon found the courage to follow a non-traditional route, like the arts, and not the STEM/Humanities career pathway like her family expected. Despite this, Salma works in music and script supervising, story editing, and managing live sound.
She acted as the lead writing intern for Becute Productions where she wrote newsletters, contributed to scripts, and collaborated with other interns to create new content for opening nights. Due to her tremendous contributions in this role, Salma was a recipient of NYU’s Wasserman Internship Grant. In addition, she is also NYU’s Student Animation League’s (SAL) secretary where she is responsible for the weekly newsletter, club events, work opportunities, and planning the annual SAL film festival.
Being a first-generation student, Salma understands the struggle where she has experienced the frustrations of financial aid, been lost in navigating higher education spaces, and felt the massive weight of self-doubt of imposter syndrome. Her goal as the Advocacy and Mobilization coordinator for Latinos for Grad is to find ways to break down barriers that discourage people from Latine backgrounds from pursuing degrees.
A big motivation for Salma is to not only get more Latine voices in the writer’s rooms but on college campuses as well. Right now, some of the worst drops in Hispanic student enrollment are happening, due to the US Supreme Court’s decision of effectively ending race-conscious academic programs. Salma feels it is up to current Latine college students to defend Latine representation by combating this ban.
Salma Abrego
Nehanda Akili
Community Organizing and Mobilization Coordinator
Kimberly is from New York and is a freshman at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor intending to pursue a major in political science. She is a first-generation college student and the daughter of Peruvian immigrants.
Kimberly derived the ambition from her roots to uplift underrepresented immigrant voices through community work. She is the founder of Dreams United, a non-profit organization that strives to provide a beacon of hope through sincere, heartfelt letters to immigrant children currently residing in Texan detention centers. She has partnered with university student-led associations such as UPenn, Columbia, and UMICH and high schools across the country that joined my letters of love writing campaign. In addition, Kimberly is the youth representative for the Peruvian Civic Center in NYC. She was able to connect with NYS Senator Jessica Ramos who invited her to speak at the 2023 Andean Summit to discuss the necessity to enhance engagement between political communities and minorities.
In my free time, Kimberly enjoys learning about new languages and cultures. This summer, she received a certificate from NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth) as an intermediate Russian learner. On the big screen, Kimberly sometimes participates as a background actor in Netflix films! In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in public policy.
Johana Acosta
Mentor
Johana Acosta is a New York University student pursuing a degree in Social and Cultural Analyses, with a focus on critical race theory and its intersections with culture, art, fashion, and literature. Johana is passionate about expanding educational opportunities for low-income students as a Dominican first-generation college student.
She balances roles as an Office Assistant at NYU Paulson, supporting daily administrative functions, and as an Assistant for Ari Arvand, where she organizes photoshoots and manages styling and coordination. Johana also serves as Creative Director for VIS MAJORZINE, overseeing design and content curation, and has interned at Share4Life, optimizing advertising strategies and supporting diversity campaigns.She also taught College Literacy Material and developed promotional materials for related events.
Johana's multifaceted journey includes active involvement in NYU's vibrant community, where she contributes as a Dorm Representative at NYU Rubin Hall. In this role she organized diverse events, ensuring the best experiences for her peers. For hobbies she enjoys to write creatively and loves to read.
With a strong foundation in digital marketing, proficiency in various software tools, and a keen interest in marketing, fashion, music, social impact, diversity, and sustainability, Johana is on a mission to create opportunities and empower the next generation of students.
Social Media and Video Production Coordinator
Nehanda Akili (she/they) is a third year student at Gallatin, New York Universities School of Individualized study. Her concentration is in Fascism and Global Public health and she is simultaneously getting a MS in Biostatics at the graduate school of Public Health. Her research thesis is based in the disproportionate breast cancer diagnoses for those in the Black and Latino communities. She has interned doing social media work for the Housing and Residential Life offices at NYU before joining the Latinos for Grad team. Growing up in Los Angeles California Nehanda has seen first hand the importance of mentorship at the high school level for students with little access. Through her work with Upward Bound– a federally funded organization geared towards low income, rural and first gen students; it became apparent that there was a lack of resources for students who are from disadvantaged backgrounds. In Spring of 2022 she became a published author in the Gallatin Confluence platform with her short play “11:50”.
Nehanda is excited to join the Latinos for Grad team to facilitate outreach to mentees and cast as wide a net of help as possible. A fun fact about her is that she has an expansive perfume collection with over 50 perfumes!
Kimberly Palomino
Mentor
Alex Romero is currently a Junior at NYU. He is also on a pre-law track, working towards a degree in Politics with a minor in philosophy and creative writing.
Alex was raised as a second-generation American in Long Island, New York. His mother is from Puerto Rico, and his father is from El Salvador. Being raised in Long Island, New York, heavily impacted the way he viewed what it meant to be a Latino in America. For a while, Alex was ashamed to be himself. Growing up, none of my friends or my friend's parents looked like me.
“My parents broke their backs to give me the amazing life I've lived. They were so proud of who they were and where they came from that I was also ashamed that I was turning away from my culture. As a result, I tried whatever it took to fit in, including not formally learning Spanish, my parents' first language.” As a 19-year-old, Alex is trying hard to make up time and learn the language to properly communicate with the older generations on both sides of his family. He is proud to be Latino and does whatever he can to learn about what it means to be from such a beautiful culture.
Alex wants to help the Latino community feel empowered and do amazing things in places where they feel like they're not meant to be.