Rajon M.

Experience

• 

  Planning and Zoning Department at New Canaan Town Hall

  May 2017 - Jun 2017

  Student Intern

  Through New Canaan High School's Senior Internship Program, I have been matched with an internship with the Planning & Zoning Department at the New Canaan Town Hall for four weeks. In this time, I have gained priceless insight and experience in regards to the urban planning profession. I have also discussed ideas and methods to execute these ideas with Town Planner Steve Palmer and Enforcement Officer Ron Baia as to how I, as an aspiring town/urban planner, may be able to increase the sense of unity in the communities I work in, and foster commercial and residential development within such communities. Show less

• 

  NYC Department of City Planning

  Jun 2017 - Aug 2017

  Summer Intern

  For the duration of the summer, I assisted planner Andrew English and the department's Technical Review Division in their efforts to digitize the map of the City of New York. Within my seven weeks at Technical Review, I successfully digitized the entirety of the Bronx and the majority of Manhattan.

• 

  Generation Citizen

  Sept 2017 - Dec 2019

  As a Democracy Coach affiliated with the Massachusetts branch of Generation Citizen, you are assigned to a middle school or high school class within the Boston Public School system to assist students in using civics education to make concrete change on the local level. My co-Democracy Coaches and I worked with these students to make such changes by, first, establishing a focus issue that they will work towards amending, and connecting them with the appropriate parties – community leaders & organizations, local representatives, their school administration, etc. – to influence the enactment of policies and initiatives that will remedy the issue.During the Fall 2017 semester, I assisted eighth-grade students at the Orchard Gardens K-8 School accomplish such goals. Our focus issue was gang-related gun violence escalated by illegal gun trafficking. The class, my co-Democracy Coaches, and I had decided that, in order to remedy this issue, our goal would be to garner local support for the passage of gun violence prevention bills S.1287 and S.1298, as well as develop a partnership with community group LIPSTICK to include a gun violence awareness/gun trafficking prevention program into the school's curriculum. Through dividing the tasks of contacting the necessary parties into five groups, the students were able to have a representative from LIPSTICK visit their school, and begin talks with their school administrators to include the aforementioned program. What was also accomplished was speaking at a committee hearing and gaining the support of proponents and opponents of gun control laws to increase the likelihood of the passage of the two bills. Show less

  • Advocacy Director

    Apr 2018 - Dec 2019

  • Democracy Fellow

    Jan 2018 - Apr 2018

  • Democracy Coach

    Sept 2017 - Dec 2017
• 

  Our Turn

  Dec 2017 - Apr 2018

  President

  As E-Board President of Northeastern University's SFER Chapter, it is my responsibility to set the agenda for the semester of what initiatives our organization would like to be accomplished in regards to local education reform. It is my intention to strengthen my Chapter's relationship with fellow SFER Chapters on nearby college campuses (I.e.: Boston College) so that all SFER Chapters in the Boston area are working in tandem to accomplish the same major goal by establishing our own mini-projects to contribute to the efficient execution of our mission. I am also the person that remains in connection with SFER National and their liaisons for the Boston area to keep my E-Board members updated on what initiatives are being passed on the state, regional, and national levels in education reform. Show less

• 

  Northeastern University

  Jan 2019 - Sept 2019

  - Assisted program directors with scheduling concerns and correspondence with other offices on campus- Reviewed applications for incoming freshmen interested in participating in NU|ACES program; made suggestions for applicants who may benefit most as program participants- Developed resource maps of Boston neighborhoods for NU|ACES students to have more meaningful off-campus experiences- Innovated the digital marketing system through which program directors advertise volunteer opportunities and community events to non-NU|ACES students; identifed various digital marketing platforms to achieve goal and discussed merits of each platform with program directors Show less Through Northeastern University's Co-op Program, I have become a full-time employee of the university's Center of Community Service as an assistant aide to its Civic Engagement Programs for the next six months. As the Civic Engagement Programs Assistant, I will be responsible for the following:- Communication with third-, fourth-, and fifth-year students who are participants of the original Civic Engagement Program in order to ensure that they have accurately and completely submitted their hours of service per week;- Confirming and proofreading the time logs of Civic Engagement students on a weekly basis, as well as alert the program's directors of any issues that may have arisen between the students, their other time commitments, and the community organization that they have been working with;- Communication with and providing assistance to first- and second-year participants of the new civic engagement program, NU|ACES, as they develop relationships with partner community organizations they would like to work with and potential student organizations they may want to join;- Assisting the directors of the Civic Engagement programs with plans of action to evolve the NU|ACES program to be of use to upperclassmen, as well as any other strategies to further engage students to become civically involved in holding decisionmakers accountable for addressing systemic issues in Boston;- Event planning for the Civic Engagement Programs' members; and - E-mail correspondence with current and future partner organizations in order to ensure that the university is adequately serving and maintaining partnerships with the neighborhoods that it shares the city with. Show less

  • NU|ACES Program Office Aide

    Jul 2019 - Sept 2019

  • Civic Engagement Programs Assistant

    Jan 2019 - Jun 2019
• 

  Bottom Line

  Jan 2020 - Jun 2020

  Student Recruitment Advisor

  As a Bottom Line Student Recruitment Advisor, I assisted with the following:1. The recruitment of rising high school seniors from Boston Public Schools (BPS) who have financial need and potential for academic development & success into the organization's College Access Program. In this program, students are assisted with the entire college application process & receive advice on considerations related to paying for college and financial aid. This service is provided up until the students accept an offer from a university.2. The recruitment of college-bound high school seniors from BPS who have financial need into the organization's Success Direct Program. The Success Direct Program serves as a transitionary route during the summer before their first semester on campus to prepare high school seniors for the rigors of college. This population of participants includes BPS students who never participated in the Access Program but would like to work with Bottom Line during their college years. The Success Direct students would then transition into Bottom Line's College Success Program, which provides students with free advisement on their college-to-career trajectories for up to six years of schooling.3. The creation of the Bottom Line – Massachusetts branch's Facebook and Instagram pages. Show less

• 

  Sunrise Movement

  Jul 2020 - Dec 2021

  JEDI Team Co-Director

  As one of the JEDI team directors at Sunrise Northeastern, I hold the directors of other teams at our hub accountable for upholding the values of justice, equity, diversity, & inclusion (JEDI) in their programming. I also facilitate bi-weekly meetings to discuss ways in which our hub can be more accessible & welcoming of people of diverse identities. I host workshops and invite guest speakers to do presentations on anti-oppression to provide team members with the tools to share power with marginalized populations and deconstruct institutions that perpetuate systemic oppression. Show less

• 

  Northeastern University

  Jan 2021 - Jun 2021

  Enrollment Verification Assistant
• 

  Northeastern University

  Jul 2022 - May 2023

  As an EMPOWER Program Fellow, I’m a member of a team of four other Northeastern University students and three professional staff members of the university’s Social Justice Resource Center. The aim of our program is to assist the directors of Northeastern University’s centers for Cultural and Spiritual Life with building relationships with the university’s students of color and immigrant population through resource-sharing, advice on acclimating to life at Northeastern and Boston, and sessions dedicated to DEI discourse & community-building. The final point mentioned will be accomplished by myself and other Fellows through frequent, smaller interactions with student organizations & residential LLCs, as well as two weekend-long events in October (an off-campus retreat) and March (an on-campus conference). An inter-departmental collaborative, the other Fellows and I are tasked with outreach to the aforementioned directors of Cultural and Spiritual Life centers, Residence Directors of on-campus dorms, and other student-facing offices through in-person meetings, information sessions, and social media outreach. Show less

  • Resident Assistant

    Aug 2019 - May 2023

  • EMPOWER Program DEI Fellow

    Jul 2022 - Apr 2023
• 

  Amazon

  Aug 2023 - now

  Human Resources Associate