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As the Queer Communities intern, Abel Murillo was
responsible for assessing, investigating, and exploring new ways
to extend university support to the queer student community. Prior
to the start of the internship, Abel assessed the campus climate
for GLBTIQQA (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, Questioning,
and Ally) students. Being a self identified queer student at UC
Santa Cruz, Abel understood that the current campus environment
was lacking an essential quality – a unified queer voice.
This knowledge would direct the course of his internship. Abel’s
main goal was to develop a sustainable, a productive, and reciprocally
participatory and active queer community.
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In the first campus wide event, Abel coordinated 16 queer leaders
from UC Santa Cruz to attend the National Gay Lesbian Task Force’s
Annual Creating Change Conference in Oakland, California. Abel was
responsible for fundraising, and organizing the event. It gave queer
leaders a national perspective on the queer rights movement. It
became a catalyst for change in the next two quarters. In winter
quarter, Abel developed a dynamic and comprehensive website for
queer organizations. Its purpose was to consolidate information,
create a visible presence, and facilitate the sharing of information
between GLBTIQQA people. A master plan, dubbed QOverhaul, was created
to direct the student initiated queer rights movement at UCSC. Among
its many projects, one was the complete overhaul of the queer student
organizations in order to move from identity based, to interest
based organizations. Well into spring quarter, new constitutions
and missions for the new organizations were developed.
In spring quarter Abel tried to ensure that the movement and dialogue
he helped spark between queer students remained sustainable. First
Abel engaged students in The National Day of Silence project. Activities
were created to give students an outlet for artistic expression.
Abel also developed an archive of queer history at UCSC to be house
in the GLBTI Resource Center. Also a survey was drafted and analyzed
in order to provide valuable information on the current queer student
climate at UCSC for next year, and years to come.
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The Chancellor’s Undergraduate Internship
Program course, Leadership and Institution building,provided two
opportunities for Abel. Abel said, “In addition to learning
invaluable information from presentations by professionals, it provided
an outlet to develop leadership skills.” Among the many numerous
skills that he learned, one that was most important to Abel was
the power of an agreement. He learned that personal and professional
lives inherently intertwine, and people will innately have different
working styles and abilities. He also learned that in order to make
sure people work together effectively, an agreement needs to be
made to that the agreement can be the focus for accountability rather
than the people.
The confidence Abel gained in public speaking and leadership skills
will aid him in his personal development. Abel is a proposed double
major in politics and community studies with a minor in philosophy
from Merrill College. He plans to focus his third year on his academics
and continuing the constructive dialogue that he helped spark.
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