Raegan Zolper Olszyk Loheide

UCLA Public Interest

Applied x date | waitlisted x date

My fieldwork showed me that my interests in various issue areas and my desire to work closely with people could also be paired with a cohesive movement that impacts policy to break down structural injustice.

My participatory-action research experience left room for me to critically engage with and analyze intersectional issues such as food apartheid and how that impacts the criminalization of poverty that communities experience, all of which ultimately interplay with issues of mass incarceration and its destabilization of communities.

Engaging in community work that strives to achieve food sovereignty revealed clear ties to the necessity of prison abolition— as abolition is not only a mere absence of prisons, but also communities with plentiful access to food, education, healthcare, and housing without penal institutions and surveillance at play.

Comprehensive legal solutions are thus an avenue to redistribute control and power to people at the margins and provide resources for healing and progress. Community-oriented policy advocacy is essential to empowering local voices as the leaders and actors for their system.

I hope that as a legal advocate I can support land reclamation efforts for Black and Indigenous groups to reclaim space to serve their communities.

In my legal career, I hope to contribute to community farm reparations and land-return initiatives. I imagine myself in a role where I provide systems and policy education for public decision-makers. Whether a facilitator in a food justice setting or a civil rights organization, I see myself conducting community education workshops to increase our collective understanding of the legal aspects of the food system.

Community farms provide the space to imagine rehabilitative, restorative practices in our communities that can be brought to fruition. I want to be a part of equipping people with the knowledge and skills to sustain a movement.

Legal experience and education provides an expertise in organizing that allows community members to envision solutions for their neighborhoods to be brought to actionable items.