Five CUNY Law Students receive the Peggy Browning Fellowship to support a summer advancing workers’ rights
The Peggy Browning Fellowship Program provides stipends to law students who dedicate their summer to advancing the cause of workers’ rights by working for labor unions, worker centers, labor-related not-for-profit organizations, union-side law firms and other nonprofit organizations.
Sadaf Hasan ’22 is interning at TakeRoot Justice this summer in NYC where she will be partnering with worker centers to provide direct services and litigation support to low-wage immigrant workers.
Sadaf Hasan, CUNY Law Student
Before joining CUNY Law, Sadaf was a Fulbright Scholar in Jordan documenting the labor rights violations of migrant domestic workers. She also worked with BRAC’s Safe Migration Program in Bangladesh and Global Fund for Women where she led fundraising efforts to support grassroots feminist movements.
Ella Nalepka’22 is interning at CASA this summer. She will be assisting people with applications for immigration benefits, filing wage theft complaints, and providing Know Your Rights workshops about immigration, labor, and housing rights.
Ella Nalepka, CUNY Law student
Before joining CUNY, Ella was an English as a Foreign Language teacher for five years, and has become involved in initiatives including International Refugee Assistance Project, Labor Co., New Sanctuary Coalition, and working on emergency COVID release requests with the American Friends Service Committee.
David Orkin’22 will be working with Make the Road New York’s (MRNY) Workplace Justice Team.
David Orkin, CUNY Law student
David’s summer project focuses on the misclassification of immigrant gig economy workers and its effect on unemployment insurance, as well as wage theft in essential industries post-COVID.
Before CUNY, David worked in human rights observation and popular education organizing in Arizona and Mexico, and immigration legal services in Northern California.
Rex Santus ’22 is interning this summer at the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice.
Rex Santus, CUNY Law student
Rex is working with striking sanitation workers in New Orleans as well as guest workers in Louisiana seafood processing plants amid COVID-19. Before law school, Rex was a reporter covering the labor movement and teacher strikes at VICE, helped lead a card drive to unionize VICE production workers, and served on the union’s bargaining and labor-management committees.
Alberto Aguirre ’22 will be working in the New York State United Teachers Office of General Counsel.
Alberto Aguirre, CUNY Law Student
He will be working on the effects on education law– including paid sick days and layoffs– from new Covid-19 legislation.
Before joining CUNY Law, Alberto worked on workers’ rights campaigns, including union drives, wage theft legislative efforts, and has interned at the Border Farmworkers Union.
