From San Francisco and New York to San Diego, I am grateful for all the opportunities I have had over the last several years to engage in meaningful community work, volunteering, and organizing.
In San Francisco, I conducted research to support nonprofits in the Bay Area with BuildingBlox Consulting, volunteered with Mission Graduates, and participated in service projects with SFSU’s Circle K International. In my volunteer roles, I mentored elementary grade students, supported the annual Twin Peaks Pink Triangle installation for SF Pride, hosted fundraising events, oversaw arts and crafts sessions at the Pomeroy Recreation & Rehabilitation Center for people with disabilities, rebuilt trails in Bay Area parks, supported environmental cleanups, participated in food banks distribution, and for a short time, assisted office re-organization efforts at a gay men’s clinic.
During graduate school in New York, I volunteered as a musical artist in New York City with Sing For Hope where I sang at local community centers and children’s hospitals, volunteered with the NYU Media, Culture and Communication MA program as a student representative for the Media, Culture and Communication MA Student Association, and participated in activism with fellow students and New York City-based activist groups including Decolonize this Place and the Reclaim Pride Coalition.
When I returned to San Francisco after my master’s, I was a volunteer English tutor with Refugee & Immigrant Transitions (RIT) for nearly 2 years. And in my first year of doctoral study, I volunteered as the Graduate & Professional Student Association (GPSA) representative for the UC San Diego Communication Department.
In recent years, I have dedicated the bulk of my community work to organizing with Malaya Movement, a transnational freedom organization dedicated to defending and upholding democracy, human rights, and sovereignty in the Philippines.
Aaron Gozum 