Undergraduate Profile: Liliana Barajas

Liliana Barajas is in her senior year at UC Santa Cruz and is majoring in Anthropology and Literature with a Latin American concentration. She is currently working with Open Campus through the Humanities EXCEL Program as an Editorial Assistant. We caught up with Barajas to learn more about this opportunity to contribute to news media on a national scale for incarcerated individuals.

Hi Liliana, we are looking forward to hearing more about your fellowship! Could you tell us more about Open Campus Media and your work as the Editorial Assistant?

Hi! I first started working with Open Campus towards the end of my sophomore year at UCSC. Open Campus is a non-profit newsroom that operates with the goal of making information about higher education and other educational programs more accessible. They also partner with various local newsrooms across the country to uplift and collaborate with them to achieve their mission. More information about them can be found on their website. 

I was hired as an Editorial Assistant to help Charlotte West, the reporter for the College Inside newsletter published at Open Campus. My main responsibility has been the mailing list, which serves as the hub for all incarcerated people who would like to subscribe to our newsletter. It is important that this is updated regularly as the regulations for mailing to facilities depend on federal regulations, state regulations, and sometimes even county regulations. College Inside hopes to serve as a bridge between criminal justice and higher education, providing relevant up-to-date information about vocational and educational programs available to different facilities. I have also been working with the social and web team to keep the website updated, publish new stories, and create social media posts. 

What was it about this position that drew you to it, and what have been some of the surprises along the way?

Something that drew me to Open Campus was their mission of making information about higher education accessible. As someone who is a first-generation college student, having platforms like Open Campus has helped me easier navigate my college experience. Some of the main surprises I have encountered along the way have been how difficult it is to get physical mail to their correct recipient as regulations on mailing are always changing. 

Tell us a little bit about your academic experiences. How did you pick your majors and what have been some of your favorite classes at UCSC?

While I was still in high school, I took a community college course on cultural anthropology. Since that class, I have been learning as much as I can about anthropology. At first, I wanted to focus on linguistic anthropology, but that has since developed into my major in Literature and Anthropology. Two of my favorite classes I have taken here at UCSC have been an anthropology course centered around colonial encounters in the Andeans and how colonialism shaped the landscape. The other class (LIT 188R-Humanidades Ambientales) is a literature course I’m currently taking on the politics of water and how it can be shown through literary means. It centers around thinking with water instead of solely about water. The purpose of this is to recognize and recontextualize how interconnected everything is in our environment. We read many first and second-hand sources – from various countries in Latin America – about the struggle for clean water, access to water, and the ongoing fight for the environment. 

In what ways has your academic training prepared you for your work with Open Campus? And are there things you are learning as a fellow that you are bringing back to your classes?

I didn’t fully know this when I began working with Open Campus but there is a lot of overlap in how journalists and anthropologists (especially ones writing ethnographies) conduct interviews. Something that has been at the forefront of my mind throughout my time with Open Campus has been how to make news and information accessible. This has followed through with the work that I do in the Anthropology lab with my professors. 

What does your average week look like in this role? And what skills have you learned that you will take into your next endeavor?

My average week with Open Campus is divided into three parts. The first part is working on the social and web-production projects, the second part is working on personal development projects, and the third part is updating the mailing list with any new mail that we receive. 

Thank you so much! To wrap up, could you share something about one of your favorite places in Santa Cruz?

My favorite place in Santa Cruz has to be Natural Bridges. I love how it changes with the seasons and as it gets warmer I definitely hope to visit it more often. 

The Mellon Foundation, The Helen and Will Webster Foundation, The Humanities Institute, the UCSC Humanities Division, and individual donors generously support the Humanities EXCEL Program. If you’re interested in learning more about Humanities EXCEL paid internships, please contact hum-experiential-learning@ucsc.edu.