Girls for Gender Equality<\/a>.<\/p>\nA native of Valley Stream, New York and the daughter of a yellow taxi driver, Ahuja, 33, began her work in labor organizing as a teen with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. She credits the multiracial women in leadership at NYTWA for inspiring her to pursue a career dedicated to serving marginalized communities.<\/p>\n
But Hunter College, where Ahuja graduated from in 2009, is what Ahuja credits for an intellectual awakening that paved the way for future successes. One educator who shaped Ahuja\u2019s experience, lecturer and advisor in the Women and Gender Studies Program at Hunter, Jennifer Gaboury, still remembers Ahuja\u2019s tenacity and drive to improve the community circumstances of those around her.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, Sasha typifies exactly what we want to see students doing,\u201d Gaboury said, reciting a laundry list of campaigns and communities Ahuja worked with at Hunter. \u201cSexual health and justice, racial justice, equity, poverty issues, anti imperialism,\u201d were just some of the numerous issues Gabourey recalled Ahuja working on during her time at Hunter.<\/p>\n
Gaboury described a \u201ccohort,\u201d of students including Ahuja who were particularly politically active and engaged. Those students affected change from an initiative to get students more space in the form of a student lounge, to the formal transition of the Women\u2019s and Gender Studies Program from concentration to major.<\/p>\n
Former USG President at Hunter, Ahmed Tigani, doubled down on Gaboury\u2019s assertion that it is almost impossible to identify Ahuja and her time at Hunter by focusing on one specific issue. Tigani and Ahuja met while living in the Hunter College dormitories and quickly established a friendship through their mutual interest in helping their fellow students.<\/p>\n
Chuckling, Tigani could not point out one defining accomplishment for Ahuja, instead praising her for an encompassing drive to keep \u201cpushing the envelope,\u201d through a near tireless devotion to \u201cworking to figure out how to improve people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beauty of that time,\u201d Tigani recalled, \u201cit\u2019s happening every moment\u2026you\u2019re socializing and talking about what you could be doing to make the world better.\u201d At the center of that was a balance that not only sought to advocate for underserved and marginalized communities, but a desire, \u201cto create joy and memories while putting in place critical resources for students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahuja\u2019s current role with the Yang campaign positions her to impact policy decisions that will help New Yorkers and CUNY students receive some of the critical resources Tigani mentioned.<\/p>\n
Describing Yang as a \u201cno nonsense, deeply authentic visionary,\u201d dedicated to the \u201cradical transformation\u201d of a \u201cbroken economy,\u201d Ahuja says Yang is the candidate best poised to directly impact the lives of \u201ceveryday New Yorkers,\u201d and CUNY students.<\/p>\n
Professors like Gaboury are hopeful Ahuja\u2019s strong political views will color the Yang campaign in a way that is impactful for students and educators, especially on a financial level. The Yang campaign, though, has yet to release a specific higher-education plan.<\/p>\n
While Ahuja did not provide any specifics, Yang\u2019s presidential campaign website<\/a> offers certain clues. The website specifically states that, as president, he would seek to \u201ccontrol the cost of higher education,\u201d and \u201cprevent students from being saddled with lifetime debt.\u201d<\/p>\nBeyond the policy concerns Hunter students have for every mayoral candidate, Ahuja\u2019s success in advocacy and new role with the Yang campaign serves as a beacon for students concerned about their futures.<\/p>\n
Hunter student Hannah Kavanagh sees Ahuja\u2019s success as, \u201ca roadmap for what the future could potentially hold.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hunter graduate Sasha Ahuja describes being \u201cdeeply politicized by organizing work on campus,\u201d leading to her current position running Andrew Yang\u2019s mayoral campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":3553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[389],"class_list":["post-3552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-politics-mayor-nyc-hunter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3612,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions\/3612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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