National Coordinating Committee

Jake C, Co-Chair, New York University: Jake (he/they) is a student at NYU in the final year of their 5-year program. They joined NYU YDSA as a freshman and served on its Organizing Committee for two years, helping lead their strike solidarity campaign with NYU’s graduate student union and growing the chapter to more than 40 dues-paying members. For the past year they served on YDSA’s NCC and worked on the 2022 Winter Conference, YDSA Dues Drive, Red Hot Summer, and the 2021 and 2022 Fall Drives. Jake is excited to continue their work on the NCC this year and looks forward to working with members across the country to strengthen and grow YDSA. You can contact Jake at [email protected]

Leena Y, Co-Chair, Columbia University: Leena (she/her) is a 4th year undergraduate student. She helped organize a tuition strike at Columbia University in the fall of 2020 to win partial fossil fuel divestment and increased financial assistance for undergraduates. After being elected to serve on the YDSA NCC as an at-large member in 2021, she helped create the National Strategic Campaign Cohort program and supported young labor organizers through Red Hot Summer. She is also one of many co-founding members of the CURA Collective, a group of RAs that formed this April at Columbia to fight for fair pay and workplace democracy. Please reach out to speak at [email protected]!

Aron A, At-Large Member, University of Florida: My name is Aron Ali-McClory, and I go by all pronouns. I was born and raised in Orlando, Florida, but am currently a resident of Gainesville, Florida, and am attending the University of Florida as a Political Science and Anthropology major. My journey with YDSA began in 2021, when I co-founded the YDSA chapter at the University of Florida. Initially, I was elected as the chapter’s Secretary, but soon after was elected as Vice President, and when we switched over to our current leadership system, I was elected as Chair. By using forward planning to anticipate growth and potential problems, as well as quickly identifying and fixing infrastructural weak spots, I was able to help facilitate the rapid growth of the UF chapter, which has already played a role in several significant campaigns both on campus and in our city, from fighting toe to toe against the governor for academic freedom, to building a coalition of community organizations to fight back against the encroachment of fascism on Gainesville. A better world is not only possible, but within reach!

Evan C, At-Large Member, University of Central Florida: Evan has been organizing in the Orlando area for nearly four years, having participated in large scale mutual aid, state wide electoral work, and recently helped to lead starbucks solidarity drives. Evan is committed to the growth of yDSA and DSA, which he hopes to achieve by using national trainings to empower local leaders. On the NCC he plans to prioritize local development, the expansion of national labor strategy, and a prioritization of geographic diversity in national bodies to ensure all material conditions are represented. Personally, he is an avid runner and a fan of classic science fiction such as Asimov’s foundation series!

Kaya Ç, At-Large Member, Dartmouth College: Kaya is an undergrad at Dartmouth College studying History. He was first conjoined to the struggle for the better day in Turkey. Nowadays, he organizes in the United States as part of the students’ and workers’ movement. During his time here, he has helped co-found Dartmouth YDSA and helped organize the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth, the fifth undergraduate student worker union in the country. On the NCC, he prioritizes supporting the emergent student worker movement and combating the neoliberal university. He fights the modest fight for the same reason as any fellow traveler: he wants the whole Earth, and a small house overlooking a busy street.

Lance J, At-Large Member, UC Berkeley: Lance (he/him) is in his 4th year at UC Berkeley. His introduction to organizing came from phonebanking for Jackie Fielder and Prop 15, joining his campus YDSA chapter in the summer of 2020. Though he was new, he had the opportunity to build up his chapter during a difficult period of online learning. During his first year in YDSA Lance wrote canvassing scripts, taught lessons about racial capitalism, and attended Rank-and-File School where he realized he can make the biggest difference in the labor movement as a public school teacher. He was elected co-chair of political education for his junior year and went on to be a lead organizer in his campus’ response to the UC tuition hikes.

Margot G, At-Large Member, North Central High School: I am a senior at North Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. I joined DSA during my sophomore year and began to organize a YDSA chapter at my school. My organizing committee and I started the chapter at the beginning of my junior year. The NCHS Chapter is currently the first and only high school YDSA chapter in Indiana, as well as one of the largest high school chapters in the country. In addition to serving as co-chair of my chapter, I have led political education programs at my school and mobilized my chapter to engage in campaigns with my local DSA. I also work on the Fall Drive committee and Central Indiana DSA’s labor committee.

Taylor C, At-Large Member, UC Santa Barbara: I was first drafted into the class war in 2019 when I began knocking on doors for Bernie Sanders. Like so many others, Bernie fundamentally transformed my political consciousness from that of an apathetic liberal to a raging class warrior. But, while campaigns end, the struggle continues. After March 2020, I pushed our Students for Bernie chapter to join YDSA and was elected Co-Chair immediately after. Despite the first 18 months of our chapter’s existence being in the middle of a global pandemic, over the past two years, we’ve grown from a small cell of Bernie veterans to a thriving YDSA chapter with over 60 members and a whole new generation of chapter leaders. To accomplish that, we organized around issues from housing and houselessness to pandemic relief and over-policing – and of course, labor solidarity. If my past two years as a founding Co-Chair of UCSB YDSA and one year as a field organizer in SRU-UAW have taught me anything, it’s that the only way to enact the transformative change that we as socialists are looking for is by organizing the working class – which ought to be the beating heart of our movement.

Kayla S, At-Large Member, Oakland University: Kayla Sharpe is chair of Oakland University YDSA and has been a dues-paying member of Metro Detroit DSA since 2019. In their time on chapter leadership they have organized canvasses that successfully elected a DSA member to a local city council, built YDSA membership through a recent faculty labor strike, fostered the growth of new YDSA chapters in Metro Detroit, and chaired OU’s Students for Bernie group in 2020.