Leslie Sepulveda ’22 spent the past year trying to solve an issue faced by undocumented students at LMU finding paid internships. Many students were looking for opportunities to apply what they were learning to a real-world setting. Still, undocumented students without authorization to work were left with no paid options. So, Sepulveda with six other LMU students and Professor Claudia Sandoval helped develop BoundlessLMU, a program created by students to help students find internships and receive payment for their work. In April, Sepulveda was awarded a $15,000 scholarship from The Donald A. Strauss Foundation to fund the BoundlessLMU project.
Leslie Sepulveda ’22
Major: Psychology
Hometown: East Palo Alto, California
Each year the Strauss Foundation awards only 10-15 California college sophomores or juniors from 14 pre-selected institutions a $15,000 scholarship to help fund a student’s service project expenses and educational support. The BoundlessLMU project helps match undocumented and DACAmented LMU students with companies that best fit their career interests while receiving a financial award, and professional and leadership development training. The training will include hosting workshops and speakers who share their experiences with students. This program aims to reduce the inaccessibility mixed-status students encounter when applying for internships. Sepulveda has worked alongside fellow LMU students: Melissa Cabrera ’21, Leo Dominguez ’23, Brisa Gutierrez ’23, Carolina Newton ’23, Nicole Hernandez ’22, and Lizbeth Ramales ’22, along with faculty advising support from Sandoval.
When Sepulveda received the news that she was awarded this significant scholarship, she was not expecting it. “I did not believe I got this, at first,” said Sepulveda. “The first thing I did was text the group chat I have with everyone involved in the project to share the news. It was really amazing because everyone has put a lot of work into this project. And we could breathe a sigh of relief because after receiving this funding, it will also help us continue to work to get funding for BoundlessLMU.”
Sepulveda worked closely with Isabel Villalobos-Galeana, interim assistant director in the Center for Service and Action. Villalobos-Galeana led the Strauss Award application process for LMU this past year; a total of six students applied with various types of service projects. Villalobos-Galeana was instrumental in assisting Sepulveda with the written application process and bringing a Strauss Award back to LMU for the first time in four years.
“It was great to be able to be a part of the process of helping students with their applications for the Strauss Award scholarship,” said Villalobos-Galeana. “Leslie’s project really helps connect students who need internship experiences to use what they are learning through their journey at LMU. Six students applied to the program this year. After working with each of them on their written applications, Leslie’s application really stood out as a chance for students to create meaningful change for undocumented students. We are so proud to have a Strauss recipient at LMU again after four years and want to continue to find ways to help connect students with opportunities to find their passions that meet the world’s greatest needs.”
After this summer, the BoundlessLMU team plans to keep applying for grants and scholarships to keep funding their work with students. “We want LMU to join us in helping fund this program, and we’re going to keep advocating for LMU to help us,” said Sepulveda. “We need help providing more funding for students to do internships and continue building our network of partner organizations to continue this work.”
“I am very grateful to see the support BoundlessLMU has already received from LMU’s student body,” said Sepulveda. “ASLMU has been essential for the initial steps in establishing BoundlessLMU monetarily. We also want President Snyder and the university to fund this program and a Dream Center, which is of the utmost importance to guide and protect our undocumented students. As an institution devoted to social justice, LMU needs to support its undocumented community.” The university continues to respond to students’ demands. Read the full university response to the Latinx community concerns here.
A commitment to service and justice has defined Sepulveda’s educational career during her time at LMU. “Everything I’ve done here has been about advocating and supporting my fellow students,” shared Sepulveda. As a first-generation college student, LMU’s First To Go program has been a very important community to Sepulveda. In addition, her participation in the Academic Community of Excellence (ACE) and as a member of Resilience and the Latino Student Union are places, she calls home.
For Sepulveda, being the Social Justice Scholarship recipient at LMU is very important to her and her community at school. She attributes it to being the sole reason she was able to attend LMU. She was a student representative in the Independent California Colleges Advocate Program where she helped lobby for Assembly Bill 2030, which successfully passed thanks to Sepulveda and others’ testimonials. Sepulveda also served as this past year’s attorney general for ASLMU, where she organized a mutual aid fund for undocumented students.
In the fall, she hopes to continue her education and advocacy by attending law school and eventually becoming active in public interest law, where she can do her part to bring justice and be in service to others.
To learn more about the BoundlessLMU project, visit the website or follow them on Instagram.