Alexandria Ocasio-cortez

Alexandria said, “The fact is, much public policy is all talk until you’ve worked 18-hour days to make ends meet. Doing that, and… we begin to truly understand the real-life impact of healthcare policy, labor laws, living wage.” She is the daughter of working class New Yorkers. Her family left the Bronx, in search of better public schools, and later with scholarships, she graduated from Boston University with a degree Economics and International Relations. While there she worked under the late Senator Kennedy and spent time in West Africa working with expectant mothers and female entrepreneurs. After graduation she worked as an Educational Director with the National Hispanic Institute, and founded Brook Avenue Press, an early childhood literacy project exploring storytelling and project-based curriculum. When her family home was on the brink of foreclosure, she started waitressing on the side. She said, “Serving, bartending, and helping manage a local business has ranked among the best educational experiences of my life.” In 2016 she worked with the Bernie Sanders campaign in New York City.