CoThinkk has been fortunate to be accepted as one of few organizations in Western North Carolina to be granted a fellow, provided by the Tzedek Social Justice Fellowship Program. It was an intensive selection process and we are so pleased to introduce to the wider community, Davia Young.

 

Davia Young (uses she/her/hers pronouns) was born and raised as a Reform Jew in Durham, North Carolina and graduated from Guilford College with a degree in Community & Justice Studies, a double minor in Environmental Studies and Gender Studies, and a language focus in Arabic. Through her undergraduate studies, she developed a passion for Participatory Action Research (P.A.R.), which aims to disrupt conventional forms of knowledge production by centering community voices and narratives, and finding community-led solutions. P.A.R. is dedicated to changing who our society deems “experts” and who decides what makes research “valid.” She has been a student organizer with Integrity for Guilford, a multi-issue and multi-racial student led coalition, which advocated around issues of institutionalized racism in higher education, specifically working to hold Guilford College accountable to their core values. She considers the struggle for justice and equity to be interdisciplinary and intersectional.

Davia says, “For me, building community, coalition work, and sharing spaces are some of the most powerful tools for change. I am committed to using my identities and privileges to fight for justice by accessing my various communities that perpetuate oppression.”

We are thrilled to welcome Davia into the CoThinkk family and we look forward to the co-learning process ahead of us in the upcoming year. We see her skill-sets greatly assisting CoThinkk’s capacity in continuing this critical work for and with communities of color in Western North Carolina. 

Learn more about the Tzedek Social Justice Program at: tzedekfellowship.org

You can reach Davia at davia.young@cothinkk.org.