Hobbies and interests
Dance
Latin Dance
Advocacy And Activism
Skateboarding
Anthropology
Reading
Reading
Anthropology
Historical
Psychology
Young Adult
I read books multiple times per month
FIRST GENERATION STUDENT
Yes
Luna Plaza
1,205
Bold Points1x
FinalistLuna Plaza
1,205
Bold Points1x
FinalistBio
I am Luna Plaza, my personal pronouns are she/her/hers, and for visual description purposes, I am an Asian presenting young woman with long dark brown hair. I am a first-generation student and I identify as Indigenous Taína and Kinh Vietnamese. I was born and raised in Miami, Florida, before moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2016. I am 20 years old, I am an only child, and I am attending University of Miami as a double major in psychology and gender and sexuality studies with a minor in anthropology. I dedicate my life to my healing and the healing of other people. I rest rest to honor my ancestors who could not and I rest to honor the relatives alive now who can not rest. Through my life’s work, I have been blessed to connect with communities that have brought me more connection than I ever expected. I am so abundant in love in a world, in a society, and in a blood family that tells me I am too much, too intense, that I am too radical, and that I am ridiculous. I found that I am who I am and that I do not need to fix or erase any part of me. I continue to integrate holding space for my whole self, for my duality, and working on those parts of me that need love and compassion. I am present and keeping the vision of the future, but I am also grounded and anchored into the truth in the fight for our future and collective healing.
Education
University of Miami
Bachelor's degree programMajors:
- Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender, and Group Studies, Other
- Psychology, General
Minors:
- Anthropology
Miscellaneous
Desired degree level:
Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)
Graduate schools of interest:
Transfer schools of interest:
Majors of interest:
Career
Dream career field:
Mental Health Care
Dream career goals:
Intern
Friday & Cox, LLC2020 – 20211 year
Arts
Urban Impact Foundation
Dance2018 – 2022
Public services
Advocacy
Reflect Collective — Events Director board member2023 – PresentVolunteering
F Fentanyl — Lead volunteer2022 – PresentAdvocacy
Disability Ambassadors at the University of Miami — Outreach and Social Media chair2022 – PresentAdvocacy
PERIOD at the University of Miami — Outreach E-board member2023 – PresentVolunteering
TransYouniting — Youth volunteer2021 – PresentAdvocacy
Asian Solidarity Alliance — Co-founder2021 – PresentAdvocacy
Sunrise Pittsburgh — Hub organizer2021 – PresentVolunteering
Hill District Consensus Group — Student volunteer2021 – 2022Advocacy
PA Youth Advocacy Network — Youth leader2020 – 2022
Future Interests
Advocacy
Volunteering
Mikey Taylor Memorial Scholarship
I am a proud disabled Queer Indigenous Taína and Kinh Vietnamese woman, who has had to grapple with and reconcile the intersections of my identities. Throughout my childhood, I felt uncomfortable with my identity and my mental health struggles were often dismissed. As a young adult, I now fully choose to embrace my intersectionality. I deserve to feel safe in my right to express myself without fearing that I will be judged.
I fight for a world where we collectively achieve liberation and harmony. Through activism in my communities, I can only hope such efforts help future generations grow up in a world where they feel loved and free. I have dedicated my life to my healing and the healing of other people. Since high school, I have been a youth mental health advocate, offering guidance and resources to peers in communities impacted by racism, discrimination, and ultimately, lack of services. As someone with lived mental health struggles, I have used my experiences to create something hopeful for those in our community by amplifying free and simple access to information and resources that supports diverse needs. I hope to become a reliable pillar of emotional and tangible support for our community and a meaningful engine for revolutionary change.
With a college education, I plan to pursue a path in which I can directly support the accessibility and mental health needs of community members. I want to fight mental health stigmatization. Youth mental health care is especially important to me because this is the mental health of future leaders who are preparing to face the greatest problems of our time. At the University of Miami, I am a major in psychology. I want to change the way mental health is poorly addressed. I am deeply committed to mental health equity and I continue to educate myself to better understand the barriers marginalized communities face.
My work centers accessibility and visibility. Most people in the recovery and harm reduction world come into this work with a dream and our own personal stories in hopes that other people do not have to experience what we went through. The work we do is for the people by the people to create and fill that lack. In my own organizations, we serve delicate communities, specifically Black and Brown communities. A majority of our organization’s members have been incarcerated before, have gone through multiple steps of recovery, surviving overdose, rehabilitation, or experienced a mental health crisis. Still, we are here, creating something for those in our community who may not have access to services to make sure they stay alive to see another day and create a new life for themselves. Harm reduction is more than just the tools. Harm reduction is intertwined with the broader fight to abolish harm in healthcare, policy, and education. With the knowledge each of us carry, we are breaking barriers through our services and facilitating education for our community to have the opportunity to survive.
What our community needs now is leadership from our new generation of activists. I intend to bring all my growing knowledge from my activism in Pittsburgh and Miami to everywhere I go in hopes of my work becoming a wider influence that creates lasting impacts for our community. I will continue to fight for our future and collective healing. We are all a family when we are speaking life into each other and not tearing each other down. I will do my best to work cooperatively, honestly, and in support of those I work with in the mental health field to achieve our mutual goals.