| Ginger Yachinich, Texas GSA Network Intern: I am Social Work Major at the University of Texas at Austin. I was born and raised in San Antonio and began interning with the Texas QSA Network during the summer of 2008, just before my junior year in high school. My hobbies include writing, painting, dancing in my car at stoplights, reading, cooking, and swimming. I believe love is not limited by genders, biology, or even our sexualities. Love and passion are fluid and can flow anywhere and everywhere as long as you remain open to them Alex Barksdale, Texas GSA Network Regional Intern: I am an Austin native (or at least I consider myself to be) who is currently a junior at Rice University in Houston studying anthropology and the study of women, gender and sexuality. I have an interest in feminist and queer scholarship and how it does and can inform activism. I am also interested in the intersections of identities and systems of oppression (race, class, gender, sexuality, colonialism, capitalism, etc.). When I'm not doing work for classes I can be found mostly at my computer finding good timewasters as well as good music. I am a vegetarian and love learning to cook new dishes. I also love spoken word performances and all different forms of art in general and exploring the art/music scene in Houston and Austin. I hope to find a way in which activism can become a large part of my life and also how to make my scholarship a useful tool in that pursuit. Kristen Van De Walle, Texas GSA Network Regional Intern: Kristen Van De Walle is a freshman at the University of North Texas where she is studying social work and education. In high school, Kristen started a Gay-Straight Alliance club and ran track for three years. She attended the first annual Youth Activism Camp in the summer of 2008, and helped lead the 2nd annual camp before becoming a regional intern for the Dallas area. She hopes to continue her studies and find a career path in which she can further her activism when she finishes college. Kristen's favorite thing to do is Karaoke Friday at the only gay bar in Denton and she is an LGBTQ activist because it sometimes gives her a glimpse of how much potential the world has.
Andi Gentile, Regional Director Andi grew up in New York City, and a few years ago put on her cowgirl boots and traded the big city for the better one, making the move to Austin. She has been committed to social justice since her involvement in her own high school’s QSA, and has dedicated herself to social change work, most recently with organizations including Soulforce Q and Domestic Workers United. Andi served as an intern on the Texas GSA Network’s administrative team since 2009, and is excited to return home to the Network as Regional Director. Outside of working with the network, you’ll find Andi in her kitchen in a chef’s hat and pajamas, cooking up a storm! Kurt is a queer, mestizo, Latino, mujerista, Unitarian-Universalist. Kurt holds a Bachelor of Social Work from Texas State University-San Marcos and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Social Work, with a concentration in Community and Administrative Leadership from the University of Texas at Austin.
Kurt completed his undergraduate social work internship with Communities in Schools at Eastside Memorial High School in Austin, Texas. In this setting Kurt developed and strengthened the campus Gay-Straight Alliance to become the largest Communities in Schools peer group on site. Prior to that experience Kurt served Hays County, Texas as an advocate for comprehensive sexual education policies on the Youth Leadership Council for the Texas Freedom Network and worked for several faith-based non-profits in Austin, Texas. Kurt is a huge fan of female vocalists including Whitney Houston, Cher,Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack and other classic divas. Kurt's interests include liberation theology, post-colonial feminist theory and the work of political organizing within communities of color.
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Staff
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Texas GSA Network Staff
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