Amelie Justo-Sainz: Social Justice from Coast to Coast

As you walk into the first floor of Frost Library, you are immediately greeted by the contagious laughter of Amelie Justo-Sainz ’25, sitting by Frost Cafe with her friends. Amelie radiates positivity and compassion that is evident in the ways she works and speaks up for her community. 

Amelie has currently finished and defended her thesis on gentrification and the housing crisis in her hometown of San Francisco. Her thesis not only acknowledges the people working hard to speak for the working class but also displays an effort to bring positive change to the world. 

The Beginning

Amelie’s journey to Amherst College began early in her education. She always knew she would attend a small liberal arts college due to Achieve — a scholarship program she was accepted in her freshman year of high school. The program gave her the opportunity to obtain a private school education, under one condition — she needed to attend a liberal arts college outside of California. 

Amelie is a Mexican-American Latina and a current resident of San Francisco, CA, where she attended an all-girl private Catholic high school for three years. After the school shut down her third year of high school, she moved to a different private school, where she experienced her senior year through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Achieve helped her with her transition to Amherst, and she is grateful for their support. However, she emphasized that one of the downsides of this program was that it failed to acknowledge the difficult transition that first-generation low-income (FLI) students and students of color often face when attending more remote and primarily white liberal arts colleges.

“I got lucky with Amherst, but other people in the program had harder times adjusting to being outside of California. The program was basically saying that as long as there was a diversity center, they would be fine, but that wasn’t necessarily true,” Amelie said.

Choosing Amherst was not easy, as she had to experience this process through the pandemic. A2A and Be a Mammoth were not operating, so she couldn’t visit the campus. Everything was done virtually.

Even without visiting, Amelie knew Amherst was a good fit for her. Financial aid was Amelie’s primary motivating factor for choosing Amherst College. A close second were the resources Amherst provided, such as free mental health resources or the class access resource center.

The transition into college was difficult. Her twin sister (Yes! She’s a twin!) was moving to college the same day, and her whole family couldn’t move her in. Move-in day was done alone, with only the voices of her family members heard through her phone, and her aunt — who dropped her off — waiting outside the dorm due to Covid restrictions. It was a bittersweet moment that marked the beginning of her college education journey.

Her freshman year was strange, especially because of strict Covid protocols. Students had to sit outside in tents; the second floor of Val was closed off. 

“It was a big transition from being indoors all the time, to moving across the country, and then meeting a whole bunch of new people,” Amelie said.

Fortunately, Amelie was also accepted into Summer Bridge — a program for FLI students that runs a few weeks before orientation and aims to help with the college transition. Summer Bridge set her up with Amherst resources, let her to familiarize herself with the campus, and connected her with a group of students of similar backgrounds, who soon became her close friends. 

Finding her Path

Amelie is a double major in Sociology and Latinx & Latin American Studies (LLAS), but she didn’t intend to pursue these majors when she came to Amherst. 

“I kind of knew I wanted to be a sociology major, but I thought I wanted to also be a [law, jurisprudence, and social thought] (LJST) major,” she said. “But then I took an LJST class and I knew that wasn’t for me.”

But then, in her freshman fall she took “Immigration and White Supremacy,” taught by Professor of American Studies and Black Studies Solsiree Del Moral and Program Chair of Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies Pawan Dhingra. It focused on migration history that was not taught in her high school classes, like how U.S. imperialism has impacted Latin American countries and their migration patterns. The course also opened the door to her becoming a LLAS major.

In addition to her keen interest in Latin American studies, she began to learn more about herself and the world. She was able to make connections between her past and what she was learning. Taking more classes in the LLAS department came naturally. She loved her professors, especially Assistant Professor of Religion Lloyd Barba, who taught a course she took last year — “Latinx Religion and Immigration.” Their shared Californian origins and first-generation identity allowed them to easily connect.

Outside of her classes, Amelie became heavily involved with the admissions office. She liked her work as a tour guide, where she could pitch the school to potential applicants, but she sometimes felt strange as a Latina woman talking to predominantly white families. She described feeling like a “charity case” when presenting. 

After three years, however, she became a diversity outreach intern in the admissions office, and was finally able to speak about her experience to potential students who could relate to her. 

“It allowed me to connect on a deeper level to a group of people that I identified with and represent,” Amelie said.

As Amelie spoke about the purpose of being a diversity outreach intern, the passion she has for helping FLI students could be felt. She believed it was important for prospective students to see themselves reflected in the student body. She acknowledged that moving to a different state for college would be easier after meeting supportive folks from similar circumstances.

 “I consider [Amelie] my mentor and my inspiration for that job, especially, but also my inspiration in life,” said Amelie’s colleague and close friend, Summer Le ’27. “I want to carry her energy moving forward as long as I work there.”

Research Era

Amelie just finished her thesis called “Resisting collective forgetting through the testimonios of Latino housing organizers in San Francisco.” A long process that involved reaching out to Latinos who helped speak up to tenants affected by gentrification in the area.

Deciding to write a thesis was a funny turn of events. Going into Amherst, Amelie thought research was not for her as she was not familiar with research in the humanities. Her feelings towards research slowly changed as she participated in the Summer Bridge Research Institute (SBRI) with William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science Austin Sarat and other faculty, who exposed her to the different ways research in the humanities work.

“[SBRI] made me realize that I was already doing research in my classes,” she said. “Research can be about whatever you want it to be. You can make it fun.”

During SBRI, she worked on a project on how ethnic communities are portrayed in the media. Her research consisted of watching various TV shows and movies. Her time during this program was pivotal for her research journey.

Her decision to write a thesis was solidified while working with Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies Hannah Holleman, who eventually became her thesis advisor. She helped Amelie enjoy the research process, which included summarizing movies and research articles and the research topics. 

When coming up with a thesis proposal, Amelie reflected on her sociology classes and realized that she always tended to gravitate towards topics related to housing issues. Naturally, she would specifically focus on San Francisco for her thesis.

Holleman consistently emphasized how Amelie always gave her work meaning and brought passion into everything she was doing. 

“She has a sense of a broader purpose when studying to really understand and contribute positively to the world,” Holleman said. She also added, “She really recognizes the contributions of others, as seen in the classroom. But she is focused on activists in her hometown, like tenants rights and housing advocates in the Mission in San Francisco.”

Amelie describes her thesis as an effort to “resist the collective forgetting of a neighborhood that happens through gentrification. Through their narratives, I hoped to demonstrate how these housing organizers preserve the Latino Identity of San Francisco despite gentrification.”

Through her thesis, Amelie highlights the hard work of people committing their lives to filling gaps when it comes to housing policies. These policies tend to cater to the desires of the wealthy instead of the needs of working people. 

Holleman affirmed that Amelie’s focus on this topic also reflects something about Amelie herself, namely “her concern for her local community, her genuine desire to learn about something she can draw from to contribute to making the world a better place.”

Looking Ahead

There is some uncertainty about what is to come. The job market is tough right now. But one thing is sure: Amelie wants to work in a non-profit or government sector.

“I really want to have some type of social impact in the world, no matter how small or big that looks like,” Amelie said.

This current presidential administration is not facilitating that pathway she hopes to embark on, but she still plans to get her master’s degree in public policy. 

“My ultimate goal is to work in local government within the city hall of San Francisco or the capital of Sacramento. No matter where I end up, I want to return to San Francisco. I’m just happier there.”

Amelie believes more change can be done working in local government. Her calling awaits where her heart resides, in San Francisco. Her passion and kindness, as witnessed by her peers and professors, will drive her to a place where she can elicit meaningful change, no matter how big or small.