Sista Bonilla

About Sista

(updated 6/2016) Originally from Los Angeles, Sista Jakelin “Jaki” Bonilla grew up in Siler City, North Carolina.  She graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2012 with a major in Global Studies and a minor in Entrepreneurship.  Jakelin is an immigration activist.  She founded Linking Immigrants to New Communities, which helps ease the transition of recent immigrants through student interaction and awareness-raising in the community, and served on the UNC Emerging Communities Taskforce that established theCarolina Latina/o Collaborative, dedicated to developing a greater awareness of Latina/o issues, cultures and identities.  Jakelin conducted ethnographic research and volunteered in Central and South America, served as co-chair of the Great Decisions Program, mentored in the Scholars Latino Initiative, and directed Global Gap Year Fellowship at the Campus Y, the oldest and largest student service and social justice organization on UNC campus.  She is currently a Luce Scholar working at the  Thailand office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an intergovernmental agency. Her main duty at IOM has been assisting the development of a project that aims to improve the well-being of Myanmar Muslim (including Rohingya) and Thai host communities.