Chris Vlahoplus Carolina Scholar
Hammond School
Columbia, SC
Women’s and Gender Studies and Political Science

My scholarship gave me the opportunity to spend a semester in New York City at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. There, through their Union Semester program, I took classes and had a full-time internship with Fast Food Justice, a labor rights nonprofit organizing fast food workers. Fast Food Justice was the start of the fight for $15 minimum wage, and I worked on the campaign to change at-will employment to just-cause. I was able to get class credit for my political science degree and study labor history at one of the premier institutions in the United States. Everything I want to do in the future was encapsulated in this amazing experience. 

Future plans: Madison plans to work at a nonprofit or union before pursuing a doctorate in social and political theory.