A double major in diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College, Alejo Maggini ’22 (Argentina, UWC Maastricht) completed an internship last fall as an advisor to the Costa Rican mission to the UN in New York through the college’s Kahane United Nations Program.

“I was responsible for the multilateral negotiations, formal proceedings, and evaluation of the Fourth Special Political and Decolonization Committee,” he writes. “I negotiated with UN member states and nongovernmental organizations, and managed to expand the number of cosponsoring countries from 42 to 126.”

Working last summer as an Occidental College task-force coordinator with the Los Angeles mayor’s office, Alejo played a key role in producing the report “Truth in Los Angeles: Addressing Racial Injustice through Recognition, Responsibility, and Repair.” He was also a co-author of the paper “Classroom Walls and City Hall: Mobilizing Local Partnerships to Advance the Sustainable Development Agenda,” published last May in the journal Sustainability.

On the Oxy campus, Alejo is a founding member of the Restorative Justice Committee, and last fall he co-led the virtual event “Racial Justice and Restorative Justice: From Truth Telling to Reparations.” The recipient of the Diplomacy & World Affairs Program’s Community Involvement Award in 2021, he volunteers as a language tutor on campus, and gives time to the Latin American Leadership Academy in L.A. “I am also a volunteer for UWC Argentina in the selection process of next generations of UWCers, outreach, and accompanying current students in their experiences,” Alejo concludes.