Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.
Walter P. Paepcke, Aspen Institute Co-Founder
Aspen Institute
Joshua Garza
2018 Ricardo Salinas Scholar
Joshua Garza
is a student at California State University of Long Beach and is working to earn a degree in Communications with a minor in Law. He previously worked at Retirement Housing Foundation in Long Beach, which is a nonprofit for low income housing for two and a half years. Having worked at this nonprofit, it inspired him to stay within the nonprofit sector so that he could help and inspire those in need. He now works at the Alliance for Children’s Rights as an Outreach and Engagement Fellow for the Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC), helping to hear, honor, lift, and integrate the voices, experiences, and recommendations of young people with lived experience to connect them with resources for a better life. Being a former foster youth himself, this line of work is near and dear to his heart and he hopes to build lasting relationships and strengthen programs within the foster youth community. He thinks that the best part of his job is that he gets to work for an organization that is mission-driven and is surrounded by people who care deeply about making the world a better place.
