LSRIP students present their research at Earners and Learners Gallery Walk


Vanessa Codilla | September 16, 2019

On September 9 and 11, students in the Labor Summer Research Internship Program (LSRIP) presented their preliminary research findings at the Earners and Learners Gallery Walk at the UCLA Labor Center and at Pierce College. Students presented research on young people from Los Angeles County who attend college while working, focusing on issues such as mental health, internship and work-study opportunities, and labor violations. The course is taught by Labor Center researchers Saba Waheed and Janna Shadduck-Hernández, with teaching assistant Michele Wong.

LSRIP is a seminar that offers students a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in applied research focused on the Los Angeles labor movement, which is leading national efforts to promote social justice for working people. Students worked in groups to create a final project addressing specific themes, using project surveys, interviews, and analysis of national data. Over the course of Summer Session C, students collected a total of 154 surveys and 31 interviews with earners and learners at various UC, CSU, and community college campuses in Los Angeles County.


The LSRIP program is open not only to Bruins but also to students from other colleges. This year’s class included Daniella Efrat, attending community college with plans to transfer to UCLA to study political science and labor studies; Simon Ngyuen, majoring in math and economics at UC Irvine; and Julio Gonzales, majoring in sociology and English at UC Santa Barbara.

Efrat, who hopes to pursue a career in labor policy, conducted research on labor violations: “I’ve never been able to channel my interests into the curriculum of a class until now. Working with other students, I became passionate about the real-life impact that we could make based on our research.” She learned about workplace discrimination, overtime, and verbal harassment.