LSWC Former Interns

Thea Chhun

Thea Chhun

  • LSWC Intern (2019)

Thea was an LSWC intern in 2019. She was a Master’s candidate at UC Berkeley’s Social of Social Welfare. She was born in Cambodia shortly after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, arrived to the States as a refugee, and grew up in the Central Valley. As a long-time advocate working with communities of color, her expansive experience includes working as a case manager at Community Health for Asian Americans, law clerk at the East Bay Community Law Center and with the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials, a Peace Corps volunteer, and advocate at the Homeless Action Center. Thea joined the Legal-Social Work Collaborative at MLC as part of her field education; she was primarily working with the Youth & Education Law Project and Immigrants’ Rights Clinic.

Stephen Irwin

Stephen (Joey) Irwin

  • Social Work Intern (2020)

As a final year MSW graduate student from UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare, working at Stanford’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, Joey is involved by remaining steadfast and committed to protecting the rights of immigrant clients through a variety of social advocacy projects, direct legal services support, and partnerships with community organizations. As a member of Stanford’s Community Law Clinic, much of this work involves supporting clients in housing, social security disability, and criminal record expungement matters. Joey’s future plans involve increasing positive impact through macro-level social work that focuses on the law, social policy, and general social welfare program development.

Noor Kayed

Noor Kayed

  • Social Work Intern (2020)

Noor is a final year Master of Social Work student at San Jose State University currently working with the Youth & Education Law Project. YELP works to advocate for educational rights and provide holistic support for children, youth, and their families. This includes pushing for educational reform and equity through direct client work and advocacy. Noor’s focus is in social justice, diversity, and equity with hopes to pursue a path within macro practice social work and social justice education.

Canaan

Canaan Lewin-Welsh

  • Social Work Intern (2020)

Canaan is in the final year of her Master of Social Work program at San Jose State University. Currently, she is interning in the Community Law Clinic and is primarily working with clients seeking legal representation for housing and social security disability matters. While working in a dynamic environment with many nuanced cases, there are themes in her social work practice. These include conducting comprehensive client assessments, connecting clients to services and resources to reduce expenses and increase available income, facilitating evaluations to support clients in their social security disability cases, and consulting with law students for holistic client care. Canaan is passionate about criminal justice reform and hopes to work, in the future, to support individuals who have been impacted by the criminal justice system.

Steven Pangelinan

Steven Pangelinan

  • Social Work Intern (2020)

Steven is a second year MSW student at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services. Steven is currently working to support the CDC legal teams in their compassionate release cases. Steven’s role is to identify resources relevant to the client’s needs for the legal teams to use in their compassionate release motions. If compassionate release is granted Steven works with the client to identify the client’s goals and needs for re-entry, and coordinate with probation to ensure a supportive and successful release plan is in place upon release. In the future Steven would like to work with youth in some capacity and with individuals involved in the criminal justice system.

Emily Spencer

Emily Spencer

  • Social Work Intern (2020)

Emily is in her final year as a MSW student at Arizona State University. Emily is working in collaboration with the clinic’s legal team at the Youth & Education Law Project to support and advocate on behalf of youth and their families in pursuit of the youth’s education and to address other social needs. Emily’s experience thus far has been primarily in mental health and she is excited to learn and grow within her work at YELP this year. For the future, Emily plans to work towards her licensure and continue in direct work in either the San Francisco or Monterey Bay areas.

Alexandra Themoleas

Alexandra Themoleas

  • Social Work Intern (2019)

Alexandra holds an undergraduate degree in social work. Following graduation, she applied her degree and knowledge by joining Meals on Wheels in San Francisco. She cites her experience with this program in heavily shaping her appreciation for the needs of the disenfranchised and a concern to work toward caring for those without support and aims to ultimately assist those without assistance. Alexandra was in the Masters of Social Work program at San Jose State University and joined the Legal -Social Work Collaborative at MLC as part of her field education; she was primarily working with Community Law Clinic clients in East Palo Alto office.