Public Employee Press

Member’s son wins AFSCME political action scholarship

Sebastian Castillo, a winner of AFSCME’s Jerry Clark Memorial Scholarship, is lucky his mother reads the Public Employee Press. “I consider it an invaluable resource,” said Local 375 member Rosemary Paniagua, an Associate Project Manager at New York City Transit.

“I found out about the scholarship in the PEP and passed the information along to him. Sebastian is highly motivated, and he took it from there,” she said.

Castillo is a junior at Bard College upstate, where he is majoring in economics with a minor in music production. In the essay that helped him win the scholarship, he wrote, “Without a union it is more difficult for employees to stand up to employers, who don’t have the workers’ rights in mind. Unions ensure justice and human rights for their members.”

He will receive $5,000 for his junior and senior years, and in June he will start an internship in the Political Action Dept. at the 1.5 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, DC 37’s national union. “I’m really excited about being at AFSCME in Washington this summer,” he said.

An ardent fan of hip-hop, Castillo put his music production skills to good use during an internship he recently completed for college, working with urban high school students in a program called Global Kids. “Our mission was to build leadership and citizenship skills by exposing students to global issues,” he said. He built a relationship with the students by organizing a hip-hop tutorial. “I showed them the basics of putting together a song, rapping and using the drum machine,” said the multi-talented Castillo, who plays the saxophone and piano and plans to record a CD of his own music.

“This scholarship is a great opportunity for me,” said the aspiring musician and economist. “Especially right now with the economy the way it is, I am very fortunate that my mother belongs to this great union.”

AFSCME initiated the scholarship in 1990 in honor of Jerry Clark, the union’s longtime political director. Second-year college social science majors who intend to pursue careers in political activism are eligible to apply. For more information and an application, send an e-mail to education@afscme.org.