BIOGRAPHIES OF THE 2005 FELLOWS
Nancy Oyedele, Daniels/Younge Fellow, 2005

My name is Nancy Oyedele, and I am a rising junior at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. I am currently a policy analysis and management major, and I plan to attend law school and practice the law in social (in)justice arenas. While my education will serve as a stepping stone towards these goals, I also aspire to become culturally, socially, and politically enlightened along the way as a means of exposing myself to all sides of any given social (in)justice issue.

This past semester, I took a class entitled "The Death Penalty in America." It didn't take me long to realized that prisoners in America are truly a rightless sect within this society. It also didn't take long to realize that in order for justice to be brought back to these people, they need advocates, especially advocates that are knowledgeable concerning the law. Before this, I had always been interested in the prison system; however, this class pushed me over the edge in terms of getting me motivated enough to get involved. This summer, as a Younge and Daniels Fellow, I will be working on the Prison Industrial Complex. I will be researching and asking questions of various people of power within the criminal justice system which challenge this social construct. I also seek to raise awareness within high-risk communities and meet community needs through educational programs and activist work. While I am not equipped with the knowledge of the law, I am striving to make a difference until I am.