Meet Our Coordinators
The Refugee and Immigrant Education Initiative would be nothing without our hardworking coordinators!
Our coordinators are our most involved members and an essential part to our organization.
They assist the Executive Board in ensuring that RIEI runs as smoothly as possible.
Parth Chandan
Advocacy Coordinator
Parth is a Junior majoring in Biomedical Sciences with minors in Psychology and Diversity & Social Inequality. He was born in India, but however he has lived in the United States on an H4 visa during his entire educational career. He is also currently the Chief of Staff of AMSA.
Parth has worked on two separate congressional campaigns writing both immigration and health policy papers working on getting bill s386 passed which ends country cap regulations for immigrants like himself. He aspires to become a doctor and expand on his work within these same communities.
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Language(s): English, Hindi, Gujarati, Spanish
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Daniel Karimi Dehkordi
Fundraising Coordinator
Daniel is currently a Sophomore majoring in Biomedical Sciences (Neuroscience). In the future, he plans on pursuing an MD/PhD program, with a focus on brain-machine interfaces.
As the son of two Iranian immigrants, Daniel has seen how arduous and isolating the college admissions process can be. While applying for college, he reflected on how difficult it must have
been for his parents and siblings to go through this process with no one to rely on for guidance.
Knowing that the financial aspect of the college admissions processes can be daunting, he hopes through RIEI to help raise money to subsidize applying for and attending college for Refugee
and Immigrant students.
Language(s): English and Farsi
Kamila Ortiz
Marketing Coordinator
Kamila is a junior majoring in Health Sciences Pre-Clinical Track with a Health Administration minor. She was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Orlando when she was 14 years old.
She joined RIEI because of how confusing and frustrating the college application process was for her having a language barrier. Through RIEI she wants to help make higher education more accessible, while encouraging underserved students.
Language(s): Spanish, French, and English
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Daniela Castro
Mentorship Coordinator
Currently a junior at the University of Central Florida studying biomedical sciences, Daniela is a first generation US college student. Her family is Venezuelan and she has a huge passion for underserved Latin-American populations.
As she has grown up she has seen first hand the disparities immigrant students face when it comes to pursuing higher education. Daniela has dedicated part of her life's work in volunteering, mentoring and finding ways to close the gap that these students face. She founded an organization dedicated to providing relief and funds to Latin American countries, but beyond this she joined RIEI to make an impact directly in the Orlando immigrant community through mentorship!
Language(s): Spanish and English
Valentina Figuera Alvarez
Volunteering Coordinator
​Valentina is a Junior majoring in Health Sciences with a minor in Cultural Anthropology. Both of her parents are Venezuelan immigrants; however, Valentina was born in the United States.
Growing up in Miami, Valentina noticed the difficulties she and her classmates faced while first-generation students. As a result, she wrote and presented her first research paper regarding gentrification and its impact on Immigrant communities. She hopes to bring more awareness to these problems and offer solutions on how students can help.
Through RIEI, she wants to encourage more students to be active in their communities while simultaneously providing help or necessities to Immigrants and Refugees.