Giancarla Rojas

Giancarla Rojas is an indigenous Quechua scholar from Bolivia. She immigrated to the U.S. over a decade ago. Giancarla’s experience as a formerly undocumented activist helped her build her determination, confidence, and commitment to serve her community. In 2014 she became the first undocumented student to be accepted at Radford University with a full scholarship and was named Ambassador of Change. After graduating in 2016, she was invited to the White House to share her story as a DACA recipient. She obtained a Master’s in International Commerce and Public Policy from George Mason University.

Giancarla has over eight years of advocacy experience, focusing on immigration policy, philanthropy, housing affordability, and healthcare policy. During her time at Google.org, she managed a $600 Million dollar grants portfolio for 200+ grantees. At FWD.us, she took the initiative to develop a hiring pipeline to recruit 30-35 Fellows who were impacted by the criminal and immigration system. She also coordinated fly-ins for

100-120 people to bring them into the Nation’s Capitol to advocate for immigration reform. Finally, during her time with Congressman Don Beyer’s district office, Giancarla worked directly with various Federal Agencies, such as Internal Revenue Services (IRS), to obtain more than $1.2 million in tax returns for constituents. During her time as a National Urban Fellow, she is most interested in having conversations around accessibility and equity in the philanthropy space.