Two young Arizona State University alums have been selected for a prestigious Washington, D.C., fellowship to become Latino changemakers.
Chelsea Martinez and Jesus Vega, who both graduated in 2023, are among 22 young adults in the 2025–26 cohort of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Public Policy Fellowship Program. ASU is the only university that produced two fellows, who will spend nine months working in Washington, D.C., with members of Congress, federal agencies, nonprofit advocacy organizations and the private sector.
More than 400 people applied for the fellowship, which comes with a $34,200 stipend, health insurance and transportation funding.
Martinez, who has bachelor’s degrees in economics and criminal justice, as well as a master’s degree in secondary education that she earned in May, has been teaching middle school for two years as part of Teach for America.
“During undergrad, I was very involved in educational outreach programs to K–12 students. I realized that I really like the whole idea of helping students get to college and making it more accessible,” said Martinez, who has been teaching math to seventh and eighth graders.
“Those kids were so sweet, they always made me laugh. I really had a good time teaching.”
Matinez had known about the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s public policy internship since she was a first-year student at ASU, but with COVID-19 and other life events, the timing was never right. Then last year, she found the fellowship program.
“Now I’m in the program and it’s been a dream of mine since freshman year,” she said.
Martinez is grateful for the connections she made at ASU.
“Being in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute came from going to ASU, and I feel that I wouldn’t have gotten that opportunity anywhere else,” she said.
During the fellowship, Martinez will decide her career journey.
“I do miss being in the classroom. I am taking this year to try policy and see if it’s the right fit for me. I recently got into a PhD preparation program, so down the road I do want to pursue my PhD,” she said.
Vega’s degree is in global studies. and he was in the Next Generation Service Corps at ASU.
“Coming from a small town to Phoenix, I knew that being part of a program like that would make a big difference in my ability to be successful at ASU,” said Vega, who is from Rio Rico, Arizona.
“I liked the way the program was really focused on public service and giving back, and I liked the push to do three internships across each sector and being around other like-minded individuals who were achieving a lot,” he said.
“It was a driving force.”
Vega did a U.S. Foreign Service Internship, in which he spent one summer in Washington, D.C., and the following summer at the U.S. Embassy in Ghana. He was also profoundly influenced by the diplomacy course he took, Policy Design Studio.
“That class set me up to have mentors from ASU, notably the former ambassadors who teach the course, Edward O’Donnell and Roderick Moore,” he said.
After graduating, Vega worked as a research aide for the Leadership, Diplomacy and National Security Lab in the Barrett and O’Connor Center at ASU in Washington, D.C., and then became a staff assistant at the U.S. Department of State. His position was among the many layoffs in the agency in the spring.
Like Martinez, Vega had known about the caucus programs since he was an undergraduate.
“Being in D.C. can be a little bit lonely, especially being Latino. So being part of CHCI, where you’re surrounded by other Latinos and like-minded individuals coming from different backgrounds, will build a community within the big apparatus of D.C.,” he said.
Vega started the application process and realized he needed help from the Office of National Scholarships Advisement at ASU.
“I went through like eight drafts with ONSA. And they gave me resources because I was doing a one-way interview, so self-recorded, and that was new to me.
“And then when it came to the final round where it was an actual interview with somebody, I did two or three practice interviews with them. And I had a lot of help from friends.
“I’m really grateful because having that additional support was really nice.”
Vega would like to return to his Rio Rico community eventually.
“I feel like I want to build government experience here in D.C. and then find a way to connect it and bring it back to Arizona. Sometimes I think it would be cool to run for office at some point. Right now, I’m just trying to build as much experience as I can.”
